As reported by The Australian, the final Newspoll for the year records Labor’s two-party lead unchanged at 53-47, from primary votes of Coalition 36%, Labor 38% (steady), Greens 10% (down one) and One Nation 3% (up one). Scott Morrison’s personal ratings are unchanged at 44% approval and 52% disapproval, while Anthony Albanese are respectively up two to 39% and down three to 45%. The report says Morrison is down one on preferred prime minister to 45% and Albanese is down two to 36%. The poll also finds 47% expect Labor to win the election compared with 37% for the Coalition. It was conducted Wednesday to Saturday from a sample of 1518.
Climate change is the here and now too. We are already witnessing the effects. This isn’t just a problem for our distant descendants, we are going to be living the consequences in the decades to come.
Being wiped out by a meteor is pretty random.
My understanding is that all previous extinction events have resulted in greater diversity of life.
If we’re heading for another one, then surely the same outcome can be expected.
However, climate change is a man made phenomena. If we don’t tackle it adequately and civilisation collapses, man made emissions will cease and the world will go on (there’ll be changes, obviously, but probably, given man’s impact, no bigger than if we’d continue to do what we were doing).
The issue is whether we want our species to basically keep on going as it has been. If we do, then we need to act.
Q: I have no doubt that humans will prosper somehow….
Nah, a virus, prion or something will take us out at some stage…they have been around a couple of billion years, seeing off every other life form….COVIDs just a warm up act.
Dr Fumbles Mcstupid at 9:33 pm
Every species is ‘concerned’ about their survival rather than any other species . We are no different.
WTF! He actually went on Tucker Carlson show!
You must WATCH this: Alex Antic, a Senator in the Morrison government on American TV actively campaigning against Australian laws and democracy.
Many of the powers he is arguing against are held by the party HE is a member of.
Is Morrison going to say anything?
#auspol https://t.co/JhLSYNLIcB
A runaway greenhouse effect could turn the planet into a hellhole akin to Venus. Even bacteria will be doomed in that situation.
Bushfire Bill
I’ve yet to hear much, if any argument as to WHY we should be bothered saving ourselves as a species, seeing the damage we’ve already done and are likely to do again.
____________________________
I’d take the question more seriously coming from a nihilist rather than a Laborite with nihilistic leanings. I mean, after all, you’ve got one eye on the 2pp.
Just to clarify: I was just being a bit silly. I don’t think anyone needs to seriously address an event that happened 250 Mya when discussing current events. Same with the other four previous mass extinction events (or five if you count the Great Oxidation Event as one as well.)
poroti says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 9:25 pm
frednk
We know how to extend the inter glacier period and we are going to do it.
That was my first memories of climate change discussions. Articles in New Scientist and Scientific American back in the 70’s saying we look to be overdue for an ‘Ice Age’ and pondering if we are delaying it by way of our emissions.
If you look a the end of all the other inter glacier periods, there is an uptick in temperature then a rapid fall. What happens when the gulf stream collapses.
https://www.livescience.com/gulf-stream-close-to-collapse
sprocket_ says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 9:28 pm
Undertake that the USA will consent to an application by Mr Assange, if he is convicted, to be transferred to Australia to serve his sentence; and
c. Undertake that whilst Mr Assange is in custody in the USA he will receive appropriate clinical and psychological treatment as recommended by a qualified treating clinician at the prison where he is held.
Looks like a slow journey to Australia for Assange
Meanwhile Nicolle Flint MP has the cheek to pretend this is problematic. This mob are beyond redemption.
—–
friendlyjordies extensive links to @AustralianLabor exposed by @penbo & @australian. Going to FINALLY act now & cut all ties @AlboMP @KKeneally @tanya_plibersek @billshortenmp @Tony_Burke? https://t.co/5GVvn9cvrV
Dr Fumbles
“The planet will go on, it has done, humans are just a blip in the cycle of life, life will evolve no matter if we make it inhabitable for people.”
The planet may go on. But, as a result of anthropogenic climate change, the extinctions among animal and plant species will be catastrophic. Us humans – via our pollution – will be directly culpable.
Past mass-extinctions, such as the Permian-Triassic and Cretaceous-Paleogene events, were natural phenomena (extraterrestrial in the case of K-Pg). But any current mass-extinction as a result of climate change is entirely human-induced. I don’t see any value (scientifically or ethically) in comparing them.
Wat Tyler,
I, for one, took you completely seriously and have been contemplating both my moral hypocrisy and my complicity in the failure to prevent the extinction of the dinosaurs.
