Will elections help us get the alternative society we need to reduce global warming?
With regard to the usual dismal election circus and spectacle, a quote from Ted Trainer (UNSW) might help set things in perspective:
“What governments, economists and people in general seem incapable of grasping is, there is no possibility of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels unless we face up to a massive reduction in the volume of producing and consuming going on; i.e. cut GDP to a small fraction of what it is now. This society, obsessed with high levels of economic output, high ‘living standards’ and keeping GDP rising for ever, is totally incomapatible with sustainability. It’s far beyond sustainable levels of resource use and environmental impact.”
 So what’s the solution?
According to Trainer: ” The huge and alarming global problems we face cannot be solved within a society committed to affluent living standards, economic growth, market forces, the profit motive, and individualistic, competitive acquisitiveness. How long will it take for this to be understood? The problems can only be solved if we shift to a simpler way of living frugally in small, highly self-sufficient local economies with no growth, in more participatory and cooperative ways. (For the detail see socialwork.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/) Our ‘leaders’ will never take us in this direction. If we are going to make the changes needed, ordinary people will have to start building alternative communities within existing towns and suburbs. When petrol gets very scarce this will jolt us out of our complacency; people will see they must quickly build local economic self-sufficiency. Cap and Share campaigns [radical form of carbon trading] can be valuable in raising awareness about the global situation, but don’t imagine such proposals can avoid the need for massive, radical system changes.”
 This is a position you won’t even find the Greens sharing at all (they tend to believe in the quick technical fix of renewable energy without questioning the growth and market and profit and consumerism paradigm). I imagine not many in Canwin share it either. Pity. But, as Ted says, maybe petrol prices will focus minds most sharply on re-localising the economy. But then again, maybe not. Who knows.
