Solving the financial crisis and global warming

I rode this morning. It was the usual Thursday morning ride complete with a crash and the attendant postmortem. But it was a chat over coffee that got me thinking.

My mate runs a bike shop. It's successful, as is he, but I could hear the fear in his voice knowing that the full force of the economic crisis is yet to bite. There are going to be lots of job cuts. My brother may well be one of them.

In government there's plenty of hand-wringing and furrowed brows. Unemployment is politically unsavory. So are bank foreclosures. Leaders know that now is the time for serious economic support, hence the $10.4 billion stimulus package recently announced to help families and first home buyers. All good stuff, at least politically.

But I'm wondering why the government isn't doing more to sort out climate change as a major part of kick-starting the economy. Rather than sinking money into unprofitable child care centres and similarly unprofitable auto manufacturers, let's sink money into developing clean energy and infrastructure that reduces the demand for fossil fuels over the long term.

Just stimulating the economy is a short-term fix; politically palatable and achievable inside a single term of government. However, thoughtful, well-crafted economic strategies could provide an instant boost to the economy and go on paying dividends for generations to come. The Rudd government appear intent on doing just that; or at least in part.

Their support of the auto industry includes a $1.3 billion injection into the Green Car Innovation Fund. It's clever strategy and linked to a long view of the future.

Climate change and common sense

There was an interesting article in yesterday's daily paper, the West Australian. Now the West, admittedly, is known for its right wing stance on pretty much everything. It's pro-big business, pro-development, pro-conservative government, and any time it has a chance to belt a lefty, lesbo, homo, greeny or libertarian around the ears, that's exactly what it does. I'm all for freedom of speech; don't get me wrong, but yesterday's story was a classic. There's plenty of evidence to support that our climate is changing - for the worse - as a result of green-house gas emissions. From Al Gore to our local CSIRO, Australia's peak scientific organisation, there's plenty of warnings of the consequences if we fail to change our habits when it comes to consumption - particularly of energy derived from fossil fuels.

Despite all this evidence, it came as no surprise to see Paul Murray of the West, under the cloak of investigative journalism, produce 'evidence' suggesting that the changes we're seeing are as a result of nothing more than cyclical changes to weather patterns that have been taking place since time began. And the 'evidence' Paul trotted out? None other than a prominent geologist who just happens to be on the payroll of one of the peak mining bodies here in Australia. Like he's going to shit in his own nest by suggesting anything alarming!

So I wonder, if Paul's so keen about evidence, if he's ever taken a trip through Europe with his eyes open. He may have observed all the smog. Cloudless skies where the horizon is constantly brown. I wonder, Paul, was that smog around a couple of hundred years ago? And has he ever wondered where the clear blue skies have gone? I remember as a kid on the farm, looking to the sky and marvelling how clear it was, how you could just see through this blueness forever. But that's probably not scientific enough for Paul, nor for his big-business, big-industry cronies. My hope is that passion will win over thought, that common-sense will prevail over theory, and that the welfare of the planet will be put before commercial interest.