8/13/11

Beware of bloody bureaucrats, mate

Australia,  despite its paltry 16 million people  in a land  the size of the USA, is the most urbanised nation on earth and the perfect  environment  for  people who idolize  the natural world,  but have never been mugged by its realities. Greens, if you like.
In spite of Australia’s  negligible  global contribution  to so-called greenhouse gases and their alleged role in  global warming or ‘climate change’  Prime Minister Julia Gillard,  is hell-bent on imposing  a carbon-dioxide tax, at vast cost to the country in higher electricity costs and export prices.  Meanwhile,  an environmental  "consulting"  group advising  her  Labor government  has come up with a new  warming villain: not carbon dioxide, but the camel.

More than a million  wild camels roam the Outback, descendants of dromedaries  imported more than a century ago as beasts of burden. They  live off  otherwise inedible vegetation and occasionally  expel  a puff of methane (a minor 'greenhouse' gas).  The  “consultants”  solution to this  is simple: Kill all million of them. Herd them together, slaughter them, and finally pick off any strays by shooting  them from helicopters.
Before I continue I must declare an interest: I once went on an afternoon’s  trek through the outback on domesticated camels, with my wife Hilary and  two young daughters. Awesome!  It seemed like riding on Mars: completely silent, virgin red-orange sand underfoot, nothing  man made in sight, not even an aircraft con-trail  to blemish the amethyst sky;  just the  four of us, our guide, and the  occasional sound of  a camel biting off  a mouthful of  scrub as we padded  through  the desert enjoying the easy rolling motion of the beasts.
The reason for the boat-like ride, we learned, is that camels move  their left legs together, then their right legs, like  a pacing  horse,  or a giraffe. Camels groan a lot which can make them seem  surly,  “It’s  just their way of being sociable”, our guide smiled. They are  easily steered with  a rope  attached to a plug in the outer wall one  nostril.  When well trained, on the command “Hoosh!”, they  kneel  at both ends, you  climb on board, wrap one leg around the saddle horn, take the nose rope in one hand, then  they stand up.  Find me a horse that will do that.

As you will have noticed by now, I like camels.  So you  bloodthirsty consultants  and your tree-hugging fellow travelers l will say only this: Leave those camels alone. By slaughtering them, you will set a ghastly precedent. Eco-psychopaths who are even more extreme than you, will arise: see  all of you, as useless generators of greenhouse gas, herd  you together and slaughter you. You have been warmed.