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Is it the end of the world as we know it?

Daniela Elser

by Daniela Elser

07 Jan 01:40pm

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Filed under: Birds, Environment, Fish, New Year, Shane Warne

55 comments

Is the end nigh?

Nothing to see here, just a guy in a gas mask picking up dead birds. Picture: AP

After all, 100,000 fish have washed up dead in Arkansas; 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky on New Year’s Eve in the community of Beebe, northeast of Little Rock; 500 dead birds were discovered in Louisiana; 100 jackdaw birds were found lying dead in the street in Sweden; several hundred birds found dead in Kentucky; 100s of dead snapper wash up on a beach in New Zealand; 40,000 dead crabs wash up on the beach in the UK; an estimated 200 fish wash up on the shores in Maryland; 100 tonnes of sardines are found on beaches in Brazil.

Finally, in possibly the strangest turn of events of recent times, North Korean state television broadcast the first ever Western movie to be shown in the dictatorial state- and chose Bend It Like Beckham.

Before we discount the Bible-thumping, tinfoil hat-wearing masses currently flecking spittle all over their keyboards as they feverishly rattle off grave warnings of apocalyptic doom, perhaps it’s worth taking a slightly closer look at the increasingly spooky global situation.

The rivers may not have run red with blood and thus far the locusts have stayed away (well, actually a lot of Australia seen those as well), but given that vast tracts of Queensland are currently under a creeping muddy tide; that blizzards of record proportion have pounded the US and the UK this Christmas; and that Nicole Richie has had a novel on the New York Times best-seller list, you could be forgiven for wondering if we were fast approaching the End of Days.

As 2010 drew to a close, the world became an increasingly strange place, tilting imperceptibly on its axis.

A 17-year-old girl armed with nothing more than Twitter and Facebook accounts held the Australian media and public in thrall as she single-handedly called footballers’ off-field behaviour into question in front of a gawping national audience.

A former computer geek, who pre-makeover looked like he should be holed up his mother’s spare room playing World of Warcraft, become a global chick magnet with the power to held governments across the Western world in his digital grasp.

Shane Warne, he of the dayglo orange tan, peroxided quiff and gleaming chompers, somehow bagged himself the poshest totty out there in the form of Liz Hurley.

Then came the truly shocking revelation that Nicole Richie, she of the Simple Life and fledgling jewellery company, was a New York Times best-selling author.

The signs are there - maybe it is time yet to start stockpiling tinned food and unread Dan Brown novels to keep ourselves entertained while the Doomsday scenario plays out.

Because despite a year of hand-wringing and all-round global fretting, no one really seems to have a plan. A plan to confront our unquestionably warming planet; a way to keep sportsmen’s extra curricular activities strictly PG-rated; and a way to turn back the clock on Ms Richie’s “literary” career.

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55 comments

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    • St. Michael says:

      12:48pm | 07/01/11

      In answer to the article’s title: yes, it is.  And I feel fine.

      Is REM planning to tour again soon?

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      05:49am | 08/01/11

      The free market economy is to blame.  Now all industrial growth is centred in China and India, nations which don’t believe in OHS or Environmental risk management!  A 10% tax on all imported goods might be a good thing for Australian industry.  And why should Gerry Harvey be exempt from paying it?

    • Seano says:

      08:04am | 08/01/11

      I remember back in my uni days arguing with a bloke in the bar who thought that Orange Crush was the greatest song ever written.

      Jez I hated that guy.

    • Terrorized says:

      12:52pm | 07/01/11

      These are events created by terrorist organisations unleashing biological agents into the environment.
      Did you notice there weren’t any in Islamic countries?
      Especially the Nicole Ritchie book thingy.

      Reply

    • Chris says:

      01:56pm | 07/01/11

      Yes because those 100s of snapper that washed up on New Zealand sure did cut their economy down and create a wave of panic unrivaled since the Second World War.

      Im sure Osama Bin Laden is laughing maniacally is his cave “MWHAHAHAH mmm yes yes, New Zealand wont know what hit them. MWAHHAH”

    • SRS says:

      02:23pm | 07/01/11

      Even though your comment is clearly the most sardonic posted to date - if they had the sophistication to do such a thing, they wouldn’t be breathing dust in their shitty caves, they would have already taken over the world.

