Have you heard of a climate debate? In Australia, the climate debate now divides the group, marking it Left versus Right, with the Left believing that there is a need for climate change action. This should not be the case, according to freelance writer, Dale Hughes.
Hughes’ is a liberal voter but also strongly believes that something needs to be done about climate change and that all countries should look at renewable energy sources for an alternative power.
For any Australian Liberal, this is an ambiguous statement: that of being a Liberal and that of wanting to promote climate change. If Tony Abbott’s leadership of the Australian Liberal Party is anything to go by, the federal term ‘Liberal’ appears to be tantamount to denying the need to address climate change.
Climate debate divides Left and Right political parties
Hughes hopes that there is going to be a better understanding amongst Australians regarding the devastating consquences climate change will have on our country. In fact, the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed recently that Australia just had their third warmest year on record in 2014.
As Liberals, the thought of free market and climate change is quite difficult to blend together. The Australian Liberal Party should be agreeing and accepting of the inevitable shift of economics, that is, in terms of heavily relying on fossil fuel energy. The Abbott government though, is not agreeable to such shift.
The current actions taken by government is more geared towards lessened use of renewable energy. In addition, the policies that the Government is currently pursuing are contrary to the needs of the industries. What’s more is that with the Government openly embracing the coal industry, the Liberals are blatantly being averse to helping the whole world in tackling climate change.
Australia champions coal while the world fights climate change
Although coal is a valuable source of energy and will continue to be so in Australia, the government should also be enforcing, embracing, and implementing other sources of energy instead of expanding so much effort into the climate debate. Renewable energy is not only being mandated by several countries’ governments, but many are pushing to share more of these views to homeowners, thereby implementing renewable energy in every home.
The Australian Greens versus the Australian Labor Party are currently at positions that would hinder the growth of the government and the country as a whole. For Robert Menzies, founder of the Liberal party, said, ‘…modern history is full of examples of great movements that disappeared because they ceased to have any genuine reason for existence…’
Hughes believes that there is really no need to put a label when it comes to climate change and calls for the Liberals to look into their core values instead of continuing on with the climate debate.
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Photo by: Mikael Miettinen on Flickr
