GOOOAAAAALLLLL!

I don’t think Iceland was even in the World Cup (were they?) but this is an unbelievable celebration of a sporting triumph though I don’t think it was totally spontaneous – I have a sneaking suspicion that they might have been rehearsing for just such an occasion...

NZ Leads the World... again!

Yes, this month it happened. As of 1st July 2010 Godzone becomes a world leader... again. We are one of the first, if not the first country to have a fully-functional, albeit very watered-down ETS.

For those that I have lost already, an ETS is an Emissions Trading Scheme. And, to quickly recap on an earlier article in this blog, an Emissions Trading Scheme is a means of penalising those that emit so-called ‘greenhouse gases’ that are, apparently, making the Earth warmer. Just how the Earth is supposed to be getting warmer I have no idea, if I look out the window into a Wellington winter I can see little evidence of it, but apparently it’s happening. Somewhere.

So, like other countries, New Zealand has to make a contribution to combat this. We produce something like 0.2% of global emissions, so if we slap a levy on anybody that drives a car, uses electric power, hops on a plane or lights a fire that should take care of that part of the problem. We also need to do something about all the agricultural ruminants out there but the Agricultural Belch Tax part of the equation (also mistakenly called the ‘fart tax’) doesn’t come into effect until around 2015.

So by 2015 a whole heap of money will be siphoned out of the local economy and sent... where exactly?

Apparently it’s going to be used to buy ‘Carbon Credits’. A Carbon Credit is an intangible thing. You can’t see it or feel it. It makes no noise and the average person wouldn’t know one if he fell over it in the street. I have no idea who sells them, though I know he’s going to become very rich. And apparently if you buy one of these things you’re saving the world.

They say some joker from the Beehive called Nick Smith is busy right now working on a ‘charm offensive’ that may explain the ETS better than I can. Call me a cynic, but somehow I doubt it.

Is there anybody out there...

“Hello, is there anybody out there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?” (Pink Floyd)

Amongst all the rantings and ravings in hyperspace it’s easy for the blog editor to become disillusioned. I’ve been publishing this blog for well over a year. It’s a handy way to put my thoughts and musings out there and see if anyone gives a damn. Who knows, in fifty or eighty five years these scratchings might be discovered and pondered over. But for now I’ve had a handful of comments. And I have no followers. At all. Heck, even NEV has four followers and he’s a garden gnome!

So we enter the realm of the abandoned blog. Many blogs were started for no other reason than they seemed to be a good idea at the time. And as time goes on they become a chore and a liability and are left parked on the side of the information superhighway. And I have been concerned that this blog was going to join them.

Matter of fact I’ve been really, really busy for the last six weeks which is cool. And I have no intention of closing this blog down. I’m going to carry on polluting my own little corner of the web in my search for immortality. Who know, one day I might even say something useful!