Do you know Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia? Perhaps you don't keep up with political goings-on there. But you may recall that the coal-loving Morrison is a new best friend of Benedict Donald Trump, who feted him with a state dinner just this past September.
These days, though, it's pretty hard to ignore news from the Land Down Under. The country has literally been on fire. You also won't be surprised to hear that Morrison and his cronies are climate-change deniers — in fact, Morrison was on vacation in Hawaii during the crisis, and had to be shamed into returning, which he grudgingly did.
But things are getting worse. Tonight, 4,000 people are trapped on a beach in Mallacoota, on the south coast. With the flames bearing down on them, they've been told to plunge into the ocean if they have to.
You wonder: What it will take to get the Trumpsters and their fanboys like Morrison to change their tune on climate? Obviously, they don't have the balls to admit that a zillion scientists are right and they're wrong. They aren't manly enough to concede that 16-year-old Greta Thunberg has a point. Would the fiery deaths of 4,000 people do it?
We're not wishing such an awful fate on those folks. But since singed koalas and kangaroos haven't moved people to action, maybe Mallacoota will. We cats are disgusted and depressed, and we HISS.
(UPDATE #1: From the Australian edition of The Guardian: "People reported hearing gas bottles explode as the fire front reached [Mallacoota], and the sound of sirens telling people to get in the water.")
(UPDATE #2: "The power is cut. We are isolated. It's a holocaust, basically...There's a lot of thunder. The fires are creating their own weather.")
No comments:
Post a Comment