Bundarrah Days

ANTHROPOGENIC global warming is affecting our lives in ways you wouldn't believe and probably shouldn't.

Retired British Professor John Brignell is counting the disasters, pestilences and plagues so far associated with climate change. If you didn't know that a relatively minor rise in the mercury could wreak such comprehensive damage you're in for a shock.

You can read it all on Professor Brignell's website and click on the links to verify the list.

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

For those of you who can't be bothered here's his list in brief without the links.

Acne, agricultural land increase, Afghan poppies destroyed, Africa devastated, Africa in conflict, African aid threatened, African summer frost, aggressive weeds, air pressure changes, Alaska reshaped, Agulhas current moves, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end, amphibians breeding earlier (or not), anaphylactic reactions to bee stings, ancient forests dramatically changed, animals head for the hills, Antarctic grass flourishes, Antarctic ice grows, Antarctic ice shrinks, Antarctic sea life at risk, anxiety treatment, algal blooms, archaeological sites threatened, Arctic bogs melt, Arctic in bloom, Arctic ice free, Arctic ice melt faster, Arctic lakes disappear, Arctic tundra to burn, Arctic warming (not), Atlantic less salty, Atlantic more salty, atmospheric circulation modified, attack of the killer jellyfish, avalanches reduced, avalanches increased, Baghdad snow, Bahrain under water, bananas grow, barbarisation, beer shortage, beetle infestation, bet for $10,000, better beer, big melt faster, billion dollar research projects, billion homeless, billions face risk, billions of deaths, bird distributions change, bird loss accelerating, bird visitors drop, birds confused, birds return early, birds driven north, bittern boom ends, blackbirds stop singing, blackbirds threatened, Black Hawk down, blue mussels return, bluetongue, brain eating amoebae, brains shrink, bridge collapse (Minneapolis), Britain Siberian, brothels struggle, brown Ireland, bubonic plague, budget increases, Buddhist temple threatened, building collapse, building season extension, bushfires, business opportunities, business risks, butterflies move north, camel deaths, cancer deaths in England, cannibalism, caterpillar biomass shift, cave paintings threatened, childhood insomnia, Cholera, circumcision in decline, cirrus disappearance, civil unrest, cloud increase, cockroach migration, coffee threatened, cold climate creatures survive, cold spells (Australia), cold wave (India), computer models, conferences, conflict, conflict with Russia, consumers foot the bill, coral bleaching, coral fish suffer, coral reefs dying, coral reefs grow, coral reefs shrink , coral reefs twilight, cost of trillions, cougar attacks, cradle of civilisation threatened, creatures move uphill, crime increase, crocodile sex, crops devastated, crumbling roads, buildings and sewage systems, curriculum change, cyclones (Australia), danger to kid's health, Darfur, Dartford Warbler plague, death rate increase (US), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, depression, desert advance, desert retreat, destruction of the environment, disappearance of coastal cities, diseases move north, Dolomites collapse, drought, ducks and geese decline, dust bowl in the corn belt, early marriages, early spring, earlier pollen season, Earth biodiversity crisis, Earth dying, Earth even hotter, Earth light dimming, Earth lopsided, Earth melting, Earth morbid fever, Earth on fast track, Earth past point of no return, Earth slowing down, Earth spins faster, Earth to explode, earth upside down, earthquakes, earthquakes redux, El Niño intensification, end of the world as we know it, erosion, emerging infections, encephalitis, English villages lost, equality threatened, Europe simultaneously baking and freezing, eutrophication, evolution accelerating, expansion of university climate groups, extinctions (human, civilisation, logic, Inuit, smallest butterfly, cod, ladybirds, pikas, polar bears, walrus, toads, plants, salmon, trout, wild flowers, woodlice, a million species, half of all animal and plant species, mountain species, not polar bears, barrier reef, leaches, tropical insects) experts muzzled, extreme changes to California, fading fall foliage, fainting, famine, farmers benefit, farmers go under, farm output boost, fashion disaster, fever,figurehead sacked, fir cone bonanza, fish bigger, fish catches drop, fish downsize, fish catches rise, fish deaf, fish get lost, fish stocks at risk, fish stocks decline, five million illnesses, flesh eating disease, flood patterns change, floods, floods of beaches and cities, flood of migrants, flood preparation for crisis, Florida economic decline, flowers in peril, food poisoning, food prices rise, food prices soar, food security threat (SA), footpath erosion, forest decline, forest expansion, frog with extra heads, frostbite, frost damage increased, frosts, fungi fruitful, fungi invasion, games change, Garden of Eden wilts, genetic diversity decline, gene pools slashed, giant oysters invade, giant pythons invade, giant squid migrate, gingerbread houses collapse, glacial earthquakes, glacial retreat, glacial growth, glacier grows (California), glacier wrapped, global cooling, global dimming, glowing clouds, golf Masters wrecked, grandstanding, grasslands wetter, Great Barrier Reef 95% dead, Great Lakes drop, great tits cope, greening of the North, Grey whales lose weight, Gulf Stream failure, habitat loss, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, harmful