andrewfrank.ca

Cross-posted from www.climatenewswatch.com:

“So of course things are going to change. Of course this is all imperfect but I think my only point is the Liberal Party cannot be other than a mainstream party and when the mainstream has clearly gone past the tipping point on the desire to have a sensible approach to climate change, we just need to fit into a sensible approach.”

- Nick Greiner, Liberal Party member in conversation with ABC News host, Eleanor Hall.

Lot’s of news out of Australia this morning where it appears the Liberal Party (Australia’s mainstream conservative party) is going through an identity crisis over the issue of climate change and the introduction of a cap and trade system to regulate the production of greenhouse gas emissions.

Seems one Mr. Joe Hockey (that’s his name!), has the political opportunity to takeover the leadership of the party, but that if he does, he’ll be doing so thanks to political support from climate skeptics who are unhappy with their party’s current stand on climate change.

All of this is making more mainstream elements of the party nervous…they’re suggesting Mr. Hockey should wait until he can take the leadership on his own terms, without skeptic support, lest the Liberal Party (conservative remember) be painted with a climate skeptic brush and thus continue its years in the political wilderness – sent there in the first place because of the party’s do-nothing approach on climate change, something it tried to remedy ahead of the 2007 election that ultimately brought in popular Australian Labor Party leader, Kevin Rudd.

Does this story have any political implications for conservative movements in the United States or Canada?

You can read articles related to this growing story under the Opinion (Global) section of the Climate Newswatch front page.

Cross-posted from www.climatenewswatch.com:

RT (previously known as “Russia Today”), is a globally broadcast English-language news channel sponsored by the state-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti. RT’s editorial practices have been questioned in the past, with some alleging that the network is a continuation of “…the old Soviet propaganda services.” One thing’s for sure, propaganda is alive and well on RT.

We’ve recently noticed that RT is producing some disconcerting reportage on global warming and disseminating it on the internet through its YouTube channel where it has become fodder for global warming skeptics trying to amplify the so-called “climategate” story, as well as general non-sense debate on the science of climate change.

Apparently Moscow, despite being a signatory to Kyoto is happy to seed and fuel climate skepticism among English-speaking audiences, interviewing and giving preferential air time to “academics” who are willing to say that global warming doesn’t exist – full stop.

From a propaganda POV, some of the video (see the whole series on RT’s channel) is less effective as the academics look like they were recently dug up from Lenin’s tomb, but that’s neither here nor there.

It’ll be interesting to see Russia’s negotiating position at Copenhagen. If RT is representative of the Kremlin’s politics, we shouldn’t hold our breath.

The most interesting and ironic thing about this story is that climate skeptics who are convinced that global warming theory is a communist plot are trumpeting Russia Today’s stories online as evidence for their cause – despite RT’s pedigree as a Russian propaganda service defending and promoting the world’s original “communist” regime.

Isn’t it ironic. Don’t ch’ya think?

In 77 tweets and less than six months, the shitmydadsays account at twitter (http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays) has built a following of 833,941…that’s less than 200,000 short of the New York Times daily circulation. Just as significant is the fact that the audience actually signed-up for the author’s content – a daily, profane, comedic reflection on life, 120 characters or less in length.

What does it mean? Well to me it’s an impressive example of the traditional media paradigm being turned on its head. It also means that creating content and reaching sizeable audiences is within the reach of the average joe…barriers to entry into the media game are now insignificant. You can buy a domain name, wordpress hosting account and Flip Camera for under $300 and start a video blog that could reach millions…this is a new media reality that I don’t believe has fully dawned on environmental and social groups (some of the social actors who’s work could benefit from this change the most). Disconcertingly (and requiring a future post) is the fact that the Global Warming denial machine has seized upon these tools effectively to extend the “conversation” questioning the science of global warming…they’ve figured out that simply making noise keeps their issue alive in the media sphere.

Kirk Mastin runs a very cool blog (http://lofihistyle.com/) on all of this. He’s very good at making sense of these media changes and showing their practical application.

These are technologies I’m just starting to play with now, but they remind me of the feeling I used to get making short comedy videos back in high school…reinvigorating my creative energy because the tools are so powerful and the potential for an interested audience is very real.

What kind of shit are you saying, and how are you using these new tools to say it?

Breathtaking tar sands animation from LaMoustache (must watch).

Hat tip to Faisal at DSF.

H2oil animated sequences from Dale Hayward on Vimeo.