In times of coronavirus and climate change, we must rethink national security.

The catastrophic summer bushfires incinerated the livelihoods and the lifestyles of so many Australians who live along our coastal fringe. And while the landscape is recovering, albeit slowly, their circumstances are not. Indeed, the arrival of the pandemic has smashed their personal and economic security even further. The hit to the national economy from the combined events will be comparable to that of the second world war, the debt taking decades to run down.

Millions of Australians are significantly less secure now
than they were six months ago. And if our citizens
 are not secure, how can the nation be secure?’

Australia has not been at war. We have not been attacked by an enemy using armed force to subject the nation to its will. Yes, some troops were called out in an act of political theatre, and the navy put to sea, but not a shot was fired, nor a bombing sortie flown. Yet millions of Australians are significantly less secure now than they were six months ago. And if our citizens are not secure, how can the nation be secure?

Read the story from The Guardian by Allan Behm - “In times of coronavirus and climate change, we must rethink national security.” 

Our energy addiction corrupts and distorts our values

T

Barnesville, Ohio, America - it's
 being sued for its water.

he world’s addiction to energy, particularly created from fossil fuels, has distorted and corrupted human values.

Water is an essential ingredient in the modern search for gas and oil, known as “fracking”, that our addictions to the subsequent energy drive decency out of the conversation and actions.

However, it is simply the energy we seek, or the lifestyles that result from the riches the energy brings?

The perverseness of our values is illustrated through a story on ClimateProgress that tells how a fracking company is acting against a small American town for its water.

The story - “A $600-Million Fracking Company Just Sued ThisTiny Ohio Town For Its Water” – tells us that a tiny town in eastern Ohio is being sued by an Oklahoma-based oil and gas company that bought more than 180 million gallons of water from the town last year.