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Image by Terri
Sharp from Pixabay
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Are the weather Gods trying to send a message directly to
Canberra? Last week the nation’s capital sweltered in 40+ temperatures and
looked like it was about to be engulfed by flames. Yesterday it was slammed by hail stones the
size of golf balls, which caused considerable damage and loss of power to 1000 homes. Meanwhile the Gold Coast had flash flooding due to super storms, but according to the Rural Fire Service, the rain has been so patchy that 46 fires in NSW are still burning and 16 have still not been contained. Drought continues in many parts of the country with huge dust storms enveloping places such as Dubbo and Parkes. Severe weather warnings continue for much of Australia, with the main bushfire season only just beginning. Some people have suggested that
we should ease up on the prayers a bit and actually do something about
preventing further climate change, rather than generating more hot air. There is no economy on a dead planet as farmers, tourism operators and small shopkeepers are finding out. They deserve to keep their jobs and businesses just as much as coal miners, in case they are still being used as an excuse.
Of course we still want you to come and visit our other
attractions, but with Disaster Tourism trending perhaps we could capitalise on
that. My initial target market would be well -heeled Climate Change Deniers so that they can see the results at first hand. However, we don’t want them adding to emissions, so my first
challenge to them is to get here without contributing further to greenhouse
gases. That means no coming in their own private jets* - there were 1500 of them at last year's Climate Summit, or even by
commercial airlines. They must come by balloon, dirigible or by sea. If they don’t happen to have their own luxury
yacht, they could perhaps get together with a few friends and charter one. That
way, assuming they are leaving from their tax havens in the Caymans, they
could also take in additional wonders of the modern world such the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the sinking villages of Kiribati and a glimpse of
vanishing glaciers on New Zealand’s West Coast. Within Australia we have very few trains
and the ones we do have don’t connect with each other very well since they, like fire management are a state matter. Wonder why we needed Federation? Perhaps we could deploy some of those camels, so they
won’t all have to be put down.
What will it Cost?
Not sure of the final costs yet. According
to Paul Read and Richard Dennis writing in The Conversation, our disaster bill to date - tangible costs only i.e. lives lost, homes lost, livelihoods
lost, stock losses, tourism etc are currently estimated to be $100 billion, and that’s
not counting the human cost or the toll on wildlife and habitat. This amount will be split among tour guests with an additional surcharge for wasting time,
opposing the carbon tax and evading
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