Bailing out the US car industry . . .

This spoof ad is from the US satirical site BuffaloBeast.com. The copy says:

You probably thought it was smart to buy a foreign import of superior quality, with better mileage and resale value. Maybe you even thought that years of market share loss might prod us into rethinking our process and redesigning our products with better quality in mind. But you forgot one thing: We spent a shitload of money on lobbyists. So now you’re out $25 billion, plus the cost of your Subaru. Maybe next time you’ll buy American like a real man. Either way, we’re cool.

Unspinning Clean Coal

Stumbled across this earlier today – a v amusing pisstake on Clean Coal technology from a group called ThisIsReality. Yes, there may one day be something approximating Clean Coal, but for the moment it’s nothing but mining industry spin designed to legitimate a continued reliance on fossil fuels. A nice story to tell the kids at bed-time. Just think, if all the money spent on researching it was put into renewables . . .

Truly pathetic

The Rudd government has just announced it’s carbon reduction targets at a measly 5 per cent. Why did they bother with all the palaver of the Garnaut report? And why did we bother electing them? 5 per cent is hardly worth doing. 15 per cent, which is the maximum they’ll go to by 2020 but only if there’s a worldwide agreement, is less than half what most scientific opinion says is necessary to avoid the worst effects of warming. Meanwhile, Big Coal gets 4 billion dollars in compensation. Clearly it’s not for reducing emissions. Can someone please explain?