Concert for the Climate
Posted by Greg | Filed under Environment, Poland, Politics
It’s been a busy few weeks here in Poland.
After six or so years as a freelancer (at least on and off), work is finally beginning to snowball, and as always it is turning out to be a rather ecclectic mix.
Along with the normal enterprise techy stuff I work on I helped put together the new issue of HD Ready in Australia which, I have to say, is one of the nicest designed magazines i’ve seen in a while.
Moving along to a completely different track, I’ve also been working with Greenpeace a lot over the last two months, first in Warsaw and Konin helping out on the Climate Rescue Station and its coal related activities, and then in December at the UN climate change negotiations in Poznan.
Halfway between Bali in 2007 and Copenhagen 2009, this year’s UN Conference of the Parties (COP14) is now over and while it wasn’t as disappointing as Kevin Rudd’s embarrassingly limp emissions reductions target for Australia, the lack of progress was frustrating. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: climate change, greenpeace, Poland, Poznan, UNFCCC, United Nations
Reality of Climate Change Trumped by Inability to Reconcile Facts with World View
Posted by Greg | Filed under Environment
Ever wonder why well sourced arguments full of facts just do not deter climate change deniers? Alternet may have the answer in a new article about humans being hard-wired to ignore major threats such as climate change and peak oil if the evidence does not fit with their world view.
Particularly interesting is:
Reality vs. worldview
A third obstacle that limits people’s response to global warming-and even their willingness to believe in it-is also one of the most intractable. In a series of recent studies, a group of scholars from Yale and other universities have been studying how cultural values shape our perceptions of risk. Based on the premise that Americans are culturally polarized on a range of societal risks, from global warming to gun control, Paul Slovic, Yale Law School professor Dan Kahan, and others analyzed the results of surveys and experiments that matched the risk perceptions of some 5,000 Americans to the worldviews of those Americans. Their finding: People may simply reject evidence that clashes with their worldview.“To a certain extent our attitude toward risk and behaviors are conditioned not just by the raw facts of the matter, but by the orientation that we have to the world,” says Slovic.
Tags: climate change, conservative, liberal
Fighting the Expansion of Coal Mining in Poland
Posted by Greg | Filed under Environment, Poland
Weaning the world off its addiction to coal will be a long, hard slog. However, the last week has seen some progress, with several actions and one important ruling in the U.S all making waves.
Poland is playing host to climate talks this month in Poznan in the lead up to COP 14 in Copenhagen. And last week has seen the launch of Greenpeace’s Climate Rescue Station (CRS), a huge globe on the edge of a vast open pit coal mine in Konin, very close to Poznan and the upcoming talks.
The Rescue Station is a bright blue speck perched on a man-made cliff next to the state-owned KBW lignite mine that seeks to show that there is still time to save the climate, but only if we back away from coal and the precipice it is driving us towards.
With winter no longer just looming, but bearing down on Poland, the CRS and its wind and solar power stands out as a beacon on the bleak landscape, showing that the future can be cleaner and brighter for all if dirty coal, such as the lignite mined in Konin, is replaced by renewable energy solutions.
The globe has proven a magnet for locals too, with 400 people from nearby towns turning out on Saturday to protest the mine which threatens their homes and livelihoods.
[ Read the rest on Greenpeace's Climate Rescue blog... ]
Images copyright Greenpeace/Greg McNevin
Tags: climate change, coal, greenpeace, Poland
Gordon Brown Calls for New World Order
Posted by Greg | Filed under Money, News, Politics
Using the financial crisis as a bargaining chip, UK PM Gordon Brown is reportedly going to call for a NWO, and alas he isn’t talking about the band from the 90’s.
In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, Brown — who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions — will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order, reports Reuters.
“The alliance between Britain and the U.S. — and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. — can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order,” an excerpt from the speech says.
…
“Uniquely in this global age, it is now in our power to come together so that 2008 is remembered not just for the failure of a financial crash that engulfed the world but for the resilience and optimism with which we faced the storm, endured it and prevailed,” Brown will say in his speech on Monday evening.
“…And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to create a truly global society.”
Reuters reports that Brown will identify five stages for tackling the economy, starting with recapitalising banks so they can resume lending to families and businesses, and better international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy.
“Better international coordination of fiscal and monetary policy” would no doubt mean a world central bank, and as central banks are typically private affairs (see the US Federal Reserve, which is neither fereral or a “reserve”) this immediately sends worrying shivers up my spine.
“Give me the power to issue a nation’s money; and I do not care who makes its laws.” - Anselm Rothschild
The fact that these calls are coming from the PM of a country already deep into a culture of surveilance (and hungry for more, evidenced by the blind ramming through of new ID cards) is doubly concerning.
Brown says that the time is right to “seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society”, could this be because he’s already on the winning team?
With one government, one economy, and one global society, what kind of checks and balances are we going to have? Who’s going to keep the bastards honest? Who watches the watchmen?
“We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” - John F. Kennedy
Tags: economics, financial crisis, gordon brown, Money, new world order, UK
The Five Most Excruciatingly Annoying Arguments Made By Climate Change Sceptics
Posted by Greg | Filed under Environment, Humour
Debate is an essential part of a healthy democracy, just as scepticism and questioning are an essential part of scientific discourse.
That said, when it comes to climate change, there are some questions that have been asked and credibly answered, only to be asked again, and again authoritively answered. These questions then somehow became statements of fact in climate discussions, always diverting discussion into some asinine backwater cul-de-sac long passed.
Not everyone is a scholar or climate scientist, but for some reason Joe Bloggs the internet commentator who read something in the National Enquirer or next to the Page 2 Girl in the Sun seven years ago feels he is one, spraying every climate article with a vociferous drive-by comment decrying the “myth” and “religion” of GLOBAL WARMING! and talking trash in general on all those “hippy sheeple” that get “suckered in to believing that con”.
So with that epic sentence behind us now, I give you the top five most ridiculous arguments presented by sceptics… Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: climate change
Right or Left Brain?
Posted by Greg | Filed under Philosophy
The Right Brain vs Left Brain Test surfaced again today, and while it’s not quite as old as the internet, it is getting a bit long in the tooth as far as intriguing, emailed-to-100-coworkers images go.
So do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
Is she moving clockwise or anti-clockwise? Concentrate and you can switch the direction...
I’m not neuroscientist, but apparently clockwise means that you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.
Most people see the dancer turning anti-clockwise, which I find a little unnerving as I would like to think everyone thinks of the future and appreciates…
Some descriptions of Right/Left brain functions from the Courier Mail:
| LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS | RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS |
| uses logic | uses feeling |
| detail oriented | “big picture” oriented |
| facts rule | imagination rules |
| words and language | symbols and images |
| present and past | present and future |
| maths and science | philosophy & religion |
| can comprehend | can “get it” (i.e. meaning) |
| knowing | believes |
| acknowledges | appreciates |
| order/pattern perception | spatial perception |
| knows object name | knows object function |
| reality based | fantasy based |
| forms strategies | presents possibilities |
| practical | impetuous |
| safe | risk taking |
Tags: brain, creativity, dancer
