climate wars (Abbott = null-policy zone)

.. Aus-Liberal style ...

  .. policy 'on the cheap' ...

    .. means do nothing (ice melting...)

-=*=-

In our wide-brown land of the kangaroo, the land of the local maximum (world's largest concrete sheep, say), and where the one-eyed person is incontrovertibly monarch (detested English; spit!), the AusBC has looong ago picked its horse, and that horse has now installed the 'right' jockey - and all the betting is on the sheople's dumbed-down ignorance, when not outright stupidity.

Q: How can anyone lose?

'They' say, that one shouldn't criticize the voters' choice.

Q: Why not? A: 'They' also say, that one will never go broke, by overestimating the sheople's gullibility.

-=*=-

Abbott has now 'staked out' his territory:

Abbott downplays $50b climate change bill
Posted December 7, 2009 09:19:00
  «The Coalition will reveal its new climate change policy in February, but Mr Abbott has already said will not include an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax.» 
[AusBC/justin]

Abbott's policy is clear: Do (almost) nothing. Doesn't get much 'cheaper' than that; it's no new taxes alright (always excepting the 'never, ever' GST); no taxes at all might be 'best' for Abbott and 'his' Libs. (But: No taxes means no services. Ooops!)

Even before Abbott's 'new' policy mention:

Abbott reaps poll bounce
Posted December 7, 2009 06:46:00
  «Twenty-three per cent of those surveyed for The Australian believe new leader Tony Abbott would make a better prime minister than Kevin Rudd.
That is an increase on the 14 per cent support for deposed leader Malcolm Turnbull in the previous poll in late November.» 
[AusBC/justin]

Comment: The sheople have already approved of the Abbott coup against Turnbull - or so it would seem. The above two snips bring to mind a long-term Q: "How can the sheople choose what's Oh, so obviously bad for them?"

Well, here's a possible A:

In Search of Morale
Are Americans Too Broken for the Truth to Set Us Free?
By Bruce E. Levine
December 05, 2009 "Counterpunch"
  «Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States? Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further? What forces have created a demoralized, passive, disCouraged U.S. population?» 
[ICH/Counterpunch/Levine]

Comment: The article discusses the so-called 'world leader,' aka the USofA. Following the 'monkey see, monkey do' principle, what one sees in the US today, comes to Aus some-when 'down the track' - usually sooner rather than later. The article suggests an answer to its own Q: «Can people become so broken that ...» with the A: «YES. It is called the “abuse syndrome.”» Well, well; imagine that.

-=*=-

A 'good bit' of what Turnbull blogged:

Turnbull savages Abbott over climate 'bullshit'
By Online parliamentary correspondent Emma Rodgers
Posted December 7, 2009 09:50:00
  «After ousting Mr Turnbull six days ago Mr Abbott withdrew Coalition support for an emissions trading scheme and said a Coalition policy would not involve any new taxes.
But in today's blog entry Mr Turnbull says emissions cannot be cut without a cost.
"While a shadow minister, Tony Abbott was never afraid of speaking bluntly in a manner that was at odds with Coalition policy," he writes.
"So as I am a humble backbencher I am sure he won't complain if I tell a few home truths about the farce that the Coalition's policy, or lack of policy, on climate change has descended into.
"To replace dirty coal fired power stations with cleaner gas fired ones, or renewables like wind let alone nuclear power or even coal fired power with carbon capture and storage is all going to cost money.
To get farmers to change the way they manage their land, or plant trees and vegetation all costs money.
"Somebody has to pay.
"So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, 'bullshit.' Moreover he knows it.
"It is not possible to criticise the new Coalition policy on climate change because it does not exist."
Mr Turnbull goes on to describe those who backed Mr Abbott's leadership as climate change sceptics.
"As we are being blunt, the fact is that Tony and the people who put him in his job do not want to do anything about climate change. They do not believe in human caused global warming.
"As Tony observed on one occasion 'climate change is crap', or if you consider his mentor, Senator Minchin, the world is not warming, it's cooling and the climate change issue is part of a vast left wing conspiracy to deindustrialise the world.
"The Liberal Party is currently led by people whose conviction on climate change is that it is "crap" and you don't need to do anything about it. Any policy that is announced will simply be a con, an environmental figleaf to cover a determination to do nothing."
He also attacked Mr Abbott for holding contradicting views on climate change and for reneging on the deal Mr Turnbull reached with the Government to pass the ETS.
"Tony himself has in just four or five months publicly advocated the blocking of the ETS, the passing of the ETS, the amending of the ETS and if the amendments were satisfactory passing it, and now the blocking of it," he says.
"His only redeeming virtue in this remarkable lack of conviction is that every time he announced a new position to me he would preface it with 'Mate, mate, I know I am a bit of a weather vane on this, but...'
"We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted."» 
[AusBC/justin]

Comment; Q: Is this merely 'sour grapes?' A: IMHO, no. Yes, Turnbull is 'unleashed' - but what he says has 'the ring of truth' to it. All, again, as usual and of course; IMHO.

The climate-change 'sceptics' (polite term), aka denialists (correctly-loaded term) are a) disputing peer-reviewed IPCC consensus evidence, b) attempting to discredit such via selectively quoting from material acquired by break-in/hacking, and (worst!) c) ignoring the 'precautionary' principle, all at our, we the sheople's grave peril. In order to continue 'business as usual,' here defined as digging up and burning ever-more fossil-carbon (in Aus: coal), they twist and turn - and tell whopping lies - and all the while, the ice is melting ever faster. Conspiracy theorists amongst the sceptic/denialists allege that ETS is a tax, designed to rip the sheople off, and/or the 1000s of IPCC climate scientists are actually luddites intent on de-industrialising the world. To deploy an Abbottism: "Crap!"

Fazit: One big (alleged!) difference between humans and monkeys, is that monkeys do not plan ahead at all well, even if at all. But (and this is a BLOODY-BIG but): the (neoliberal) policies of exploit now, pollute now, and (try to!) fix any problems 'down the track' could destroy our once jewel-like planet's ability to accommodate us comfortably (massive understatement!)

This makes such neoliberal policies (possibly literally) antediluvian.

Stupid troglodytes!

-=*end*=-

PS Yet another illustration of why lying to the sheople is (stupidly, criminally) wrong.

IF we wish to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,"

THEN the sheople need to be honestly and fully informed.

Q: Are Abbott's Liberals helping this 'process?'

Q: What about the AusBC?