2023-01-08
By The Green Issue Editors
Rising interest rates, stagnating wages and a worsening housing crisis make this festive season rather bleak for many. In this issue, The Greens’ plan to address the housing crisis is elaborated. Related to the housing crisis is ever increasing income inequality. Its manifestation is described and The Greens’ plans and actions to reverse this trend are presented. Superimposed on these socio-economic problems is the creeping onset of climate change. The Net Zero Perth initiative, coordinated by the office of Hon. Brad Pettitt, MLC, suggests a pathway for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously improving Perth’s socio-economic circumstances. An update of Net Zero Perth is included in this issue.
It is a conundrum that knowledge of how human-induced emissions of greenhouse gasses can adversely affect climate has been available for over 150 years but that humans are reluctant to address the problem, even as frequency and intensity of catastrophic climate events accelerate. We include an article examining this ongoing climate denial and proposing actions required to realistically address climate reality. Climate denial is a component of political conservatism. It is argued that although political conservatism does reflect behaviour in the natural world, such as “survival of the fittest” and hierarchical structures, it is not viable in a world where natural resources are increasingly over-exploited.
Finally, we include the reports for November-December, but also reflecting 2022 as a whole, from our hard working MPs, Senator Dorinda Cox, Senator Jordon Steele-John and Hon Brad Pettitt, MLC.
Landing page photo: Political conservatism and similarities to natural life systems. Inside a jungle in Sierra Madre del Sur, Mexico, a hotbed of plant competition. Credit: Perojevic, 2005 CC