The Beirut explosion, irresponsible government and climate change

The Beirut explosion that killed hundreds and directly impacted thousands was due to criminal neglect by a corrupt and dysfunctional Lebanese government.

Climate change has been a developing disaster that will impact everyone on Earth. It is also due also to neglect, but in this case by most of the world's governments.

The Morrison Government of Australia is not only neglecting to act on climate change, it is actively making it worse by dishonestly supporting the fossil fuel industries and undermining the renewable energy industries.

This page was written 2020/10/07, last edited 2022/07/17
Contact: David K. Clarke – ©




 
Climate change impact near my home
Red stringybark
Red stringybark (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha) suffering from a changing climate in Spring Gully Conservation Park near Clare, South Australia.
On 2020/08/04 more than two thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded causing colossal damage to Beirut's port area and killing at least 200 people.

What has this to do with the Morrison Government and climate change?

The ammonium nitrate had been stored in a warehouse in the port of Beirut for six years in spite of the knowledge that it presented a risk of just such an enormous explosion. It was a disaster waiting to happen and was being ignored by the Lebanese government.

Climate change is a developing disaster that will impact billions of people and practically all life on earth, and, similarly to the Beirut case, it is not being given urgent attention by the world's governments.

The Morrison Government is even more culpable than the Lebanese authorities because it is making the situation worse by supporting the fossil fuel industries and resisting the introduction of renewable energy. While the Lebanese government were guilty of gross carelessness, the Morrison government is guilty of actively exacerbating the problem.

The Lebanese government was guilty of a crime of omission, the Morrison government is guilty of a crime of commission. (Several other Australian federal governments were just as bad in this way, especially the Abbott government.)



A part of one of Australia's wind farms
Wind farm
Wattle Point Wind Farm, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
We must change to renewable energy like this if our children and their children are to have a planet that is not greatly damaged by climate change.


Why did the Beirut blast result in almost universal condemnation
while a great many people accept inaction on climate change?

There seem to be several main reasons:
  • The Beirut disaster was played out in a matter of a few hours, climate change, ocean acidification and warming, sea level rise and the deaths and disease due to the air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels will play out over years, decades and centuries.
  • There has been a very effective misinformation campaign about the climate change group of problems. Many people do not see them as being as serious as they are; many believe they are not happening at all. (See Why accept climate science.)
  • The Beirut blast was a specific event in a particular place to be blamed on a particular government; the problems connected with climate change are all over the world with most of the world's governments being complicit to some degree.
People seem to react most strongly to local rather than global threats, to immediate threats rather than long-term threats, and to problems that can be blamed on specific people or small groups. Climate change misses out on all three counts.