Obama rewrites legacy with climate action policy, why is Australia opposing it?
Around this time last year President Obama was trumpeting a switch to natural gas as a viable alternative to coal saying, “We should strengthen our position as the top natural gas producer because, in the medium term at least, it not only can provide safe, cheap power, but it can also help reduce our carbon emissions.”
Safe?
He’s not talking about the environment, that’s an argument that is easily disproved.
Sadly, he’s talking about human lives. The graph to the right brings the point home (here’s the source, with plenty of other graphs if that’s your thing).
Australia is no stranger to mining incidents, but the US has suffered incredible losses in the pursuit of coal.
In the past century more than 100,000 lives were lost in the coal mining process, and while that number has dropped to less than 100 annual fatalities in the last decade it is still significant.
Just as upsetting is the impact on the population at large. Since the 2000s it is still estimated that US coal fired power plants cause between 10,000 and 30,000 latent or air-pollution related deaths, and burdens the health system to the cost of $50 billion.
Barack Obama explicitly mentioned childhood asthma in his climate initiative announcement, hoping that his carbon reduction plans would help reduce the suffering of the 150,000 asthma patients and help prevent 6,600 fatalities per year.
EPA’s fact sheet shows that for every dollar invested in the Clean Power Act, US families will see a benefit of $7 in reduced health costs.
In the face of these startling figures, and with hostile opposition in Washington and from US industries, he has drawn a line in the sand and said enough is enough.
And yet the response has been something like this…
Can’t you just imagine Obama’s stern look of disapproval staring back at them?
Australian diplomacy
Since taking office, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has managed to upset diplomatic relations with Indonesia, China and South Korea. Touching down on his tour of North America he told press how pleased he was to be visiting “Canadia [sic]”.
It’s expected that President Obama will continue to pressure him into reintroducing climate change to the upcoming G20 agenda. Although he clearly has a talent for communicating with his local electorate, should the Prime Minister deny his request it will surely put a lasting strain on the friendship.
When President George W. Bush announced he was walking away from the Kyoto Protocol it sent shockwaves throughout the international community, made worse by the fact that no warning was given to European or Asian leaders and investors. It was a diplomatic catastrophy and the unexpected blowback left a stink on the administration that took years to dissipate.
Mr Abbott’s rhetoric has accused reducing carbon of being a “job killer”, although the true casualty of global action against carbon emissions would be Australia’s export market. Canada (or is that Canadia?) has surfaced as a solitary, and unlikely, ally in his battle with emission reduction schemes. This shouldn’t be surprising, considering our common export profiles.
Like it or not climate change is now firmly on the international agenda, with major announcements coming from the US and China. These efforts are at loggerheads with our current national policy and dependence on our neighbors healthy appetite for coal. All while our pollution problem worsens.
American author and political activist Upton Sinclair once wrote:
“It’s difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Substitute “man” with “head of state”, and “salary” with “major export market” and you’re getting to the root of the problem.
Carbon killer
Carbon visuals is a company making a name for itself by producing visualisations of carbon, especially representations of carbon emissions and sequestering benefits. Their website states, “We’re not saying this is the answer to the communication challenge. But we hope it helps the conversation.”
They produced a short video illustrating the EPAs proposal in the hope of kick-starting public discussion. “We’re not saying this is the answer to the communication challenge. But we hope it helps the conversation.”
Here’s a snapshot…
