Earth Hour 2: Insignificance Doubled

Mark — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:34:04 -0700

"Please take a bow, Sydney Last night Mother Earth hosted a candlelight supper for a few million close friends." coos the unbelievably smug smh.com.au To begin something of a tradition, I would like to call readers' attention to this before-and-after 'Earth Hour' shot released by the originator of 'Earth Hour', the Sydney Morning ~~Turd~~ Herald: While the campaign has clearly been 100% successful in getting large public buildings to dim their ultimately pointless floodlighting, it does not seem to have been able to persuade them to dim any of their other lighting, and it does not seem to have persuaded any of the North Shore Harbourside dwellers who really ought to be Earth Hour's bread and butter (the idea was dreamt up over a Mosman back fence, after all). Indeed, the lack of interest in Earth Hour this year was crushing compared to last year when, as I argued then, hardly anyone observed it anyway. Earth Hour is a media fiction from start to finish, although kudos to the SMH this year for not photoshopping the evidence as it did last time. Its only really enthusiastic backer seems to be the NSW state government, which is surely the worst endorsement imaginable, given that under Morris Iemma the state government as embarked on a course of environmental assault worthy of Cyril Sneer. Update: the Harold is now trumpeting a 5% national reduction in power consumption as the net gain from 'Earth Hour'.

Paul Bird from the National Electricity Market Management Company told ABC Radio the impact of last night's Earth Hour event was the equivalent of two large power stations (or 1000 mega-watts) being temporarily shut down.

This may be so, but since two large power stations were not actually temporarily shut down, there wasn't actually any decrease in carbon dioxide output, was there? Indeed, as Andrew Leigh points out (thanks to Emmeline in the comments to this post for pointing that out), the carbon dioxide output of the insipid candles purchased for the occasion means that 'Earth Hour' actually increases CO₂ output.

The Sun Herald and the Gay Menace

Mark — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 11:48:51 -0800

Can anyone say "moral panic"?

HUNDREDS of straight men are being raped in the city and eastern suburbs every year, many after having their drinks spiked. Health experts have warned that men can be just as much of a target for sexual predators as women, although most men were not aware of the threat that lurked every time they went to the pub.

That's right punters, EVERY TIME YOU GO TO THE PUB, poofters are lurking around the corner looking to drug you and take your anal virginity. It's a wonder there isn't more awareness of this problem considering it's so prevalent. Obviously, male-on-male rape happens and isn't funny, although the problem of homosexuals who rape straight men is a considerably less serious problem than that of straight men who rape women. Men 'can' be just as much a target for sexual predators as women, but they aren't actually now, are they? The figure the article opens with, "hundreds of straight men are being raped in the city and eastern suburbs every year" (and note, it doesn't specify how many of those are drink-spikings, just "many") is 95% dubious. It seems to be based on taking a figure of 44 sexual assaults on men last year, and then multiplying that by "up to 95%" – which of course would give us a figure of up to almost a thousand. The only thing we have about drink-spiking is that "drug-assisted sexual assaults" are "relatively common" among the 44. Common relative to what, one wonders. Do we have any numbers on this? Has it happened five times? Was it perpetrated by people the men knew? Were the victims or perpetrators straight or gay? ARE STRAIGHT MEN REALLY BEING MENACED BY LEGIONS OF DIRTY GAYS WITH ROHYPNOL AT ALL? I love the invocation of the city and eastern suburbs as well, by the way. We all know who hangs out there, right? Seriously, could Fairfax do something about the Sun Herald already? I genuinely don't see why we need it given the existence of the Sunday Telegraph.