Business as usual: not an option

Barefaced deception and a naked gamble
One thing John Howard has done for us by being so hysterical about alternatives to coal and nuclear is to demonstrate that business as usual is not an option. Actually, before going any further, I would like to make the very important point that Howard’s position is actually the alternative. The need for renewable energy is so obvious that Howard’s vociferous insistence on coal and nuclear to the total exclusion of renewables is exposed for what it is far more compellingly than if had conceded a role for renewables. In fact, a role for renewables is precisely the position of everyone who backs them. No one has ever suggested that renewables are the only option. Howard has fatally overplayed his hand by misrepresenting the supporters of renewables – by saying that they propose a base load role for renewables. What renewables can do is significantly reduce the role of coal – not abolish it. And by crying wolf about Australian jobs if less coal is used he is hoping that people will not remember that every new technology has produced more jobs – not less. Jobs are going off shore right now: the development of renewable power technology. Howard’s naked gamble on clean coal and nuclear demonstrates the unviability of business as usual as nothing else could. The interests of the big end of town are shown to be such a threat to the future of the planet that we simply cannot allow them to get their way. Theirs is the alternative interest – the alternative to a sustainable future. Business as usual is not an option.