I thought the Greens were the topic du jour, morganzola. Indeed, for the whole month of July.

>>Mind you, AGW isn't a semantic game for me, as it so evidently is for you, and I have no intention of playing.<<

To classify my questions as "semantic games" is a cop-out, and you know it.

If the Greens are ever to become a relevant political party, they will need to face up to some of the inherent contradictions in what they purport to stand for, and the ability to put the policies that stem from these beliefs, into action. Hiding your head in the sand every time someone points out the consequences of the current crop of Green ideas is not going to help.

Idealism is a necessary part of one's mental make-up. It feels good, and righteous, and... worthy, somehow, to be able to lecture your fellow-man on how they are "protecting their unsustainable lifestyles", all the while offering nothing but hair shirts and penury in exchange.

We are living in the most fortunate continent on this earth.

Right here, right now.

Yet all I hear from Greens is how we should not share our riches with the rest of the world, but at the same time allow anyone to move here from another less fortunate land; how we should ban Free Trade and instead raise tariff barriers to "protect our industry"; how we should discourage science from finding more efficient ways to grow food; how we should not develop nuclear energy; how we should stop people from driving their car by taxing them out of existence, and so on and so forth.

And at the same time, they want to close down the IMF, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and presumably any other international financial organization it feels uncomfortable with.

All I am asking is that instead of simply mouthing these platitudes, someone - like you, morganzola - actually starts to articulate what, they believe, will be the concrete results of putting some (or, heaven forbid, all) of these "policies" into force.

So far, no luck.

In my naive survey of highest maximums and lowest minimums, out of the readings for the eight capitals across ten years, today's summaries show:

Highest Maximums in the decade 2001-2010: one (Darwin, 2010)
Lowest Minimums in the decade 2001-2010: one (Darwin, 2007).
Net in favour of Maximums in 2001-2010: nil

But live in hope :)

Joe