Thinking too small

Anthony R0bins
11 years ago
Categories: bill english, climate change, disaster, Economy, national
Tags: climate change, drought, john armstrong, pyrrhic surplus

The extent to which we as a society just don’t get the ongoing impact and the implications of climate change continues to boggle my mind. In his latest piece, for example, John Armstrong seems to be groping his way dimly towards the truth, but he misses the mark by treating the impact of the current drought as something exceptional, a capricious “one-off” event:

Budget goal at mercy of drought

Yes, it is. Most of our economic activity is at the mercy of the weather. As loony greenies have been saying for a long time, there is no economy without the environment.

What next? A plague of locusts? Or frogs? Or boils?

Something along those lines, yes, the warming weather will bring increasing pests and insects.

With half of the North Island officially deemed drought-affected – and the remainder fast heading that way – Bill English must be asking himself what he did in some past life to have seemingly so incensed the forces of nature.

Bill English personally is insignificant of course, but it is politicians of exactly his ilk that have indeed pissed nature off. Through decades of inaction and delay, through decades of short-term greed, they have committed us to a warming future. It’s happening now, and if Bill’s impact was negligible in practical terms, he can still think of this as karmic revenge for his opposition to even simple research on the issues.

Now comes a drought which could seriously jeopardise tax revenue forecasts – and thus dent National’s chances of reaching Budget surplus by 2015.

You’re thinking small and short term John (as you usually do). There is much more at risk than the Nats’ pyrrhic surplus. (And then the rest of the article wanders off into the politics of welfare for farmers.)

And so on we go, continuing with the same assumptions and the same actions that got us in to this mess. Bemoaning the effects of climate change in as much as they affect us right here and right now, but determined not to see the big picture. Reaping what we have sown – smaller crops and bigger problems.