Thoughts on the Psychology of Climate Change

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Today’s Guest Author is that extraordinary carer, woodworker, and eBay bargain hunter, Puff The Magic Dragon, presenting an allegory about the danger of believing (or worse, pretending) that human-induced global warming is “crap” (because we all know it was warmer in Jesus’s time). Thank you, Madam Puffy.

(Credit: Macrobusiness)

Do people really shut their eyes as their vehicle hurtles over the edge of a cliff? Or long before?

At some time it must have been apparent that the route was the wrong choice. There was this firm idea of where they were going, and this was the way they always took. Someone mentioned a weather report that mentioned rain and changed road conditions, but the driver of the minibus had been this way so many times that the route was just a reflex.

Anyway, a detour would take them into unfamiliar territory and use up time and fuel.

(Credit: ZME Science)

Everyone was happy, until over the radio the weather report warned of gusting winds and rain. The passengers in the back of the minibus suggested not going up the hilly way but taking the next turnoff and going the longer but flatter route. They even got a bit angry when the driver drove past the last turn off. He insisted he knew the road well, and it had never been affected by weather before, and anyway, it was only a weather report.

That was reassuring, so everyone settled down and sang Row Row Row Your Boat or played I spy. It started to rain and some of the younger ones began complaining. They were comforted with words about how the grown-ups knew best. A couple of the grown-ups, though, looked at the black clouds ahead and worried about the wind speed around these hills. The wind farm blades in the distance seemed to be spinning pretty hard. They were told to stop scaring the kids with crazy talk.

The rain and wind hit the bus with a sudden ‘whump’; everyone was a bit shaken but glad to be in the bus and not outside. Besides, it was just a passing squall – so the driver said. One person started to suggest stopping for a while but the rest glared at her. Don’t rock the bus, the stares said.

(Credit: Adelaide Now)

They crested the hill and were bashed with a wind bending tree branches into crazed arches, straining to be loose of their trees.

The road was slippery. Inside, everyone could finally feel the wheels losing some grip. Fear took over. Some yelled at the driver to pull over. He told them it was impossible – there was nowhere to stop on the down track. The bus took off with the power of its own momentum, the steering wheel useless, an ornament to folly.

When they went over the side, did they close their eyes? Or were they now wide open to the disaster they had wrought upon themselves?

(Credit: NewsBusters)

1,058 thoughts on “Thoughts on the Psychology of Climate Change”

  7. Puffy,
    Certainly not – it is seriously impressive, and must have taken a very long time to type 😉

  9. There must be a lot of tin foil around that can go towards the war effort.

    Tin Foil Tone is the new Pig Iron Bob.

  10. “BK’s Dawn Patrol will become the Craic of Dawn Patrol.”

    Or as they used to say in years gone by..: “Doing the ‘Bobby Limb’ “

  14. I am an evil witch, winding up Compact Crank, but to quote Jaycee someone has to do it. Damn should I be having a glass of NZ wine with no lunch?

  16. Ptmd

    [should I be having a glass of NZ wine with no lunch?]

    Fine judgement required as to what else has to be done today.

    A nap?

  23. From the Jay Rosen piece linked earlier on…

    Alongside the production of news and commentary about American politics they feel compelled to reproduce their own innocence. What I mean by “innocence” is a public showing by professional journalists that they have no politics themselves, no views of their own, no side, no stake, no ideology and therefore no one can accuse them of — and here we enter the realm of dread — political bias.

    It’s gotten to the ridiculous stage where Malcolm Farr, who works for Murdoch, utterly denies he is biased according to his boss’s wishes, or that anyone else in the organization is biased, either.

    Who writes the f**king editorials, slanted and incorrect news articles, egregious op-eds and braying anti-Labor headlines then?

    Do they write themselves?

  24. Ptmd

    [Makita router, with bits.]

    All the bits and pieces you’ve put up are mostly familiar things to me. My mothers father was a cabinet maker/french polisher.

  25. “I am lusting after a thicknesser on sale on Gumtree for $250.”

    I say, Puff..It sounds as if you are as desperate for the Mitre 10 tools catalogue as we young blokes used to be for the Kmart catalogue!

  28. I put this up over the road (more Compact Crank baiting, maybe) because I’m sick of lies and fed up with deadbeats trying to push Abbott propaganda. So you lot might as well get it too. Not that any of you need lecturing or anything, it’s just some handy facts ahead of the next influx of asylum seeker boats.

    They are completely unable to acknowledge that Abbot and the Coalition could have brought about this change in any way shape or form.

