Border protection needs a re-think as we face a rush of climate refugees

Those uncomfortable about the arrival of illegal immigrants (below right) will soon need to re-think their position.

Changes to the world’s climate are going to make such arrivals commonplace.
We have just a few people traveling with or without permission to distant parts to escape politically difficult circumstances, but it is changing and soon we will see many more people who are forced to move so becoming climate refugees.
Australia, along with the rest of the world, is troubled by climate change, but as a rich Westernized nation is coping well, so far, with what’s happening and so many see Australia as something of a nirvana.
On a per capita basis Australia is among the worst, if not the worst, contributors to the world’s greenhouse gas difficulties and so surely we have a responsibility to deal with the changes we have wrought.
The difficulty is global and although other countries have played a bigger role than us, the solution is equally global meaning that we must be a part of the solution and prepare ourselves, psychologically and physically, to befriend some of the world’s climate refugee.
No longer can we be too precious about our borders, our sovereignty or independence, rather as a world citizen we have to understand the implications of climate change, which will be worsened by peak oil, and prepare our home for an influx of visitors, or climate refugees.
Can we stop these people? Physically, yes (I think), morally, no.
Emphasis in recent years has been about eliminating the world’s trade barriers ensuring a process that enrich and benefit just a few, while millions have little.
Borders around the world have been demolished in the name of trade, but they are as watertight as ever when it comes to people.
Happily taking another country’s goods suggests we should also willingly take its people as well.
Such an idea would no doubt bring loud protests from many, but soon the noise of those objections will be drowned out by the gathering storm of noise from climate change refugees and thousands wandering the world as they attempt to escape peak oil dilemmas.

New PM needs a new idea for a new Australia

“The Rise and Fall of Kevin Rudd” could be the title of a novel or the headline for an obituary, except that our former Prime Minister is still alive, making the latter impossible and as events of Thursday were true, any tale of fiction would be just that.

Without discussing the rights and wrongs of the Labor Party’s switch to the former deputy PM, Julia Gillard (right), it’s worth noting that this change, as with any change in our lives, from personal to public, is an opportunity.
People of every stripe, from all walks of life, are presently grinding through the equations to determine what opportunity they can seize from this seismic change in Australia’s political landscape.
Politics is a little like removing your hand from a bucket of water as once the ripples fade, you can’t tell were your hand had been. Politics and those involved in it just keep flowing along.
That is not a criticism of Rudd (bottom right) or an endorsement of Gillard, rather an observation that the wider populace is rarely affected by such happenings, unless such a change fundamentally alters the structure of their lives.
Questions abound, but those that really need to be asked, but won’t be because they will be divisive and unpopular and so not even whispered in parliament let alone asked, discussed and decisions made.

Climate change is a reality and moves to counter it should have been common in our communities ten years ago rather than being allowed now to fade away, referred again for report from another committee or further opinion sought from Australian communities.
Peak oil, that moment when the world’s accessible oil reserves are half gone, which happened, according to some authorities, this year means fuel will become more expensive as each year passes and many items, such as food, will become rarer.
Julia Gillard faces many challenges and the first, and most important, she needs to devote her time and energy to, is the re-structuring of Australian society, psychologically and physically, to prepare it for a life so different from what we have now that few understand what is ahead.