Scorched earth policies

Vanguard October 2013 p. 3

In deference to the multinational corporations that own and control the fossil fuel, coal and energy resources of Australia, the Abbott government has embarked on a slash and burn campaign to stifle information about climate warming and wipe out renewable energy projects.

The chief commissioner of the Climate Institute, Professor Tim Flannery, has been sacked and the Climate Commission abolished. This highly respected institution took great pride in collecting the very latest information on climate warming and presenting its findings and conclusions to the Australian people in a thoroughly objective and well explained manner.

Flannery and some members of his team will try to continue their work, relying on public support and their personal commitment to science and humanity. In the end, truth and science always assert themselves.

Legislation is being drafted to dump the carbon tax and the Climate Change Authority, which was established to advise the government on the carbon pricing and emissions reductions targets. This was expected, as the big polluters who paid hardly any tax anyway, objected to the very idea that maybe they should.

More significant is the intention to dismantle the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. This body was set up with $10 billion to subsidise private investment in renewable energy projects such as solar, wave, geothermal, wind farms, etc.

Shutting it down will be messy, as investment commitments and decisions have already been made, some projects are under way and many thousands of jobs are at stake. This time, not only workers, but a whole bunch of local capitalists and professional and technical people will suffer for the interests of multinational profit-making.

IPCC Report due

The fifth major report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released in Stockholm on September 27. While Vanguard will look at this report in detail later, it indicates that there is even more overwhelming evidence that human activity has triggered climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, especially from burning fossil fuels.

Along with melting ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, ocean warming and acidification and thawing of the permafrost, the immediate future will bring more heatwaves, droughts, floods and extreme weather for many parts of the globe. Millions will suffer while the polluting corporations rake in their profits.

Abbott is only a pathetic puppet. Standing in the way of any concerted move to clean renewable energy is the global system of corporate imperialism headed by US monopoly capitalism. Vested interests in finance, banking, industry and the military depend on fossil fuels for their power and profits.

This hideous system must be torn down.   

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Further Reading:

This blog article draws parallels between Abbott's attacks on science and scientists with those of his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper.