Hughie giveth a bit too much
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
(## this made me laugh. Maybe the Gods of all the religions probably answered all the prayers but forgot to liaise between themselves about logistics!### and hadn’t heard the euphemism of Hughie for god and weather since leaving country NSW ten years ago ### but not making fun of the natural distaster and I am hoping people's insurance will help in this emergency)
Phillip Adams
I LIVE in an officially designated disaster area. As is common in Australia, the weather is being ironic. The drought, particularly severe around this part of NSW, has been interrupted by a deluge. Like nails driven in by a hammer, every drop of rain has been driven by a gale.
We don’t know yet whether this is the beginning of a swing of the meteorological pendulum, with the rainfall driving nails into the drought’s coffin. Or it may turn out to be one of the events predicted by climatologists in these unpredictable times and we’ll quickly return to parched earth, dusty riverbeds and dry dams. But at least it has given us a chance to survive another six months.
A few days ago the many dams across our 4000ha were empty sockets staring at the sun. They’ve been like that for years. Overnight they filled to their brims and many are spectacularly, joyfully tearful.
We awoke to find ourselves surrounded by snow, more than I’ve ever seen. The drought had made the hills gaunt. Now they’ve gone from threadbare to Thredbo. And our sad gutter of a river is roaring, fighting its way through the 6m she-oaks that took the opportunity to grow between its banks. You know it’s dry when a riverbed turns into a forest.
We’ve been lucky for once, spared the gales that have ripped off roofs and uprooted trees and drowned motorists. For others in the Hunter Valley, the cure has been as bad as the disease.
At the time of New Orleans being wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, Tim Flannery warned anyone who’d listen that the east coast of Australia would soon be copping a lot of batterings, another symptom of climate change. But no one in government here was listening. They’re still not listening.
Perhaps the rainfall represents a sort of religious revival, God responding to the PM’s call for public prayer. As George W. Bush constantly reminds US voters, God votes Republican. So perhaps the President has lent him to John Howard to help win the election. If so, God should turn down the volume of his response.
Or we should turn down the volume of our prayer.
If the perfect storm that thumped Newcastle is a case of Hughie letting her rip, then his overly enthusiastic response will do little to enhance regional religiosity. We’ll have to put Howard’s prayer in the same failed category as Catholic Archbishop of Sydney George Pell’s intervention in the stem cell debate.
Moreover, many voters expect a PM to do more at a time of crisis than pass the buck to God. If God is the only way Howard can deal with climate change, will he also have us pray for reduced interest rates? Lower petrol prices? To hell with the separation of church and state, let’s pray for better health care and education. Let’s replace the kangaroo and emu on top of Parliament House with a huge crucifix. I’m sure Cardinal Pell would have one to spare.
By sad and surreal coincidence the decision of the NSW Government to declare the Hunter disaster occurred on the day of another Hunter disaster: the same Government’s decision to approve a huge open-cut coalmine a few clicks upstream. Another triumph for CO2 and climate change. It’s enough to make some of us call on the religious competition and sign one of those mephistophelian contracts. Many people would gladly trade their immortal souls in return for lower mortality weather.
And piling calamity on calamity, here’s another one. Or at least a big embarrassment, occurring elsewhere in the governmental food chain. The same day as the killer floods and the mine approval, we learned that our local mayor, who seems otherwise comparatively sane, is a total disbeliever in climate change. He was heard describing global warming and Al Gore as frauds. This as the worst drought gave way to the worst winds and downpours in living memory.
But to hell with those fraudulent scientists. And to hell with those fraudulent world leaders at the fraudulent G8 negotiating those fraudulent global agreements on emissions, with their chorus of agreement that we’re facing the worst crisis in human history. Our local mayor knows best. Having a mayor such as that anywhere would be a worry, but when coalmining surrounds him? And powerful mining companies? Then it’s a joke.
And the sight of the giant winds and waves making that thumping great bulk coal carrier stuck in the sand at Newcastle takes on metaphoric significance. If I weren’t an atheist I’d reckon God was trying to tell us something.
Over to you…
