Damaged or Destroyed ?

Waleed Aly on The Project last night tried to nail the Environment Minister Greg Hunt with a "really big problem the government needed to something about ". If there is something environmentally wrong, according to the wannabes , its gotta be with our reef- something obvious colorful and precious makes a popular if misguided target  . The truth is , Some ( most?)  think not enough because the really substantial  problems are more subtle than that . More subtle than the color of coral and more long lasting than colloids in a salt solution --
The serious thing is they all got it wrong; everyone in that story is barking up the wrong tree as we say in this country .  
The public are too easily influenced by the superficial and polys often only follow. Waleed failed to make the case while Greg failed too to do anything but react - his science, technology and political response was all over the place .his advisors will be part of his problem
If we fail to find the target , as American foreign policy and Dick Smith testifies this week( on population - another superficial fear) , all the money in the world won't do what we all want it to do - that is to help fix the damage and the destruction . 

The consensus issue amongst us is that we are not looking after the world and its people .This focus is absolutely on target and good on The Project for seeking to deliver this great quest differently . We want so much to do so ( many at least ) ---that's really good.
 Its HOW the next generation do it that will make all the difference. But No , we are not doing it  .We haven't got a vision of HOW to do it .

If young are going to make any better impact than my generation ( who failed ) they are going to have to think smarter and reject some of the simple nonsense pushed by my generation .

Some common myths and mistaken ideas still common 

1. That if the problem is going to be fixed it will be have to be the government that does it . Governments can be crass and incompetent and just waste our taxes .
2. That big business is the bad bloke   
3. That its the other blokes problem . The coal industry , The dredgers , the powerful
   
   Young people have already shown us the way on choice in the supermarket -very positive  pay more for eggs , don't buy bottled water unless you are going to die from the local ( Planet ArK) 
4. That the environment is like us -needs cushions and grants . As if it like too many of us,  full of excuses and hard done by stories . The reality is that the environment shows great resilience ( half the stories on permanent destruction in the news are rubbish )and we can and should work with it.
    
5. We as , Carl Jung says ,  are the basket case , The problem is primarily with man . 

If you are a young person reading this

1. Don't make the same mistakes as your parents on this 
2. Don't be superficial 
3. Don't project the problem onto others- get involved somewhere near you 
4. Study the problems in detail.  Do your physiology, chemistry and physics, even if you redo it . 
5. Don't assume the problem is just technological -- this is still a very common mistake 
6. Assume there is a spiritual and emotional dimension ( see S .Neiman on religious and political ambitions)  - we struggle to deal with our damaged vision and ambitions as Carl Jung has said and Homer Simpson shows 

That said ,  all hands to you young people . The environment is a great place to work because it is so resilient .  This means that when we fail to protect the environment sometimes it helps itself. Its our sister not our mother , Working with people is harder work too, but you sort of have to - if we are going to make a dent  in the ongoing real and thoroughly unacceptable damage problems .The killing fields ---

Colloids will not kill the reef ( my work is with soil, water and plants) but panic will waste another opportunity to do something well and truly satisfying.---and it the right place and time .

I wish you well in your quest

Confusing ourselves

I like it when Arts grads like Art , but I would,  if I was Mark Scott,  insist they limit their appreciation to some Good Art that's gone before.  If ABC reactionaries  don't grow up soon they will have forgotten that despite the inadequate of the past , there was some good succinct stuff that we learnt from our parents , and they theirs.
This shallow excuse of "evolving progress"  is not demonstatable and its annoying because most of us know better; we know better than to have faith in mere mechanism . Its a god assumption - Ok if that god is that capable . Clearly its leadng the left into a false hope in the power of government and the higher taxes to do that
For a  biologist like me,  its altogether too much;  Claiming evolution territory that noone really owns it  doesn't even get past amino acids and adaption and its not faultless or visionary   .

We don't see  enough good old Art as it is /was ( meddle with Chesteron last week) on ABC  which brings me to my second point .
That I wish ABC journos would stop trying to do science .They inevitably confuse correlation with causation . They only seem to have time for One "why" or "howasat" question ---- all they have time for before they "move on ". No wonder our kids and people aren't learning .

One question is, let me tell you , never enough for a thinking person, let alone a scientist . Sure journos  can comment in their own right on" chances of  this and chances of that " like Chris Uhlmann does ad infinitum -- but please ---not while reporting .
Suddenly whats happening in Ireland is important - of course;;;I see ;; they voted on gay marriage.To be really up with it,  we suddenly do what the Irish do - its a bit irish isn't it ? Like Al Gore and investing in carbon stocks Or Greens and Green Labor ( Carbines and co in Victoria ) call for making water some years ago

If they rememeber , George Orwell suggests that game chasing is a perfect recipe for missing the scoop.  Maybe they don't remember their science of good journalism -surely they don't believe this new counter cultural doctrine --"the latest innovations is best -- its evolving ???" Good science builds on work of others ..........dummies.  Clearly its another example of confusing your own noted item of coorelation and calling it casuation--- wow .

What I hate  ( cause it misleads listeners ) is the adjectives added to news reports. It not hard to tell which person "the reporter "doesn't like .

Eg the report on the brumbies in the high country cull tonight  . "Politically that will never fly " Well neither would Jack sparrows dogs if it wasn't for Barnabys common sense attack on the Politically Correct . Behind , not outfront and prophetic Now we have to bludgeon Barnaby - unwatchable ABC

All it takes for evil to prosper is for the media to solve the worlds problems in a moment - their moment of fame or frame . Trade of beef to Indonesia another eg  Population control amongst people on boats ( today)

Stop making fools of yourselves and do your jobs properly. Be truly part of the respectful of other professions in the clever country.  How about you actually ring up someone OTHER than your favourites!!
Our children need real jobs so they can use their science training .Not you and the Greens and now Labors leader  pretending to know things they don't. ( that he could solve the rfeuge crisis if only TONY would listen )

Seriuosly stupid thinking

Is to assume Polys know what they are doing. Get that..

If you read no further ,,,, you won't waste any of your normal  thinking time.

Careless talk on the subject of POLLUTION                The faith is ---the market ( thats" the tram" and "the pricing" words)
he trusts the technology of markets ( like so many) . The problem is multifaceted
-if C02 is not the problem decades of rhetoric are wasted 
-even if the way to deal with it is also completely obscured by faith ( as if breathing( stoma) , farting can be controlled by " the market ")

What the people want is not science but something really simple ! 

 If we are going to tell the truth here we need to be careful quoting any poly of any kind . Stick to science and not the technology for eg of how to reduce emmissions.
Technically C02 is NOT a pollutant .It is usually recycled being one of the most durable and safe and relaible associaites of living systems . It can be considered for example as a fertilizer . Double the conc of C02 in atmos and you double the rate of photosynthesis . [ C02] concentration is a rate limiting equation for most photosynthesis on the planet.