Anne Ruston and Peter Dutton stand out among their Coalition colleagues, since both stand out as seeming to be supremely incapable of empathy. Their blindness to the fact that the majority of people forced to be dependent on Newstart are not drug addicts or malingerers and that the children – AND adults – who took part in the School Strike4Climate marches, are genuinely concerned about their future, is ignored in favour of vilifying fellow citizens less wealthy – or blind – than they themselves appear to be!.
I am one of many grandparents and great grandparents who accept the science on climate change. After all, the oil companies did their own research over 30 years ago and were well aware of the climate damage which would result from the escalating use of fossil fuels. And time has proved their predictions were spot on!
Needless to say, in a capitalist world, profits are the name of the game, and why publicise the long-term damage your mining and drilling and fracking is doing to the environment when you can keep your shareholders happy with healthy dividends?
The evidence from all round the world of the effect the changing environment is having – not least by the costly damage done by the increasingly frequent and severe weather events – cannot be wilfully ignored for much longer.
It is hard to know who most deserves our concern. Is it the older people, made redundant in their 50s and 60s, with little hope of finding meaningful work – ever – and forced to eke out an existence on Newstart? Or is it the young people, with their lives ahead of them, also struggling to enter the workforce, watching those who are expected to take responsibility for making serious decisions, turning a blind eye to the damage that they are encouraging and happily subsidising those doing the damage while collecting party donations in return.
If there is one thing worse than watching people damage the future for our youth, it is feeling helpless to do anything to change the situation.
The Opposition offers little hope. It seems more interested in searching its own soul, to find out where they went wrong, than it is in announcing realistic plans that might slow down global warming and reduce the probability of temperatures rising to unbearable levels.
To add to the frustration, it seems that a significant number of our governing politicians claim to have religious beliefs linked to Christianity – yet Christ’s message to put other’s needs before your own has clearly been drowned out by self-interest.
Hypocrites, the lot of them!
It is becoming more and more apparent that we need to go down the path of civil disobedience, following the example of the people of Hong Kong.
Before the recent election, the Coalition was asking Labor to say how much their policies on combating climate change would cost.
A ridiculous question in relation to policies which will have to be regularly adjusted because we are starting behind the 8-ball.
What is quite certain is that the costs involved in reducing emissions and moving away from dependence on fossil fuels will pale into insignificance when compared with the costs in re-building lives and property damaged by severe climate-related catastrophes!
“When will they ever learn?” is indeed the question to keep asking.
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