When it comes to cutting carbon emissions, one can use the image of a sports trainer in full voice: 'If there is no pain there is no gain.'
To allay fears and gather support from poorer households, Labor government spokespersons have told them that they will not be worse off when a price is put on carbon. They say big business and the wealthy will have to pay and poorer household will be compensated. A spokesperson added, 'You may even make money'.
This is playing dirty. It hides the fact that when a price is put on carbon our way of life will be changed. Perhaps it will be just as happy or even happier, but it will be changed nonetheless. Pain will be involved in adapting and redirecting where we spend money. As homes and transport are redesigned to become more efficient, as new job opportunities and the new training needed to do those jobs expands, as the real cost of producing food is reflected in the supermarket and the supply of cheap imported goods slows, life in Australia will be changed. Even cheap and frequent overseas trips will slow. The inconvenience of readjusting our life plans will be a part of adjusting our expectations. Some will enjoy the venture in developing new lifestyles despite the pain. But others will hanker for the way things were.
Some years back, Professor Derek Eamus, Director of the Institute for Water and Environmental Resource Management, spoke at the University of Technology Sydney on the Australian lifestyle under the title, 'Is the Australian Dream killing us?' Buying into unreal expectations has given us a busy lifestyle.
In our exhaustion we look for more and more exotic holidays to soothe our frenetic psyche, disregarding the carbon footprint. In the Wallace Wurth lecture, Kerry O'Brien laid much of the blame on politicians and the media for a race to the bottom. Politicians form policy to placate the latest fad proposed by focus groups; the media searches for news-entertainment to titillate the masses. Both fail to present what is real and of value. But responsibility must be shared by ordinary people and their blinkered demands.
Facing up to rapid climate change is the great challenge of our times. The physics of increased greenhouse gases