Climate comedy

Those in showbiz seem eager to jump on the “global warming” bandwagon more readily than most (think Bono, Leo, Cate etc etc). So it’s not surprising that writers are using their works to disseminate climate propaganda, as the Silly Moaning Herald reports:

CLIMATE change was supposed to be ”the greatest moral challenge of our time”, as the former prime minister Kevin Rudd put it, but it was pigeon excrement that caused headaches for Nigel Jamieson.

Inspired by the 2009 Copenhagen climate change conference, Jamieson’s As The World Tipped features a stage that slowly becomes vertical, leaving performers hanging in the air.

Floods, famine and drought will be screened on the vertical stage as actors perform aerial theatrics in the show, which will play at Sydney Festival’s first night next Saturday and at the Parra Opening Party on January 14.

Jamieson said the spectacle of harassed bureaucrats failing to notice as the world around them slides towards disaster ”seemed the perfect metaphor” for the climate change debate.

[…] the night’s producer, Vernon Guest, said a major theatrical piece such as As The World Tipped was important to keep the event fresh. Highlighting the danger of climate change inaction also attracted Guest.

”It is an important message that is on everyone’s mind at the moment both politically and socially,” he said. ”To have an environmental message woven into a large theatre work is really important to us.” (source)

Hilarious (unintentionally, of course), all reported without any critical thought by the SMH.

By the way, Jamieson lives in a “straw bale house.” Kinda figures.

Cameron

And then to make matters worse, refers to sceptics as “swine” as a parting shot. Nice.

Hollywood director James Cameron challenged three high profile global warming skeptics to a public debate at a global warming and energy conference. But Cameron backed out of the debate at the last minute after environmentalists “came out of the woodwork” to warn him not to engage in a debate with skeptics because it was not in his best interest.

Cameron challenged Andrew Breitbart, Climate Depot’s Marc Morano and filmmaker Ann McElhinney of ‘Not Evil Just Wrong.‘ The debate was already in the program for the Aspen American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) summit. The website program described the agreed to debate as “AREDAY Climate Change Debate: Reality or Fiction?”

After setting up the public global warming debate, Cameron and his negotiator then changed formats multiple times and initially said it would be open to the media and then said he would only participate if it was private with no recording devices. The skeptics agreed to all the changes. According to AREDAY organizers, activist Joseph Romm of Climate Progress urged Cameron not to go ahead with the debate as well.

Cameron’s cancellation of the agreed to debate did not happen until one debate participant (Morano) was already in mid-air, flying from DC to Aspen on Saturday August 21 to attend the debate. (source)

Also check out Ann McElhinney’s account here.

If you don’t turn up, you lose.

Slips in global warming…

Celebrity not-quite-round-the-world-officially heroine Jessica Watson manages to slip in “global warming” [shurely “climate change”? – Ed] when speaking of her exploits on her blog last week (as reported by SBS):

“It’s a shame that my voyage won’t be recognised by a few organisations because I’m under 18, but it really doesn’t worry me,” Watson wrote on her blog last week.

“I mean there’s millions, properly [sic] billions of people who still don’t believe in global warming, so I’m more than happy to settle for a few people going against the tide and declaring that mine hasn’t been an official circumnavigation.” (source)

See the original blog post here.

UPDATE: She did smack down Kevin Rudd’s patronising flannel, so she’s not all bad!