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The situationIn the Australian election of 2019/05/18 a coalition of political parties that had refused to take action on reducing greenhouse emissions for the previous six years was returned to government. This was a demonstration of human stupidity, the shortsighted selfishness of a great many of the Australian people and in the international context it was a small milestone along the way to mass human suicide.
There is no reason to believe that the Australian people are more stupid, short-sighted, apathetic, selfish or susceptible to harbouring delusions than the remainder of the world's people, so the long-term outlook is not promising. My greatest concernsClimate change, together with the closely related threats of ocean acidification, sea level rise, ocean warming and the air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, coal in particular, that kills millions of people each year, have long been my greatest concerns.
Direct culpabilityThe fossil fuel industry in Australia is run by people like Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer who protect their investment in coal mining and exporting by political interference. Both can reasonably be accused of exporting death due to the thousands who die each year from the air pollution resulting when their coal is burned. |
| Wattle Point Wind Farm, South Australia |
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The environment must be put firstWhat can be more obvious than that if we destroy our environment we will have nothing?If our grandchildren are to have a world to live in that is not greatly inferior to the one my generation has enjoyed we will have to start prioritising the environment above all else. Environmental considerations must come before profits, environmental considerations must come before jobs.
But it seems that humanity is unable to see this.
Few people care enough to place the environment ahead of their own immediate wants
Bigger carsAs shown on the graph on the right Australians are buying fewer small cars. Instead they are buying more big, heavier cars, especially SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) and utes (utilities).This, of course, means that more CO2 is emitted per kilometre travelled. See Why are Ausies 'supersizing' their cars? in the Royal Automobile Club article on the subject.
An obvious conclusion that one can draw from this is that Australians at least don't care enough to make changes to reduce their emissions - quite the opposite, they are making changes toward increasing their emissions. They may be aware of climate change, but they don't care enough about it to change their behaviour.
Not using public transportIf people were to use public transport rather than private cars they would reduce their emissions.
As I've written on another page on this site, if seems that many more people could use public transport, but they are choosing to use their cars instead, presumably because it is more convenient.
Not prioritising climate actionAt the time of my writing this section the seriousness of climate change was obvious to anyone but the intentionally blind. Yet the majority of Australians were placing things like the cost of living, the prices and availability of housing and interest rates higher on their list of priorities than action on reducing emissions.
This is not surprising considering the two items above (size of cars and heavy use of private cars).
How has it happened that Mankind is destroying the world?
Many of the wealthy (in Australia for example, Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer) seem to care only for making more money and not to care how they do it. Politics is dominated by people having a background in law or economics; few politicians have a science background. Many on the conservative side of politics choose to ignore those sciences that do not fit in with their preconceptions. Capitalism is the dominant system running commerce; it does not take into account environmental damage or ethical considerations. These matters need to be protected by governments, but governments are failing in this duty.
Contributing factors in humanity's suicideNation statesA strong thirst for power is needed for a leader or a leading group to obtain control of a nation. The desire for retaining power overrides any desire to protect the long-term good of the nation controlled, even more it overrides the long-term good of the whole planet.Unethical governmentsIn 2018 Donald Trump, an habitual liar and probably the US president with the lowest ethical standards in history, decided that the USA should make no effort to lower its greenhouse emissions. It is among the nations with the highest per-capita greenhouse emissions.In Australia the The Howard and Rudd governments failed to treat Australia's greenhouse emissions with anything like the urgency that the problem required. The Gillard government did better, bringing in an effective emissions trading scheme and carbon tax, but Prime Minister Gillard was replaced by Rudd in a come-back and then he soon lost an election to the Liberal/National coalition. The Abbott Government repealed the emissions trading scheme and carbon tax, the Turnbull Government was a great disappointment and the Morrison Government (still in power at the time of writing) was perhaps the worst of them all. I've written more on Australia's culpability below.
Australia's part in humanity's suicideMy nation, Australia, is in the important measure, its per-capita figures, one of the worst greenhouse gas emitters in the world. This fact means that Australia, and Australians, have a higher ethical responsibility to reduce our emissions than most other peoples and nations.
I've written on another page on this site about being ashamed of being Australian because of Australia's abysmal record on climate action.
What does the presidency of Donald Trump suggest about the sustainability of human civilisation?
To this must be added the insistence from Trump that climate change is 'fake news' and his refusal to do anything to lower the USA's very high greenhouse gas emissions, as mentioned above. The fact that Trump's behaviour is acceptable to such a large proportion of the people of one of the world's great nations is surely an indication that democracy as a form of government is not credible. Yet, as I have argued elsewhere, democracy is the only form of government that can be called legitimate because it is the only form of government that the people of a nation choose for themselves. Any other form of government is one that is imposed upon the people by some individual or group. All together it seems that the Trump phenomenon is only further evidence that humanity is incapable of sustainable occupancy of planet Earth. |
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Related pagesOn this site...Blood donationComparing posible future disasters Community independent representatives, a cure for a sick political system? Contribution to society Some thoughts on death Are we facing the end of the current global civilisation? Some thoughts on euthanasia A letter to my great grandchildren Self or all?, selfishness or altruism? Suicide as a rational decision To oppose wind power is to support fossil fuels, including especially, coal, a compassionate person would not do it. Walking for climate change awareness: cleaning up the roadsides at the same time. Why I support the local wind farm and why any other compassionate person would do the same. |
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