Urgent collective action is humanity's only hope

Urgent collective action is humanity’s only hope of avoiding the worst of climate change.

That, however, is extremely unlikely.

Such an action demands the voluntary suppression of individual private wants and elevation and celebration of public needs.

That won’t happen.

Individualism has such a powerful claim on even the most humble of us that it is rare to encounter a soul willing to relegate his or her private wants, either practically or psychologically, and filling the resultant vacuum by prioritizing public needs.

It appears quite a natural human trait to exercise events, circumstances, and moments in life to advantage personal wants, but corruption driven by what is now a market-driven society has had such a deleterious impact that we are now witnessing such events as the so-called “Panama Papers”.

The “Panama Papers” is the leak of more than 11 million documents from the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, that sells shelf-companies around the world aimed at allowing individuals to conceal their business affairs.

The content of those papers is alarming for two reasons first, they demonstrate the alarming brutal greed of many people and second, they illustrate that public needs are not in any way on the horizons of those individuals.

The idea that they might be a part of a public collective push to help the world avoid the worst of climate change has never even been an “aside” in their thoughts.

The essence of the Panama Papers may well be within legal boundaries (that’s debatable and no doubt the world’s legal firms are rubbing their hands in glee at the  prospect of near endless court cases), but what has happened and is happening, is morally and socially wrong, and could well be a near fatal wound to the human experiment.

If nothing else, the Panama Papers show that private wants and public needs appear innately opposed to each other.

The optimists see beyond such moments as the Panama Papers, while the pessimists, with whom I stand, see useful collective action evaporating with similar rapidity to that of which those essentially greedy people consolidate their wealth.

Effective action to counter climate change demands that we “all get on board” - humanity has disturbed an angry beast and if we are to ever to calm and corral it then we need commitment, collaboration, and a conspiracy about answering all our public needs and within that make our private wants redundant.

by Robert McLean.

Conversation about private wants and public needs

The idea that private wants overwhelm public needs and is driving the essence of climate change will be discussed Beneath the Wisteria in Shepparton on Saturday, November 30.

Convener Robert McLean despairs that public needs are frequently supplanted by private wants and the outcome is the inordinate use of fossil-fuel powered energy leaving a legacy of damaging greenhouse gases.

Melbourne’s east-west road tunnel link is an example with likely cost of a project conceived to answer what are largely private wants in the $billions comes at the expense of vastly cheaper and more environmentally friendly public needs, such as improved rail infrastructure.

Wisteria supporter, John Pettigrew, points to a simpler and often more local happening in which a person wants to remove a tree, ignoring the public good of the same tree.

People keen to talk about personal and community responses to climate change are invited to gather beneath the wisteria at the northern end of the Maude St Mall at 11:30am on Saturday, November 30.

Discussions last for about an hour, there is no charge, all those interested are urged to attend, some public seating is available, but those attending are urged to bring a folding chair.

Questions about Saturday’s gathering can be directed to Robert at 0400 502 199.

Beneath the Wisteria on the move

Beneath the Wisteria will be held this Saturday, October 19, at 11:30am.

We will gather, on this occasion beneath and umbrella at the Shepparton Show Me Expo at the Shepparton Showgrounds.

The actual gathering itself is free, but as we are within the confines of the expo, each of us will be required to pay a $10 entrance fee.

Sadly agreement to gather at the expo had been reached before the charge became apparent, but it was agreed that being at the expo was an excellent opportunity to reach a different array of people.

The topic for Saturday will be “Private wants and public needs”; something that has many applications, among them private vehicles compared to public transport and the private desire to shape your land, such as removing all the trees, with no regard for the public need of those same trees.

Fortunately the organizers of the expo will arrange for the umbrella and at least 20 chairs, ending the need for us to bring along our own folding chairs.

The umbrella and chairs will be arranged just outside the large building at the eastern end of the showgrounds, adjacent to Archer Street.

Any questions can be directed to the convenor, Robert McLean, on 0400 502 199.