marklynas.orgPostcard from Sydney 18 November 04
Well, I’ve been here two days, and am just beginning to recover from jet-lag (or carbon-lag, as I like to call it). There’s a strange feeling of dislocation here in Australia on the climate issue, rather as I imagine there is in the US states that voted for Kerry. The federal government, led by John Howard, takes a firm head-in-the-sand anti-Kyoto stance. But individual states, like New South Wales, are beginning to to their own way. NSW in particular, under the leadership of premier Bob Carr (who’s been very outspoken on global warming) has already introduced an early emissions trading scheme, forcing energy generators to buy a certain amount of power from renewable sources. I’ve just come from a posh lunch with 15 CEOs – all of whom clearly ‘get it’ about our changing climate. It’s strange to hear corporate execs complaining that they feel powerless in the face of government intransigence, but that’s what things have come to in Australia. Meanwhile, water shortages and drought are really beginning to bite…
Comments
Keith Thomas
November 18th, 2004 at 09:31 AM
You have summed it up well, Mark. But you haven’t met the Australian rednecks yet. They eagerly ape their US counterparts in as many unimaginative ways as you could imagine. The Howard government boasts what it has done for the environment. But if you look closely, most of what they claim is confined to ‘throwing money at the problem’ – where that money is caught and pocketed by their mates. There are few national measures of environmental progress in Australia that reflect real improvement. The complex and fragile ecology of much of the continent is reaching a mulitude of tipping points, but few are awake to the problems. Hope you can knock a few heads together while you are here, Mark!
thetreehugger
November 19th, 2004 at 04:33 PM
Oz is great. While you are there I recommend Tim Flannery’s excellent book The Future Eaters, which brilliantly analyses mans impact on fragile Australia.
Graeme Drysdale
November 23rd, 2004 at 12:40 AM
at least 54% of Australians just dont seem to get it – concepts related to bio-depletion skim pass their wallets, as with the recent election Australians voted according to which party would better control the uncontrolable interest rates. there are two documents which are essential first stop reading: “Blueprint for a Living Continent” by the Wentworth group of Concerned Scientists [which includes Flannery] www.wwf.org.au and Australian Terrestrial Tiodiversity Assessment 2002, www.ea.gov.au.
i live in the Ballarat region which has less than 5% indigenous vegetation left and landclearing applications are still sought and permitted.
Mark – can we have some more pix online of your trip which resulted in High Tide, please
Mark Lynas
November 24th, 2004 at 07:34 AM
Someone just sent me this, so I had to put it on the site. Sorry, I don’t know the source. It’s very close to the truth…
Oh, and Graeme – good point about needing to put more pictures up. I’ll see about setting up some new pages for this.