11 votes

The Australian government has been forced to talk about climate change, so it’s taking a subtle – and sinister – approach

3 comments

  1. [3]
    Algernon_Asimov
    Link
    I noticed this during Scott Morrison's long-form television interview on the ABC on Sunday morning. It also pops up in the Science Minister's commentary about the bushfires. In both cases, they're...

    I noticed this during Scott Morrison's long-form television interview on the ABC on Sunday morning. It also pops up in the Science Minister's commentary about the bushfires. In both cases, they're not talking about preventing or reducing climate change - they're talking about "climate resilience" (whatever the fuck that is) and "climate adaptation".

    In other words, they're not focussed on fixing the causes of the problem - not that they ever were. They're shifting the conversation to addressing the effects.

    This is a necessary conversation to have. Even if the whole world stopped emitting carbon dioxide today, the climate has already changed and will continue to change as the carbon we've already emitted does its work in the atmosphere and continues to affect the climate. We need to talk about adaptation.

    However, the Australian government is now trying to talk about adaptation to gloss over the fact that they can't talk about prevention. They're redefining the problem to suit them, because they can't talk about the problem everyone else wants them to talk about.

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      thundergolfer
      Link Parent
      Did he do a long-form interview on Insiders? Didn't get up early enough. If the talk about climate adaption gets seriously under way in 5-10 years then any conservative government will implement...

      Did he do a long-form interview on Insiders? Didn't get up early enough.

      If the talk about climate adaption gets seriously under way in 5-10 years then any conservative government will implement austerity measures further crippling society and abusing the poor.

      The left aren't talking about "adaption" without talking about "Climate Justice". Right-wingers like the Liberals will not acknowledge who is most responsible for this mess (the rich) and who can give the most without giving up necessities (the rich). Grim stuff.

      3 votes
      1. Algernon_Asimov
        Link Parent
        It wasn't Insiders. That's not back from summer hiatus yet. But it was with the soon-to-be host of Insiders, David Speers. The ABC has been promoting him everywhere as "Insiders host, David Speers".

        It wasn't Insiders. That's not back from summer hiatus yet. But it was with the soon-to-be host of Insiders, David Speers. The ABC has been promoting him everywhere as "Insiders host, David Speers".