    That’s because Abbottt and the Coalition had nothing to do with it. The return to Indonesia of asylum seekers rescued at sea by Australian ships has been part of a memorandum of understanding between Australia and Indonesia for some time. In December 2012 Anthony Albanese signed the latest version that reaffirmed previous commitments and added new ones.
    http://anthonyalbanese.com.au/australia-and-indonesia-reaffirm-regional-transport-cooperation

    And
    http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/archive/indonesia-australia-in-asylum-seeker-rescue-deal/

    That agreement is mentioned here –
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-navy-returns-rescued-asylum-seekers-to-indonesia-20130927-2uimi.html

    There had been an earlier rescue, in August last year –

    An interception of this kind, where the Australian Navy hands asylum seekers back to Indonesian authorities after being asked to assist in their rescue, only happened once during the six years of the last Labor government.

    On that occasion, last year, a boat sank near the mouth of the Sunda Strait off west Java.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-27/navy-transfers-asylum-seekers-to-indonesia/4985674

    More details –
    http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3580563.htm

    Returning rescued asylum seekers is not the same thing as turning back boats.

  29. Dunno what happened to my blockquotes there – I think I need a new keyboard. Or maybe new fingers.

  30. I will not admit the sight of one of the cabinet makers teaching our course throwing around a heavy sander with one hand, to sand off a couple of millimetres of my cabinet ,was anyway impressive.

    I did not notice anything. At all. I insist.

  32. Ptmd – Fancy.

    I assume the drawers will be proper ones with dovetails. I did one by hand when a youngster but assume that routers now have attachments to do same.

  33. Very nice indeed Puffy. I’m working on something similar at the moment but have become a bit disillusioned with it. Damn crappy warping Masters red oak rubbish. Why I keep buying timber from the Big Box stores I do not know.

    By the way, you should sign up for the Carbatec catalog if you haven’t already: http://www.carbatec.com.au/requestcatalogue

  34. Scott Morrison being…… well Scott Morrison

    [Pregnant asylum seekers will give birth in Nauru for the first time since 2004 under the Abbott government’s ”no exemptions” approach to offshore detention.

    Fairfax Media has learned a woman carrying twins is one of the first asylum seekers since the Howard era to face the prospect of giving birth in the tiny island republic.

    Refugee advocates are seeking details about the woman, who is said to be 22 weeks’ pregnant and arrived on Nauru last Friday, according to sources on the island.

    A section of Nauru’s only hospital burned down in August and medical experts and campaigners say there is no proof that conditions for mothers and babies are adequate in an environment where detainees live in tents in temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and above. ]

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pregnant-asylum-seekers-to-give-birth-on-nauru-20131004-2uyv0.html#ixzz2giulW8ay

  35. Puff.. I remember my first Buzzer. A Woodfast….still got it…she’s a little beauty…’full-bodied, long table’d , double adjustable with a motor that hums with a suggestive purr!…she’s everything that a bloke could want down in the shed!……AND…I do respect her….or she’d have my digit off!……oh you sweeet thang!

  36. Speaking of me being an optical engineer…

    This is a photo of the production prototype of my latest design…

    She made her debut last night. She was awesomely sharp and delivered beautiful contrast.

    Is it Politically Incorrect of me to say I think she’s a beautiful, sexy beast? I love those curves…

    (The Blu-Ray disk is there for scale. That front lens is 132mm in diameter. Weight, a hefty 4 kilos.)

  38. Puffy…I used to dream of a toolbox like that one!…say!…that’s a nice little chisel there in front!….a little paring chisel if memory serves me well!….nice chamferred edges, good angle cut , but looks like the handle and socket shaft is more in line with a firmer style….niiiice!…mmmmm!….I can almost feel my hand grip that shaft!

  39. “Is it Politically Incorrect of me to say I think she’s a beautiful, sexy beast? I love those curves…”

    It’s ok BB. we’re all into “sexy” today!

  42. That chisel is from my teachers personal set of Japanese chisels. He used it to show me a chiselling technique where-upon I reached over and took it off him to use. He mumbled something like. that is my one before giving up and letting me go with it.

  46. “That chisel is from my teachers personal set of Japanese chisels.”

    I bet he only let you use it because you’re a “chick”….blokes NEVER let other blokes use OR ABUSE their equiptment!…..”Get yer own!” they say!

  50. Actually, you can tell a good chisel by the quality of the sparks that fly when you grind it…and the “slip of the steel” as you sharpen it on the stone….Quality has a natural balance about it…if you know what I mean.
    That’s what is wrong with this current mug-govt’…it’s totally unbalanced!

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