United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

I found this the other day and it pleased me.  Creating a global parliament is the most important task we humans must succeed in achieving and the Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly is a step in that direction.

Bravo!

How the World now sees Australia

An excerpt from The Bugle Podcast (www.thebuglepodcast.com) talking about Tony Abbott and the Australian populace.  

I'm posting this because I was so disgusted by the successive elections of John Howard that I left to New Zealand and haven't looked back, but with the recent election of Tony Abbott my disdain for the country has been well and truly cemented.  I cannot relate to the majority of Australians based on who they have voted for (and keep voting for) and as a result I have not been proud to call myself an Australian.  

In fact, I've since become a New Zealand citizen, so I'm officially not an Aussie anymore.  

Good riddance, you pack of dickheads.

A new strategy to save the Maui dolphins is needed

Green MP, Gareth Hughes, says we can save the last of the Maui dolphins in his blogpost.  It is a hopeful message and optimistic in spite of the dire statistics surrounding the issue.  Here is my response:


There is no immediate political solution to the Maui's plight.  Take John Key's comments as a perfect example:

At 8:15 of John Key's interview with The Edge FM interview: http://www.theedge.co.nz/John-Key-talks-to-Sharyn-Guy--Clint/tabid/106/articleID/29719/Default.aspx

Question: Ask [Mr Key] why he is killing the remaining 55 Maui dolphins?

PM John Key: I’m not, but what would kill them? Send them off to a Labour party conference and they’d die of boredom.  (Studio laughs)  Anyway, there’s not 55. I drained the sea recently and added them up.  There’s 56.

(Studio reacts with awkward laughter).

For John Key to even make that joke should tell you everything.

I remember writing to (then) Conservation Minister, Kate Wilkinson, about the Maui dolphin issue, and she wrote back:

"As Minster of Conservation, I can assure you that protecting these dolphins is a high priority for the Government... [but] to use the 100-metre depth contour ...is not tenable, and would have the effect of closing down much of the New Zealand inshore fin-fish fishery".

So essentially she is saying: We are aware that these dolphins are going extinct, but to save them would mean to upset the fishing industry of that area.

At this point I struggle to know where to place blame.

Do we blame the politicians for not reining in business for the sake of precious life, or do we blame the fishing industry for exploiting unsustainable limits in the same environment they are earning income from- simply because the laws allow for it?  In short, the politicians don't want to stop the fishing industry, and the fishing industry cannot stop themselves.

Both sides of this problem exacerbate the other, creating a vicious circle these dolphins are trapped within.

What can one do when the dolphin numbers are dropping to genetically impossible levels to continue, as the politicians sit on their hands, the fisherman carry on regardless, and everyone watches a species go extinct. Right. In. Front. Of. Us.

It's so incredibly frustrating!

I won't ever give up, that's not an option, but I also don't know what to do to change the situation. How about we try a different strategy?... Let's target the fishing industry around that area? Let's shame them. Let's shame the ACTUAL FISHERMAN that are doing this. Let's link the names of the companies they work for.

How do we begin that fight?...

Someone help me start this.

Done the math. It's not good.

A caricature of the world

Deep Sea Oil Drilling infographic

Download complete image - web size (2mb - 1340x5791)

Download complete image - original size (7.3mb - 2958x12784)

And in case you missed it, this is John Key's love letter to the oil industry:

Sources:
350.org - Do The Math
Greenpeace - The future is here report
The Oil Drum
TEDx Talk: Climate Change explained
Crude Solution: BP's Corexit on 60 Minutes

World Parliament

After having been exposed to two essential influences-

George Monbiot's inspiring book The Age of Consent -A Manifesto for a NewWorld Order

and

Ben McLeish's Zeitgeist interview with Richard Morley of the Molecularism movement

I've come to fully appreciate the need for a world parliament, especially since the three great crises facing humankind are global in nature- Environment, Economy, and Energy -we'll need a global body to address them.

And that's not the United Nations, sadly.   (George Monbiot completely demolishes the UN in his book mentioned above, while Richard Morley articulates an excellent understanding of the alternative to this as a three branch world government made up of Representatives, Experts and the People themselves).

I was most interested by how you would go about representing the entire population of the planet so I made a rough image based on population size.  See pic below.

If I have time I would like to rearrange this image so that all the countries are arranged according to their geographical location (for instance all the African countries next to each other, etc).

I have a lot more to say on this, but I'll leave that for another time...