At the end of Insight on SBS on Tuesday night, I listened to what I thought was one of the most brilliant, relevant and powerful ideas when it comes to marketing and dealing with Australia’s position in the climate change debate. Just as Josh wrote in his street editor’s post ‘it seems everyone is doing it‘,“Ultimately, after the marketing sputniks have had their way with feel-good campaigns and projects (which let me stress are needed as a first step!), the real work needs to begin - of restructuring value and supply chains, educating employees, sourcing 100% of energy from renewable sources, and offsetting Co2 emissions, to name a just a few mandatory actions companies need to take.” I am in total agreeance with his point and that the only way to deal with the climate issue is to convert to clean renewable energy – solar, wind, thermal etc. It seems so obvious yet at the same time it feels like such little action is occurring. map magazine went carbon neutral three years ago. Why? To start demonstrating immediately that as an individual and a business that is where I wanted to invest my money to assist in the conversion of an economy to a green economy that invests in clean renewable energy.
Back to Insight – Allan Jones, The head of the London Climate Change Agency, when asked what he thought Australia could do regarding solving the climate change problem said what I consider to be one of the smartest ideas … Well, I mean, the thought occurred to me and I agreed to the person that said about making it easy, but I mean, Australia must have huge renewable energy resources that you’re just not tapping into yet - wind, onshore, offshore, marine technology, solar - you’ve got a huge resource for solar energy and there are all different types of solar energy technologies that you should be investing in. You can disconnect yourself from the fossil fuel world and you’ll see what a difference that will make to the economic development of Australia. You can disconnect yourself from the fossil fuel world!!!!!!!
Could you imagine an ad campaign for Australian Tourism? The line could be something like, “Australia … we have just disconnected ourselves from the fossil fuel world. Come down and enjoy this pristine country … “. Not only would it penetrate the psyche of the world’s citizens, it would immediately communicate leadership on this world issue. Australia is in such a great position to truly lead on this issue, It’s a huge country with a small population.
Why is that when we have to fight a war, spend huge amounts of money and suffer the loss of huge amounts of people that we can somehow find a way to justify the act and the expenditure. However when it comes to the environment and the planet’s long term protection, the government carries on about job and industry losses. I have always been grateful to those who fought for this country and gave me the opportunity to live so freely. Whilst many of us may never face a war, maybe our generation and government’s test is to deal with the economic fall by taking immediate action and changing the paradigm energy usage. As opposed to tip-toeing through the fields in order to protect certain industry.
I am not an advocate of war but if we can go to war on countries, why can we not go to war (prefer more the idea of smartly change) on our economy? Our forefathers fought for our nationalism – an idea that we hold so dear. Maybe we can fight for the planet. If we did it would change it so that future generations can live in a way that we have become accustomed to and maybe take for granted? Yes, there will be fall out but maybe that is the price we would have to pay for helping save the planet and its uniqueness for future generations?
I say Australia should take immediate leadership beginning with the simple announcement that it will be disconnecting itself from the fossil fuel world. And if there is anyone reading this from government and Australian Tourism, map would happily work on the campaign for you.
Carl, I’ve been meaning to reply to your post. I really like your parallel between war and climate change and the decisions of governments, companies and individuals to take action to preserve the quality of life for future generations. The ZFacts site you linked to, by the end of this reply, clocks the cost of the Iraq war at $600 billion and counting. Imagine what just 10% of that figure could achieve with regards to investment in renewable energy… When I actually stop and allow my thoughts to expand and contract on the subject of climate change and ‘human change’… It’s a fascinating subject. For so many years we have harvested, hunted, ploughed, dug, extracted, chopped, grown and sprayed our way through generations of food, transport and energy. Until this time. This time of reflection, confrontation, consequence and alternatives. As a side note, perhaps our greatest flaw as a species in adjusting to a changing climate, is just that: our species. Perhaps, somewhere in our genetics, is our ancestral DNA of being just another animal on this planet, subject to its nature and helpless to do anything about it. At least when you put this idea in context with the 9-5, plasma TV, holidays, kids and football, for the masses of Australia at least, it’s easy to go with the flow. And I think that’s what this is. We are in a huge body of water, which cannot be redirected quickly. But, as you point out Carl, naming a target; naming a far-flung goal of disconnecting from the fossil fuel world is at least a start. Societies build cities in this way. Urban planners and engineers plan for years ahead in terms of the dimensions and specifications of what is being built. Just look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge (that’s h-a-r-b-o-u-r you American dictionary!): they knew future generations would need a big bridge even though the society at the time didn’t. But all needs not be black and white in this response. There is some green. And it’s growing. The Rudd Government’s Green Paper (while currently being challenged, and in some cases rightly so, from companies such as Woodside Petroleum and other multinationals with mineral and gas interests in Australia) is a massive step in the right direction. If all goes ahead, in just two years time, this country will have an emissions trading scheme that will penalise companies who exhale more than a limit and reward companies who do not. And it’s action at this highest areana of public interest that communicates to the moving masses of ant trails out there, that change is afoot, and sooner or later, through Government action, through corporate action, through advertising and marketing action, through media action, through education action, through kids taking action, consumerist action and conversation, the encircling of an individual with concepts and knowledge about climate change and peak oil will increase to a tipping point. But it’s going to need entrepreneurship-across all facets of society, to fast-track it. Map is one catalyst. Saatchi and Saatchi’s S Blue Project is another. ACF’s Greenhome is one more. WWF’s Earth Hour is another. I’m confident green will flourish-but it’s up to us all how fast.