Growing reasons for green optimism

Canberra Times
Wednesday 31/12/2008 Page: 17

What do you think about 2009? I asked a friend with whom I often share views on the environment and the meaning of life. "I am hopeful and optimistic," I replied. "Really? In the face of Kevin Rudd's abject failure on climate change?" she said. My friend and I agree that nothing short of a large change in human values and actions will preserve the planet as a home for Homo sapiens.

So why am I optimistic? Although he cannot possibly meet all our expectations, the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States is the most hopeful geopolitical event in many years. Obama has won office, arguing for genuine change, including a serious approach to climate change, and he seems to mean it. Once the US really tackles carbon emissions, the rest of the world will take the issue seriously.

So 2009 is shaping as the pivotal year for climate change, and by the time of the Copenhagen meeting in December we will know whether the countries of the world can get their act together before it is too late. The accelerated melting of Arctic sea ice now has many climate scientists believing that we are observing a phenomenon that could rapidly result in a catastrophic and irreversible flip in the climate system.

I am heartened by what is happening in the ACT as well as what could happen globally with the right leadership from Obama. The new ACT Environment Minister, Simon Corbell, is taking a different stance to his federal counterparts and has publicly repudiated their weak approach. I have read the agreement that Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has signed with the Greens and they have extracted some firm commitments on development of greenhouse gas targets and renewable energy.

Furthermore, our watchdog Commissioner for the Environment, Maxine Cooper, has the power to call the Government to account on agreements such as this, and she is flexing her muscles. Another reason for my optimism is the evidence that people in the ACT are awake to the carbon footprint challenge and are beginning to act on it. People movements are springing up all over the world.

In Canberra, we have been both surprised and delighted at the rapid success of the SEE-Change movement, and similar movements are taking off elsewhere under different names - ranging from Transition Towns to Sustainability Street. SEE-Change groups in four areas of Canberra are bringing people from the neighbourhood together to discuss a reduction in their footprint, through bulk purchases of solar panels, energy retrofits of their homes, modification of their food-purchasing behaviour and altered approaches to car use, car purchase and use of public transport.

A group of 22 Jamison SEE-Change members have been involved in a door-knocking approach - each to 10 randomly identified addresses - to seek from the residents, representative information on what people think and what they are doing about their ecological footprint. The evidence from this random sampling of householders is that 75% of people are convinced of the seriousness of the problem and that many are already taking action on issues, including solar panels, changes in their dietary practices and changing their light bulbs.

I also feel optimistic when I see and hear what is happening in our school system and as the new generation, which includes my own grandchildren, picks tip the sustainability challenge. Young people are becoming both literate about sustainability and ready to act.

Of course everything must come together and the Federal Government will have to change its white paper to enable the contributions of ordinary householders to do more than make up for the licences to pollute that the Federal Government is planning to issue to the coal and aluminium industries. That will happen if real movement comes from both outside and inside Australia.

So, I dare to hope that we are approaching a good tipping point, the point where a critical mass of people accept the need for a radical new approach and adopt it. Their new approach becomes the new received wisdom and a majority of the world follows. Climate change is the biggest challenge we have ever faced as a species. The problem is probably still soluble but the solution depends on a remarkable new political consensus. The good news is that when the people lead with vision, governments will follow.