Men of alleged merit

Recently, someone in Rudd's cabinet leaked all over [Peter Garrett, the Minister for the Environment and bald guy from the band Midnight Oil] planting the story that when cabinet decided how it was going to respond to the global warming crisis, only one person, Garrett, did not support the Government's position on cutting greenhouse emissions. Garrett wanted higher, more ambitious, targets. He was steamrolled.

When I asked Garrett if this leak was accurate, he said he didn't discuss cabinet decision-making. That's true. (He can be irritating.) But he did not say the story was wrong. So Garrett confirmed, without saying so, that he is the odd man out in the Rudd cabinet on the environment.

Alarmist Steve Running: As popular as Britney Spears?

MISSOULA — Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize just over a year ago, University of Montana forestry professor Steve Running noticed a heightened excitement for his public lectures.

“Every time I give a talk, I get a standing ovation,” said Running from his home in the Rattlesnake recently. “Sometimes I get a standing ovation before I even say a word. That’s pretty cool.”
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He’s also gearing up to push the idea of a no-growth economy in terms of consumption. With the current recession the nation is facing, he said, maybe it’ll cause people to return to a lifestyle “that maybe we never should have left.”