Keith Mcilroy

Response to article in The Australian by global warming deniers

2009-06-19T10:16:00.002+10:00

That infamous global warming denier, Bob Carter, and three others argue that there is limited link between CO2 and temperature because “CO2 increased by 5 percent since 1998 while global temperature cooled” (‘Wong’s Silent Treatment’ The Australian, 19 June 2009)

Why were they not previously arguing that there was a strong link because CO2 increased at a similar rate during the 1990s and temperatures increased? Such cherry picking of data to suit their argument is very disappointing.

The simple reality is that greenhouse gases keep our planet warmer than the moon. We are increasing those greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels. Therefore temperatures will continue to warm. The science of this was resolved in the 19th century. The issue is the pace of that increase. Other factors will clearly slow or accelerate that increase in temperature over the short and long term. Many of these factors are not fully understood but the risk to our quality of life on the planet is not something to be gambled on the hope that it will all just ‘go away’ so we can continue with our comfortable life without any disruption.

2009-06-04T11:49:00.001+10:00

My speech in support of my candidature as Federal Senator for the NSW Greens

2009-06-02T13:37:00.000+10:00

2009-06-02T13:10:00.004+10:00

2009-06-02T12:19:00.000+10:00

Budget Reply Speech Part II - A Greens Budget to promote an environmentally sustainable economy

2009-05-27T21:55:00.002+10:00

Note: This is not a party political broadcast on behalf of The Greens! It is how I think The Greens should attack the appalling policies of Labor and the Coalition and how we should sell our own excellent policies. If you like it, please pass it on.

Cheers

Keith

For over half a century this country has been poorly served by the major political parties. They have showed no vision. They have showed no leadership. They have shown no courage. Their only focus has been on back pocket politics to stay in power.

There has been no Sydney Harbour Bridge. No Snowy Mountains scheme. No Warragamba dam. Visionary infrastructure has been sacrificed to short term opportunism. Pro active decisions on the future of our economy have been replaced with knee jerk reactions to the external forces that have decimated real jobs in our real economy leaving us relying on the fickle nature of the Finance and IT industry, tourism and the vagaries of the consumer society.

The Greens are the only political party with a true economic vision for the world. A vision that sees sustainable communities living within sustainable countries in a sustainable world. A vision that sees waste and pollution as an obscure entry in a 22nd century Wikipedia and a vision that sees true democracy at work without the corrupting influence of the corporate world driving us on a make believe journey of limitless economic growth on a planet of limited resources.

To make our economy environmentally sustainable, a Green’s budget would have three key initiatives:

The first would be a house by house and workplace by workplace educational program to audit energy usage and waste production and promote efficiency savings. Such an educational program would reduce our greenhouse gases, improve water efficiency, reduce waste and reduce pollution. Such a program will also produce immediate financial savings to all households and all businesses.
The second would be the mobilisation of our countries vast resources, technical know how and skilled labour to ensure we have 100% renewable power generation in the shortest possible time. This would require in excess of one hundred thousand direct and indirect Green jobs in its planning, manufacturing, installation and maintenance. And many of these jobs will be located in regional and rural Australia where renewable energy is most accessible and employment needs are the greatest.
The third would be a fast tracked doubling of our public transport and rail freight capacity. Passenger capacity on all our countries buses, trams, trains and ferries would be doubled, removing hundreds of thousands of cars from the roads. Rail freight capacity would be doubled and infrastructure expanded to take thousands of trucks off the roads and onto rail, where they should have always been.

These three key initiatives will produce vast employment opportunities throughout Australia, provide the market demand to generate local manufacture and innovation and show leadership to the world on the fundamental change in culture that is required for us to achieve environmental sustainability.

And how will these initiatives be paid for? They will be paid for by the plunderers and polluters of our planet:

All tax breaks and incentives given to industries that contribute to global warming will be removed. Including all fossil fuel industries, vehicle manufacturing, cement production and others
Royalties would be increased on all natural resources.
Carbon taxes would be imposed on power generation and fuel usage
Import taxes would be imposed on all products manufactured in countries that do not pursue an environmentally sustainable economy.
Pollution taxes would be levied on those companies whose products pollute our land, water and air.
And all road improvement projects would be stopped other than those where safety cannot be improved by less costly means.

For decades Australian governments have been castrated by the corporate world. Corporate donations, corporate corruption and corporate cronies have crippled our political system. Their pervasive influence and political power is now such that they are even dictating how we should reduce our greenhouse gas production with that most bizarre and ridiculous of all technologies, carbon capture and storage.

Australia does not need a journey to a Clayton’s Climate Change Solution promoted by those very industries that have denied the science and delayed and defied any sensible solution.

