Will Humans Survive the 21st Century

Are many of us still sceptical over Global Warming and are we being influenced by the Media Denialists and their Masters.

 

Over the last couple of days I have not written anything. I really needed to absorb the facts about what I had seen in our State Forests and also do some research on media influence towards climate change.

What I cannot comprehend is the current trend by the mining, petroleum and forestry industries to exploit resources at such a great rate that it conflicts with any efforts by any Government to slow down carbon emissions.

Forestry clear felling Swans Crossing

For my Media and Communications course I had selected Climate Change or Global Warming as a topic for a fifteen minute presentation on a news item. It is to be in the context of how the media presents us with the information or more importantly with the facts.

After nearly a week of research I just feel like putting the new strings on my guitar, I purchased three months ago, and forgetting I chose this topic. To be quite honest I feel depressed about my findings and needed to share a little of the research so far. Have I been so naive that I have ignored the real facts, or is it that I and many others are being fed untruths by certain influential sectors of mass media. What is the real motivation of the denialists? Power and money are most likely the answer but perhaps it runs deeper in the fact that we are already witnessing a collapse in the world economy.

 

What happened to the protest voices of the late sixties and seventies. Where is a new Bob Dylan or will Peter Garret come to his senses. Too often the younger generation complains about the problems my generation has caused, and yet they have been carefully manipulated, joining the ranks of consumerism through media advertising. It is daunting, frightening and somewhat unbelievable that the denialists are using this to manipulate the average person into thinking all will be OK and the Scientists have got it wrong.

I have read that I am in the age group that is amongst the highest in Climate Change skeptisism and denial, however to understand what has led to this statistic we should take a look at the Mass Media.

Sunrise taken May 2009 during North Coast Floods

It is not about what we are hearing in the Media it's about what we are not being told. When the  world's expert Climate Scientists began to tell Governments' and the Media their fears on Climate Change, another group shortly went into action to discredit those experts and create doubt. In the USA this group of lesser known scientists had been organised by corporations including the Fossil Fuel and Petroleum Industries who had and still have  the most to lose from evidence that unequivocally proves  man is contributing to global warming.

Please read the following two essays on the subject from "The Monthly".

http://www.themonthly.com.au/how-vested-interests-defeated-climate-science-dark-victory-robert-manne-5853

http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog-lord-monckton-and-future-australian-media-robert-manne-4575

Severe Storm on East Coast December 2008

I am just an average Australian that has relied on mainstream media for the news. I believed that the media supplied our news openly and honestly and why would there be hidden agendas. Unfortunately in Australia the denialist movement jumped quickly on the methods being used by the denialists in the US. One of the most prominent places this can be seen is in talk back radio, but also extends to newspaper and television coverage.

To understand the reasons for this denialism in Australia, we have to look at who has the most to lose and who owns the media. It is interesting to note that Alan Jones is the patron for the denialist Galileo Movement and along with his comrades Ray Hadley, John Singleton and Gina Rhinehart, they have undertaken to discredit the expert climate scientists. Why? In an interview with Australian Chief Climate Scientist Will Steffen, Alan Jones ruthlessly cross examines  Professor Steffen when it should have been Alan Jones under examination. Here is the link for your own analysis. http://podcasts.mrn.com.au.s3.amazonaws.com/alanjones/20111020-aj2-willsteffen.mp3

 Floods Wauchope June 2011

In recent times the attention has focused on the global financial crisis and what can be seen as the world running out of resources. In Australia we are told how well we are surviving this crisis, as we hurriedly go about exploiting our natural resources with unsustainable practises and the profiteering of multinationals. This  was all too noticeable in our state forests last week with habitat loss and no doubt many breaches of regulations by the Forestry Industry.

I have only very briefly touched on the subject and I hope that any reader will further research this topic for themselves and draw their own conclusions.

I am afraid for my children and granchildren.

Fair Dinkum!!