The Byron Shire Echo – Issue 36.21 – November 3, 2021 by Echo Publications

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Climate crisis in a nutshell

A PowerPointless presentation

ast week, after all the sound and fury from the Nationals, the Prime Minister announced that his government would move to net zero emissions in 2050 by printing glossy pamphlets and making PowerPoint presentations. It’s called ‘the Australian Way.’ Most readers will have seen the outline of Morrison’s ‘plan’ for net zero already. The trouble is, the plan is all outline and no substance. It consists of spending public money in the next decade on technologies which are either already being developed, or which have been shown to be worthless. The following decade will see private money inventing further technologies to tackle emissions, and in the final decade before 2050, God will intervene and make the whole meshuggah work by magic. Of course, he had no plan. Up until a few weeks ago most of Morrison’s side of politics did not even accept the scientific evidence of climate change. The coincidence of Morrison, Murdoch and the Business Council, all staunch climate change deniers, suddenly discovering that something must be done is not surprising. The PM needed an emissions policy, however ludicrous, to take to the Glasgow conference, and all his right-wing allies want to neutralise the issue before the coming election. The sheer gall of Morrison’s ‘plan’ got him through the week, but it won’t avoid him being humiliated by hardheaded analysts in Glasgow. In fact, he has already been humiliated by French President Emmanuel Macron, saying before the conference, ‘I don’t think, I know’ when asked if Morrison lied to him. No amount of sham outrage can obscure the fact that on the world stage, the Australian prime minister has been called out as a liar. Surely Morrison’s luck has now run out, despite all his lies and desperate political squirming. Even if electors forget his incompetence in procuring and distributing covid vaccine, his indifference to the safety of women both in the home and workplace, his misuse of public funds over and over again for his party’s benefit, his protection of the slush fund thug Christian Porter, his insistence on blanket secrecy for even the most trivial of government procedures – they surely cannot forgive him playing stupid games with the future of the planet for the financial gain of his political backers. It is hard to see how he comes back from this, but Morrison has survived this far, despite scandals and crimes in his government that would have sunk any other leader. His belief that God has chosen him for Australia makes him incapable of introspection or shame, and he will bluster on. Moreover, now that the government has produced its emissions plan, a plan so flimsy you can’t see it if you look sideways, it is free to concentrate on the Labor Party’s forthcoming policy, which will inevitably contain detail it will be able to attack. The echo chambers of the 60 per cent of our media controlled by Murdoch will reverberate with lies, half truths, cherry-picked statistics and downright conspiracy theories. The noise will be immense. But from here on in, all Morrison has is noise. David Lovejoy, Echo co-founder

he other day I was retrieving an almond I dropped on the floor. I used this as an opportunity to practice Uttanasana (forward bend) to keep my yoga teacher happy. I wondered in amazement that I could put my full palm on the floor with my legs unbent in my dotage. Well, unbent in a Possum Shoot Road kind of bent way. Anyway, as I grasped the almond I had a flash of realisation that this almond, this single nut, symbolised all that was wrong with the world in the lead up to the Glasgow Climate Summit. To understand the connection, know these few things: A few years ago I won a soy/nut/grain milk maker appliance. They are all the rage in Asia. Almond milk is a big thing in my household. My favourite ratio for milk is 100g of almonds, to 1 litre of water. Once the pulp is removed, that equates to around 5 per cent almonds. And before you criticise, remember how utterly inappropriate and privileged it is to use ‘my body my choice’, and ‘no segregation’ in the vegan/ carnivore/no-dairy divide as well. So, it costs me around $30 a kilo for organic almonds. And I love Santos and The Source and believe in shopping locally, so sometimes I lash out and buy from them which is, *cough* somewhat dearer. So, the almonds cost me at least $3 a litre to make my milk. I use filtered water for the milk, use some electricity for the appliance, then use washing water and elbow grease to clean the appliance. I pour it into glass bottles I have to clean. There is pulp leftover, and I could use it for cakes and stuff but, lazily, I rarely do. The chickens adore it. Imagine my disgust when I walk down the aisle at the supermarket, and there in the fake milk section is organic almond milk in a pretty Tetrapak for $2 a litre and sometimes even less. I have to shield my eyes from this abomination. This week on Amazon there is organic almond milk for $1.55, delivered free all the way to my actual door! Traitorous bastards! How is it possible that my almond milk, home-made sans

