An Open Letter

Dear Prime Minister Morrison,

I am not a supporter of yours but I have been pretty impressed with how you have dealt with COVID19.  And for me, the big difference is that you have listened to experts.

It seems to be a common malfunction among Australian managers in general (and politicians in particular) that they think themselves above the advice of experts.

Because you listened to experts on virology, epidemiology, statistics, etc,  Australia is still placed very well in the world for COVID19 cases, economic health and testing statistics.  It is a state of affairs your government should be proud of.

However, I read in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian this morning that you are still insisting on fossil fuels as the way forward post-pandemic.  This disappoints and disgusts me.  Expert after expert has come forward and explained simply and directly that we are economically doomed if we ignore Climate Change.  To put it neatly:  “The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment” (Herman E Daly).  

The nightmare summer of bushfires is not long ago.  I hope on ANZAC Day you remembered the unpaid heroes who lost their lives in that war!

Currently, the United States is buckling under the weight of horrific COVID19 numbers.  Their economy is under dire threat of collapse.  And if the food supply chain does not get resurrected, people may begin to starve.  Their choice between starvation (and potential rioting) or high COVID19 fatalities is not an enviable one.   This is very similar to how things will look if our big cities get drowned by ocean-level rise or our western plains become desert due to lack of rainfall.  We are not immune to Climate Change just because we are wealthy.  We don’t want to be where the United States is right now.

Take a leaf out of your own book and listen to the experts.  Why insist on children being at school if you then ignore the well educated?

Sincerely…  etc