    • hot tub political machine says:

      01:02pm | 07/01/11

      It might be the end of seafood as we know it. One thing that upsets and admitadly not particularly green boy like me is the increasing levels of toxins in our seafood (presumably from ocean polution) and the overfishing.

      How nice would it be to go back even just a hundred years to a sea teeming abundantly with marine animals.

      Reply

    • One of the four horsemen says:

      01:27pm | 07/01/11

      “How nice would it be to go back even just a hundred years to a sea teeming abundantly with marine animals. “

      Hmmmm…fat chance of that happening! It’s far more important, for some, that we cover the entire earth with billions of more mouths to feed so individuals like Gerry Harvey can get a little bit wealthier! It’s good for the economy I hear!

    • Horse says:

      02:19pm | 07/01/11

      It would be nice to go back 100-400 years to the world that would have been more scientifically advanced and more environmentally aware if science had not been kicked to the side by more overwhelming doctrinal belief systems. 

      400 years ago the worlds population was probably on 6-700 million. Imagine if we had dealt with a few issues then

    • Daylight robbery says:

      08:28am | 08/01/11

      “How nice would it be to go back even just a hundred years to a sea teeming abundantly with marine animals”

      A bit further, many ocean shorelines wee open sewers spewing toxic chemicals and heavy metals of industry.

    • acotrel says:

      07:03pm | 08/01/11

      I wonder if Food Standards Australia is doing anything about the toxins in our food?

    • Ryan says:

      01:15pm | 07/01/11

      “A plan to confront our unquestionably warming planet;” and yet this is clearly questionable since the scientist at the center of the Climategate scandal Professor Jones last year admitted that the planet had in fact been cooling and that the earth was undeniably warmer during medieval times.
      Lets not forget the head of the IPCC having to apologise for the false data used with regards to the Himalayan glaciers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBrf2kTMrmw
      So if they are willing to lie about the Himilayan glaciers, and the earth has in fact been cooling as admitted by one of the main scientists involved in Global Warming research, how is our planet unquestionably warming again?

      Reply

    • RT says:

      02:01pm | 07/01/11

      Wrong about Jones, Ryan. He was cleared of wrongdoing and the so-called ‘Climate-gate’ did nothing to change the incontrovertible evidence of warming except in the minds of sceptical cranks. The Himalayan glacier prediction was a blunder, sure, but it doesn’t by itself undermine the hypothesis which is still well-supported by other warming evidence.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy

    • Steely Dan says:

      02:57pm | 07/01/11

      “The Himalayan glacier prediction was a blunder, sure, but it doesn’t by itself undermine the hypothesis which is still well-supported by other warming evidence.”
      Good point. 
      Another thing to point out is that the fault in the publication was identified by the scientist who was the ‘source’ of the inaccurate statement.  When he queried the figure the authors said they thought it was one of his, so they issued a public retraction of the melt date and gave the scientist’s actual melt date estimate.  Nobody in the IPCC lied about the glaciers, they stuffed up a figure, were told of the error and then fixed it.

      And Ryan, the earth was not warmer during medieval times - Europe was warmer than normal, but it was regional warming, not global.

    • Ryan says:

      04:06pm | 07/01/11

      @Steely Dan: I guess that professor Jones was wrong then, since he was the one who claimed, and I quote: “There is much debate over whether the Medieval Warm Period was global in extent or not. The MWP is most clearly expressed in parts of North America, the North Atlantic and Europe and parts of Asia. For it to be global in extent, the MWP would need to be seen clearly in more records from the tropical regions and the Southern hemisphere. There are very few palaeoclimatic records for these latter two regions.”
      so I am not sure what you define as regional but from that I would gleam that you imply regional as being the whole northern hemisphere and the fact that there are too few records for there to be any significant data for the southern hemisphere means that it just couldn’t have been global even though half of the world was warmer. Sounds logical to me.

