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Everyone – bar the PM and his clique – knows what we must do

We have run out of time for obfuscation (lovely word!) because we have wasted too many decades ignoring the truth.

It is not a question of how much will it cost to change tack and really start reducing emissions.

It is a question of what cost will our descendants have to bear because of our stubborn refusal to accept that – like those experts whom we believe when it comes to directing how to deal with a pandemic – the climate scientists have been right all along.

Our negligence in choosing which politicians should be given the freedom to lead this country has led us up a blind alley.

We need to backtrack ASAP and REALLY reduce emissions, forgo convenience when it means our descendants will have to pay the cost, and accept that the whole world is suffering because of the selfishness of the richest nations.

Many of those of us who are over 80 – particularly those of us who have migrated to Australia – are well aware that people WILL accept a loss of privileges and comforts if the aim is to ensure our descendants can survive.

Conservatives cling to the notion that change is dangerous, but climate change is more than dangerous; it is life shattering and must be opposed as a high priority.

We have, and can use, alternative sources of energy.

Unfortunately, we also have a stupid government which has failed to realise the need for us to be manufacturing and importing electric vehicles, so that their availability and cost would now make them readily accessible.

We banished vehicle manufacturers from our country, and, in doing so, cut out own throats.

We are currently held hostage by a government which denies responsibility for our safety and – much more importantly – for the safety of coming generations.

Why?

Far be it from me to try to get inside the serpentine minds of our current leaders, but I suspect status and immediate wealth and advantage have heavily outweighed their understanding of their duty to keep all Australians safe.

Until and unless we get a change of government – preferably to a consensus-oriented one – I fear for the future for our descendants.

The damage done to date by climate change, as a direct consequence of ignoring all the warnings we have been receiving for decades, cannot necessarily be undone.

To wait longer before commencing effective action would be suicidal!

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9 comments

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  1. Yes Minister

    Sheeple of all persuasions prefer to ignore the blatantly obvious need for change, especially when change would mean perceived short term disadvantage. Its not only the far right lunatic fringe baaaanaby and NoNotion tribes, even the supposedly left-leaning wilted green dimwits are still arguing for unrestricted immigration when the population is already four times what it should be. Given the record summer temperatures in the northern hemisphere, Australians are destined for a pretty convincing demonstration by Gaia about what happens when we thumb out noses at the ecosystem and allow complete fuckwits like SCUMMO et al to run rampant.

  2. Ill fares the land

    I definitely agree that Australia’s leaders are deficient – Promo Hairbuff-McSmirky is as close as you can get to defining “mediocrity” he is the archetypical backstabbing narcissist risen way, way beyond his ability. But Labor is also paralysed – and I think that is down to us. We have allowed ourselves to be hijacked by personal greed, rampant consumerism and to be bewitched by populist leaders who have no policies – only strategies to deceive us into believing they offer solutions. Well, after 2 years, we should be able to see that Promo is a loser and Australia is only being dragged down into the mire of his emotional, intellectual. and behavioural failings. In 8 years of the LNP, not one LNP leader has made this country a better place. Instead, all that has happened is as each woeful disgrace for a leader is replaced by another, Australia continues to lose its way and Promo, like all populists, focuses more on dismantling the apparatus of democracy, solely because of the threat dissent poses to populists. His only wish is to make Australia into a country that more closely fits his neurotic vision of the world. But, I digress, One point that is overlooked when it comes to climate change is that we focus only on what our leaders will or won’t do, not on what we should do. You mention the loss of motor vehicle manufacturing, but that has only meant SUV’s and dual cabs from the USD are infiltrating the market – and the trend for such vehicles is they are getting larger. It’s not clear to me why one person in a 2.5 tonne gas-guzzler heading to the shop to pick up milk makes any environmental sense, but overwhelmingly, many who say they want action on climate change are buying these gas guzzlers – and with higher fuel consumption comes higher emissions. These are, for urban use, totally inappropriate vehicles, but they increasingly dominate the urban roads around the world – there are, by latest estimates, some 200 million of these vehicles and collectively, they produce more emissions that all but 6 countries around the world. They should not be on our roads, but they also highlight how mindlessly we say one thing and do another.