Australia does need a journey to an environmentally sustainable economy driven by new industries. And that is what a Greens’ budget would give the country.

Thank you

Six steps to counter your friendly, neighbourhood climate change sceptic

2009-05-27T14:18:00.003+10:00

Having spent the many years taking on climate change sceptics, I have found that the following works well:

1. Determine whether the person is a sceptic or a denier. A denier is someone who simply does not ‘believe’ that global warming/greenhouse gases/climate change is an issue.
2. If a denier then explain that there is no point discussing further as they are basing their argument on a ‘belief system’ rather than scientific argument. Once you explain this, you will find they suddenly become a ‘sceptic’!
3. If a sceptic, then explain the basic science that all scientists agree upon:
a. CO2 and greenhouse gases trap in the Sun’s heat and keeps us warmer than the moon. Explain that this was determined in the 19th century and mention that it was the French mathematician, Joseph Fourier who first identified this fact in the 1830s. The name Fourier usually impresses engineers and scientists! I also find it useful to explain that we experience the Greenhouse affect on any nights where clouds appear. In a cloud free sky, we have cold nights. When clouds appear, the water vapour in the clouds, being a greenhouse gas, trap in the Sun’ infrared heat and increase temperatures.
b. CO2 levels are increasing due to our burning of fossil fuels
4. Then go on to explain where there is dispute. That is over the increase in temperature and the speed with which it happens, specifically:
a. The ratio between CO2 increase and global temperature increase. Calculations done early in the last century suggested that a doubling of CO2 will increase temperatures by an average of 5 degrees celcius. Some scientists believe that this is too high, others that it is too low.
b. Increased plant growth may absorb more CO2
c. Increased cloud cover caused by a warming planet may reflect more of the sun’s ultraviolet heat or may trap in more of its infrared heat.
d. Reduction in ice cover will cause less of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation to be reflected back into space, thus causing increased warming
e. Melting of vegetation that has been frozen for thousands of years will release both CO2 and Methane, adding to those greenhouse gases and pushing temperatures higher
f. The sun’s activity may slow down, offsetting any increase in temperature caused by the Greenhouse effect.

By this stage, hopefully, you have allowed them to save some ‘face’ by accepting that there is dispute over the speed of warming but also started them on a journey to accept that, irrespective of these arguments, as we continue to increase greenhouse gases there will be a constant underlying warming of the planet.

I welcome any refinements, critiques of the arguments, etc. In particular if you do know of any credible scientists that question the basic science of greenhouse gases keeping our planet warmer than the moon then please let me know. ‘Deniers’ claim they are out there but I have yet to find one!

Have we all been suckered in by China?

2009-05-25T17:09:00.001+10:00

While the US and Europe have been screwing the poorer countries by using agricultural incentives and other techniques to ensure others can’t compete in this, so called, free trade world of globalisation, China has been quietly taking us all for a ride.

Over the last few years China has welcomed overseas factories into their country and rigidly controlled its exchange rate to make its exports simply irresistible to the West. So where does that tactic leave China now? Well, let’s see.

• First they have state of the art, modern factories designed and funded by the West – but which are still 50% or more owned by the Chinese government.
• Second they have learnt from the manufacturing expertise that Western companies have introduced and then copied and duplicated many of their products.
• Third, they have taken the West’s cash in return for goods and then lent the money back to the West, effectively giving them the ability to bankrupt many Western economies, thus discouraging Western countries getting too heavy handed with them.
• Fourth, they are now in a position that, if they worked together with the governments of the Middle East – where, remember, all the oil is and who also have vast foreign reserves - they could potentially control the global economy.
• Fifth they can use their foreign reserves to manipulate smaller countries currencies and make even more money.
• And now, “China is stockpiling commodities such as copper and iron ore” according to the Royal Bank of Canada.

Damned cunning these Chinese. They have taken the West’s insane consumption fetish and drive for globalisation, linked it with corporate greed and the short term thinking of Western capitalism and quietly put themselves in a position to potentially dominate world trade and finance.

Is it me, or is it time for a bit of old fashioned protectionism in ‘our land of nature’s gifts’?

Senate Preselection Candidature prepared speech

2009-05-24T09:29:00.002+10:00

We are living in a world of economic insanity.

A world that believes we can live a life of unlimited growth on a planet of limited resources. A world that believes self actualisation comes from materialistic acquisition. A world that believes short term, self centered, financial greed will fix long term, global, societal and environmental problems. It is a world that simply has to change.

As Greens, it is now time for us to drive a fundamental change to our economic model. But to do so we need to change behaviours that have been reinforced for decades by marketing messages, media hype, and the self serving nature of so many of our politicians, regulators and commentators.

But that change can – and must - be made. To do so, people must start to understand where unlimited growth in GDP will lead. Let me quote you some numbers.

