Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Flat Earth Society

The SMH reported today that a member of the board of the Victor Chang Foundation wrote an interesting and entertaining letter promoting "healthy smoking". Australian businessman Murray Clapham writes "The real argument is here in Indonesia some quite remarkable Indonesian scientists and doctors have discovered that cigarette smoking can, with specially treated cigarettes, significantly assist people's health and has the potential to cut health costs around the globe," says the Herald.

For an ex-smoker like myself, this is wonderful news. I simply can't wait for these new healthy cigarettes to become available.

More Flat Earthing
I have a friend staying. He's frighteningly bright and very well informed, but his good looks and charming demeanor are not enhanced by an unfortunate cant to the right. Last night over dinner he informed me that although it was true the earth was warming, it was not as a result of human activity (as 35,000 scientists would testify) but for other reasons. And anyway, he said, if the Iranians or Indonesians or Chinese engage with others in a decent dustup then the changes we're speaking of now will pale into the shadows.

I suspect that Dr Death, as he's known to all who love and admire him, will be casting his vote for the Budgie Smuggler.

As for the 35,000 bods who support DD's view it seems likely that none are members of CSIRO which says on its website "Human activities are changing the climate - Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are 90% likely to have caused most of the global warming since the mid-20th century."

And this blog writes "Dr Ayers said the trends in temperatures backed up UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings showing human processes, such as burning fossil fuels, was the main cause of global warming."
Dr Ayers is the director of Australia's Bureau of Meteorology. He's probably not one of the 35,000 either.

Interesting link on Global Warming:
http://www.crikey.com.au/topic/australian-bureau-of-meteorology/