Many aren't listening as the gamble goes on

Those who need to hear and understand the warnings of the disruption climate change will bring are not listening, or if they are, they believe it is so distant that the impact is not worth worrying about.

An example of this was discussed just this morning on Radio National’s “Background Briefing” in an episode entitled: “Cairns mega casino gamble”.

The story told of proposals to build the $8.5 billion Aquis Casino just 25 kilometres north of Cairns at Queensland’s Yorkys Knob and the many controversies surround the idea.

The proposed casino is to be built on a piece of land likely that is subject to tidal surges and, along with that, is a host of environmental issues, worsened by a jump of an anticipated 50 000 people in what was, or had been, a quite backwater.

But in terms of climate change, it is not the understandable and easily addressed environmental issues that really matter.

Rather, what matters is that the whole concept is driven by, and depends upon fossil fuels, which will not only become rarer as the decades unfold, but they are the root cause of climate change.

Further, something such as a casino is about consumption and rather doing and creating processes that encourage even more consumption, we should uilding governance structures that frustrate and illustrate the foolishness of such ideas in a constrained world.

It’s worth spending 40 minutes to hear about this northern Queensland madness.