algae, harvest increase, harvest shrinkage, hay fever epidemic, health affected, health of children harmed, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes (Australia), heat waves, hibernation affected, hibernation ends too soon, hibernation ends too late, HIV epidemic, homeless 50 million, hornets, high court debates, human development faces unprecedented reversal, human fertility reduced, human health risk, human race oblivion, hurricanes, hurricane reduction, hurricanes fewer, hurricanes not, hydropower problems, hyperthermia deaths, ice age, ice sheet growth, ice sheet shrinkage, illness and death, inclement weather, India drowning, infrastructure failure (Canada), industry threatened, infectious diseases, inflation in China, insect explosion, insurance premium rises, Inuit displacement, Inuit poisoned, Inuit suing, invasion of cats, invasion of herons, invasion of jellyfish, invasion of midges, island disappears, islands sinking, itchier poison ivy, jellyfish explosion, jets fall from sky, jet stream drifts north, Kew Gardens taxed, kidney stones, killer cornflakes, killing us, kitten boom, koalas under threat, krill decline, lake and stream productivity decline, lake empties, lake shrinking and growing, landslides, landslides of ice at 140 mph, lawsuits increase, lawsuit successful, lawyers' income increased (surprise surprise!), lives saved, Loch Ness monster dead, lush growth in rain forests, Malaria, mammoth dung melt, mango harvest fails, Maple production advanced, Maple syrup shortage, marine diseases, marine food chain decimated, Meaching (end of the world), Mediterranean rises, megacryometeors, Melanoma, methane emissions from plants, methane burps, methane runaway, melting permafrost, Middle Kingdom convulses, migration, migration difficult (birds), migratory birds huge losses, microbes to decompose soil carbon more rapidly, minorities hit, monkeys on the move, Mont Blanc grows, monuments imperiled, moose dying, more bad air days, more research needed, mortality increased, mountain (Everest) shrinking, mountaineers fears, mountains break up, mountains green and flowering, mountains taller, mortality lower, Myanmar cyclone, narwhals at risk, National security implications, native wildlife overwhelmed, natural disasters quadruple, new islands, next ice age, NFL threatened, Nile delta damaged, noctilucent clouds, no effect in India, Northwest Passage opened, nuclear plants bloom, oaks dying, oaks move north, ocean acidification, ocean deserts expand, ocean waves speed up, opera house to be destroyed, outdoor hockey threatened, ozone repair slowed, ozone rise, Pacific dead zone, penguin chicks frozen, personal carbon rationing, pest outbreaks, pests increase, phenology shifts, plankton blooms, plankton destabilised, plants march north, plants move uphill, polar bears aggressive, polar bears cannibalistic, polar bears drowning, polar tours scrapped, popcorn rise, porpoise astray, profits collapse, psychiatric illness, puffin decline, radars taken out, railroad tracks deformed, rainfall increase, rape wave, refugees, release of ancient frozen viruses, resorts disappear, rice threatened, rice yields crash, rift on Capitol Hill, rioting and nuclear war, river flow impacted, rivers raised, roads wear out, robins rampant, rocky peaks crack apart, roof of the world a desert, rooftop bars, Ross river disease, ruins ruined, Russia under pressure, salinity reduction, salinity increase, Salmonella, satellites accelerate, school closures, sea level rise, sea level rise faster, seals mating more, sewer bills rise, severe thunderstorms, sex change, sexual promiscuity, shark attacks, sharks booming, sharks moving north, sheep shrink, shop closures, short-nosed dogs endangered, shrinking ponds, shrinking shrine, ski resorts threatened, skin cancer, slow death, smaller brains, smog, snowfall increase, snowfall heavy, soaring food prices, societal collapse, songbirds change eating habits, sour grapes, space problem, spectacular orchids, spiders invade Scotland, squid aggressive giants, squid population explosion, squirrels reproduce earlier, stingray invasion, storms wetter, stormwater drains stressed, street crime to increase, subsidence, suicide, swordfish in the Baltic, Tabasco tragedy, taxes, tectonic plate movement, teenage drinking, terrorism, threat to peace, ticks move northward (Sweden), tides rise, tomatoes rot, tornado outbreak, tourism increase, trade barriers, trade winds weakened, traffic jams, transportation threatened, tree foliage increase (UK), tree growth slowed, trees in trouble, trees less colourful, trees more colourful, trees lush, tropics expansion, tropopause raised, truffle shortage, turtles crash, turtles lay earlier, UK coastal impact, UK Katrina, Vampire moths, Venice flooded, volcanic eruptions, walrus pups orphaned, walrus stampede, war, wars over water, wars sparked, wars threaten billions, wasps, water bills double, water scarcity (20% of increase), water stress, weather out of its mind, weather patterns awry, Western aid cancelled out, West Nile fever, whales move north, whales wiped out, wheat yields crushed in Australia, wildfires, wind shift, wind reduced, wine - harm to Australian industry, wine industry damage (California), wine industry disaster (US), wine - more English, wine - England too hot, wine -German boon, wine - no more French , wine passé (Napa), wine stronger, winters in Britain colder, winter in Britain dead, witchcraft executions, wolves eat more moose, wolves eat less, workers laid off, World at war, World bankruptcy, World in crisis, World in flames, Yellow fever.

