Thursday, December 24, 2009

High Risk Strategy

The events of yesterday indicate that any politician who is running around denying *climate change* will need to be very careful about understanding and managing the risks of their approach.

If you can see these early effects of *climate change* being serious enough that people actually get hurt and lose property - then you will be wanting to make sure that your political brand is not too closely associated with *denial*.

Otherwise you run the risk of being branded a total *numbnut*. A political party that is in *denial* will very quickly alienate the people that it purports to be looking after.

But I guess the Australian political parties that are in denial are not too interested in looking as though they have a credible position - just yet. Unlike the Chinese and the Indians - where almost no-one is in denial.

I have always thought that the Liberals, the Nationals and the Family First political movements were lightweight with respect to the climate change issue that they would end up looking like "wind vanes" and having to dodge and weave around this issue. Malcolm had the right idea but the *numbnuts* made it clear in early December that they wanted none of that.

It looks increasingly like they will need to quickly develop credible policy - just to save themselves from being branded *irrelevant* - by their own constituents. The very people who are now seriously at risk from these early adverse effects of climate change.

They could start by reading the Garnaut Report - which clearly outlines the risks of inaction and details some of what needs to be done to insulate Australian's from the worst effects.

But like the Republicans in the United States - the local conservatives and their cheer squad in the Murdoch press are looking into the wrong mirror. They think that anything done by our government is bad - and their denial alternatives are just great. I suspect their intellectual processes need a little bit of a cut and polish.

The problem is that their constituents are going to become very unhappy about risking their life, limb and property for a *numbnut* fantasy.

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