Radio Australia Today Editorial

Saving the World Ain’t Easy

17 July 2008

So the Australian government has finally come out with its climate chanbge strategy. Yesterday I previewed what was going to be in it. Today we get the reaction.

The reaction is inevitable.

People crying poor about how much extra this is going to cost them.

Or are they?

It is the MEDIA that is saying people are crying poor.

True, the carbon offset plan will add about $A2000 to a typical family’s yearly bill, and this is going to be a big squeeze for mums and dads.

But only two weeks ago there was a survey of Australian people in which they said they would be happy to pay for climate-saving initiatives. If you believe the media, they feel this way no longer. I tend to think this is a case of the media trying to keep ahead of the game. They are all trying to be the battler’s friend. Maybe they don’t quite get that people are educated about climate change, and they know that their kids are going to suffer if we don’t fix this problem.

Two thousand smackers a year is not a huge cost to drastically reduce climate change in a country that is the world’s biggest emitter (on a per person basis). And aim is to get people to use less greenhouse gas-emitting power. The two grand is assuming that people will continue to use the same amount of power. It’s a fair assumption that they will use less, especially now there’s a financial incentive.

the government has taken the tough-love route. Let’s hope it works.
– Phil