Hottest ever, but PM doesn't seem to care

It’s official: 2014 has taken the title of hottest year on record.

The fellow who could help Australian’s prepare for this slow motion shipwreck-type calamity has been stomping about in Iraq, chest thrown out, rubbing shoulders with the military, and endorsing violence that is simple a further manifestation of our damaged climate, when he should be at home.

True, it is the people who will have to rally and so do the true “lifting” when it comes to addressing climate change, but what an easier task it would be if our government honestly, and quickly re-appraised its sceptical position.

With the government onside, rather than plumping for endless growth in a finite world, Australia could become a nation of resilient communities that both understand and embraced localism, that accepted survival of the climate change-driven catastrophe demanded processes that fell in line with the Transition Towns thesis and our government institutions were truly about caring for people, rather than having their success measure in economic terms.

This governmental opposition to climate change comes in the face of news that the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has declared 2014 the hottest for the planet on record.

In a story headed: “One for the Record Books: 2014 Officially Hottest Year” reports that the average temperature was 1.1°F above the 20th century average according to JMA’s data.

“That,” Climate Central reports, “edges 1998, the previous warmest year, by about 0.1°F.”