2022-02-26
There are burgeoning existential threats facing humanity but these don’t seem to get much of a mention in Australian election campaigns. Why?
By Chris Johansen, Co-editor, Green Issue
The recently published Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum and the Doomsday Clock announcement by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have categorized the main threats facing humanity, and indeed life on this planet as we know it. These major threats are:
- Climate change. Catastrophic climate change is now well underway but global political action to slow it, and even plan for adaptation to it, is lacking. We understand its causes and we know how to slow it but there is insufficient political will to do so.
- Environmental deterioration generally. Irrespective of climate change, extractivism continues to dominate over maintenance of ecological integrity, and a failure to understand that human life and well-being depends on ecological integrity.
- Nuclear weapons. Even Richard Nixon proclaimed that further development of nuclear weapons ensures “mutually assured destruction” (MAD). But this continues apace, enhanced by all manner of cyber developments. The Doomsday Clock remains at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been in its 75 year history, mainly determined by nuclear weapons issues.
- Prospects for war. The decline in UN negotiation and peace keeping authority and capability has allowed various flareups to escalate – like very much now in Ukraine, and also in Yemen and the ramping up of US/Australia vs China tensions. Increasing economic disparities within and between nations also lay the groundwork for future violent conflict.
- Cyber rationality. Even the inventor of the World Wide Web in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, believes it has now gone way out of control. Hacking, misuse of personal information and free-wheeling disinformation are rife and there is an obvious need for a much better means of regulation on a global scale than now exists. And the now rapid global increase in digitization and robotization threatens jobs.
- Pandemics and biological weapons. Covid is generally considered a once in a century pandemic, but we have had the emergence of similar such viruses, SARS and MERS, in the last 20 years – by timely action and good fortune these were effectively controlled. With increasing interaction between humans and local biodiversity prospects of future viral transmission to humans remain, and thus the regular occurrence of pandemics. Viruses, although tiny, are clever and know how to mutate to get around human defences such as vaccines. And such mutations are made easier by half-baked vaccine rollouts particularly in poorer countries. Thus a global “war-footing” is needed to deal with future likely pandemics. Further, some nations persist in trying to develop biological weapons.
- Global economy challenges. Inflation, debt crisis and divergent pathways for economic recovery (further widening the global wealth gap) increasingly threaten. Covid has catalysed these trends but a decreasing trend in international economic cooperation, such as trade wars, was already apparent.
The technical capability of dealing with all of these problems exists, but the national and global political will to implement them is lacking.
In the upcoming Australian Federal election, as in previous Federal elections, few of these grave global issues will barely get a mention in the campaigning of the Coalition and Labor parties – despite their potential to seriously disrupt the lives of voters.
Campaign issues will largely be framed around perceived voter self-interest considerations on a local scale. These are summarized as:
- Lower taxes. Some tax relief for the lower paid but substantial tax relief for big business, with the continued proclaimed myth of “trickle-down economics”.
- Prudent economic management, such as low inflation, low interest rates, job creation, etc., even though these items are largely beyond the control of the Federal government, it being a laissez-faire type.
- Less government regulation, such as during pandemics, affecting business transactions, etc.
- Promises of local infrastructure development (e.g. road repair, car parks. community centres, etc.), whether through needs-based analysis or the pork barrel.
- Enhanced child care services – to allow both parents to work, which is necessary in many cases to keep financial heads above water.
- Education, especially opportunities for attending private schools.
- Better aged care facilities.
- Adequate government support for health services.
- Strong law ‘n’ order protocols.
- Tight border controls – migration only to fill job vacancies not filled by Australians; acceptance of the demonization of asylum seekers and refugees that has occurred over the last decade.
- Strong defence against perceived foreign threats – through enhanced military capability and military alliances with like-minded nations (e.g. USA). Since the stone age leaders have sought support of their tribe by promising to protect them from external enemies, whether such enemies exist or not.
- Perceived personality of leaders of major parties. A day-to-day focus on the gaffs or good points made by those leaders, rather than implementation of party policies; a presidential style rather than that of a parliamentary democracy.
The above is just my summary of what appears on the platforms of major parties (Coalition and Labor) but it is perhaps more succinctly reinforced by the Prime Minister’s own assessment of the electorate. As quoted from the Editorial, The Saturday Paper, 22 Feb 2022:
“They want to live their lives,” Morrison says. “They want to run their businesses, they want a country that is safe and secure where they can have their own choices and make their own way … They want to own their own home, they want to raise their kids, get skills and training for them, they want to be able to save for their retirement and not get too much debt and live their life the way they want to do giving back to their community. These are the great aspirations.”
Yes, the obvious focus is on voter self interest with little mention in election campaigns of those big, global issues, the manifestation of any one of which would override and belittle the local issues. Especially in an “information age” why should this be so?
My explanation of the Federal election cycle in this country, and indeed in many other countries, is that it is a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop. To get elected in the first place, most politicians feel they need to focus on what they see as issues directly and immediately of concern to the electorate, rather than taking any lead in broader, global issues. Thus voters base their decisions on the menu of local issues presented to them. And this cycle reinforces itself.
It is not that many voters are unaware of broader existential issues but feel that they can’t do much about them. They are not on the campaign menu in the first place and it is assumed that they will be dealt with at higher levels. The problem is that politicians elected on local issues, and remain focussed on local issues to get re-elected, are ill-equipped and disinclined to branch out into global considerations. They don’t want to dilute their locally focussed spiel. However, the exception to this is an international threat of war, whether beat-up or real. Thus Australia in particular is “missing in action” when it comes to realistically addressing global issues (e.g. a climate laggard, favouring military build-up over peace-seeking efforts, etc.).
This problem of a dichotomy between local and global issues is by no means new. For example, some 60 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. understood the inherent connection between nuclear threats and social justice. These two issues are tied together in many, many ways. “It is a wonderful thing to work to integrate lunch counters, public accommodations, and schools,” he said. “But it would be rather absurd to work to get schools and lunch counters integrated and not be concerned with the survival of a world in which to integrate.” (Quoted from Biden’s Trump-lite nuclear policy threatens us all, by Joe Cirincione, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 26, 2022).
So how to get around this dichotomy of political emphasis on all things local vs the overarching global threats? The obvious need is to somehow infuse consideration of global issues into Federal election campaigns. The Greens are best placed to do this as their policies span the entire range from local to global issues. Further, they are part of a global movement with “Green parties” existing in around 100 countries. But easier said than done due to the self-reinforcing cycle of focus on local issues that characterizes Australian politics. Nevertheless, there is scope for The Greens to more succinctly point out the actual and potential effect of global issues on local issues.
One such example is climate change. A Lowy Institute 2021 poll indicated that 74% of Australians want realistic climate action and that it was economically viable to pursue it (and other polls over recent years are in line with this finding). With recent record temperatures, fires, floods, biodiversity loss, etc. many people are obviously seeing the connection between a global issue and the local issues directly affecting their lives. And many of these have given up on the major parties to take any meaningful action, e.g. the sprouting of independent candidates with climate action as a major platform. Nevertheless, when a voting choice comes down to whether to accept the offer of a tax cut or local infrastructure build vs serious action on climate change then I’m afraid the former usually prevails. The only way is to keep hammering away at the inevitable connection between global and local issues.
Header photo: Miniature man looking for a solution to global issues, by focusonmore.com Creative Commons
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]