Philobiblon: Not too late to save the world, quite

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Not too late to save the world, quite

I interviewed Tim Flannery some 15 years ago, when he was an up-and-coming scientist with a surprising message - Australia's sustainable population was about 4 million. (Population now 20 million.) He was a lone voice then - he's now one of Australia's most prominent public intellectuals. So I was reassured by this:

Dr Flannery said the world still had "one to two decades" to take action to reduce global warming, despite Professor Lovelock's warning that billions would die by the end of the century, and civilisation as we know it would be unlikely to survive.
''It seems to be that [Professor] LoveLock's pessimism about things is due to the pathetic political response we've had from the US, Australia and some of the other polluting nations,'' said Dr Flannery, who is director of the South Australian Museum and author of climate book The Weather Makers.
''I respect him immensely, and I can understand Lovelock's pessemism, but I don't agree with it. You just have to keep up hope."

... well sort of reassured ...

For more depressing news, it seems that great English symbol, the hedgehog, is in trouble. Regent's Park is their last London refuge (I've never seen one, although I walk there ever morning, but I guess they're in the fenced-off, gorsed bits, away from all the dogs), and they are "dying out at a rate of about a fifth of the population every four years. By 2025, they will be gone."

Sorry to be so depressing; for some light relief, look on the face of Lady Jane Grey ... well, it might be.

... and, at last, someone with a platform is making a call for sanity over Britain's paedophile panic.

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