  3. HENRY RODRIGUES

    I just read elsewhere that Pres Biden is hosting a conference of all democracies this year, presumably for the heads of state of each country.

    Looks like the crinkled old bastard can finally make it official, after all why send the puppet, when the puppet master is available and can make the decisions himself.

    Scummo can also go, as bag carrier, ball polisher and arselicker.

  4. David Evans

    Just name the day and date morrison, and get out of the goddam way you prick. Total failure.

  5. Andrew J. Smith

    We also observe symptoms with not just Covid science denial, anti-vaxxers and many in the middle being lax, but who those have fallen for decades of radical right libertarian ideology looking after no. 1, amusing ourselves to death, prosperity gospel and demands for ‘freedom and liberty’ (direct US iteration which is meaningless in Oz as we have no bill of rights).

    One apportions blame to Howard’s regime, the ascendancy or influence of NewsCorp and of course radical right ideologues at the IPA…. supported by key business or sector bodies; they got everything stitched up so we look more like Hungary, Turkey or Poland everyday…..

  6. Mark Shields

    Personally RosemaryJ36, I think we Australians are the dumbest F*cktards living on the planet.

    This might be because we live at the southern-most point of the Earth BUT more likely it is because most of our population is descended from British Convict stock! Like you Rosemary, I hate to think that the revenge gene still lives in this island community, but having spent 20 years in a remote rural community, not more than 4 hours drive from Sydney; unfortunately, I believe that Anti-Authoritarian values (Anarchic) still prevail, today. What is really sad is that most of these anarchic voters actually see the National Party as their saviour! From where I stand, failed Democracy is just a tool for the corrupt National Party!

  7. B Sullivan

    In the last election the Coalition won a majority of seats (76 out of 150) in Federal Parliament with just under 42 percent of the primary vote. The combined primary vote for Labor and the Greens was 43.6 per cent but they only won a total of 66 seats for their efforts. In spite of winning the support of nearly ten percent of all Australian voters the Greens Party only won one seat,

    Australia may be what is described as a Liberal democracy but it certainly isn’t a genuine democracy. A true democracy would give the Greens 15 votes in the House of Representatives with which to sway environmental policy. Instead we have not just inaction but the threat of more carbon emissions from an insane fossil gas led economic recovery.

    As Australia gains in its notoriety for inaction on climate change and becomes a Pariah State in the eyes of the rest of the world perhaps this lack of democracy, which is after all the principal reason why Australia is not pulling its weight, may lead to Australia being banned from participation in international sport, boycotts on Australian products and maybe even calls for regime change.

  8. guest

    Rightwing thinking is a complete muddle. Neo-liberallsm is a cynical corruption of liberalism (Keynes).

    Coalition plans about carbon emissions. A vague muddle of maybe but no costings because they are still unsure of the plan. What they accused Labor of doing.

    Technology. A mishmash of “technologies” (no taxes anywhere because that idea was quashed years ago by another PM). But it seems coal will be needed for decades, a primitive technology which is at the centre of Oz primitive economics.

    Religion. A primitive “technology” of religious significance? Denialists say climate change is a religion. Religion can gain considerable advantages, such a tax relief, so be careful with the census, they say. Denialists claim climate change is a scam to rule the world. Christianity is presented as a powerful religion of the end of the ages, when Jesus will come and the faithful will rise bodily into heaven. I have not heard any explanation for this or where Jesus has been for the past 2000 years. Faith is a powerful thing.

    Science. What IPA science is there to counter IPCC science? One publication (2017) says its own statements are full of contradictions, but the hope to reconcile them one day. The 2020 edition says IPCC science is completely disproven (even that the latest IPCC statement is not science at all) and that climate change is the result of natural cycles.

    The muddled statements in science, economics and politics are supposed to be protecting the privileges of the top 1% – but do nothing to protect the planet. They need to be roundly debunked loudly and often.

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