Col:

“However, what is certain is – our accumulated knowledge will expand and with so much attention being paid to it, solutions or practical resolutions (by that I mean things which work instead of the luddite edicts of Kyoto and the doomsayers) will come to pass, which will eliminate the hysteria of the small minded control freaks who demand we switch off every electrical appliance and revert to pushbikes.”

I agree, our accumulated knowledge is bound to increase. However, I lack your faith in the emergence of solutions that will be miracle-like.

All solutions have their downsides. We can never predict the outcomes and potential future uses of any scientific discovery. Just ask Albert Einstein – I think we can be pretty certain he never anticipated the use of atom-splitting for mass slaughter. For another example, chemicals such as pesticides have been found to have far greater effects on the environment than the original intention, and then the result has to be remediated.

Ironically, I pointed out that thinking we have all the answers is folly, and your response was basically, “I agree. But we will have all the answers”. Why is it humans think they are infallible? What makes us the gurus? Higher intelligence does not necessarily make us smart.

*

“One of the great things with human development is, almost all the major developments have been made to improve the lot of individuals (one of the wonders which comes from developing consumer societies – versus medieval subsistence societies).”

What do you consider major development? And when you say “individuals”, exactly *which* individuals are you referring to? I’m sure that most of the wealthy individuals would agree that the world is good for them. Not so sure about those individuals who don’t have access to our “developments”, or who have been on the receiving end of the downsides of “developments” such as clearing of indigenously-occupied forest. (...cont. next post)

Your definition of “improvement” of peoples’ lots may not align with others’ definition of “improvement”. Money in the bank is surely an improvement for many people in the business world. Pollution and exploitation of resources in the pursuit of money may not be considered improvement by those who have to live daily with the downsides of money-generating activity.

*

"Trying to turn back the clock to some mythical age when what is supposed to be “climate change” could or even should be averted is impossible not only from a scientific perspective but also from a social perspective.”

I agree. However it’s not an excuse to stand by and continue to crap in our own beds.

Gadget - Hi!

It is, I am reliably informed from a political scientist mate, about 4 bureaucrats to each Territorian. By far the biggest employer(s) here are the Territory and Federal governments. Followed by the mining and energy sectors.

The petro industry is about to have a boom of sorts with Stage 2/3 of Darwin LNG being commenced here in late 2007. More feilds are being opened up in the Timor Sea and some older ones are having new extraction techniques applied in the hope of getting the last few drops out. See: Coogee Resources.

Uranium mines - near Batchelor & the old Rum Jungle sites are being put back into the picture, several new gold mines and the possibility of another diamond mine (in East Arnhem Land I hear) are being looked at seriously in the last few months. A new Renaissance for these sectors.

Topically, the diversion of McArthur River to allow extraction by open cut method has been contentious both for the mine, and government.

The upshot is NT's economy (and Canberra's) will benefit, but will we Territorians actually get much of it? The environmental issues have yet to be fought with any gusto. The proposed NT EPA will no doubt get its 'baptism of fire' on these and many issues of the next decades.

And the predicted temperature rises and accompanying sea levels - well Kakadu will be inundated, as will the Mary and Alligator river systems. More "Crocodiles in my backyard" stories for the Empty News to print no doubt. As if we didn't already get enough!

The diaspora of Bangladeshi folk and others spoken about in previous posts, the thin edge of the wedge has not been seen yet. The seas around Ashmore Reef/Cartier Islands are already being plundered by illegal fishing activities, and the resources needed to police it are sadly under-funded. Thy Holy War on Terror has absorbed valuable personnel and materiel away from this most important effort.

We are, without doubt, a continent ripe for the picking, just as to when the harvest will occur is anyone's guess for the moment.

How appropriate that Mr Carter uses some London social policy shop and a 1982 textbook to criticise Al Gore and current science. It typifies the strawman approach to debate that PR flacks have schooled RightThinkers in - avoid any facts, obtusely miss the essence of any argument, and just read parrot-like from the cheat sheets provided by ExxonMobil funded deniers. Guess all those pseudo-scientific parasites needed work after Big Tobacco fell foul of its own documentation, but i wonder how they (and you Bob) look their children in the eye.

More alarmist propaganda on SBS tonight disguised as an attack on the worst President since Nixon,George Dubbya.Seems if you build some houses on ice near Alaska they will eventually fall over especially if they are centrally heated-but of course it is due to Global Warming...hmmmm run that past me again.Did someone say they'd been there for 4000 years ? That is some special archeology.
Loved the Armageddon-coming voiceover !!

CARBONARI is ignorant of the widespread warming already seen across the Arctic, how surprising for a fundamentalist sceptic - not.

Blasting A/C in the Arctic
Howard Witt, Chicago Tribune
RESOLUTE BAY, Nunavut -- They never used to need air conditioners up in the Arctic.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609290169sep29,1,1322189.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
But earlier this year, officials in the Canadian Inuit territory of Nunavik authorized the installation of air conditioners in official buildings for the first time. Artificial cooling was necessary, they decided, because summertime temperatures in some southern Arctic villages have climbed into the 80s in recent years.

Inuit families in the region never used to need to shop in grocery stores, either. But the Arctic seas that always stayed frozen well into the summer have started breaking open much earlier, cutting off hunters from the seasonal caribou herds on which their families depend for sustenance.

And experienced Inuit hunters, as comfortable reading ice conditions as professional golfers are reading greens, had seldom fallen through the ice and drowned. But this year in Alaska, more than a dozen vanished into the sea.