Environmentalism was invented by overpaid public sector staff & academics. You know the type, the focus of the whole week is the dinner party they are hosting, or going to this weekend.

As the only thought in the heads of most of these is how to one-up their acquaintances, they found they had nothing to talk about at such dinner parties, so invented something meaningless.

They still don't have a useful thought in their heads, but can spend their time comparing the size of their donations to organisations who indulge in piracy to attract those donations, Oh, & how much improved is their new Prius to last years model they just traded.

I am afraid Liz your article comes across not as someone worried about anyone else. It says to me you are annoyed you missed the gravy train in your younger years, & are a bit p1ssed off about that, & those who got on it earlier.

Good luck with your present studies, they should provide some useful dinner party topics for you, if you catch up to that train.

The carbon tax is only due to be introduced in July! Little wonder it has failed to have a discernible effect? Environmentalists do seem to belong to an upper class we know best elitist club and disconnected from the common heard; and indeed, large parts of reality?
On the one hand they are there sharing every possible photo op, when a so-called organic, code for extraordinarily expensive, farmers market opens. [Scientific studies show that that you get very little for the extra money; except say imperfections and a little extra living protein in the salads etc?]
Yet, when discussing husbanding more of our most precious resource; water, so we can guarantee our own food security, they say we should import it. So we can return more water to the rivers.
Some of our posters would've been proud of my Great Grandmother; most of the male members of her family destroyed in the great war and out there in the height of summer heat; a prolapsed womb; and, barely able to lift the shovel; trying to create a sustenance garden for three dependant little girls. Food security is our most important security! The greens just don't get it?
Make it cost more, they say, and people every where will use less. How does that work, when like a single mum struggling to raise a family or an aged or disabled pensioner, you're economising at every turn; or, nearly dead from heatstroke, because you can longer afford to run the air-conditioner.
Look, if the best environment options were also the most economical; everyone would chose them? And they can be!
And surely we are smart enough to store some of our massive northern surplus water and divert some of it it south; in a win/win outcome, rather than allow many Sydney harbour's worth; to rush wastefully out to sea, and very nearly destroy our Dugong and Turtle populations? When I see Greens drinking Chinese milk or eating Chinese frozen food, I might believe a tiny fraction of what they say; rather than the plain as the nose on your face agenda?

Of course the poor have always died in their millions whenever an environmental catastrophe occurs.

How many millions of Irish peasants starved to death or were forced to go elsewhere if they could afford it, as a result of the failure of the potato crop.
Meanwhile of course shiploads of grain were being exported to England - the "market" rules OK!

How many millions of peasants starved to death in Bengal while rice was being exported - the "market" rules OK!

Thanks for the thought provoking piece Liz; you have hit the issue of 'sustainability of the planet' on the head. Yes most of the hype about environmental living is greenwash either to sell products or gently persuade the over-consuming middle- upper income class they should reduce their consumption. As an energy assessor I can say that the biggest footprint items are car and air travel, air conditioning eating meat and living in a big house with with few occupants. None of these are essential to a full and healthy life. It's simple - cut down or better still cut out any of these things and you're doing a good thing for the planet. So the poor are largely blameless when it comes to destruction of 'ecological capital'(clean air,oceans, water, forests etc); it's the rich and self indulgent who do the damage.

For those interested, you can download my carbon / energy footprint calculator from www.ghgenergycalc.com.au. By the way I too live on a low income, don't have air conditioning and have reduced my emissions to about half the Australian average.

PS Atman your statement that a carbon price will do nothing to reduce emissions is nonsense. What it will do is increase the price of polluting energy to that of renewables, thus enabling a change to renewable power generation. That will reduce emissions. Also, if fuel and electricity become more expensive, there will be an incentive to use it more efficiently. This is already happening with power going up from the absurdly cheap subsidized rate of 13c/ kWh to around 19c; it should be about 25c and fuel should be > $2.00/ litre; then perhaps we'd really get serious about not wasting it.

"While I certainly have nothing against environmental books being written by people who are well-educated - they're usually the people best qualified to speak on the topic - I have wondered whether they really understand the demands and limitations placed on those with little money. Sometimes it actually seems as though they don't even realise such people exist."

One wonders how the author has been influenced to think that the writers of environmental books are best qualified to speak on the subject. Perhaps she was brainwashed at school and/or university, or has acquired the bad habit of listening to and believing the supposedly-impartial ABC, or worse still she is a captive of the propaganda advanced by the Greens .

As very few of these educators, journalists and environmental activists have practical knowledge of how to manage the environment in a responsible economic manner, it is not surprising that they don't understand -- or don't want to understand -- the demands and limitations placed on those with little money. The passing of the carbon dioxide tax by a misinformed bunch of politicians who have been conned by environmental activists into believing that man-made global warming is real, is a case in point. All Australian industry will be adversely affected, which means that the living standards of working classes will be reduced significantly, and, sad but true, there will be no measurable benefit to the environment.

...How the real estate market contributes hugely to reducing the carbon footprint: Rent gouging! And of course the Undertaker; the end game in the carbon footprint: Two industries that should be congratulated for their relentless contribution to environmental protection. What a sick joke is “Gillard” with her ridiculous carbon tax, tipped to the extremes by Bob Brown and his “poofter” greens party, with a warped view of life in the real world!

...I wish to know where the new-age fetish with environmental salvation ends. The poor are definitely the compliant losers under “environmentalism”, not a doubt about that as a fact. And yet another winter on the horizon with a choice between eating and freezing (applicable to the poor only), made plain by obscene price rises in electricity bills, and the consequences of the new-age government “hate session” on coal fired power stations still to unfold.

...I notice the Iranians have invented a novel idea to deal with their nuclear threat, magnetic hand grenades! I believe the Iranian refugee intake into Australia has spiked, mmmm!