(FYI, I am also being facetious)
Victoria
You must WATCH this: Alex Antic, a Senator in the Morrison government on American TV actively campaigning against Australian laws and democracy.
——-
Being a traitor, is a necessary prerequisite for the contemporary Liberal Party’s endorsement.
@JimmyD
The earth has supported life for at least 2 billion years, granted not as complex as humans. Humans have been around only 2 million years give and tske.
given the earth has about 4 billion years to go, good chance something else will evolve many times over.
Although if they will discover cricket, which is the highlight of a civilised society is disputed
Asha says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 9:40 pm
A runaway greenhouse effect could turn the planet into a hellhole akin to Venus. Even bacteria will be doomed in that situation.
The last inter-glacier period ended with global temperatures about 3 degrees above the current level.
Asha
If that comes to pass these chappies may be life’s last chance..
.
Life Found Deep inside Earth’s Oceanic Crust
Microbes have been found living deep inside crust at the bottom of the sea. The crust is several kilometers thick and covers 60 percent of the planet’s surface, making it the largest habitat on Earth
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/life-found-deep-inside-earths-oceanic-crust/
Dr Fumbles Mcstupid,
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Rikali
You of course always knew this but now the Sassenachs are catching on 😆
.
Scots were a breed apart
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/home-truths-reveal-iron-age-scots-were-a-breed-apart-lmgkzznrg
As a misanthrope, i totally look forward to the demise of our human overlords.
Kakuru says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 9:45 pm
….
Past mass-extinctions, such as the Permian-Triassic and Cretaceous-Paleogene events, were natural phenomena (extraterrestrial in the case of K-Pg). But any current mass-extinction as a result of climate change is entirely human-induced. I don’t see any value (scientifically or ethically) in comparing them.
You claiming humans are above nature?
@Kakuru
Thats adding culpability to the issue. I don’t excuse the actions of humans, it is inexcusable with mass extinctions. I do say, after humans the planet will evolve and change. Our concern is really all about US and how we will live not about the planet. Life will go an and thrive without us.
zoomster
“My understanding is that all previous extinction events have resulted in greater diversity of life.”
This is debatable (quite literally – it’s debated by scientists who study extinction). The K-Pg extinction that brought the Mesozoic Era (the ‘Age of Dinosaurs’) to an end wiped out whole lineages of creatures on land and in the seas (and in the air too, with pterodactyls and many bird lineages disappearing).
I am not sure why the Liberals think it is a good idea to give oxygen to the friendlyjordies. It is counter productive if they want to silence them.
Frednk
“You claiming humans are above nature?”
Not above, no. We are separate from nature. Instead of evolving to adapt to new habitats, we have ceased to evolve as a species, and have forced the natural world around us to adapt to us.
FFS, Nicole Flint is obsessed with herself…it is as if she is the first person ever to sustain criticism!….If only she had as much passion for her electorate (which I live in).
Rikali at 9:49 pm
What you are really looking forward to is Scotland at last not being a cold wet miserable place 😆
Frednk
In terms of moral and ethical culpability, definitely.
“Nature” is an anthropomorphic concept that helps us visualise and understand abstract systems as both a whole and a collection of interconnecting parts. “Nature” does not make choices in the way we do, and therefore it is not morally or ethically responsible for the outcomes.
We, on the other hand, are responsible for the outcomes caused by our actions and choices.
Would humans have evolved after say the Cretaceous event? it was ideal for small mammals, if not what would have happened?
Kakaru
Plenty of critters try the same thing. Just ask the Beaver.
poroti
Rikali
You of course always knew this but now the Sassenachs are catching on
————
Of course the building of duns and crannogs was beyond the abilities of the the southern britons …. But that is before the Sasann invasion ….the Sasannach came after that period,
poroti
What you are really looking forward to is Scotland at last not being a cold wet miserable place
———-
As a tropical celt, I have no idea how my ancestors lived in those cold misty places. If global warning results in the gulf stream stopping, it will become even worse, like Greenland but with English (Sasann) neighbours!!
Kakuru says:
Not above, no. We are separate from nature. Instead of evolving to adapt to new habitats, we have ceased to evolve as a species, and have forced the natural world around us to adapt to us
____________________
We adapt our environment but, as push comes to shove, the environment will stuff us, be it climate change or anything else it will be better and that will change us. Weather it gets rid of us humans or goes on is another thing.
All I know is some philosopher said “no jobs on a dead planet”
JimmyD says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 9:48 pm
Dr Fumbles Mcstupid,
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
_________________
I know but with my super I am hopeful, oh and Gamble responsibly
Prince Andrew has now involved Queenie.
