John Howard has taken a lot of flak over climate change – being called a fool, a sceptic and a troglodyte. But, smart politician that he is, he probably read the implications sooner than most.
The energy giant Exxon’s first response to the growing tide of climate change evidence was to surreptitiously fund a number of spurious projects and set up websites that promoted climate change scepticism.
Why? Because not only did it see its interests threatened, it also realised that its window of opportunity for record profits was about to narrow appreciably; it was all about buying time.
Similarly with John Howard, whose time in government has coincided with a prolonged spell of economic sunshine for the profit makers.
He appreciated very early on that economic growth was underpinned by a plentiful supply of cheap energy, a situation that was increasingly unsustainable.
Once climate change was widely accepted, and actual measures were being proposed to address it, the equation would change: profits would be squeezed, costs would be passed on to consumers in order to protect profit margins, inflation would soar, and so on.
In other words, the age of unfettered capitalism – carried on at the expense of a fragile global ecology – was coming to, if not an end, then at least a period of serious curtailment and restriction.
He does not, of course, speak about profits; but what he constantly links the issue to is jobs – and he has a point, and one that the electorate will not dismiss lightly.
He is accused of dragging the chain over Kyoto, but there is more to his stand than mere obstinate gainsaying. He saw the implications of the whole scenario earlier than most; it was just that they were too horrible to face.
Where is the evidence that responidng to climate change is bad for the economy? If all the renewable energy technologies started in Australia were actually commercialised here, we would have a thriving export business bringing many millions of dollars.
Climate changes by the minute, hour, day, week, month, season, year, decade, century, millenia, and even over millions of years. Which time frame climate change are we tackling? Who will green socialists blame in future for the next ice age?
If Howard did see the climate change storm clouds on the horizon, no way was his parade going to be rained on. Winning the Culture Wars did not include cuddling up to the United Nations. Better the hoi polloi see it as some sort of Greenpeace conspiracy.