Yesterday SAM posted its scornful view of local ABC radio and tv news parroting of the ‘½ metre sea rise, don’t scare the political economy' mantra sourced to the already out of date IPCC report of February 2nd on climate change.

Ironically at the same time as these broadcasts the flagship radio national Science Show in its 32^nd year of trusted broadcasting (below) confirms a 12 metre sea rise if the above suggested melting occurs. And Professor Tim Flannery in Australia agrees it will whether it be 2010, 2020, 2040 or 2050:

7:40: Tim Flannery 2^nd Feb Radio National Breakfast with Fran Kelly

The Science Show has a couple of stories about hobbits on Flores, and parthogenetic reproduction in reptiles, but the rest is all rolled gold climate change horror story in gentle tones, which somehow makes it all worse. In particular one UK senior government scientist Chris West Director UK Climate Impacts Programme
http://www.ukcip.org.uk/ states the worst case scenario is unknown but if Greenland and West Antarctic ice melts then its 6 or 7 metre ocean rise each.

This is the reality the big old parties and dinosaurs in big industry and media don't want voters to hear because they can't cope with it. Nor can anyone else really.

This inspires SAM to reproduce these full on images relating to storm surge which also features in the Science Show. The first is of the biggest hurricane yet in North America, cyclone Wilma in 2004, off the newswires at the time, and featured front page Sydney Morning Herald at the time, given storms are thought to become extreme:

The second is the huge surf we saw in Sydney from cyclone Wati 1000 km north east of Sydney, with ripples arriving some days later, taken by this writer (I paricularly like the helicopter above the surfers image):

The Science Show starts with an amusing grab from this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_West_Wing_(TV_series)

specifically the Republican ‘progressive’ character in this episode about corn generated ethanol:

"King Corn" first broadcast January 26^th 2005, which shows corn based ethanol is only a marginal reduction in greenhouse impacts, and compares it with the recent State of the Union speech by George Bush promoting exactly that kind ethanol production.

(We at SAM did a review of the whole insightful series 1 to 5 at the local DVD shop and counting with Series 6 on the ABC Monday nights (now in its last 7^th series) first post January 3^rd 2007 (see date buttons top right) in a misspent Christmas New Year break.)

ABC Science show follows

Rising sea level in Britain

Listen Now - 03022007 |  Download Audio - 03022007

Climate change is causing real problems in England's north-east coast. The ground is water-logged and the rising sea is causing the coast to crumble, taking roads and houses with it.

Naomi Fowler reports from Aldborough in Yorkshire.

Guests

Mike Ball Principal engineer the East Riding of Yorkshire UK

Chris West Director UK Climate Impacts Programme
http://www.ukcip.org.uk/

Malcolm Tarling The Association of British Insurers
http://www.abi.org.uk/

Professor James Curran Scottish Environment Protection Agency
http://www.hie.co.uk/professor-james-curran.html

Naomi Fowler http://www.naomifowler.org/

Presenter Robyn Williams, Producer David Fisher 

Pictures at right: Taken 27 March 2006 at Tamarama beach front, a popular Sydney area of the eastern suburbs. The first image reflects the aspirated salty sea droplets on the Anzac bridge next to the CBD still 15 km away at about 9.30 am. It was similar walking down the gully to the ocean side descending to just above ocean level - an ethereal misty veil over the view.

There were crowds lining the cliff tops to watch and one new age flighty young woman was dancing with exhiliration, or maybe drugs, at the display and no one actually seemed to be very surprised: Conditions of normality were suspended just as the air was filled with salty suspension. I went down onto the rocks with a very cautious eye on the surge as I did so to get some more dramatic images.

The last imge of the child seemed metaphorical given the risky future we all face, and was taken with the parent's permission.

Postscript #1 5th Feb 2007

A version of the above article was emailed to networks and senior politicians yesterday before going out on indy press delivery work (Sydney City Hub). Now it's hammer and tongs in federal politics with Opposition leader Rudd leading the tv news (which I taped) calling for a climate change summit, more detail here:

PM, Rudd in a race for the summit

Dueling summits indeed, Rudd's climate change, PM Howard's water summit. But the PM has raised the stake in the game of poker chips with a carbon trading scheme here today 5th Feb:

"Carbon tax to hit miners A CARBON tax of up to $25 a tonne is being considered by the West Australian Government in a move that would cost the resource-rich state's alumina industry more than $200million a year. "

And pro Establishment business The Australian is getting nervous over the creeping realisation that its anti ecological economic religious fervour has caused climate change beyond their political control unlike conventional power games of western society. Here they editorialise to proceed cautiously on economic adjustments, literally as the end game for western civilisation stares us in the face:

Editorial: Look before leaping in climate decisions

How pathetic they are under cover of moderation. Which reminds of the mid January 2007 Davos World Economic Forum duly reported on in the Australian Financial Review (Sat 27th Jan 2007): Apparently the consensus in the social chit chat of the western worlds "winners", the billionaires, world 'leaders', crooks, spivs and killers in suits, was that climate change is not an urgent issue at all and that 'market forces' will deal with it.

For 'market forces' we assume this means 'law of the jungle' with rich folks moving to enclaves of luxury, and little people say in Shanghai and most of Bangladesh, Sydney, and London, in short desperate grim lives fighting for scraps of liveable land to survive on, or an even quicker one way ticket to Davy Jones locker. So much for the monsters of Davos, and their fossil fool puppeteers like Exxon Mobil. Moral pygmies? You can say that again.

What has become apparent too in the last few months to this writer is that the USA under W Bush captured as he is by Big Oil (and with PM Howard in his pocket) is playing a horrendous version of global chicken with China and India over greenhouse emissions: In the illegal street racing world beyond the Kyoto protocol, these three charioteers threaten to crash head on, and destroy the world's ecology and all the world's people sadly locked in the boot.