Society and the environment

The tumultuous political events of the past two weeks have shown how delicately poised the battle for hearts and minds of the populous can be. Just as quickly as the former Prime Minister led a landslide in the run-up to the 2007 election by managing to conjure “spin” to hit the popular political nerve, he just as quickly lost it. It has been easy for a new leader to look good with such appalling policy development and delivery over the last year.

It has given us interesting examples of leadership models and styles. The country has shown in swinging towards Rudd in the first place, followed by a speedy loss of faith and now a swing towards a new yet unproven talent, that it craves strong leadership on issues that challenge this society. The country chose change in 2007 because it felt there was a greater priority placed on the issues that mattered for the quality of society, rather than the quality of the economy. It’s such a pity that so many who supported change have been left feeling vanquished ever since, as there was such a poor follow-through.

What we do about our impact on the environment was one of those massive moral issues where a clear point of difference was developed. The major environment issue in 2007 was unfortunately packaged as concern for “climate change”. It got dragged down the wrong path in worship of Al Gore and belief in the word of his hired scientists.

The opportunities provided by new leadership will probably miss the chance to correct the skewed direction of policy that addresses the sustainability of our society. The real focus of what we need to address as a society should get back to the fact that we are fast running out of finite resources that are essential for our future lifestyles – water, fuel and ultimately food. Rather than simply cap the output of a certain gas pollutant that might lead to long term change in weather, dries dams and rising seas, we should be limiting the finite fuels we take out of the ground, constraining the right to convert and consume, and cutting out waste.

At the same time, governments could face the long-term need and guide choices made about how we make things, what we consume, how we travel, and how we cool and warm our homes. Rudd’s spin team partially tapped into a major concern that is felt in households and in businesses – that we have to change habits and take the initiatives and incentives down to the point of consumption. The population has an appetite to take action but has been left confused by debates about science, rebates, compensation and a lack of support to change behaviour. Never mind the fear of new taxes – changing behaviour will only come when things are correctly costed and priced!

Go across to Europe where the concern for the environment is very strong. See how these same concerns are now entrenched in the modern European society’s values and now an essential part of business practice. We are a decade behind that pace and it doesn’t feel like we’re going to be put on the right track any time soon.