A letter to a leader, seeking a champion

Any useful response to human-induced climate change needs a champion, a leader and an advocate that has broad influence. Below is a copy of a letter I have sent to the chairman of the McPherson Media Group board, Ross McPherson, urging him to be that champion - Robert McLean.

By chance, I have become something of a student of human-induced climate change and oil scarcity (commonly referred to a “peak oil”) along with being a passive observer (and victim) of the world’s declining and imploding economy.

My interest in climate change was truly piqued when I attended a University of Melbourne’s “Festival of Ideas” in 2009.

I have listened to countless speakers, read endlessly and consciously avoided arguments (I don’t think quick enough for that) as belief about climate change is ideologically ingrained in people and to suggest to some people that it is real, and happening, is a little like asking them to murder their first born – their only intent seems to be murdering you.

Everything I have been able to understand about our changing climate illustrates that it is unfolding with beautiful adherence to the agenda as pieced together and understood by the world’s best climatologists – right down to the unpredictable, confusing, costly and socially destructive weather throughout Australia, not to mention the rest of the world.

The Goulburn Valley urgently needs a broad considered response, it needs a champion, it desperately needs leadership on the issue and, importantly, is needs someone to stand out from the crowd to show the way through what will be a calamity of dimensions we can’t comprehend.

I urge you, through your board, to encourage the McPherson Media Group to become that beacon, that lighthouse that will help people of the Goulburn Valley avoid the worst of reefs that await them.

Ross, I am unable to stress just how important a considered response is.

Some argue that we have already passed a crucial tipping point when there is a self-reinforcing feedback loop of carbon dioxide emissions.

The damage already done is beyond human control with emissions being at nearly 400 parts per million (ppm), the highest ever for hundreds of thousands of years, certainly at a time scale understandable on a human life time frame.

Humans can survive reasonably comfortably at 350ppm and to get back to that we would have to reduce our output of carbon dioxide emissions by at least 50 per cent and even as high as 90 per cent.

We need to aim at 350 parts per million
 of carbon dioxide emissions.

It is worth noting, that in this conversation we have locked our immediate descendants into a dramatically different future as even if we stopped all emissions of C02 right now, it will take centuries of no emissions for us to return to 350ppm.

Interestingly when Russia collapsed and the country ground to an almost complete halt, its C02 emissions only fell to about less than 10 per cent.

We have, I believe, no comprehension of just how difficult our future will be.

Recently I wrote to Sharman Stone urging her to break ranks with Liberal Party philosophies and confront the fact that climate change is real.

I suggested to her that although it might require the sacrificing of her career, in the wash-up she would be long remembered as the one Liberal who had the courage and integrity to stand up in her electorate for what was right.

Ross, not for a moment do I suggest the same extremes for you for it is absolutely critical we have someone at the helm that is clear about where we are going.

You worked hard to make the renewal of the district’s irrigation system a reality - a hugely important project, but it will all be for nought if we allow human-induced climate to evolve unabated.

The options, if you listen to some people are many, but if you analyse each of them closely, they are little more than an illusion, promising much but in reality having the potential to deliver a little.

Climate change advocates are frequently accused of talk that is largely smoke and mirrors, but the reality is that those who advocate business as usual are really those who live in a world of smoke and mirrors.