On Friday, 3 January 2020 19:21:01 AEDT Stephen Loosley wrote: > Climate denialism is bought and paid for by a rotten political system > > The persistence of climate denialism in Australian politics reflects the > wealth of mining and energy companies prepared to use a deeply flawed > political system to wield power.
The author correctly identifies the rules governing donations to political parties as a fundamental problem, but that subject has been well aired in the Media and often advocated for investigation by a Royal Commission. I suggest strict control of political donations should go hand-in-hand with a Federal ICAC. But the problem is more complicated IMHO. If the electorate were of one mind regarding the urgent necessity of effective global action regarding greenhouse warming of the planet (GW) the political classes would follow, but the electorate is not of one mind. Leaving aside the theological rantings of Barnaby Joyce et al and the lies of PR campaigns, why do seemingly intelligent and educated people refuse to accept the reality of GW? Quite fortuitously, I recently pulled out a copy of Scientific American for April 1989 and there, just over _thirty_ years ago, was a lead article dealing with GW: "Evidence suggests that production of carbon dioxide and methane from human activities has already begun to change the climate and that radical steps must be taken to halt any further change". GW is not new. It's interesting to note the way PR companies succeeded in changing the language when awareness of GW began developing. The original term was "greenhouse warming" which neatly incorporated the cause of the problem (accumulation of greenhouse gasses) and the effect (planetary warming). PR first changed the language to "global warming" which got rid of the cause, then to "climate change" which leaves it all wide open; maybe the planet is cooling? The dishonest campaigns waged by some organisations surely verge on the Criminal. Finally, I hope Linkers have as peaceful & healthy a 2020 as possible. David L. _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
