Archive:  Blueprint For Green Economy

Last Updated  28/3/08

UK Conservative Party's "Blueprint for a Green Economy" Shoots Straight, Says It Like It Is

(17/9/07 - E)  AT LAST.  Someone's taking a realistic, if not brutal, look at climate change, social upheaval and the bleak future this world has if we don't start thinking - and acting - differently:  "we need to recognise that fossil energy was, in the words of writer Bill McKibben, ‘a one-time gift that underwrote a one-time binge of growth.’"  Those times are over...

Liz Minchin, in today's Age says:

"John Howard and Kevin Rudd could learn much from Britain's Tories. SOMETHING extraordinary is happening in politics: conservatives are becoming the new world leaders on climate change. It's just a pity someone forgot to tell John Howard and Kevin Rudd.  Late last week, the British Conservative Party released a 523-page environmental policy document packed with ideas that put Australia's major parties to shame." 

To view the full Age article, click on: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/16/1189881335891.html

You can read part 1.1 of Blueprint for a Green Economy by Clicking here, or go to http://www.conservatives.com/ to access the full (hefty) document.

MRRA Says:

We've only had time to skim through part 1.1 but it sure enough started us drooling. It's inspirational!  Even the headings say a lot: 

The case for change; Hitting the buffers?; Climate change: the canary in the coalmine; The problem with growth; How government has failed us.

It takes us right back to "Hell To Pay - Cities In The Age Of Default and Revolt", an eerily prophetic 2004 publication by Brendan Gleeson of Griffith University.

As for Blueprint for a Green Economy, the last comment in part 1.1 goes as follows:  "Sustained and inspirational political leadership is precisely what will be required of a future Conservative government.  It will be hard and often very challenging. There is, however, no serious alternative." 

Sustained and inspirational political leadership...  That's precisely what Australians should be demanding at all levels of government - people who think and act differently to those who got us in this mess in the first place.   We agree with Liz Minchin that John Howard and Kevin Rudd could learn a lot from the UK conservatives, but why stop there?  Has anyone given Mr. Brumby  - all State politicians - a copy?   And who's going to be first to send a copy to Macedon Ranges' Council? 

It's time for us all to take a long hard look at the fading future we are creating for ourselves and generations to come by what we thoughtlessly and greedily do today.  In short, there isn't going to be much of a future unless we change.  The warning signs are there already that it's going to be a long, hot summer in Australia, with potentially not enough or expensive food, water and electricity, and way too much fire.

It really is time we stopped thinking like grasshoppers, singing and dancing as if summer never ends, and thought more like the ant, by turning our minds to doing what it will take to survive the hard times ahead.  As a society, we don't actually have a choice - we do it, or we - and other living things - die.  This Blueprint recognizes that, so take a deep breath, and let's get on with it.