    • Ben Haslem says:

      04:08pm | 07/01/11

      Ryan,
      Both NASA and the World Meteorological Organization say the first decade of the 21st Century was the hottest decade ever recorded. 2010 is likely the hottest year ever recorded. The Earth has not cooled. What you refer to is the fact that Scientists can only say that there is a 93.7% probability that warming over the past 15 years was due to an underlying warming trend and not the result of random temperatures thrown up during a period when there was no warming trend. For scientists to conclude something conclusively they need a 95% probability. That’s the rigour they apply. I’ll go with 93.7% thanks. As others say here, there was no lying about Himalaya glaciers, just a stuff up. Also, the Medieval Warming Period was localised to Western Europe, what is now the SW USA, small parts of South America and a few other places. The globe it self was not warmer than today. Finally, the hockey stick has not been debunked. Perhaps you should spend less time reading Andrew Bolt and do a bit of research.

    • Steely Dan says:

      04:15pm | 07/01/11

      @ Ryan

      “he specifically stated that the climate has been cooling”
      And the actual BBC transcript:
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8511670.stm#

      “with the hockey stick graph has now been thoroughly debunked, gone, history.”
      Well, if Ryan says it’s true…

      “Oh and the pacific islands (shock horror) are not sinking.”
      Who cares if sea level is rising if your island is attracting more sand!  Sand is great for growing crops and building infrastructure on… right?

    • Steely Dan says:

      05:05pm | 07/01/11

      @ Ryan

      “I guess that professor Jones was wrong then”
      No, he wasn’t.  Does he say that the globe was hotter in that quote?

      “so I am not sure what you define as regional”
      Not ‘global’, for a start.

      “but from that I would gleam that you imply regional as being the whole northern hemisphere”
      From memory, the northern hemisphere is defined as north of the equator, not “parts of North America, the North Atlantic and Europe and parts of Asia”.

      “it just couldn’t have been global even though half of the world was warmer. Sounds logical to me.”
      Yeah, why don’t we just assume that more than half the world was warmer than average?  Sounds scientific to me!

    • PaulB says:

      07:08pm | 07/01/11

      Don’t make me laugh RT.  Jones was cleared by a stacked committee who held a cursory process to provide a pre-determined outcome.  Jones could have strangled his grandmother in public and they would have apologized for him.  Using Wikipedia as your reference doesn’t exactly lend you credibility either.

    • Matt says:

      10:56am | 08/01/11

      It would appear there are many questions as to whether our planet is warming or ever was on a global scale?

      Funny how that little line was thrown in without being relevant to the points made above. What is it with Climate change fanatics?

      There is actually more evidence for the end of the world scenario than there is to support the global warming hoax.

    • Ryan says:

      07:57am | 09/01/11

      @Ben Haslem: this is hardly a debate anymore, the proof is settled and there is a global concensus (excluding Australia) that this hoax and the lies perpertrated by the IPCC, Al Gore and Phil Jones are done.

    • Wellsaid says:

      09:32am | 10/01/11

      Well said, Mirror. Mail links, I guess, mate, but good points, well made.

      Steely Dan’s referral to the BBC Jones interview really gutted and filleted all the “cooling” tosh.

      And thanks to Mirror and Hard Rain,  the current Nature-Geoscience, SMH and Australian links really nail the current state of play.

      Pity a few of these ranters don’t trouble ‘emselves to get their facts straight.

    • Harquebus says:

      01:51pm | 07/01/11

      Who’s Nicole Richie?

      Reply

    • Lazy Jesus says:

      02:28pm | 07/01/11

      Someone the author is clearly quite jealous of.

    • A.K.A. says:

      02:49pm | 07/01/11

      She’s that pretty young (well she was when she burst on the scene) starlet who, on the back of her parents fame and family name, did whatever it took to be seen in the style and gossip sections of news papers, magazines and websites around the world. 

      And she was able to do this despite the fact she has little to no extraordinary talent to speak of.

      I hope that clears it up for you smile

    • gonzo says:

      06:49pm | 07/01/11

      well then, australians should be proud of Kylie, as she did all that which AKA says with no talent AND no famous father (am I right?).

