Tom M. Wilson

This evening I was at the Tropicana Cafe in Fremantle for a session introducing the candidates for the 2007 federal election for this area. During the question time a friend of mine asked Melissa Park, the Labour candidate, if her party was committed to cutting total greenhouse gas emissions in line with the aim of avoiding a two degree rise in global temperature (which amounts to 80% to 90% reductions compared to 1990 levels by 2050). Melissa throughout the evening had presented herself as an amiable, well intentioned, and highly intelligent individual. As she stepped to the microphone a shadow of awkwardness crossed her face for a moment. She obviously felt uncomfortable at having to say that no, her party’s target was 60% reductions by 2050. But, she said, it might look at changing this target later on. Here is her moment of weakness:

Steve Walker, the Greens candidate then took the microphone. He said that no matter how nice and well intentioned a Labour candidate such as Melissa Park was, when it came to the hard and fast game of politics, she would be voted out by other less progressive elements in the Australian Labour Party.

He had a point, and he did not feel awkward when he said that the Greens had a set of climate change policies that were designed to help us stay below two degrees in rising temperature, and thus avoid run-away climate chaos.

My friend Dave has written a little song about the way in which Australia has come to be seen as a deviant outsider, a rogue state, for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. At first Australia argued at the international negotiating table to be able to increase its emissions, and then the government refused to ratify, even with the lenient concessions we were to get. Dave’s song is about the terrible loss of face the Howard government has brought the nation on the stage of international diplomacy.

If the song doesn’t start playing automatically when you follow this link, click on ‘Rogue State’ on the control panel.

Rogue State

The results of the 2007 Wildlife Photographer of the Year are out.  You can see them on the Guardian website.  It is a pity about the sponsor of the competition, but the photos remain worth seeing.

I was particularly struck by the zebras charging overhead, the shot of the meerkats spell-bound by a bug, and the photo of the brown bear swimming towards the camera in a river.  Photos like these make you so grateful to the photographers who have gone deep into the muddy or wet or hot corners of a remote ecosystem and brought back their vision.  If it wasn’t for people like this, most of us would never see these moments from beyond the species-barrier.   Thank you photographers!