HAS your old Tom arrived home with a few more nicks in his ears lately. Is dear Marmaduke looking so battle scarred that's he's often mistaken for Scarface Claw?

Blame it all on global warming. The American Scripps Howard News Service reports that some vets and animal welfare experts are connecting a kitten boom to global warming.

Apparently it works by altering the feline reproductive system lengthening what's known as the kitten season.

According to the warming theorists because domestic cats evolved in Africa where it's warm cats in North America and Europe are mimicking their ancient origins and becoming more fertile.

And that, of course, means the fur will fly.

IN a classic case of a fool outsmarting himself Joseph (Jihad Jack) Thomas, 35, will be retried on terrorism related offences.

In June three judges of the Victorian Appeals Court rejected his argument that information he gave in media interviews broadcast after his conviction was overturned should not be allowed as the basis for a retrial and today The High Court refused to hear a further appeal.

Back in 2006 Jihad Jack was sentenced to five years in prison for receiving funds from a terrorist organization and holding a false passport.

An appeal overturned the convictions five months later on the ground that prosecutors had incorrectly relied on an interrogation by Australian police after his 2003 arrest in Pakistan.

In 2006, Thomas was sentenced to five years in prison for receiving funds from a terrorist organization and holding a false passport. An appeal court overturned those convictions five months later, saying prosecutors had incorrectly relied on an interrogation of Thomas by Australian police after his 2003 arrest in Pakistan.

Thomas' lawyers had argued that the interview and subequent confession was tainted because he had been threatened with execution and deportation to the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay during earlier questioning by U.S. and Pakistani authorities.

However, prosecutors launched proceedings for a retrial claiming that interviews Thomas gave to the ABC after his convictions were were initially overturned provided fresh evidence not presented at the original trial.

No date has been set for the new trial but it is unlikely to go ahead this year.

Meanwhile Jack even has his own "Justice For Jack" website featuring all those lovely people who endorse him as a loving and non-violent Australian man who just happened to be minding his own business in Pakistan when those evil Pakistani police decided to pick him up and frame him.

Of course Jack's endorsers tend to be the usual run-of-the-mill leftists and Islamist apologists.

Here's a brief run through.

Guy Rundle, commentator, Arena editor (on leave); Kenneth Davidson, columnist The Age; Christos Tsiolkas, author, Nathan Hollier, Editor, Overland; Brian Walters SC, President, Liberty Victoria; Julius Roe, AMWU National President; Dave Sweeney, Australian Conservation Foundation; Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth, Australia; Agnes Chong and Waleed Kadous, Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network; Andrew Lowenthal, Melbourne Indymedia; Judith Klepner, Search Foundation; Bernie Taft; Carmel Shute; Dave Kerin, Earthworker; Stop the War Coalition; Fitzroy Legal Service; Federation of Community Legal Centres Vic; NOWAR SA; The Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network (AMCRAN); Socialist Alternative; Socialist Alliance; International Socialist Organisation; Jarvis Ryan, editor of Socialist Worker; Alison Dellit, editor, Green Left Weekly; Jesse Nonneman, presenter Chant Down Babylon, 3PBS-FM; Adam Chandler, radio announcer, 3SYNFM;

HOW did the ABC miss the big story about Anthony "Ace" Bourke?

