sacrifice and the climate

i think that the majority of people in Australia care about climate change to the extent that they are willing to make sacrifices and take austerity measures to prevent the worst of it from happening.

We as a society need to take such measures stoically and determinedly, pouring our resources and support together. There is a beautiful call to action here, that uses the urgent words of Martin Luther King as its point of departure.

However, many people are, understandably, wary of making sacrifices alone, especially where they cannot be assured that it will make a difference, and when freeloading has been made acceptable by the actions of Australia and the US.

In the words of Nicholas Stern (in the SMH on the Weekend) Kyoto "was an important symbol of international collective action and responsibility, and any one country not signing - particularly a big country like the United States or a respected country like Australia - encourages others to think freeloading is unavoidable". By freeloading he means getting the benefits of slowing climate change without signing up for the costs.

Take for example, voluntarily reducing household emissions, or buying green energy. If an economic unit (say a company or a household) decides to buy clean energy (in the absence of a bigger plan to reduce energy use), of course they are setting themselves back economically, in a market that is based on spending on investments that grow. But if everyone does it, there is a collective ethic of 'this is the right thing to do'.

Unless there is a broad, society-wide consensus on a plan of action, and punishment measures endorsed by many (both formal, eg fines and informal eg public shaming), it will feel pointless to take individual action.

On the same token, there has to be the same commitment by the corporate world to reducing emissions as there is among society. For too long, society has borne the burden of 'externalities'- all that bad stuff (such as pollution) that economic activity generates. Company directors should no longer get away with taking ever-rising profits, whilst spreading out the losses to society and the environment.

Everyone has to be willing to shoulder similar economic burdens from the adaptation and mitigation of climate chaos.