Real Solutions or Smoke and Mirrors?

by Ruth Rosenhek
printed in Northern Star, Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Today I read that satellite measurements from 130 miles up in space show that Greenland is melting. Scientists say that if either Greenland’s glaciers or the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to slide away completely, global seas would rise by 15 to 20 feet, re-sculpting coastlines worldwide.

Two weeks ago, it was reported that global warming could spell the end of the world's largest remaining tropical rainforest, transforming the Amazon into a grassy savannah before the end of the century.

I scratch my head and wonder how on Earth we will resolve a situation as severe as this.

One thing is certain; global warming has reached mainstream consciousness. We are no longer debating whether climate change is real or not. A review of 928 peer-reviewed papers on climate change published between 1993 and 2003 showed the consensus to be real and near universal. Even sceptical scientists now accept that we can expect some warming.

We are now faced with the challenge of sorting the real solutions from the false.

In the midst of rising alarm, we must not fall prey to political and business leaders eager for “business as usual”, who want us to believe that we will be able to pay the environmental costs of drilling oil by screwing in efficient light bulbs, or offset the pollution from a new coal mine by burning the methane that seeps up out of that same mine.

The majority of polluting greenhouse gases in Australia comes from the burning of coal to produce electricity. Clean coal is an unproven technology and wishful thinking. It doesn’t matter how many windmills and solar arrays we build unless these are accompanied by reducing the more than 70 million tonnes of CO2 we pump into the atmosphere each day – that is why we have to start phasing out coal mines.

If we truly want to combat global warming, we can’t avoid a major reorganisation of society and technology. For example, Australia gives $6.5 billion annually in public subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. Any real solutions must include redirecting these subsidies towards the development of renewable energy and other transitions to lower-carbon lifestyles. We must also look after those who would otherwise suffer from the transition to less carbon-intensive industry.

Real solutions also include large-scale public works programs to revamp our transport systems, decentralise electricity networks to make them more efficient, reliable, secure and receptive to solar, wind and micro-hydro power.

On Wednesday evening at 7PM, there will be a telephone conference where Mark Diesendorf of the University of NSW will discuss A Sustainable Future for Australia. To book and for further information, email Ruth at rainforestinfo@ozemail.com.au.

Ruth Rosenhek, MS Organisational Management, is Director of the Rainforest Information Centre in Lismore.