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Good politics, pointless policy : Comments
By Richard Denniss, published 3/6/2009The Rudd Government seems to be concerned with symbolism over substance on the issue of tackling climate change.
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Actually, the greatest moral challenge is accepting that we are part of this planet’s biological and physical processes, not divorced from them.
Just as proliferating biology two billion years ago changed the earth’s atmosphere from oxygen-poor to oxygen rich - killing off many species and enabling the development of new ones: so it is now with human proliferation. The world’s (and Australia’s) numbers have been propped up by an ever-increasing capability for mining biological and physical resources rather than living in harmony with them.
Human-induced planetary change is catching up with us fast: Resource depletion (fish stocks, agricultural soils, forestry, fisheries, etc.) and pollution are becoming unsurmountable problems. If we are to take appropriate steps, as Richard Denniss says we should in relation to the most immediately pressing and dire one – climate change, we are still not off the hook. Ever-increasing population and economic growth in size will quickly invoke natural, and dire, consequences detrimental to society and our species.