Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Opinion

Defining the Greens (Part 3)

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WHAT we consider to be the ‘right’ sort of environmental protection is necessarily going to be influenced by our understanding of nature.

According to Harald Kehl, the modern environmentalist either subscribes to a dualistic-anthropocentric (speculative) definition of nature with a philosophical-religious background or a scientific (hypothetical-deductive) proposition influenced by modern epistemology.   

Those who subscribe to the dualistic-anthropocentric definition would probably consider global warming foremost a moral issue, while the latter might consider it more a technological problem.  

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On a Tortuous Political Problem: Bob Carter

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Oppose the ETSLAST Wednesday, I had the privilege of appearing in front of the Australian Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy.

My main advice to the committee was that making a decision regarding an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) must be considered as a cost:benefit matter.

According to the only estimates that I could find, after ramp-up the cost of the Rudd ETS scheme is going to be about an additional $3,500 tax per year per Australian family. On the other side, the benefit will be a theoretical (i.e. modelled) reduction in temperature of less than 1/1000 deg. C.

I asked the committee if they had such figures in front of them (they didn’t), and expressed willingness to drop my estimates in favour of better-founded ones if the committee could provide them. Not a finger, or tongue, stirred!

Beyond recommending that a proper cost:benefit analysis should apply, I argued also for the implementation of a (Plan B) policy of adaptation to climate change in place of the intended (Plan A) emissions trading system. This follows the policy that I espoused in a recent talk at the New York Heartland-2 Climate Conference, a written version of which has been published in the April edition of Quadrant.

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Scepticism Increasing Under Obama

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Public hostility toward George Bush and the Republicans likely expressed itself in part as hostility toward global warming scepticism, with which Bush and the Republicans were identified. As soon as the Republicans lost power, many in the public lost their fervour in opposing climate change scepticism.  Read more here from Lawrence Solomon.

Wise Men Excluded from Bushfire Royal Commission

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WE were all appalled by the death and destruction that was the Victorian bushfires early this year.  On Black Saturday nearly 200 people died.   The number of koalas incinerated probably runs into the thousands, the number of native birds dead in the millions.  

A Royal Commission was established with the Victorian Government promising an inclusive process with the broadest possible terms of reference.  Preliminary hearings by that commission begin today in Melbourne, but already many experts with local knowledge and experience have been advised their tesimonies won’t be heard; that they will not be given leave to appear before the commission.

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Defining the Greens (Part 2)

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WHILE it may be true to say that “We are all environmentalists now”, the great majority of Australians have little or no say in the environmental policies being put to governments – federal, state or local.  These policies are almost exclusively the domain of a tight network of conservation groups ensuring one view, and one view only, is put forward.   

I’m paraphrasing comments from Barry Cohen made to me a couple of years ago.  Mr Cohen was Australia’s Minister for the Arts, Heritage and Environment in the Hawke Government from 1983 to 1987.

What are the key values and beliefs shared by this “tight network of conservation groups” often referred to as the Greens? 

Some claim the Greens based their policies on sound science, but I’m yet to see the evidence to support this contention.  

I’ve listened to some explain that the Greens essentially take a commonsense approach to environmental issues, but science, particularly physics, makes a mockery of commonsense. 

Much has been written by those who scorn the Greens labelling them socialists, luddites and liars.   But again, this is hardly the beginning or the end of their story.

It is generally accepted that the beliefs and values of the Greens have had a profound impact on western society over the last few decades.

But where do we go to better understand these values and determine whether or not they are really worth subscribing to?

Furthermore, if the Greens are never made to declare what they honestly stand for, they remain freer than most political movements to craft a potentially misleading, though perhaps politically savvy message.

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