Can I have a piece of climate change please?

The ABC’s new show I Can Change Your Mind About Climate Change, which aired Thursday Aril 26^th, asks the question ‘Would you ever change your mind about climate change?’

My answer is yes. I would love to change my mind about climate change. I wish I could change my mind about climate change. I would dearly love to be wrong about climate change.

But for me it’s not just about climate change, it’s about the environment as a whole.

I can really relate to climate change advocate Anna Rose because like her, I grew on a bush property in the Central West of NSW. As a result, I have a true appreciation for the natural world that is our home. I think one of the things that many people miss in this whole debate is acknowledging that any animal, including humans, has always and will always have an impact on the planet. It’s just that previously in history there were so few of us that we didn’t have to worry about it.

In David Attenborough’s documentary How Many People Can Live on the Planet Earth?, he poses some serious questions about the planet’s ability to sustain the growing population of 7 billion, taking into consideration the four main resources that humans need in order to survive; food, energy, water and shelter. Attenborough explores these problems, along with the practical ways in which people around the world are attempting to solve them in their local areas.

Perhaps this is a much more tangible way to approach issue than trying to solve only the climate change aspect, which is what sceptic Nick Minchin, former Liberal party politician, suggests at the end of I Can Change Your Mind About Climate Change. And I can see the why the sceptics have a problem the arguments of people like Anna. She disagreed with the idea of investing highly in research into renewable energy, because she claimed it was a risk to focus solely on this without trying to cut emissions. But how can we cut emissions without having alternatives? Wouldn’t research and development into renewable energy help to achieve this very goal?

But on the other hand, some would argue that the Australian government are not interested in alternative resources other than fossil fuels. In the middle of a mining boom, would the government really want to stop mining fossil fuels? And if we did find renewable energy sources, how can anyone make money off it if is renewable? Perhaps I am being a little sceptical here by implying that we are only driven by money. But if you really think about it, why would people like Nick – that is the people who are running our country, be interested in investing in a renewable energy source that won’t make them money, especially if they don’t believe there is a problem with fossil fuels in the first place?

A few years ago I saw a story on Catalyst about a new technology using polymer to make solar panels. This is the same material used to make plastic bank notes, and it has actually been patented by Australia. It would solve the current problem of solar panels being difficult and expensive to produce. I remember watching it thinking how inspiring it was that here in Australia we are actually coming up with workable solutions to the problem. I have heard nothing about it since. Of course, there could be a number of reasons for this, but in a world that is obsessed with technological progress, you’d think we’d be hearing about these sort of breakthroughs all the time. Computers are getting faster every day; shouldn’t environmental technology be getting faster every day too?