Scorcher: The dirty politics of climate change, by Clive Hamilton. Black Inc., Australia, 2007. ISBN 9780977594900. RRP $29.95.
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Once
I had a discussion about the future with a Minister in the Irish
Government. He told me not to worry about it too much. 'Posterity,' he
said, 'has never done anything for us.' Climate change is about the
future; but a future which creeps up on us every day. It threatens
living standards, lifestyles, quality of life, all the aspirational
clichés of human existence. It’s not comfortable to think about.
No
wonder people hope for arguments which suggest it will go away. The
discussion about climate change has become increasingly feverish,
polemical and downright dishonest. So, I should state my own position
right at the beginning.
I’m a lay person who believes that the
overwhelming consensus of international scientists is correct. Climate
change is happening, it is substantially contributed to by human
activity and particularly the burning of fossil fuels. If we can, we
should do something about it. I think we owe something to posterity.
Clive Hamilton, the author of Scorcher, has been pretty
consistent on environmental issues over the years and about climate
change. In 1999 the Australia Institute, of which he is the Director,
published a damning report which alleged that Australia had the highest
level of Greenhouse gas emissions per person of any industrialised
country in the world.
In Scorcher, he follows up the
issues worldwide, from the international negotiations leading to the
signing of the Kyoto agreement to the various strategies adopted by
countries in response to growing awareness of the implications of
global warming.
The big question is why Australia, an apparently enthusiastic
signatory of the Kyoto agreement (subject to special conditions) not
only failed to ratify Kyoto but actively sought to undermine its
influence. In the Australian context, the sub-title of Hamilton’s book The dirty politics of climate change tells us something of the answers to this question.
In
fact, this is very much a book about the pollution of Australian
democratic processes by a combination of self-interested corporations,
an ignorant and apathetic media (with some exceptions) and a spineless
government manipulated by a prime minister who failed to comprehend
important issues which fell outside the narrow confines of his
political imagination.
If Clive Hamilton were only half right
, and I believe this well documented book is a lot more than half
right, then it is a shameful story.
It is a story of
government bureaucrats reacting to the apparent influence of
environmentalists and of the formation of a self-styled 'greenhouse
mafia' (formed principally from executives of the mining, coal,
aluminium and energy sectors), which became enormously influential in
government decision making.
In
its period of greatest influence this group sometimes had direct access
to cabinet papers, held secret meetings with the prime minister and a
few of his close colleagues, and on one occasion in 2003 had a cabinet
decision (supported by all government agencies other than Finance)
reversed after two members of the 'greenhouse mafia' (Rio Tinto and
Alcoa) lobbied the Prime Minister.
A lot of things happened
because of the cosy relationship between the 'greenhouse mafia' and the
prime minister. Australian delegations to international negotiations on
climate change were largely comprised of representatives from the major
polluting companies. The renewable energy industry (solar, wind power,
etc) became the enemy, to be discouraged as a potential alternative to
the fossil fuel industry.
The government showed itself willing
to accept flawed modelling from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural
and Resource Economics so long as it agreed with the government’s
position. It even used material from this source to try to frighten
developing countries about aspects of the Kyoto agreement.
The CSIRO suffered a different fate, with pressure being exerted on
scientists not to talk about climate change and one, Dr Graeme Pearman,
being effectively sacked. This was all part of government attempts to
manipulate public opinion, a task which included the appointment of a
tame Chief Scientist who happened to also be Chief Technologist at Rio
Tinto.
Hamilton describes the government’s strategy on climate change as
'do nothing at home and work hard to prevent others taking action'. So
there was encouragement of apathy here because of a loathing of
environmentalism and 'feverish activity abroad' to protect the
interests of the coal export industry.
In the Australian
context, Hamilton writes, 'the government was ... enamoured of green
consumerism'; green energy, hybrid cars, all that sort of stuff, which
laudable though it may be 'contributes to the progressive privatisation
of responsibility for environmental degradation'. The more individuals
are made to feel responsible for the problem the less the onus on the
government, which should be providing leadership and policy direction
on such a significant issue.
For a long time the public was
relatively apathetic about global warming: neither alert nor
particularly alarmed. The tide turned during 2006, probably as a result
of a long drought, very hot summers and the Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth.
Now, suddenly it’s an election issue, a frantic struggle for
credibility. In the meantime, Australia has lost ten years and our
political system has been guided into further disrepute. It’s this part
of the story which makes me particularly angry: the evidence of a
government sinking to new lows in honesty and openness in its
administration.
Clive Hamilton tells it well and his book should be widely read by people concerned about Australian democracy.
John Button was a minister and senator in the Hawke and Keating governments. He has written books, a Quarterly Essay, and has also written for, among many publications, the Sydney Morning Herald and Crikey.