    • Daylight robbery says:

      08:34am | 08/01/11

      She is Paris Hiltons business partner.

      If you dont know her then you have been sitting in a cave plotting a large bird kill

    • Harquebus says:

      02:19pm | 10/01/11

      If she didn’t appear in Paris’ porn flick then, I probably wouldn’t know her.

    • mona says:

      01:55pm | 07/01/11

      Well if the end of the world stuff is centred solely on the northern hemisphere - namely north america - like it is in all those movies I’d say: we’re fine. (I didn’t exactly read beyond the first paragraph of the article so…that’s what we’re talking about right?)

      Slash there is no way the world is ending before we win back the Ashes. Full Stop. End of story. And that may take a while.

      Reply

    • Fred Turner says:

      02:00pm | 07/01/11

      Last Year was an awesome year for Nature - almost all populations thrived - this year is a correction year nothing more

      Reply

    • Cloud Strife says:

      02:02pm | 07/01/11

      Fish and birds turning up dead? Somewhere out there is a happy cat with one wish left.

      Reply

    • Ask a stupid question says:

      02:36pm | 07/01/11

      Rosie will be adding these to her Christmas Island tragedy, floods and cricket games list even as we speak. And of course Eric will be blaming it on all women, not just one.

      Reply

    • Simmo says:

      02:43pm | 07/01/11

      Blame women, sure why not?

      it is MOTHER Nature after all…

    • James1 says:

      03:09pm | 07/01/11

      No doubt nosthow thinks it was Tony Abbott - maybe he swam into the Tasman and killed those snapper with his teeth and sucked out their eyes while he drowned kittens or something.

    • NicoleG says:

      05:05pm | 07/01/11

      Hahaha James1.

    • acotrel says:

      06:06am | 08/01/11

      The ALP must be to blame?

    • Kika says:

      03:51pm | 07/01/11

      No unfortunately we all hold onto our apparent right to procreating and popping out as many children as well damn well feel like so the environment is going to take a battering for many years to come.

      Come on people! 1 kid is enough. There’s no reason to have more. Don’t give me that rubbish about making sure it has a friend and bla bla bla. I had a sister. I’d rather I didn’t. My husband had 4 brothers. Same for him.

      And by the way I don’t believe in global warming. I believe in global cooling i.e. ice age. We’re due for one and it may just be happening right now. Like Pantene says, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

      Reply

    • Ryan says:

      04:08pm | 07/01/11

      @Kika: I believe you are preaching to the converted, if it were not for the baby bonuses Australias population was in decline. Perhaps you should go preach your mantra in Africa and India.

    • Gregg says:

      10:51pm | 07/01/11

      @ Kika
      ” Come on people! 1 kid is enough. There’s no reason to have more. “
      What, with that Ice Age approaching!
      Think of the uses for multiples procreation
      . huddle together for warmth
      . more hands to till the fields and protect the homestead
      . sell off a few
      . beef up the lazier ones with plenty of grain and into the pot.
      . and the sex! of course, helping to keep warm too.
      Three good NH winters on the trot, summer snow here and still people with their heads somewhere claim the last decade and year have been the hottest ever!!!!!

    • Sam Chowder says:

      04:21pm | 07/01/11

      All those animals had seen Shane Warne’s chat show and lost the will to live, I know I did when I stumbled onto it.  Luckily my wife explained that the show was canned - if only those poor creatures knew.

      Reply

    • fairsfair says:

      11:11pm | 07/01/11

      hahaha - they were blinded by the teeth and fell from the sky. He bathed in the waters of Niw Zillund and poisoned them with fake tan wash off…

      The funniest grouping of words I have seen in a long time:

      “Filed under: Birds, Environment, Fish, New Year, Shane Warne
      Is the end Nigh?”

    • guy Lee Hanlon says:

      05:58pm | 07/01/11

      the end of the world is december 21 2012 as every movie buff knows.

