First of all, a disclaimer: I do not write any of my pieces to influence, or convert, but rather to stimulate thought and trigger the process of healthy questioning and skepticism.
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The opinions expressed often do not reflect my own.
Now is not the time to discuss climate change.
The time to discuss climate change has long passed, it is too late now.
The proper time for such discussion was decades ago, before this issue became politicised, and the whole concept a meaningless slogan mindlessly parroted by the ignorant and trendy.
Somehow, the concept has been lost to the slogan.
And now, actual BELIEF in this is dictated according to which side of the political fence one belongs to.
When people swallow completely whole the policies of their party, totally without question, you are looking more at cultish behaviour than the functioning of a free democracy.
I do not agree or subscribe to every policy of any of the parties, as I like to question rather than blindly follow.
Sadly, at this present time, acknowledgment in a constantly changing and evolving earth depends upon one's politics.
Not on what the apolitical experts have in fact observed, and researched, and discovered.
I hear no favouritism with my blame. If you don't understand the science, shut up until you do, and stop mindlessly parroting the party line.
Otherwise, you're part of the problem, and that problem is a paralysed and divided society.
I am NOT a scientist, but I have bothered to listen to those who are.
I am a bit if an historian, however, and know that the earth is constantly changing.
How much of an impact humans have is perhaps the issue of most contention.
Rather than becoming bogged down with that, we need to be in damage control, and prevention mode.
Australia is the driest occupied continent - stop selling water abroad.
We are also prone to bushfires - pour more resources into firefighting and prevention.
We are also prone to drought - subsidise our farmers, or pursue farming methods closer aligned to Australian conditions.
Keep in mind that just because the earth has been constantly changing it doesn't mean we can be complacent.
Unless we adapt our behaviour to constantly changing conditions, we will become extinct.
That's not alarmist, that's just the way it is.
We need water, rely on food sources that need water, and extreme heat causes death.
Homo sapiens could easily go the way of the Neanderthals.
How utterly niaive and or arrogant to think we are above nature and its consequences.
Oh, and something else that we should keep in mind.
The occasional unseasonal snowfall doesn't mean temperatures as a whole aren't rising.
And the fact that we had devastating fires in the late 19th century means ... well, nothing at all.
The Greens did NOT cause the present problem.
For God's sake, they are, for better or worse, largely impotent and insignificant politically at present.
How weak is our current government if the Greens, who barely hold any seats, have that much power.
Finally, the fact is the debate over climate change is paralysing our ability to deal with it.
If you are on the left talking climate change without understanding it, you are contributing to the problem.
If you are on the right denying climate change because you don't understand, you are also contributing to the problem.