Just What Is Australia Trying To Tell Us?

“On February 24, 2011, the Australian Government announced the introduction of a carbon tax beginning on July 1, 2012. The tax will transition to a cap-and-trade-system within five years. A multi-party parliamentary committee agreed upon the program as part of a blueprint for dealing with climate change.”

Huh?

While carbon trading is a minor step forward, you might still wonder who, or what, has abducted our heretofore-staunch, coal-fired allies in the battle against the environmental bleat. Our once trusted raconteur of “Carbon dioxide remediation hurts the economy,” our blessed anthem, has slithered away from the seam. How could our Aussie chums emerge like so many jellyfish?

Originally, to understand this earthshaking shift, I had an ore boat full of data on damage from this year’s energized climate–from bananas to coal, wheat to beef, sugar to housing. The numbers in my arsenal were stoked, sizzling,  and ready to roll–carbon free and hot as a Cyclone Furnace. I chronicled damage to Australian exports, reductions of growth–enough economic numbers to flood an area the size of France; I had increases in inflation, decreases in Kiwi GNP, snippets of human sorrow, stranded railcars full of financial side quotes, and a tsunami of human waste–enough to choke a wastewater plant–my category-five-deluge of details, destined to drown the Bowen Basin. I was cookin’, sixteen-with-a-bullet, sanctimony dripping off every alliterative keystroke; my environmental quiver brimming with barbs of economic comeuppance. Knockout pearls guided by quills of enlightenment; all aimed at the coal-blackened hearts of the corporate agenda. It was so…Holy. I even had scientific findings to share.

To wit:  That the buffers formed by ENSO,  AO,  AAO,  PDO,  and other weather macros are reaching their initial capacity points and so highly destructive weather patterns are beginning to emerge.  

Had the Aussies come to this same conclusion? Horrific events were unfolding, just as the climatologists had claimed: Billions of dollars in damage, force majeure maybes, financial losses sending companies into the volcanic mud of insolvency, human misery, stock losses, and starvation–they all waited on the prismatic horizon. Had the emperor’s new clothes of carbon intensity, what-me-worry, and propaganda machines masquerading as think tanks gone the way of a Queensland banana grove?

I had the facts, alliteration, sanctimony, and humor covered; however, I still couldn’t tie the Aussies’ reversal of policy to the human condition.  

Then it happened: late stage analysis paralysis. Maybe their carbon remediation blueprint isn’t about economics, climate, or adjectives. Are the Kiwis in a heat at the United States for leading them along the uplifted, and brick strewn, garden path of an economic myth? Have the Aussies changed their mantra because they see that coal is fool’s gold? Or maybe the folks from down under recognize that Earth is an ecosystem. In light of that revelation, will America, India, and China–the See-No-Evil-Trio–still support the dark side of the coal seam?

Flummoxed, lost in premises, platitudes, and piety–while scrutinizing bituminous barbs–I began considering a radical approach: Perhaps the mass media outlets might help drill into the money details. Australia had $15-20 billion in damage from the recent storms and the New Zealand earthquakes add another $15 billion in damage; we are beginning to argue real money.

Hang on. Did the Kiwis, the Australians, or the media for that matter understand the tie between earthquakes and human forcing of the planet’s radiative balance? The media giants have refused to link energized weather and human forcing of the radiative balance. Then it happened; in a moment of Katrina-like clarity, I saw my prosaic darlings would achieve zilch in explaining the Aussie abandonment of closed mindedness and a myopic government policy fostered by retro-economic interests. And quicker than you can say devastated infrastructure, I had the answer.

The folks from down-under were out of pocket–with apologies to our marsupial friends. Their leadership and the population could no longer ignore the weather-wallops conveyed by our energized climate. Corralled by chaos, their culture has been co-opted to cope with the climate crisis because it has no choice. Or to put the message in down-under terms:  Economies will flourish in a benign predictable climate, but a rabid climate declared benign will kill economies, and people…Mate.

What will we do with this information?

One media outlet might report that in private, some politicians have suggested a continuation of the US No-Regrets-Policy until the population can no longer ignore the climate related disasters. Followed by reports that one unnamed lobbyist takes it a step further, “Ignoring the climate issue has worked fine for the politicians down-under. It could work for us as well.” 

Another outlet might state: “Due to events in Australia and New Zealand, a spirit of bipartisan cooperation has swept the US capital. Sources say that an efficient GHG blueprint to cope with the effects of human forcing of the radiative balance is under development. The focus of which, is to keep our economy resilient while we rapidly reduce our GHG output. Hundreds of thousands of new jobs will be created by this nationwide effort.”

Regardless, both reports could end with, “…Of course this has nothing to do with our destructive winter storms.”