You will never hear a Coalition politician say we caused this problem, we must fix it. You will never hear them say this approach hasn’t worked, we must change it.
Since John Howard unexpectedly won the 2001 election, wedge politics is the Coalition MO and Scott Morrison is a devotee.
But when you use that approach, you can never take responsibility for anything, as demonstrated so pitiably by the climate change debacle.
Yesterday, Scott Morrison trotted out this old chestnut.
“To suggest that with just 1.3 per cent of global emissions that Australia doing something differently, more or less, would have changed the fire outcome this season, I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all. If anything Australia is an over-achiever on global commitments.”
How Morrison can continue to make this claim flabbergasts me.
In 2016, we were the fifteenth biggest emitter in the world. If we don’t have to worry about our measly contribution, then neither do 180 other countries including the UK, Turkey, Italy, Poland and France, all of whom have smaller emissions than us, and I am not talking per capita.
If we add in emissions embedded in our exports, our contribution to global emissions rises to 3.6%, which would make us the 5th highest emitter.
Suggesting any contribution towards emissions reduction by us would be too negligible to be worth it is like saying the anchor guy in the tug of war is heaps stronger than me so I won’t help.
Global carbon project executive director and CSIRO research scientist Pep Canadell described it as “the tragedy of the commons.”
“Because all the individual contributions are small no one feels responsible. Another way to put it is on my next tax bill, because my contribution to the country’s revenue is so small, that it doesn’t matter if I don’t pay.”
It is humiliating for Morrison to continue to boast that we are overachieving our targets.
One sentence in the latest quarterly emissions data blows that claim out of the water.
“Australia’s emissions for the year to March 2019 were 0.5 per cent above emissions in 2000.”
Ummmm… Scott… we promised that they would be 5% below 2000 emissions level by next year. Putting Angus Taylor in charge of this stuff is probably a bad idea since his office seem to have trouble with numbers.
The emissions data for the June quarter must be released before the end of this month. The most important sentence in it will be the update on that target, along with seeing if emissions have risen again as they have every year since carbon-pricing was removed in 2014.
As everyone is trying to explain to you Scott, climate change doesn’t start bushfires, it just increases the risk, the intensity, the length of the season, and the number of days where catastrophic conditions combine.
I really hope the global community calls out our government on their lies. No carryover credits, no accounting tricks, no special consideration about land-use changes. Man up, tell the truth, and start working towards fixing it or expect sanctions from the countries who are actually reducing emissions. Or legal action from parties damaged by negligent inaction. Insurance will become unaffordable. What then as natural disasters intensify?
I am so sick of these twerps. We need action yesterday, not ball-passing. You are seagulling, Morrison. Pick up the ball, have a run, and be strong enough to take a hit.
Like that’s gonna happen.
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