By Situation Theatre 27/11/2019

Tuesday night’s climate report on The Project shows the pernicious pervasiveness of neoliberal ideology. We must bin this individualist nonsense and fight for our democracy as collectives and communities.

Last night, The Project produced an excellent story which used a series of facts to refute the Australian Government’s argument that we make an insignificant contribution to climate change.

They then ruined it by interpreting those facts using the most damaging ideological framework in history: neoliberalism.

First, the facts.

The number of Aussies concerned about the environment and climate change has skyrocketed to record levels. The PM insists Australia’s doing its bit - but our fossil fuel emissions and exports tell a different story. pic.twitter.com/DaCu8FDPJH
— The Project (@theprojecttv) November 26, 2019

The report told us that Aussies have never been more concerned about the environment. 1 in every 5 of us say it’s the country’s single biggest problem.

It told us that while Australia is the world’s 15th biggest polluter, contributing 1.3% of global emissions, per person Australia is number two in the world, behind Saudi Arabia.

We learnt that Australia is the sixth biggest producer of fossil fuels in the world, but only the 55th largest country.

We are responsible for 20% of the world’s gas market, being the 2nd largest exporter.

We are also the world’s 2nd largest exporter of coal and the emissions of all our fossil fuel exports combined are more than twice the amount of our domestic emissions.

We learnt there is a significant gap between planned fossil fuel production over the next decade and what’s required to limit warming to two degrees.

Australia is one of seven countries which is overproducing so much that they are putting us on a path to four degrees of warming

The global economy is on track to produce 150% more coal, 43% more oil, 47% more gas above levels allowed by Paris targets.

And greenhouse gases have hit another record. When emissions were at this level 3 million years ago, oceans were 20m higher and the planet was three degrees warmer.

The report concludes with the statement that business as usual means three or four degrees of warming by 2100, an unmitigated disaster.

Persuasive stuff.

Then along comes Hamish Macdonald to make a hash of those facts.

Keep in mind, we’re not talking here about Gerard Henderson, Steve Price or any other noxious commentator. This is a widely respected journalist with a platform not only on Channel 10 but also on Radio National and soon to begin his role as the most prominent chair of political discussion in the country: the host of Q &A.

“We tend to blame the politicians for where we’ve gotten to in Australia but the reality is we have had a range of different policies put to us as voters over the last decade and a half, and we have time and time and time again, voted against strong action on climate change,” he said.

This is phrased like a statement of fact but it’s actually an oft-repeated but wildly inaccurate bit of conjecture.

Firstly, even if climate change was the only issue on which people were voting at every election since 2004, which it patently wasn’t, the party with the more ambitious climate policy won in both 2007 and 2010.

Secondly, given that elections and the particular motivations of millions of individuals are infinitely complicated, any such claim is absurdly simplistic.

Thirdly, the implication that we should not blame the politicians but blame the electorate is infuriatingly wide of the mark, as discussed below, not to mention anti-democratic. It’s a suave, sophisticated way of saying “the people are morons” rather than recognising the abject failure of both sides of politics to present Australians with a vision of transformation that we can actually believe in.

The fact that both major parties are captured by the fossil fuel industry might have something to do with it.

Hamish continued, “I just think we need to stop saying it’s all the politicians and maybe think about ourselves a little bit, and the choices that we are making at an individual level, not just talking about our politics and how we vote, but what we do, and what we say we believe and what we’re actually willing to back. I think that’s what it comes down to, it’s each individual person.”

Jan Fran: “God there should have been a violin playing behind that Hamish, that was really good.”

Was it, Jan?

Is that because as individuals we have contributed 70% of global emissions since 1988?

Is that because as individuals we knew about the looming climate crisis back in the 60s and 70s and covered it up for 50 years?

Is that because we as individuals spent millions funding a global disinformation campaign?

Is that because we as individuals took millions in fossil fuel donations and gave trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to the oil, coal and gas industries?

Is that because as individuals we took 194 actions over our last six years in Government to sabotage environmental action?

Come to think of it, this isn’t about “each individual person” at all.

This isn’t about “thinking about ourselves a little bit, and the choices that we are making at an individual level, not just talking about our politics and how we vote, but what we do, and what we say we believe and what we’re actually willing to back”. Turns out we’ve been doing that for 30 years and as you may have noticed, it’s not working out so well.

This isn’t about individuals voting against strong climate action “time and time and time again”.

What this is about is a right-wing media still ensnared by neoliberal ideology subtly tending to the eternal flame of Thatcher’s claim that “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.”

This is absolutely about blaming the ecocidal fossil fuel industry, their mouthpieces in the Murdoch Press, and yes, blaming the politicians who have facilitated these climate crimes every step of the way.

This is about constantly reminding everyone that our Government, for which we pay good money, and which has signed up to the social contract to protect us in exchange for our obedience, is entirely captured by the fossil fuel industry and Murdoch Press and no longer represents our interests in any meaningful sense.

This is about what we as collectives can do to build movements to reclaim our democracy.

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