Steve GannBeing Green and Being Committed.
November 5th 2006 04:14
An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Australia
Dear Prime Minister
I read with interest your response to the rally organised for those wishing to do something about the environment - was it Friday? I also note with interest your response to the report sponsored by the British government, other scientists and former US VP Al Gore. Prime Minister in each case you reject their thoughts or are rabidly following the sceptics' view. With respect, sir, you are wrong!
A Well Ordered Argument
First you often use the term knee jerk reaction both in parliamentary debate and in your statements to the press. Because people espouse renewable energy initatives or a radical shift in a national paradigm for future energy choices does not mean that such proposals are shallow or lacking in rigour. In fact the opposite is often the case.
It is easy for critics of such argument to tear holes in some of the estimates, because they are engineered from projections. However let us insert a cautionary note here. We do know that huge volumes of green house gases are being pumpled into the atmosphere daily. We also know that the amounts of these emissions are vastly in excess of most estimates used as a base model for Global Warming Scenarios. Yes I am using capital letters for emphasis here, and with reason. Perhaps I should be using exclamation marks and bolding as well. The point is, damge is being done as we speak and we need to contain and remediate the situation. More importantly we need to make a radical change in direction and we need to do it now!
Timeliness
The difference between science and engineering is sometimes immense. In the case of Global Warming, the engineering has vast requirements. Add to this is the certainty, that the longer we delay making real in-roads on the problem, the more cost and the greater effort will be required.
To argue that we need to wait until the great polluters in the US and China are on boad is a foolish argument put by fools who have not thought through the consequences of what they are proposing. Let me scotch this one quickly for the thin, arrogant and vapidly idiotic stance that it is!
First we as a nation have some pretty bright people on board. We also have a salting of brilliant, lateral thinkers. Unfortunately these people are often shackled by a national mind set which is conservative, simplistic, do-nothing in its orientation. This has crippled us as a nation on a number of occasions. We are often moronic in the choices we make as a collective. Instead of listening to the brilliant minds - the innovators - who can add to the value and the richness of our lives, the trend has been to follow the vision of yesterdays men -- to cling to the imagined safety of the Lowest Common Denominator.
Perhaps it is time for a change?
Call to Action
So Prime Minister, let me suggest it is time to listen to the people. Perhaps they know more than you think. Perhaps their thinking is based on more than just a knee jerk reaction. Maybe they believe in the precious needs of our planet and wish to move towards doing something NOW rather than some imagined time in the future.
Prime MInister if you ignore this, you do so at your peril ! If you do so, then next year perhaps I will be addressing a different Prime Minister. It is more than possible.
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