He’s risking destroying the Hanoverian usurpers 🙂
Q: we have ceased to evolve as a species…
I read two of the latest genetic mutations in humans are lactose tolerance in Europeans and high altitude adaptation in Tibetans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence
Kakuru @ #2812 Friday, December 10th, 2021 – 9:15 pm
It’s interesting because there is a hypothesis that the Late Devonian Mass Extinction Event might have been triggered by gamma rays from space, either from a nearby supernova or a gamma ray burst. The evidence is sketchy but there has been some geological evidence of Earth passing through the rays of a supernova in the distant past. Obviously there’s nothing conclusive but I like bringing that one up because it’s an interesting idea.
Poroti
I missed this comment you made earlier.
I’d just point out that we are actually different. Despite being the species responsible for placing all other species at risk, we are in fact the only species concerned with the plight of other species.
@Rikali says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 10:16 pm
Prince Andrew has now involved Queenie.
___________
Fake news her maj woudldt be seen in any place so low brow. After all Balmoral is all stone not exactly log cabin
I find it funny that a potential mass extinction caused by mankind is regarded as somehow artificial, whereas a mass extinction (e.g.. The Late Devonian) said to be caused by blooming algae suffocating much of the planet’s sea life is regarded as perfectly natural. Yet they both constitute one species taking out most of its neighbours.
Humankind is a species on this Earth just like any other. If you aren’t religious (believing for example that God created us in his own image), then you won’t believe there’s anything special about us. Just another species that crowded others out.
As for predicting we’ll end up like Venus, pull the other one: it has bells on it. Far too dramatic a scenario.
Dr Fumbles
“Would humans have evolved after say the Cretaceous event? it was ideal for small mammals, if not what would have happened?”
There’s no doubt that if the end-Cretaceous extinction had not happened, then humans would not have evolved. Mammals were very ecological diverse during the Age of Dinosaurs. After the mass-extinction event, mammals became even more diverse (and bigger).
If history is any guide climate change has repeatably changed the course of human history so humans will survive but the society and economy as we know it might not because Boris Johnson was right about climate change playing a part in the fall of Rome by forcing people suffering extreme drought to move west into the empire.
Wat
“It’s interesting because there is a hypothesis that the Late Devonian Mass Extinction Event might have been triggered by gamma rays from space, either from a nearby supernova or a gamma ray burst.”
Thanks, I hadn’t heard that. I’ll check it out.
BB
“I find it funny that a potential mass extinction caused by mankind is regarded as somehow artificial, whereas a mass extinction (e.g.. The Late Devonian) said to be caused by blooming algae suffocating much of the planet’s sea life is regarded as perfectly natural. Yet they both constitute one species taking out most of its neighbours.”
Oh come on! Are you serious? Algae don’t know what they’re doing. Humans do.
Bushfire Bill says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 10:31 pm
Humankind is a species on this Earth just like any other. If you aren’t religious (believing for example that God created us in his own image), then you won’t believe there’s anything special about us. Just another species that crowded others out.
__________
There’s nothing special about humans apart from all the special things that separate us from lower orders of animals.
Kakuru says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 9:58 pm
…
We are separate from nature. Instead of evolving to adapt to new habitats, we have ceased to evolve as a species, and have forced the natural world around us to adapt to us.
JimmyD says:
Friday, December 10, 2021 at 9:59 pm
…
In terms of moral and ethical culpability, definitely.
..
We, on the other hand, are responsible for the outcomes caused by our actions and choices.
Interesting
Nature created us and Nature will destroy us.
We are as much a part of nature as the rock we hit our toe on.
We are trying to get organized enough to try and put the destruction off.
Ants trying to control our environment and stuffing it up.
Mexicanbeemer
“Boris Johnson was right about climate change playing a part in the fall of Rome by forcing people suffering extreme drought to move west into the empire.”
I hadn’t heard this one either. I know the Huns (a central Asian steppe people) headed west, and thereby displaced eastern European peoples (Goths, Alans), driving them toward the Roman Empire. But I didn’t know what drove the Huns in the first place.
I mean, a big difference between humans and other animals is that:
1. We’re capable of destroying everything
2. We’re aware that we’re capable of destroying everything
3. We’re aware (at least some of us are on some level) that it’s wrong to do so
4. We’re the only species capable of making churros.
This pandemic makes me question how quickly things would turn to shit in a real crisis and yes this virus has been minor compared to the black death or if the climate went extreme because there was some luck in how quickly the vaccines were developed.
So Prince Andrew was friends with the sex fiends. He should be fired from his job as…. the son of a monarch? That is a bit hard to retroactively do.