6,000 Camels Besiege Outback Town

[SpiralHawk]

Meanwhile, overpaid, overfed, and overpropagandized US Republicon Homelanders continue to fling camel dung at the facts concerning climate change.

"Some 6,000 feral camels are running wild in a remote Australian outback community in search of water, smashing infrastructure and invading the airstrip, officials said Wednesday.

"As long-running drought grips parts of the country, residents of at least one central Australian town are scared to leave their homes because of the rampaging dromedaries, the Northern Territory government said.

"The community of Docker River is under siege by 6,000 marauding, wild camels," Local Government Minister Rob Knight said."

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/6000_camels_besiege_outback_Australian_town_999.html

[MrModerate]

1. This is not really about drought/climate change . . .

Camels are an introduced pest to Australia with no natural predators. They despoil the outback (tended for millennia by aboriginal bands using controlled burns to create a hunter-gatherer-friendly environment). Think big, sullen rabbits who spit at you.

The camels are an ecological catastrophe on four feet, rather than being victims.

[drm604]

2. This sounds like an existing problem compounded by climate change.

It sounds like these camels, as well as the donkeys and horses mentioned in the article, need to be eliminated or at least massively culled from the wild in Australia. That won't help the drought, however.

[backscatter712]

27. It's an invasive species problem.

Camels have never been part of Australia's native ecology - they were brought there by colonists, and they took to the local landscape quite well.

And it's not just camels. Rabbits, other rodents, wild dogs, domestic cats, insects, etc. have all been wreaking havoc upon various places - preying upon and killing native species, eating up the available food, etc.

[hobbit709]

3. Camel BBQ time.

[lonestarnot]

4. Poor things, we suck as dominionists.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. I'm glad I quit Camels a long time ago.

[madrchsod]

6. yup almost 30 years for me.....

[Octafish]

7. Australia drought is epic. No rain, either.

Leader devoid of brains, mates. PM John Howard is an "epic climate skeptic."

[ensho]

12. yes the drought is terrible - the animals are THIRSTY

as will be humans. as are humans in some places on the earth already.

this is nothing to make jokes about.

[Octafish]

14. You think I'm joking?

It's no joke: Howard is in the pocket of the bastards who want to avoid action.

FYI: It's no accident. Climate change is class war in another grotesque form. And the rich win. (Sorry about the typo in the original.)

Not that it matters, ensho, but I've been on to their gangster asses for a while.

In 1975, the Pentagon and Soviet defense budgets could change the world...

Bush WANTS Chimpageddon.

That's no joke.

[ensho]

15. I didn't mean you! I meant the jokers on this thread. sorry.

Howard is a neo con

[Octafish]

23. Please do not worry, no problem. I am sorry, too.

Didn't mean to get snippy, my Friend. My bad.

What's more, I'm wrong about who's PM nowadays. Rudd's better, but he's still slow in regards to climate change, IMO.

[reggie the dog]

20. Howard is not even in power anymore

now they have Labour leader Rudd

[Octafish]

25. Thank you. I stand corrected.

My bad. Howard was Bush's buddy for so long, my brain automatically called his emgram number.

FWIW, Rudd sounds like he's taking the longterm view on cutting CO2, and that is completely different from his predecessor.

Thanks for setting me straight, reggie the dog!

[rucky]

8. What a dromadic story!

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Gee.. I wonder how all those camels got to Australia...

:sarcasm:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7095243&mesg_id=7095313

[SpiralHawk]

10. "Smirk." - Republicon-style Strategerizers

[BrklynLiberal]

17. LOL

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[SpiralHawk]

11. Aussies announce plan to cull "Biblical Plague" of Camels

"Australian authorities were preparing Thursday to round up with helicopters a 6,000-strong herd of wild camels terrorising a remote Outback community and shoot them dead in the desert...

"...This is a plague of biblical proportions laying waste to a sensitive and arid environment," said the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association chief Luke Bowen."

(snip)
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Australia_prepares_to_cull_biblical_camel_plague_999.html

[Delphinus]

21. Surely there is another way ...

can't they transport them to another country? This just feels so wrong. The humans aren't even doing it to help the camels who are thirsty - they are doing it to help themselves. How did things get to this point?

[cowcommander]

13. Happened before in the 1930's actually - the great "Emu War"

Except with emus this time instead of camels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War

[pnorman]

18. Emu War.....

"The machine-gunners' dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month."

I don't know about you guys, but I got a laugh out of that!

[tomm2thumbs]

16. making EVERYday in Australia hump-day...

poor things, they are just looking for a drink... and for a camel, that is saying a lot

[stevedeshazer]

19. This is really disturbing.

This will come to Turtle Island soon enough.

[Flubadubya]

22. This is also El Niño season...

and droughts in Australia are part of the phenomenon.

Oh, and let me be quite clear before the bashing begins. Making this observation does not in any way indicate that I am not a firm advocate of "global warming" or "global climate change"... I am. It is just an observed scientific fact that increasing drought conditions in Australia accompany the El Niño event.

[Hubert Flottz]

24. May the fleas of 6,000 marauding, wild camels...

infest Sarah Palin's armpits!

Edit...and may the bloody piles adorn her!

RE: Edit...and may she never pass go, or collect $200.00

[hulka38]

26. That's a girl camel. You can tell by the eye lashes.

[Hubert Flottz]

28. ?

Surgeon General's Warning: Bullshit may be harmful to pregnant women or anybody else that has to put up with it 24/7...