Back to Term 4

I had a good journey back to the UK last week - it's actually easier travelling alone on long haul flights, because it really is possible with the right equipment (ear plugs and eye mask) to sleep for most of the time  if you're not reading, eating or watching a film. Gill was just about over the flu when I got back (perfect timing all-round...), which was evident in the thought she put in to deciding what to do with some of the pictures, ornaments, memorabilia etc that I brought back with me from England to remind me of home: "Put aside all the things that have sentimental value that you would like around the house, and then put them in a shoebox and I'll put them in the shed".


Although I didn't suffer too much from jetlag, Monday was still one of the toughest days of the year. I really didn't want to go to school, and it really was a shock to the system; but by Tuesday I was feeling better and was back in to the swing of things. It is so much better than Term 3; Year 12s are now doing their HSCs (which means 1/3 of the year groups in my House is out of the picture as well as freeing up my teaching timetable) and testimonials and reports are out of the way; all of which means I'm back to a much healthier working week.


So what else is new? Well, the two major developments here are that Australia is about to get a Carbon Tax, and Patrick has started doing Number 2s on the toilet. I am not sure if the two major breakthroughs are related, but I've no doubt that both will have some kind of impact (equally minimal) on the environment. 


I'm a fan of the Carbon Tax in principle (though not of the current government). The opposition claims that the sky is going to fall in (which it isn't) and that it will cause terrible harm to Australia's economy (which it won't). They also claim that "the science isn't settled" which is a euphemism for "we think that climate change scientists are communists in white coats". 


The Australian economy will have grown by 3% this year, which makes it one of the most successful in the world. The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, recently received an international award for the World's Best Finance Minister 2011. The other reason it won't harm the economy is that, for the government to get the legislation through parliament the tax has so many compensation packages as to render it largely a massive exercise is bureaucracy.


So given the financial compensation to mining companies and others whose income depends on dumping large amounts of carbon in the atmosphere, and the fact that Australia's 20m population can do more or less what they want and not come close to the amount of carbon being released by 2 billion Indians and Chinese the Carbon Tax, begs the question - what is the point? 


The point is that action is that if we wait for definitive 'proof' that we are destroying the planet it will be too late to do anything at all (it may, indeed, be too late now). I am happy to go with the scientific consensus that humans are changing the planet's climate in ways that are in relative terms significant, fast, and with consequences that are somewhere in the range of "really not very good" to "OMG! The Apocalypse is at hand!". In real terms, rapidly industrialising countries like India and China that will accelerate climate change. Whilst Australia's contribution is relatively small, it is absolutely the opposite per capita - Australians are consumers extraordinaire with a massive carbon footprint: Australia ranks 11th in the world, the UK 43rd, China 78th and India 145th. Having established a Carbon Tax, which will later on make way for an Emissions Trading Scheme, the government at least has a moral foundation for pressuring the international community to take action. Without it, the Indians and Chinese would rightly laugh in the face of this country's hypocrisy. 


.... which is what the rest of world should be doing, when looking at the government's asylum policy of off-shore processing for boat arrivals - and, in particular, the plan of sending them to a country that is a non-signatory to UN Human Rights standards for refugees (ie Malaysia). The government lost its vote this week on the issue (the first time in 80 years a government has been defeated in legislation in the lower house).

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In other news, I've bought an iPad2; having had a play with a school one I finally took the plunge and got one myself this week. So one of the first things I had to do was play with some of the cool photo booth features; here's  a disturbing selection to give you nightmares....