In August 2003 veteran journo George Negus explored Ace's family background and his links to the settlement of Sydney.

But he failed to uncover the story which by now probably represents the greatest number of YouTube hits ever, about 6 million.

It's the story of Ace Bourke, his mate John Rendell and their pet lion cub, Christian.

The Daily Telegraph tells it like this:

Christian the lion was purchased in 1969 by two Australians living in London, John Rendall and Anthony 'Ace' Bourke from Harrods department store, when they discovered him for sale in exotic pets department and, concerned for his conditions and fate, decided to buy him.

Rendall, Bourke and their girlfriends cared for the lion until it was a year old but his increasing size and the cost of looking after him led them to realise they could not keep him in London for much longer.

Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, stars of the film Born Free, visited Rendall and Bourke's furniture shop, who suggested that they ask the assistance of George Adamson, the Kenyan conservationist, to help them rehabilitate Christian into the wild at his compound at Kora National Reserve.

Adamson slowly introduced Christian to an older lion 'Boy' and subsequently to a female cub in order to form the nucleus of a new pride.

This approach was successful and over the course of several years the pride established itself in the region around Kora.

When Rendall and Bourke were informed by Adamson of the successful result in 1971, they traveled to Kenya to pay one last visit to Christian in order to say goodbye.

Adamson warned them that it would most likely be a wasted trip as he had not seen Christian's pride for nine months.

However they discovered when they reached Kora that Christian and his pride had returned to Adamson's compound the day before their arrival.

Rendall said, "We called him and he stood up and started to walk towards us very slowly. Then, as if he had become convinced it was us, he ran towards us, threw himself on to us, knocked us over, knocked George over and hugged us, like he used to, with his paws on our shoulders."

Here's the video: Note that Ace is mistakenly named Ace Berg (not Bourke) in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U

It's a testament to these two Aussies blokes that this story has taken so long to emerge. They could have have made a personal fortune but instead any money they raise will go go to the George Adamson Foundation. How come these blokes are not Australians Of The Year?

And to good old George Negus - how did you miss the real yarn?

Anthropogenic Global Warming is the heart of a new eco-theology.

Along with political correctness and political environmentalism it is the spearhead of an assault on science which poses as the very thing it seeks to destroy.

Climate Change, this new religion, is not science. It is a faith - a belief held without evidence yet it claims a scientific foundation and holds scientists hostage through its new found control over Western governments.

Climate change alarmists have never been reluctant to use the name of science even though they actually despise it. You've all heard the slogan "the science is settled." I don't know how many times I've heard that very phrase from the mouths of activists at the Victiorian National Parks Association. The truth is, however, that the science is never settled and the debate is never closed.

Religion is somewhat different to science. It is the nature of religion to be prohibitive and authoritarian and strangely, this is not always a bad thing when the religion is open and transparent, as is Christianity. Traditionally we have believed that religion is a personal journey and that sin is a personal action or fault.

The new environmental religion is different in that it preaches a collective transgression and seeks a collective solution. This represents a blatant religious grab for political power -- a return to the Middle Ages.

But it runs even deeper than that. This religion makes an enemy of the very foundation of life on earth - carbon.

Carbon is the ideal candidate for original sin since no one can escape dependence on it. The very thing that gives us life is now branded toxic and a pollutant.

If this was a theological essay I would identify this new religion as a inversion of Christianity with the same themes of sin and salvation - something that many Christian people would claim was a diabolical attack on the truth.

In the modern world, at least until now, clairvoyance or fortune telling has mostly had a bad rap but in the ancient world divination was pretty highly regarded. And now, in these early years of the so-called Age Of Aquarius, we have divination back in the form of computer modeling and the new soothsayers are more than generously funded and inhabit the scientific faculties of universities which they have transformed into their personal temples.

At the end of the day the high priests of this religion are the enemies of humanity who see people as an inconvenience or a pestilence that can be disposed of. They're no better than the blood spattered Aztec priests who ripped out the hearts of the living before casting their bodies off cliff top altars as sacrificial victims to their bloodthirsty gods.

