John Howard on global warming as a moral issue

Not the biggest moral issue facing us?
In his first Australia Rising speech John Howard denied Kevin Rudd's assertion that dealing with global warming is the biggest moral issue facing us now and well into this century. In one sense Howard is right about that. The moral issue is giving the economy priority over doing something about the cause of global warming.

If the way we do things delivers wealth and power yet threatens our very existence, you do not deal with the threat by insisting that we must maintain the status quo. Let’s put that even more explicitly. If growing the economy delivers wealth and power yet threatens our very existence, you do not deal with the threat by insisting that we must go on growing the economy.

Having made that point, let me modify it slightly. It’s not even “growing the economy” that’s the problem. It’s what’s in the economy that’s the problem. The Great Depression was caused by the way the US economy was structured at the time. Roosevelt came up with the New Deal which adjusted the way the economy worked. He almost didn’t get it past the vested interests represented in Congress - and there are still people in the US who lambast the New Deal. But it worked, because it changed what was in the economy. And the economy grew, along with the sustainability of the society – until old habits reasserted themselves and made it necessary for another new deal.

The equivalent of the New Deal today, especially in our situation would be to voluntarily accept a small reduction in the size of our economy while we tooled up for alternatives to coal. Refusing to countenance a small reduction will result in much worse. But there is yet another issue that Howard keeps using as a blocker: Changing what we do is not going to stop things from getting worse unless China and India fall into line. This from the leader of the party that has been telling us that we must take personal responsibility in this world!

Mmmmmmmm. Me and the biggest bully are not going to stop bullying unless all the bullies change their ways. We’ll be good if everyone agrees to be good. That doesn’t sound like the kind of morality John Howard would have learned at Sunday School. I can just imagine his Sunday School teacher saying to him: Now look Johnny, just because Georgie puts his head in the sand doesn’t mean that it’s OK to do so. You’re never going to be any good if you don’t grow up Johnny. Doing naughty things just to get on with your friends is not being grown up.