I believe that a good dose of common sense is required to understand the real issues. A dose of common sense to decipher the media bullshit and political one-up-manship that is being thrust at ordinary Australians every single day in the mainstream media. A dose of common sense to get back in touch with the reality of it all with the realisation that the furor of anti-climate action is being created by vested interests who choose short term profits and greed over the future of our children’s children. A dose of common sense about the true meaning of not acting on the voluminous amounts of carbon dioxide and the five other greenhouse gasses that we spew into the atmosphere and oceans every day.
As far as I can tell it all comes down to risk management. We make a choice based on the risk of action or inaction on what we are doing to our home. Here are the four choices as I see it.
A. If the majority of scientists are correct and man-induced climate change is happening and we do something about the cause to lower emissions, then great, it was money well spent and we have a future. No issue.
B. If the majority of scientists are incorrect and man-induced climate change is not happening, and we still do something to lower emissions, then no great loss, we have a clean planet to live on, species decline may stop and we begin to care about our planet. Money well spent. No issue.
C. If the majority of scientists are correct and man-induced climate change is happening and we do nothing, then we spend no money and we are stuffed. Changed climate, species loss including our own, and a general shit storm if the IPCC reports are anything to go by. It’s life Jim, but not as we know it!
D. If the majority of scientists are incorrect and man-induced climate change is not happening and we do nothing, we party like it is 1999 and we spend no money on reducing emissions, we still end up with a shitty place to live with a polluted environment for our children’s children.
Our choice is simple. A nice place to live as in choice A and B, or a shitty place to live as in choice C or D. The vested interest would like us to choose the latter. I personally choose A and B, and am doing something about it in my own special way. Our capacity for inaction in the face of the facts about climate change continually stuns me each day in this country. It could be all of the media hype, which is hard to avoid these days, but I have weighed up the research and have made an informed risk based decision.
Now because I choose A and B, I will be attending one of the many family oriented rallies being held throughout our great land on Sunday, 5th of June. Check out the Say Yes Australia video below for more information or click on the link.
This rally is great but lets not stop there. I find that you can influence other at a more personal level. Think of it like this. One person starts doing something out of the ordinary (taking waste coffee grounds home from the office for the garden, keeping chooks, turning off their work PC overnight, whatever), and then a whole bunch of other people will start doing it.
It’s almost like nobody wants to be the first to go out on a limb, but once that first person has broken the ice, it’s suddenly much more socially acceptable for others to do the same. We really are social animals.
So lets get social and lead by example to tackle it from both angles!