blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2011-02-25 12:24 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2011-02-25 12:24 pm
Entry tags:
Brief Australian Politics ...
Some of you may remember that Australia was once led by Harry Potter, aka Kevin Rudd. He was one of the most popular Australian Prime Ministers for a goodly period of his leadership. He won power with a promise for a Carbon Tax as a major part of his platform. Three times he tried to get an Emissions Trading Scheme through parliament, three times it was knocked back by a hostile Senate controlled by the conservative Opposition.
Kevin gave up and declared that his government would not try to institute any sort of Carbon Tax again until 2013.
His popularity plummeted and people expressed extreme disappointment with him as a leader. For all that the mining companies then spent $22 million to get him out of office a few months later, this was the moment that the general populace expressed as a breaking of faith.
As many of you will recall, shortly after, the mining companies mounted a scare campaign and the NSW Labor Party and their Victorian Mates acted like weasels and knifed poor old Kev in the back, replacing him with Julia.
After another short period of time, Julia took her team to an election. The Opposition said 'Don't vote for them! They will impose Great Big New Taxes!' (Note that this was despite both the current Opposition Leader and the previous one both having espoused Carbon Tax as an effective mechanism of reining in Australia's appalling reliance on carbon-heavy technologies.)
In response, Julia promised there would be no new Carbon Tax under her government.
The Greens said: 'YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE! DID YOU NOT NOTICE THAT VICTORIA BURNED DOWN IN A RECORD HEATWAVE LAST YEAR??!!'
Julia's party lost many votes. The Opposition gained a few.
The Greens gained a record number of votes.
Julia has just declared that her government will be imposing a Carbon Tax after all. The Opposition has declared that this is the most appalling thing ever in the history of Australian politics and that the Australian people will rise up in revolt because they did not vote for this!
Except, quite a lot of us did.
Kevin gave up and declared that his government would not try to institute any sort of Carbon Tax again until 2013.
His popularity plummeted and people expressed extreme disappointment with him as a leader. For all that the mining companies then spent $22 million to get him out of office a few months later, this was the moment that the general populace expressed as a breaking of faith.
As many of you will recall, shortly after, the mining companies mounted a scare campaign and the NSW Labor Party and their Victorian Mates acted like weasels and knifed poor old Kev in the back, replacing him with Julia.
After another short period of time, Julia took her team to an election. The Opposition said 'Don't vote for them! They will impose Great Big New Taxes!' (Note that this was despite both the current Opposition Leader and the previous one both having espoused Carbon Tax as an effective mechanism of reining in Australia's appalling reliance on carbon-heavy technologies.)
In response, Julia promised there would be no new Carbon Tax under her government.
The Greens said: 'YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE! DID YOU NOT NOTICE THAT VICTORIA BURNED DOWN IN A RECORD HEATWAVE LAST YEAR??!!'
Julia's party lost many votes. The Opposition gained a few.
The Greens gained a record number of votes.
Julia has just declared that her government will be imposing a Carbon Tax after all. The Opposition has declared that this is the most appalling thing ever in the history of Australian politics and that the Australian people will rise up in revolt because they did not vote for this!
Except, quite a lot of us did.
no subject
Even so I do know that Scandinavia is still rising now that the weight of that ice sheet is gone. Some of that rebound does result in fault movement in the rocks themselves as they adjust. However, these days only Greenland and Antarctica have enough ice left, I think, to cause huge adjustments were it all to melt (in which case a huge percentage of humans would be busy looking for new homes as their old ones would be under water).
The other thing to consider is that tectonic process happen at odd scales from a human point of view. How long has it been since most of the big northern hemisphere ice sheets melted, and the rebound is still happening? Earthquakes take time--first pressure has to build, and keep building until the rock can't take it anymore and breaks. That split second of breakage is the quake, but it can be anything form centuries to millions of years of pressure build up before the quake.
Likewise volcanic activity takes time--first something has to happen to cause rock to melt (commonly from being carried down a subduction zone till the minerals in it aren't stable at the pressure and temperature), then the melt has to segregate and rise to the surface. If it doesn't make it all the way up, no eruption.