Knowing as we do the urgent need to reduce greenhouse emissions
to ensure we avoid the impacts of catastrophic climate change, the Australian
government's internal wrangling over the cost of energy is depressing to say
the least.
We see daily images of the deadly effects of climate
change, which intensifies and prolongs storms, droughts, wildfires, and floods.
In fact the US reportedly spent as much on disaster management in 2017 alone,
as it did in 30 years from 1980 to 2010.
However,
we are now becoming aware of other impacts. “Climate disruption” is becoming
the leading threat to our built environment, an accelerant of armed conflict,
and a leading cause of mass migration.
So why has an issue that should demand a united
response become so intensely divisive?
The right wing's ideological opposition to anything
proposed by the left, and vice versa, regardless of how illogical that
opposition sometimes appears, is stalling what little progress that has been
made to date. The fear tactics, famously employed by Tony Abbott over the
carbon tax are now being redeployed, this time focusing on rising electricity
prices. Of course it's all the fault of renewable energy, and those misguided
souls who think coal burning is dirty, unhealthy, and a driver of climate
change.
If electricity costs are so critical, why did
governments sell off the networks in the first instance?
Sure, electricity prices have risen sharply, but how
bad are they really? For example, how many of us complain about that
indispensable daily $5 cappuccino, when for the same amount everything in the
home can be activated, 24/7, by the simple flick of a switch?
If the government is serious about giving relief from
rising prices, why not look at fuel prices? Through necessity, petrol costs
many rural Australians far more than electricity, but of course a large chunk
of that cost is tax, so a scare campaign over that might backfire badly.
Climate change is real, and needs real action to lower
emissions, and to achieve that we must have bipartisanship from all sides if
the political spectrum.
- John
Edwards
This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on July 30, 2018.
