Uncategorized: climate change emissions trading global warming greenhour
by admin
WHO CARES?
HOW MUCH SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?
Callers to the Green Hour have recently expressed concern about the emissions trading scheme proposed by the government to apply real environmental costs to commercial activities. One of the most common views expressed is that we (the average citizen) cannot afford this impost of what most claim is just another tax. This raises the question - is global climate change a challenge we actually need to rise to, as we have done in the past to the challenge of war - or is it simply something we should ignore in the interests of maintaining our standard of living.
A hard call, really, because we can ignore it all we like but the consequences will keep costing us whether we have emissions trading schemes or not. The price of food is due to rise because there are more people and less food production, and that is already impacting on our standard of living. As is the rising price of oil. As is the rising price of minerals such as copper and zinc etc, which directly impacts on the manufactured items that are essential to our perceived standard of living.
Quite simply the cost of humans taking more and more from the resources of the planet is unavoidable. Moan all you like about emissions trading schemes, but in the end we pay. One sceptic of our feeble attempts to manage our way out of the present crisis predicts the cost will be 90% of the Earth’s human population over the next century. That’s right, only one in every ten of us will survive because there is simply not enough resource to keep us going.
Which makes the whingeing about emissions controls seem rather pathetic.
But this is not going to happen tomorrow, and for those of us already past 50, why should we worry? Personally, I worry because of the world I leave behind for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren needs to be as safe, secure and sustainable as possible, whatever it costs. I worry because we do not seem to be able to ascertain the difference between commerce and the value of life, even when faced with climate change that is already shattering the lives of thousands of our Australian neighbours.
Is this really the country that valued universal adult suffrage, social justice and aroha throughout most of its history. Or are we just another sad case of material addiction?