Global GDP in 2007 was 65 Trillion USD. That figure is double what it was a mere 12 years earlier. Is it surprising that oil is running out, water wars are forecast, fish stocks are dwindling and waste mountains piling up? And all this is starting to happen before global warming makes a serious impact on our planet.

And only last month, the International Monetary Fund forecast the continuation of this growth pattern within 3 years. That will result in a global GDP of 150 Trillion USD by 2020, 1,000 Trillion by 2050 and – would you believe - 26,000 Trillion USD for the last year of this century.

Clearly a global economy 400 times larger than the one today will not happen. So when will it change and how?

If it is left to the major political parties and the profit motive then growth will simply run out of resources. Recession, depression, deflation will kick in. We have seen how close we came to that from a fall out in the ‘make-believe’ financial economy. A crash in the real economy driven by booming population and resource scarcity will have an impact far more disastrous than we have seen over the last 12 months.

As Greens we must point out the insanity of this model and aggressively promote the solution.

And there is a solution to this problem. A solution that does not mean we have to live in caves and eat moss. Nor does it mean economic growth must stop. And it is a solution that is already embedded in existing Greens’ policies.

I am talking about the three Rs. Repair Recycle Restore. The very core of Greens’ values are the solution to our problem. Changing our economic model from one of dig up, ship out, ship back and throw away to one which promotes local repair, local re cycling and local restoration and upgrading of existing products will stop both the drain on the world’s resources and the insane increase in waste. It will enable economic growth to be sustainable, will promote employment here in Australia and it will help protect us from any ill winds that globalisation blows our way in future.

But how do we drive the change in behaviour that is required? That is also embedded in existing Greens’ policies.

Taxation is one of the most powerful tools available to a government to change behaviour. From bricking up windows in 18th century London to avoid the window tax to popping out babies in Australia to cash in on the baby bonus, taxation changes behaviour.

By imposing taxes on pollution, natural resources and waste production we will instantly drive behavioural change to the direct benefit of the planet. By imposing import taxes on those countries that continue to pursue an unsustainable economic model, we will start to influence their behaviour and protect our local businesses from unfair competition.

But our economic model is also unsustainable from a societal viewpoint. It is a model that focuses on transforming resources of the many into profit for the few. It is a model that thrives on envy, greed, gluttony and pride. A model that actually takes pride in widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Once again, taxation is the key. Wealth taxes in the UK in the middle of the last century were highly effective at breaking up the obscene fortunes that the aristocracy had built up over centuries. This money was then used to build up their education, social security and health systems to being the some of the best in the world.

We now have obscene wealth in this country. Much of this wealth has come from monopolies, questionable corporate practices, criminal activity and all of those unjustified financial bonuses we have recently witnessed.

The state must take control of all natural monopolies and key infrastructure and we must introduce wealth taxes to raise additional funds to dramatically improve our education, our health, our social security and our public transport.

As Greens we have built an enviable reputation in promoting environmental protection, social justice, principled democracy and peace and non violence. Our elected representatives at all levels of government do a superb job in these areas.

But this is not enough if we want to truly change our society and it is not enough if we want to expand our support base to give us the power to make those changes.

We now have to promote our economic credentials. That is why I am standing for senate.

I have spent over 30 years as a socialist in the capitalist world of business, finance and economics. My experience, knowledge and understanding of this world will give The Greens credibility to broaden its support base and be listened to by the media, to be listened to by commentators and to be listened to by the main political parties.

I look forward to receiving your vote. Thank you.

Our abuse of the Aboriginal race

2009-05-19T17:00:00.000+10:00

Most of us will have had some experience of abuse in our life. A bully at school, a belittling parent, a date that goes that bit too far. Sometimes the most trivial event can give us that cold feeling in the stomach for years afterwards when we recall the incident.

And there are some of us who have suffered years of physical, mental or sexual abuse. Often imposed by an authority figure – priests, teachers, parents. I think we can all understand that it can take years to recover from such abuse. Perhaps more difficult to understand is that sometimes recovery simply never occurs and sometimes the abusers abuse themselves and abuse people whom they now have authority over. Often this abuse within a family can go on repeating itself for generation after generation.

Now imagine, if you can, that you live in a whole society that has been abused for generations. Where your recent ancestors have been murdered, raped, enslaved and belittled to the extent that their government - the ultimate authority figure – could not even be bothered to count them in its census, let alone allow them the right to vote. And where that government continued to deny responsibility for decade after decade, reinforcing the guilt of the abused.

For the founders of our country that is no imaginary exercise. It is the day to day life of so many of our Aboriginal community.

