New Catallaxy

Back to the age of climate-driven superstition

In recent blog on Quadrant Online, I referred to a Mr Ted O’Connor of Prince Charles Parade, in the suburb of Kernell in Sydney, who in 1956 expressed concern about the danger of high seas eroding homes along the Parade; which runs alongside the seafront.  “Fifty houses at Kurnell are in danger of toppling into the sea,” reported the Sydney Morning Herald. “Huge seas at the weekend, for the second time in seven months, tore away sections of the seafront.” Mr O’Connor was reported as saying that “people in scores of homes in this street are living in fear of each heavy sea.”

Of course, none of this was attributed to climate change, as it definitely would be in today’s cockamamie world. But I was curious. What’s happened to Prince Charles Parade? I googled. Up came a map of the Parade seemingly intact. And no less than eight properties for sale on the first page. Maybe they’ve built a levee? Certainly, there was no warning that the properties were crumbling, in danger, or uninsurable. I can’t say whether Mr O’Connor survived the scare and still lives there, though unless he was very young in 1956 or very old now, it seems unlikely.

Wouldn’t you think, if things were so bad, way back in 1956, before climate change was conjured up, so to speak, that they would be dire now? Apparently not. Methinks, must take a drive there and see firsthand. Mind you, I doubt I could afford to buy, right by the beach. Unless, that is, those rising seas caused by climate change are lapping at backdoors.

Two things about this episode spring out. The first is the tendency of the media, then and now, to sensationalise what’s happening, as to be fair do people directly affected. This first thing was for a long period, say, since the Enlightenment, the only thing. Before then, pagans would also blame the sun god or some other deity for getting angry.  Now we are back again to two things. First, the-par-for-the-course sensationalism and now, second, to blaming the climate god.  A full circle. Back to the age of superstition. I am reminded of Malcolm Muggeridge who wrote perceptibly, “there is no such thing as progress.”

Peter Smith

13 responses to “Back to the age of climate-driven superstition”

  1. Damon Avatar
    Damon

    Well, there are a few options: seas rise; land falls; seas fall; land rises; or a bit of both. Since there are no independent measurements for each point on the earth’s surface, who knows? And even if there were and we knew, exactly what could we do about it? Write another Letter to the Editor?

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  2. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    I am reminded of Malcolm Muggeridge who wrote perceptibly, “there is no such thing as progress.”

    Not as far as human nature goes, to be sure.

    That being said, there is a discernible progress in the way human beings, particularly in Western societies, have incrementally (and I mean over centuries) managed to organise themselves, since the collapse of Rome, under the beneficial influence of the Christianity doctrine that while man is, on account of original sin, deeply flawed, he is made in the image of God, before whom all men and women are, in a particular sense, equal.

    Surely the recession of Christianity from public life and our regression into neo-tribalism are intimately connected.

    A long way from the global warming scaremongering highlighted above, but in many ways it’s the more serious problem facing us.

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  3. Tony Taylor Avatar
    Tony Taylor

    My dad lived at Kurnell in 1956 and 1957. He worked for ICI , and was an electrical engineer on their various projects in the area. He always wished he’d brought a property there.

  4. Robert Sewell Avatar
    Robert Sewell

    Actually, have any of those properties in Sydney fallen into the sea yet?

    1
  5. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    The first is the tendency of the media, then and now, to sensationalise what’s happening,

    Back in the 1950s, my parents regularly took us to the Gold Coast for January holidays.

    In that era, the way from Southport to Surfers crossed a long wooden bridge, then went over a narrow piece of land between the sea and the Broadwater, known as Narrow Neck. Every time a cyclone threatened to come far south, as happened occasionally, there were panic stories of the risk of the sea breaking through Narrow Neck, cutting Surfers off from Brisbane.

    Went for drive out to the Spit a few years ago. Narrow Neck was still there. Keep calm and carry on!

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  6. Wally Dalí Avatar
    Wally Dalí

    I was just mulling over the phenomenon of “rising sea levels” dissappearing from the capitalism-driven-catastrophe narrative. They’ve been trumped by the even more deadlier and more undeniable-er “extreme weather events”, which has upped the ante and spread the potential targets further up the elevation.
    Maybe Obama did stop the inexorable rise after all.
    Happily, it’s joined my list of flatly delivered counterpoints to any doomer douche who tries to try on a fantasmagorically gory forecast for the devastation of Life As We Know It unless we Just Stop Oil, Eat The Bugs, Get Jabbed To Protect Yourself And Everyone You Love From The Most Deadliest Novel-est Pandemic Evah, Own Nothing And Be Happy… basically every capitulation to the totalitarians, Marxists and Trots who demand we bend the knee and open the vein of everything which gives us stability and prosperity, because modelling.

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  7. Damon Avatar
    Damon

    I passed through Surfer’s Paradise about 40 years ago. Unfortunately it’s still there.

    2
  8. NFA Avatar
    NFA

    Truth

    2
  9. NFA Avatar
    NFA

    18 Spectacularly Wrong Apocalyptic Predictions Made Around the Time of the First Earth Day in 1970

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  10. duncanm Avatar
    duncanm

    Actually, have any of those properties in Sydney fallen into the sea yet?

    yes – there’s been a couple of incidents at Collaroy due to storms. One back in the 50’s, then the 70’s I think. – houses were resumed into what are now parks.

    Just look at the 1943 vs. current aerial photo at https://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/

    Since then – just the last few of years, more of the same, this time they’re trying all sorts of useless shoring up and blaming climate change.

    btw – someone pointed out here in Dec that Sydney in 2022 didn’t look like it’d have a day over 32C.

    The stats at the BOM are not yet ‘confirmed’ for December (I’m waiting for the adjustment)… but max temperature at Observatory hill for 2022 was 31.9C in February.

    Even though we now have the new fandangled temperature logging – with 5 second readings – this is a new record low. Previous lowest annual maximum temperature was 32.2C in 1892. Next was 32.5 in 1999.

    I don’t see any ‘increasing extremes’ of heat here: http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_display_type=dataGraph&p_stn_num=066062&p_nccObsCode=40&p_month=13

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  11. duncanm Avatar
    duncanm

    Ah yes, Collaroy storms in ’45, ’67, ’74, ’78, ’86, etc…

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  12. Mantaray Avatar
    Mantaray

    Robert Sewell (8.09pm) Weren’t various houses on Sydney’s northern beaches tumbling into the ocean recently? Up at Wamberal just past Gosford too….https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/21/australia/australia-coastal-erosion-homes-intl-hnk-scli/index.html.

    No idea why any of this would be a surprise since loads of “sunken cities” exist around the world.

  13. Mantaray Avatar
    Mantaray

    Further to previous post. …

    Millions of Aussies are paying big bucks to live beside rivers so’s they can be flooded every couple of months, so what difference does it make if they also get flooded on the coast due to climate change….after paying multiple millions for their shacks?

    If God didn’t mean for them suffer huge financial loss, he wouldn’t have made them F’wits!

    BTW: In olden days in Oz…before leftism turned many into morons…. a beachside house WAS a building of little value / cost. No-one in their right mind wanted, for example, to pay huge prices to swim amidst Bondi Cigars, killer sharks, and Maori bikies / warlords. THEN they became Teals and Greens and lost their collective minds!

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