The Vanguard » climate change

Fuck The Economy

Alex Vanguard — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:06:23 +0000

Now, I realise the economy is indeed Very Important™ and should not be toyed with, but in this boom time of ours, I fear we’ve forgotten the other side of the economic coin: humanity itself.

Now, I’m not saying countries shouldn’t wish to develop their own economies and become better off. I just think we’ve lost sight of all those social aspects of life in the race to become hideously wealthy.

Think about it.

The main issues of the campaign are job- or money-related. We’ve got WorkChoices to contend with, flame wars about union bosses, Rudd and Howard trying to convince us they know how to run the economy best… The issues of health and education are less prominent. All the talk of hospitals seems to be tied in with their funding. Education is all about preparing you for working life. The Government’s handing out tax cuts to just about everyone.

It’s all about money and work.

Is this what we’ve become? Is this really all that matters to us anymore? What happened to community? What happened to people caring about the society we live in and the people themselves? When did we become so fucking selfish?

I want a campaign on social issues, on things that matter, not just how much money Howard can bribe us with. I want us to start caring about each other again, to stop being so terrified of each other, to want to learn for learning’s sake, not just because you have to to further your career. I want less emphasis on the economy and more on the people.

The social well-being of the people should be a government’s main priority. They are there to look after the country and the people. Managing the economy is part of that, sure, but it is not the only job.

At the moment, we have two leaders who are willing to support blatant discrimination against same-sex couples in legislation. If the Liberals want to run a scare campaign about Labor union bosses, then if Labor had any spine at all, they’d run a campaign on all the right-wing Christian organisations and big business influences behind some of our Federal Ministers! That I find far more scary than union bosses.

I hate Howard’s rhetoric on unions, how he seems to say he’s all for unions when WorkChoices is aimed at getting rid of them altogether. The people are much stronger as a group. This is why unions work and are important in workplaces. I doubt Howard would even care if all the unions disappeared overnight. I think he’d laugh with glee because he’s got what he wanted. We all become human machines, working far too many hours for not enough pay in a bid to keep Howard’s Economy booming.

Boom times do not last. It’s going to end some time, probably when we run out of things to dig up. What happens then? Have we even bothered investing some of the funds for a rainy day when things aren’t as strong? This is what the Government should be doing. They should be investing in our future to ensure that we can still survive when things get tougher. We should be investing in humanity, to better ourselves spiritually, socially, mentally, reconnecting with each other again. We should not be wasting $34 billion on election campaign tax cuts that ultimately do more harm than good.

What sort of society have we created? Is it really healthy? Or are we all too afraid to admit it has problems?

Just this week, President Bush welcomed the Dalai Lama in a way that Howard was too cowardly to do. If Bush has done one thing that’s worth remembering in his 8 years in office, I will remember that, because it was a disgrace that Howard was too afraid of upsetting China to meet with him. Once again, the economy was an issue. China buys our coal, therefore we shouldn’t piss them off, because then they’ll take their money away. It’s all about the fucking money!

Gah! We do not bow to China! We should not bow to any sovereign country, not even the USA or the UK. We are a strong nation. Why must we run around like a lapdog and try and placate all the Big World Leaders™ in a bid to convince them we’re allies and friends and they should let us play with them? It’s sickening. It’s degrading. It makes us look pathetic.

Our lack of care for our fellow humans is clear from our continued flouncing of UN Charters we’ve signed on to. You can’t just pick and choose which UN Charters to take on board and which to dismiss. You sign on to it, you abide by it. No exceptions. We should not be selling our uranium to India either. We should not be selling uranium to any country that hasn’t signed up for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Hell, we shouldn’t be selling uranium full stop.

We need to stop caring about The Market and focus back on the people. If you rule a bunch of sheep, you are nothing more than a dictator. The politics of fear lead down this path. We should all be afraid of where it might take us.

The Great Global Warming Swindle?

Alex Vanguard — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:31:50 +0000

I’m the first to admit I’m not much of an extremist when it comes to the issue of global warming. I believe we’ve done some sort of damage to the Earth by the very act of living on it. It’s impossible not to impact the Earth somehow by our activities.

I believe that there is some warming going on, but I’m not convinced it’s as bad as environmentalists are preaching about. There’s too much politicising and extremism going on — from both sides — that’s getting in the way of the actual facts coming to light. I suppose this is why I’m still mostly a fence-sitter.

Yes, that controversial documentary screened tonight in Australia, with half an hour less content, mind, and a decent discussion on the issues afterwards that meant I had a whole hour of solid Tony Jones pervage, but that’s another matter entirely.

I was in two minds about it before I watched it. I’d heard about the controversy and having read most of Clive Hamilton’s book Scorched about climate politics in Australia, I admit I was skeptical about Durkin’s credibility. But I tried to watch it with an open mind, because when one closes oneself off to other opinions, one is on the road to fundamentalism and extremism. Harsh words, I know, but that’s how it starts.

I will admit that some of what Durkin says could be plausible. However, it’s a well-crafted opinion piece and makes its message believable. Or at least, it makes it plausible enough to make you think, which is what it did to me.

Now, I won’t discount the impact the sun has on the Earth. It would be stupid to say the sun has no impact on the Earth at all. There would be no life without the sun. Or at least, no life like there is now. However, one can make statistics and graphs say whatever one wants.

I’m intensely skeptical about a lot of things, politics for one. When I read about studies into medical treatments in the paper, I automatically scan for sample size and who might be funding the trials. Five years studying science at uni has taught me a thing or two about being skeptical, which is exactly what Karoly said on the debate tonight. Scientists are trained to be skeptical. I won’t deny that.

Now, I believe we should look after the Earth. It is, after all, the only one we’ve got. So I’m happy to support green energy and wind power and other alternative energy sources, because I do think it’s a good idea to pursue those technologies, especially in Australia. We get a lot of sun in Australia. We should be one of the leaders in solar power technology, and we should have more of it integrated into our grid than we do. Instead, all the innovative alternative energy technologies are being forced overseas because of a lack of funding and investment. This is a travesty. Our future is being primed for nuclear technology and power, on top of oil, gas and coal.

So what happens when the coal runs out? What about when all the oil disappears? So much of our world is dependant on oil and oil-based materials that there would certainly be a crash of massive proportions when the oil runs out. What happens then? What replaces it?

Right now, I’m not sure if oil or climate change is the bigger problem. I’m not sure what will have an effect first. Sure, oil is getting more expensive, and it’s certainly not going to get cheaper. What happens when oil runs out and climate change hit us both at once? The two things that drive and shape our world would combine to bring developed countries to their knees.

Now, I’m no proper climate scientist. My studies have mostly been in biology, so don’t take what I’m saying as absolute truth or even fact. This is just how I see it. There are just too many problems in the world at the moment that identifying one as the most significant is impossible for me. They’re all a problem, from climate change to oil to poverty to war, and none of them have a simple solution.

The time people stop seeing these things as simple issues that can be solved if everyone wears rubber armbands or buys red iPods or whatever needs to end. These issues are not simple. They won’t be solved overnight. The need for Governments to stand up and take action instead of just talking about things is over. The sooner everyone gets that through their thick fucking skulls the better we’ll all be. Governments need to start taking responsibility for the people they govern.