And what do we do? Do we offer them the love, encouragement and protection that is so important when helping other abused individuals? Do we make them feel wanted? Valued? Needed? Do we give them time to heal themselves?

Or do we blame them? Tell them to ‘pull themselves together’? Punish them? Lose patience with them? And when all else fails, do we just throw money at them, as though buying an abused child a new toy will assuage their guilt and heal their pain.

Our treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is one of the most shameful episodes in the world over the last century. There have certainly been events that have caused greater death and suffering on a race - the holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the killing fields of Cambodia – but what makes the treatment of the founders of our county so bad is that it has been carried out, not by some despotic dictator or ruthless regime, but by a democratically elected government in a, supposedly, developed country.

For the Jews, the Tutsis and the victims of Pol Pot there was a clear cause of their suffering. A person to point to. A regime to blame. And a world that brought their abusers to justice. Even with that, many of them still live the life of the guilty and a life of shame.

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have little of that. There has been no global process to impose justice on their abusers, no trials, no one who accepts responsibility. So they are left with just more reinforcement of their guilt and their shame.

Given their history and suffering it is surprising how many of them have lifted themselves out of the cycle of abuse, but it will take far more from our government and far more from those of us who live the idyllic Australian life for the majority to begin to start healing themselves.

Why I am standing as a Senate candidate for The Greens

2009-05-15T12:32:00.001+10:00

I left the corporate world in March last year to "educate the business world on the perils of global warming". But to achieve this, we have to challenge the basic capitalist economic model. This can only be done through the political process.

That is why I am standing to be Senate candidate for the New South Wales Greens for the next federal election.

I am fairly unique amongst The Greens by having a stong business, finance and economics background. My skills in this area complement the fantastic depth that The Greens have with our existing Senators in the more traditional areas of environmental protection, social justice, principled democracy and peace and non violence.

The Global Financial Crisis makes the time now right for The Greens to aggressively promote our excellent economic and taxation policies. But to be taken seriously by the media, commentators and the main political parties they must be promoted by a person with a strong industry, finance and taxation background who can take on Wayne Swan and Malcolm Turnbull in any head to head debate. I have not added Joe Hockey to the list as it would just not be a fair fight!

Why thejollygreencapitalist?

2009-05-15T12:19:00.001+10:00

This is the marketing brand that I use to convince capitalists to be green, not to convince Greens to become capitalists!

Check out my other pages for how I go about this:

www.thejollygreencapitalist.com

Football...

2009-05-15T12:14:00.001+10:00

There are similarities between the culture of the footy clubs to thuggish behaviour and the corporate culture to corporate social responsibilities.

In the footy world, whether you are disciplined or not for thuggish behaviour depends, in part, on how well you are playing and how important you are to the team. In the same way, it is rare to see any corporate manager being disciplined for health, safety or environmental breaches – as long as they are making money! In fact in over 30 years, the only time I have seen an employee, or a senior manager, dismissed for serious breaches of HS&E is where they wanted to get rid of them in the first place and the breach gave them the excuse.

The solution on the footy field is pressure from society and the fans. Similarly, the solution in the corporate boardrooms is pressure from society and the shareholders

The Budget – What a waste!

2009-05-15T11:58:00.002+10:00

The great majority of us live a stunning life with a life expectancy that is second only to Japan. We have endless beaches on which to sunbathe, mountains to ski on, millions of hectares of unspoilt bush to enjoy . We have a climate that unables us to grow virtually any food we want and our multiculturalism, tolerance and freedom allows us to lead a life of great richness and variety.

But we also live in a country with an appalling gap between the haves and the have nots. Where half of all our children live in households where either no parent works, or both parents work. Where the founders of our country wallow in third world living conditions with a life expectancy worse than Burma or Bangladesh.

And we live in a world that is teetering on the brink of ecological collapse. Natural resources plundered. Land, sea and air polluted. And with global warming tipping the planet towards an unknown world of fire, flood, drought and tempest.

Then along comes the greatest opportunity in a lifetime to change the way we live and correct our mistakes. The Global Financial Crisis.

A crisis brought on by those very behaviours that have been the cause of our plundering and polluting of the planet and of the rapid increase in the gap between the haves and the have nots. That insane drive for economic growth at any cost with the benefits going to the few.

And the budget presented an unbelievable opportunity to correct economic injustices, to change the economic direction of the country and to display clear leadership and vision to the rest of the world as to how we need to live in this century.

And what do we do? Exactly the same as we have always done with a headlong rush to 4.5% economic growth without any care or consideration as to how that compound growth rate will impact the planet in 10, 20 or 50 years time.

Of all the countries in the world, our natural wealth, vast resources and small population means we are in a perfect position lead the rest of the world to an economy that is environmentally and socially sustainable. And, after all, that is the economic vision of The Greens.