Michael McCormack's tough words only confirmed his weakness

Australian politicians prove their failings when they cannot address the reality of climate change when confronting the immediate crisis of drought and bushfire.

Nationals leader Michael McCormack has unleashed
on the Greens when asked about climate change
concerns, amid catastrophic bushfires in New South
Wales and Queensland.

Michael McCormack may have felt good for a moment when he vented about "inner-city raving lunatics" but his tough words only confirmed his weakness.

Sitting atop a Coalition government that is easily split on whether climate change is real, the Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister was easily provoked into an intemperate remark to satisfy a conservative base.

But the reality should not be so hard to admit. Australian scientists say there is a connection between climate change and bushfire risk.

Read the option piece from The Sydney Morning Herald by David Crowe - “Michael McCormack's tough words only confirmed his weakness.”

Tensions erupt in Turnbull government over climate and energy policy

Climate-change policy has ignited tensions within the federal government, with a group of backbench MPs led by Tony Abbott confronting Malcolm Turnbull over the proposed Clean Energy Target in a special party room meeting.

The Coalition held a special meeting on climate change policy on Tuesday. 

As one MP in the room put it afterwards: "Malcolm could lose his leadership over this if he doesn't listen to us.”

The disquiet means that Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is likely to have little choice but to significantly modify the CET, as proposed in chief scientist Alan Finkel's review, to keep the backbench on-side as he finalises the Coalition's policy response, which is expected as soon as the end of July.

If he does, Mr Frydenberg runs the risk of putting Labor offside - particularly if the policy is too coal-friendly - and dashing the chance of the major parties striking compromise and ending the climate policy wars. 

Read James Massola’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Tensions erupt in Turnbull government over climate and energy policy.”

Avoiding the most difficult - we need to 'speak the words'

The obvious is being conveniently avoided by most in ongoing conversations about how we mitigate and address the damage we are doing to our climate.

The amazing and palatial
BMW Edge theatre.

Necessary changes are so extensive, dramatic, demanding, confronting and contrary to the contemporary understanding of the imagined good life that no one appears game to speak the words.

Many allude to what is needed in subtle ways, but fearing alienation from the mainstream or worse, a social shunning by most they avoid the direct spelling out of the urgent and needed action.

Let us be clear - everyone needs to stop doing anything that is the outcome of burning fossil fuels.

Melbourne’s February SustainableLiving Festival was wonderful and on show was a powerful exhibition of peoples’ innovative nature and skills, along with a fascinating array of speakers, films and demonstrations all aimed at helping us better understand how we could live in quieter and less energy intensive manner.

The festival, despite all the wonderment and energy it brought to the conversation about addressing climate change, would not have been possible, at least on that grand scale, with the input of fossil fuel powered energy.

Just on a personal sense, let’s consider my debt to fossil-fuels:

Journey to and from Melbourne by diesel powered train;

Travel within Melbourne on trams using electricity from fossil-fuel powered generators;

Food and drinks from establishments relying entirely on electricity;

Business cards, brochures and various handouts (some of which I brought home) were all available because of a finite resource;

The palatial beauty of the BMW Edge theatre (the venue of many presentations) was an exhibition of the power of fossil-fuels;

Many of those who spoke at the festival, or were exhibitors or worked on an exhibit, were able to participate because of energy derived from fossil-fuel;

In fact, most everything in sight, including the well-manicured plants and grass, existed because of fossil-fuel.

My trip, enjoyable and rewarding as it was, was made possible because of energy from fossil-fuels. That process, in itself, is not sustainable.

Clearly, if we are to slow the damage to our atmosphere and so slow climate change, we need to end our dependence today, not tomorrow, on fossil-fuels.

That, I know, is an unrealistic call, but the intent of the innovation on show at the Melbourne festival needs to be redirected from solving a particular problem, as important as that is, to rather helping the broader community understand how it can emotionally deal with a revolutionary change to their lifestyle.

Our way of living, even that of the Sustainable Living Festival, is predictably and scientifically impossible to sustain and so rather await the catastrophic collapse of society we should be devoting time, energy and effort to understanding an alternative.

The alternative is about close knit, resilient,  multi-use communities with a grasp on their governance, in which the basic method transport is walking or cycling, basic foods are available locally, and neigbourhoods, in which sharing is a way of life, are about people, rather than machines.

Arriving at that point will only happen with a significant “bottom-up” push accompanied by an equally courageous “top-down” leadership.