350.org

Canberra isn’t usually the place for big public protests and yesterday’s 350.org rally was fairly typical of the Canberra protest scene. A good number of the usual suspects rocked up in their Subarus although the biking student collective were also out in force. It was a fine day, the grass is always green on Capital Hill and the trees provided a nice bit of shade for a collection of speakers who addressed the crowd on the necessity of a global agreement around carbon at 350ppm.

The evidence presented wasn’t news. A climate palaeontologist from the ANU summarised some of the worse predictions for the near future, the melting ice, the flooding, the droughts, the shift in climatic zones. A Getup rep talked about green jobs, there was an amusing little routine involving crowd participation before Rod Quantock amused us with his account of Steve Fielding, Wilson Tuckey and Andrew Bolt, an unholy trio of climate change denialists. He also alerted the crowd to this little gem hiding on the internet.

Yes, its true, climate change due to human activity isn’t just a 21st century idea. It would be nice to think the elected political representatives will grasp the small window of opportunity to affect some relatively peaceful but necessarily radical changes that might see a greener cleaner world emerge, one that might devote its awesome manufacturing and engineering talents to replace the vast array of wasteful carbon emitters currently in existence, one that might take seriously the idea of reforesting the planet but, the reality seems to be business as usual.

Which brings us to the logical conclusion, one that others have already foreseen and a more likely contributor to the security state that is gradually taking hold in western democracies. The mainstream media, the political elites and big business have far too much invested in the status quo. Their game is FUD, fear, uncertainty and doubt. Stick with them and somehow everything will be ok. Politicians making promises in public, TV ads showing how concerned the coal industry is, the mainstream media always seeking to “balance” the picture. But what is the picture?

Here’s what I know. I’m fifty this year. I have been fortunate to live most of my life in one geographic location. I can remember a different climate to the one we are currently experiencing, the rain fell differently, the hot weather wasn’t as extreme and it was colder for longer, there were more trees and less cars. But it is more than the measurable quantities, it’s a perception that the weather patterns have shifted. I also know that science works and the available science seems to give me a broader explanation for these local phenomena. And then there is the way the world works, what is said and what is done and the disconnect that underpins our consumer mentality. Apparently we do “need” a new plasma high definition TV, we do “need” Fox TV, we do “need” Windows 7, we do “need” to eat at McDonalds, we do “need” someone else to clean up our mess…

It seems what we really need is some honesty about where this is all going. Let those who claim this is all ok reveal their stake in the status quo. The noisy voice of vested interest needs to be shouted down. Like Rod, it seems to me inevitable that the only answer is direct action. It might be the only thing that prevents a global catastrophe.

350.org website