We bicker and procrastinate while nature seeks equilibrium

Al Gore - An Inconvenient Truth.

Politicians and the other responsible men continue to bicker and procrastinate about climate change, while nature, totally disinterested in those pointless postponements, continues to seek the equilibrium humans have disrupted.

Climate change advocate and the fellow who warned the world of the “inconvenient truth” , Al Gore is present in Australia and has meet and talked with coal billionaire and Federal politician, Clive Palmer, who this morning was to breakfast with Australia’s PM, Tony Abbott.

A story headed: “Clive Palmer will help axe carbon tax but courts Al Gore in push for ETS” and published today by the ABC told a little of discussions between this disparate collection of decision makers.

Further evidence unnecessary, but keep it in our armoury

The US National Academy of Sciences.

Further evidence that humans, that’s you and me, are causing our climate to change seems unnecessary.

However, the message that business as usual is the root of the trouble has as yet not been understood or accepted by the world’s “responsible men”.

Confronted by a doubter who has economic, political and social clout, and sprouts sensible sounding rhetoric, can be a challenge you might night rather wade into.

However, a report entitled: “Climate change: Evidence and causes” from the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences gives you an invaluable armoury of information.

It provides relatively simple answers to most objections raised by doubters and then, if you want more, further detail follows.

Recent personal experience shows that many people, frequently in positions of significant influence, and who have the capacity to change our behaviours, still question the reality that is climate change.

We are too comfortable to understand and comprehend climate change

Most Australians, along with many of their compatriots in the developed world, are simply too comfortable.

Australia's pre-eminent "responsible
man", Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.

“Nothing wrong with that” many would argue in reply, omitting to acknowledge that such comforts bring with them a legacy that disables a person’s ability to understand the complications and difficulties that will arise from living with a climate never before experienced by humanity.

It seems that Australians are unable to grasp the reality that our future is going to be decidedly different and that if we don’t willingly change our behaviour, nature will step in and force those changes upon us.

The present way of life for most Australians is so fundamentally different from what will be common in just decades, that few of us can comprehend what we must do to create and build a truly resilient community, or even just neighbourhoods that will be adequately equipped to rise to the unfolding challenges of food, water, top soil and energy shortages.

The suits and ties of the “responsible men” are a symbol of an era wasted and it is time we moved on, scrapped those aged perversities that have with them a strange locked-in adherence to business as usual philosophies; ideas that are foreign to what humanity needs today.

Adaptation to tomorrow is not about the simplistic recycling of a few newspapers, changing a few light globes or just walking occasionally as opposed to driving, rather it is about understanding that the comfort we presently consider normal is the engine driving global warming and we need a wholesale change of our way of life.

by Robert McLean

 

From an idea to a needed social force

Beneath the Wisteria began as an idea, but now has become a social force.

And, it is worth noting, that is as it should be.

The environmental movement, of which Beneath the Wisteria is a part, was once purely a movement of the people, but with the passing of time it has been infiltrated it has been an organized arm of the “responsible men” and subsequently less effective, particularly in America.

A New Yorker story headed: “When the Earth Moved” discusses that change and sums up saying, “To turn concern into action requires politics. The science of carbon emissions is there. The politics is not.”

Monbiot takes on the 'responsible men'

George Monbiot

Guardian columnist George Monbiot steps around the rhetorical difficulties imposed by our “responsible men” and takes little note of their subsequent arguments of economic chaos.

His latest column, The Big Green Question, continues his ongoing battle with those unable to understand reason and see that his dispassionate arguments are really about creating a better place.

The “responsible men” seem unable to see beyond their bank balance and recognize that a genuine appreciation and acceptance of ideas proffered by environmentalist and their ilk are ultimately about securing the processes that allow them to operate, but differently.

We are not alone Beneath the Wisteria

Those who gather Beneath the Wisteria in Shepparton’s Maude Street Mall may seem alone, but they are not.

Others, equally concerned about the disruption by humans to the world’s climate, meet regularly to talk about their response to a dynamic that appears to have escaped the attention of the decision makers.

That, however, is correct for the “responsible men” are certainly aware of the conversation and their response is one of a few things – one, they don’t believe humans are having any impact on our climate and any changes we are seeing are simply natural and cyclic; two, they have some sympathy with the idea of human-induced climate change, but are so enmeshed in the existing socio-economic system that they are unable to perceive any way ahead; or/and the computations associated with climate change are so complex and the outcomes so distant, that the whole idea is intellectually pushed aside and so forgotten about.

Some, despite any of that, are actively discussing the complications of climate change and campaigning for change and among them is the Lighter Footprints, a Melbourne based group that declares in its vision that: “Lighter Footprints is a local Climate Action Group which aims to be a leader in stimulating action to ensure a safe climate future, influencing a paradigm shift in the attitudes and opinions of the community and all levels of government”.

Describing itself the group says: “We are a small but growing group of concerned residents from Boroondara and Whitehorse who came together in 2006 to see what we could do about climate change.”

Another small group is Yarra Climate Action Now, which is made up of people who want to see much stronger action on climate change which is an independent community group based in the inner Melbourne suburbs of the City of Yarra.

Describing itself in a “nutshell” the group said: “Yarra Climate Action Now (YCAN) is a young, growing, dynamic and award-winning community group made up of people concerned about climate change.

"We’ve gotten together because we realized that this is the best way to make a difference in our local communities and also get real action from our governments.

"We are ordinary people who are busy with families, friends and work, but we put energy into YCAN because we know how important it is to push for collective responses to climate change,” the group says.