      Reply

    • john says:

      12:00am | 08/01/11

      The caption in the picture says it all ‘Nothing to see here, just a guy in a gas mask picking up dead birds’...You could say that about just about everything e.g
      BP oil spill, nothing to see here, just a broken pipe.
      Climate change , nothing to see here, just some weather.
      Haiti, nothing to see here, just some fallen buildings.
      9-11,Iraq,Afghanistan, nothing to see here either, just some target practice.
      floods, nothing to see here , just some water run off.
      Financial collapse, nothing to see here either, its just digital money.

      At this rate it will be just a figment of our imaginations.

      Reply

    • Gary Cox says:

      10:09pm | 08/01/11

      I didn’t know bend it like beckham was a western. Is John Wayne in it?

      Reply

    • murr40 says:

      08:37am | 09/01/11

      its global warming…stupid.

      Reply

    • Matthew says:

      11:27am | 09/01/11

      This supposed end of the world due to a natural disaster is garbage. If the world was to come to an end its because some potitician and general have decided to push the nuke button therefore bringing about the end of the world through radiation poisoning.  I think this is a more realistic arguement to any end of the world rather than a great big earth quake etc.

      What I don’t get is why the hell can’t respective countries just leave each other alone and worry about their own back yards?

      The Nth Korea / Sth Korea issue with the US no doubt itching for an excuse to drop some bombs and China waiting to take sides is more likely to wipe us all out rather than any natural event.  Also you’ve got Iran and the Paki’s who harbour terrorists but claim not to, working on making nuke’s, and who hate the west, waiting in the wings.

      The whole thing is disappointing really when you have people dying due to starvation and disease, you would think that would be more important.

      Reply

    • Hard rain says:

      12:37pm | 09/01/11

      Sad to see how many posters are still so poorly informed on Global Warming and Climate Change. How can this be, when so many of good-will know well enough where sensible info and debate is to be had?

      How? Well, here’s one example, from The Punch this very day, under the Opinion From Everywhere header. According to The Punch,  the Headline reads:  “Global weather disasters prove global warming” [Mike Steketee, The Australian]

      Enough to send the idle into the stratosphere. Because of course, they don’t *prove* that.

      But guess what? 

      The Punch headline, by accident or ignorance, is completely misleading. Typical of much of the debate, including far too many lazy posters.  The actual Oz headline doen’t say that. Steketee the journo doesn’t say that either. No does Nicolls, a local and genuine expert in the climate field.

      They are both at some pains to point out that increasing extreme weather events are *consistent* with Global Warming. Both point with some care to *rising* trends in ocean temperatures, and in high average temperatures on many continents.

      They do not say these events “prove” climate change. Admirably, they stick to what is all to plain to most of us, and to most scientists. 

      “Putting them together, you really have to strain credibility to say it has nothing to do with climate change,” Nicolls says. “With climate change you expect many more of these really hot events and that is what we are getting. At the same time there are still records being set for cold temperatures. But for the last couple of decades we have certainly been getting more hot records being set than cold records”

      However cutely misrepresented by ill-informed posters, the supposed “recent cooling” has been shown to be nothing of the sort, nor has the IPCC nor any other responsible body claimed otherwise.

      From the start of climate change and global warming work in the 1970s, the results have been broadly consistent:  global warming is coming, and with it more extremes of weather. Hotter, or colder, depending on where you are in relation to changes in the the great ocean currents.

      Climate change and global warming results are now known with considerable and increasing confidence, and in increasing detail.  If you’ve been asleep this past 40 years, time to start thinking for yourself. If recent events cannot “prove” global warming, they do show -once again - that 40 years of work is producing credible and consistent results.

      The Australian piece:
      http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/global-weather-disasters-a-sign-the-heat-is-on/story-e6frg6zo-1225983256858

      Reply

    • Bob says:

      10:36am | 10/01/11

      There’s only so much you can crap in your own backyard before the stink becomes overpowering and disease sets in with all its problems… and ew’ve been doing it for thousands of years with ever increasing numbers.

      Anyone who can see a bright future at the moment must be either an exeptonal optimist or simply plain ignorant and stupid.

      Reply

    • The Badger says:

      05:58pm | 11/01/11

      Well spotted Julie

 
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