The news today
New propaganda today about how protected our local petrol retail market is, courtesy of our ABC and generous reporting of Rudd’s foray into Bali. Both of these story continue the long standing practice of manipulating the public news services in order to set an agenda and regulate debate. In the case of the petrol story, whilst there is very real pain for large sections of the Oz public when it comes to increasing petrol prices, such increases also serve to illustrate how totally dependent our society is on the dwindling resource which in turn should really raise questions about what we are doing to address the problem. Focusing the debate on the easy hip pocket nerve merely serves to perpetuate the notions of powerless and unconscious consumers served by a ruthless corporate state.
Imagine the petrol runs out tomorrow. The country completely collapses. Petrol, diesel or avgas are the lifeblood of our world. Period. We might at a pinch solve some of the easier personal transport issues with the small electric vehicles making their way slowly to market but at their current rate of supply it will be 2100 before they have a sizeable impact. Simply not even in the slightest, is any urgency being expressed about what is going to be a incredibly difficult problem, its just business as usual. Car makers are plodding along, hand in hand with oil companies and governments continue to pretend that petrol and cars are here forever. 15 million cars in Oz alone, zillions of kilometers of roads, planes flying in and out of Sydney every 2 minutes and an entire society utterly hooked on cheap transport, which is likely to run out of fuel in most people’s lifetime.
Which is what makes Bali almost laughable. Of course one of the ironies is that without modern transport, the Bali conference wouldn’t be possible or even needed. Global warming is a direct consequence of the human race liberating all that carbon trapped under ground into the atmosphere. The science is pretty solid, as are the limits to world oil supplies. Grand speeches by our Kev might help his public image in the short term but what is really required is action. Talk about targets and ambivalence about figures because of their potential economic effect demonstrates how little real political will exists to make the sort of changes that might save the planet. Put simply, debate about targets because they might adversely affect a national economy (ie one based on burning shitloads of fossil fuels to drive a consumer society) reveals how desperate the situation is.
We still have some options. This small window of opportunity is available to us collectively and peacefully, to make the radical changes that are really needed and to develop sustainable alternatives. It is a absolutely huge task but we are in the best position to do it. Applying what we already know to start solving these problems has to begin today, waiting until 2020 or whenever is pointless. The problems will be bigger and the available resources will be less. Solving the problems begins when governments start acting and not just talking. There are no silver bullets, fixing this mess is going to involve pain for a lot of people but it is going to be a lot less painful than doing sweet bugger all which is a recipe for disaster.