WHAT is the real story behind the war on climate change?

If only we knew.

It is not to save the world - that much is plain - because unless emitters like India and China have a sudden change of heart the crusade has failed if its goal is to avert global disaster.

What really strikes me as strange is that politicians and alarmists the world over are treating anthropogenic global warming as a moral issue as opposed to a survival issue. Sure, we’ve had Gore and his Inconvenient unTruth but by and large this war is being fought in the realm of morality.

For example, the Australian government is busy establishing an Emissions Trading Scheme which will do not a thing to avert the alleged looming disaster and meanwhile is doing absolutely nothing to provide critical infrastructure to help the nation cope with it.

Where are the plans for new dams, nuclear power stations and monumental projects such as diverting water from the waterlogged north to the drought stricken south to avert desertification and prevent massive and unmanageable demographic change?

The fact is that there are NO plans except a half baked scheme to screw the Australian economy in order to exert moral pressure and set an example to the rest of the world.

That’s why I don’t believe there is a crisis - because the Government doesn’t believe it either. Or if it does it is the most negligent government in our history due to its failure to prepare the nation to face disaster.

AGW is a lie and I want to know why this government and and The Opposition are preparing to sacrifice our economy over it.

MUCH to the dismay of Australia's green loons Bundarrah Days is back.

A serious injury back in November last year resulted in an eight month hiatus for my blogging career but I'm fit and well again now and rearing to go.

It's great that visits to Bundarrah Days have stayed pretty constant during my absence so here's a big thank you to everyone.

What a day for Victoria! Hymie and Twitter are gone.

Celebratory drinks all round at country pubs tonight.

Steve Bracks and John Thwaites are gone because they weren't up the job. They fell at the first real hurdle they faced in government - water!

They'll cite all kinds of reasons for the sudden departure but in circumstances like this there's no substitute for failure. It's no coincidence that Twitter followed Hymie out the door.

We still have to put up with a Labor government but there's reason to believe John Brumby (who should succeed Bracks as premier) will be more sympathetic to country Victoria.

With luck the river redgum country will escape the fate of being locked up in national parks, the Great Divide pipeline will be shelved and Victoria will get a new dam.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is appalled by recommendations handed down by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC), in its River Red Gum Forest Investigation Report.

VFF President Simon Ramsay said that if the Victorian Government wanted a list of ambit claims and ill-thought out, impractical recommendations it could bypass VEAC and go straight to the environmental lobby, saving millions of dollars”.

“These recommendations amount to a ‘lock up and leave’ mentality which is failing both the Victorian community and the environment, with pest, weed and bushfire problems now reaching a crisis point,” Mr Ramsay said.

“The Victorian Government would be ill-advised to follow the VEAC recommendations, which suggest an increase in national parks and the systematic reduction/removal of grazing and timber harvesting from reserves,” he said.

“In the past leaseholders worked collaboratively with traditional owners, government and the community to determine the best management of forest areas. Under the VEAC recommendations this local knowledge, decision making and management will be lost to the detriment of the environment as well as the community,” he said.

“In practical terms the removal of grazing from many water frontages is impossible as the private- public boundary is situated on a floodplain and therefore cannot be fenced,” Mr Ramsay said.

“VEAC’s request for 4000 gigalitres of water to flood the River Red Gum forests is completely unrealistic,” he said.

“The VFF believes VEAC has once again failed to make a holistic and rational assessment of a complex environmental, social and economic issue. Instead it has followed predetermined outcomes and ideologies."

Victorian Water Minister John (Twitter) Thwaites says Victorian farmers must not be disadvantaged by the Federal Government's intention to legislate to take over the Murray Darling system.

"It's very easy to say what we need is just one management of the rivers and one management of the irrigation system, the problem is we've got property rights here that go back well over 100 years, now with the stroke of a constitutional pen, you can't simply remove those," he said today.

How ironic it is to hear Twitter claim to be defending farmers. All he and his government have done since being elected in in 1999 is make life difficult for farmers and landowners.

Take the native vegetation legislation, for example. Look at the eviction of the Mountain Cattlemen after 170 years, the coming eviction of the Barmah Cattlemen, the planned theft of water from the Goulburn Valley.

Read this again.....

"We've got property rights here that go back well over 100 years, now with the stroke of a constitutional pen, you can't simply remove those...."

Careful you don't choke on those words, Twitter.