The Byron Shire Echo Volume 36 #21 November 3, 2021 Established 1986 • 24,500 copies every week The Echo acknowledges the people of the Bundjalung nation as the traditional custodians of this land and extends respect to elders past, present and future. Disclaimer: The Echo is committed to providing a voice for our whole community. The views of advertisers, letter writers, and opinion writers are not necessarily those of the owners or staff of this publication.

www.echo.net.au Phone: 02 6684 1777 Editorial/news: editor@echo.net.au Advertising: adcopy@echo.net.au Office: Village Way, Stuart Street, Mullumbimby NSW 2482 General Manager Simon Haslam Editor Hans Lovejoy Deputy Editor Aslan Shand Photographer Jeff Dawson Advertising Manager Angela Harris Production Manager Ziggi Browning

Nicholas Shand 1948–1996 Founding Editor

packaging, costs much more than the supermarket or mail order equivalent? Tetrapaks are made from several layers of woodpulp, plastic and aluminium, with a plastic lid and glue, and printing, then transported to where they are filled with almonds and water and emulsifier and minerals, stabilisers and sugars, and then the Tetrapaks are put in another printed cardboard box and all the cardboard boxes are cling wrapped together and put onto a pallet for transport. The wood for the pallet is grown in South America, the aluminium comes from Africa, the plastic is made in Asia and the printing inks from Europe. And then, once filled, the boxes of Tetrapaks are transported to my supermarket by train and truck and then stacked on shelves by my neighbour’s daughter and lit and air conditioned until I deny my inner Earth-mother and buy it and take it home. Then there is all the energy used to dispose of the whole thing, which is supposedly recyclable, but I reckon just ends up underneath new suburbs on the Gold Coast called something eye-twitching, like ‘Advancetown’, once transported there from Myocum tip. So I tried to work out the food miles in all of that, but maths is not my strong point – one of my many childhood humiliations was when, during primary school, my teacher asked me in front of the class ‘If you have twelve apples, and give your friend six, what do you have?’ I answered ‘A better friend’. So, let’s just say the quantum of food miles must be in the squillions. Looking at the almond I had dropped on the floor while making almond milk, I realised that this is the reason for climate change. It is easier and cheaper to use all that energy and packaging and transportation and crap than it is for

– Finley Peter Dunne 1867–1936

me to just make it myself. And much as I hate to admit to this out-loud, they actually taste pretty much the same. How is it possible that we have got to this point of human existence? Surely this is not just about bulk buying. Is it because we have somehow priced environmental destruction so cheaply, or the raw materials so expensively? Probably both. But this has to stop. Apart from anything else there is the joy of making liquid from solids, of using my prize – what’s the point of winning something otherwise – of saving calves and their mothers from separation anxiety, and of knowing that I have done the right thing, even though nobody knows about it (knew about it). Tree, fall, forest, Bruce Cockburn. So when I can finally manage to stand up straight after my way-too-long pose, I pledge to send my almond to the Queen, because I know She Cares. And I’m asking her to take it with her to Glasgow and hold it high in her un-handbagged mitt and eat it in front of the world’s cameras and explain that this simple little single-seeded fruit is the symbol of all we need to change. Gracefully and seamlessly, at least in my own mind, I transition from Uttanassana to Prasarita Padottanasana (so concave!), and thence to Tadassana (Me Mountain). I realise I’ve dropped the almond again. I’m so sore from my forward bend it’s hands and knees for now. Bugger the planet, I’m buying the Tetrapak next time. The nut-milk maker is in the shed. I’ll donate what I save on almonds to Greenpeace.

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12 The Byron Shire Echo mşưĕŔćĕſ Ǫǽ ǩǧǩǨ

My teacher asked me in front of the class: “If you have twelve apples, and give your friend six, what do you have?” I answered: “A better friend”. David Heilpern

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