Feb
No money in gassy Camels
If only we still lived in the era of the ‘Carry On’ comedies! This story is the best tonic to get you laughing at the total absurdity of climate taxation policy.
A peach of an article in The Australian newspaper makes a mockery of Prime Minister Rudd’s failure to address the serious amount of greenhouse gas that belching and farting camels inflict upon that nation’s climate. The stink of catastrophe is surely brewing.
Reporter, Ean Higgins, tells his readers:
Scientists have found camels to be the third-highest carbon-emitting animal per head on the planet, behind only cattle and buffalo. Culling the one million feral camels that currently roam the outback would be equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road in terms of the reduction to the country’s greenhouse gases.
It is one of the many quirks of international carbon accounting standards that nothing can be done to address the camel problem. Camels in Australia are the only feral herds of their kind in the world and are estimated to number more than one million, with the capability of doubling in size every nine years. Does Prime Minister Rudd give a flying one? Not on your Nelly! Like us he knows CO2 junk science is all hot air and government carbon emissions policies are merely a tax raising scam that just hit the fan.
(For all non-British readers, ‘Carry On’ films were the epitome of bawdy and farcical English humor, much of the ilk of Benny Hill. And this is the kind of farce that is going to make Rudd’s cap-and-trade government as unpopular as Climate Minister, Penny ‘camel-toe’ Wong.
Possibly related posts:
I would offer Rudd the suggestion that his next campaign slogan be borrowed from an old cigarette ad.
“I’d walk a mile for a Camel!”
When Pachauri and others first raised this issue, it seemed to be directed mainly at Western nations (as if we’re fair game), forgetting that cows are both numerous and sacred in India, so I don’t foresee a cull as being imminent there. The issue must also affect yaks, water buffalo and oxen which are numerous in many under-developed countries.
There’s also the, not very small, matter of CO2 and methane emissons caused by rice production. Pledging to cut CO2 emissions is a bit like trying to exterminate ants by stamping on them. Living organisms tend to give off carbon based gasses for the simple reason that we’re carbon based organisms like most life forms on planet earth
Maybe they should make it illegal to be made of carbon.
My understanding is that the camel was brought to Australia by man as a domestic animal. The fact that they have become feral does not remove the human influence. So why exclude them from the equation.
If Kyoto only recognises domesticated animals then all we have to do to help meet the targets is to release all of our farmed livestock and our pets into the wild, publish a set of congratulatory figures confirming the effect of our initiative and sit back with a cold beer.
On second thoughts.
I am reliably informed that the organism which emits the most methane is the humble termite. I am now off to request a fistful of grants from the Overseas Aid Agency and the Department for Climate Change in order to pay impoverished Africans to go and kick over all the termite mounds. I one fell swoop I will then have helped improve third world dept and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Will this be enough to get me the Nobel prize or do I also have to do the filmed Powerpoint presentation.
On second thoughts.
I am reliably informed that the organism which emits the most methane is the humble termite. I am now off to request a fistful of grants from the Overseas Aid Agency and the Department for Climate Change in order to pay impoverished Africans to go and kick over all the termite mounds. I one fell swoop I will then have helped improve third world dept and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Will this be enough to get me the Nobel prize or do I also have to do the filmed Powerpoint presentation?
Same insanity applies to bush fires, John. They don’t count either. Yet, in Oz, they recur as surely as camels fart!
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/bushfires-release-huge-carbon-load/story-e6frg6of-1111118837677
By coincidence I’ve been looking at tree plantations in Australia set up as carbon offset schemes.
They’re a whole new can of worms as the species most frequently used are particularly susceptible to fire. They’re also bad for the environment.
A million camels?
Thats nothing compared to the 400 million cattle in India that they don’t eat!