Research reveals shocking detail on how Australia’s environmental scientists are being silenced with more than half of government environmental scientists say their work has been suppressed. This information blackout, termed “science suppression”, can hide environmentally damaging practices and policies from public scrutiny and, that deceit by omission, can influence how a person votes. The practice is detrimental to both nature and Australian democracy.

 

Let there be no doubt: blame for our failing environment laws lies squarely at the feet of government and the influence of their corporate backers. That's the government we collectively vote for and it’s a deceit we no longer have time for. "Functional democracies rely on an informed voting public. If the best scientific data and information isn't available then that's a real problem."

 

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet makes it quite clear that we need to listen to activist groups like Extinction Rebellion if we are concerned about the long term interest and safety of our precious societies. At the same time, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warns us that a global (Right-wing) political movement is building momentum to oppose climate action and is sowing the seeds of a financial crisis that has central banks scared! So, it’s not just the physical impact of global warming, it is also the financial impact that will challenge every one of us.

 

From an economic point of view, Columbia University economist Kent Daniel, plus Gernot Wagner associate professor at New York University’s Department of Environmental Studies and, Robert Litterman former head of quantitative investment strategies group at banking giant Goldman Sachs warns us: If we wait a year to implement an effective global carbon tax, the estimated cost of additional climate-change impacts will reach approximately $1 trillion globally. If we wait five years, that swells to $24 trillion. A 10-year delay is projected to cost the world $100 trillion in damage from extreme weather events and the ongoing impact of global warming. The cost to society equates to about $250 per tone on Co2 over 10 years.

 

In support of this assessment, from Business Insider comes the warning that restoring the climate with Geo-engineering could cost younger generations $530 trillion if nothing is done about global warming today. To save our planet, our economy, our grand-children and future generations, we need to stop feeding the gluttonous carbon industry. The climate troglodytes must be thrown out of office. We need laws with teeth to propel the clean energy transition. The Right side of politics lies about this issue while the Left side hides from it. We need a government more independent than our current two party Left/Right political structure, something bi-partisan and something much much greener.

 

From New York Times environmental reporter Justin Gillis: “Millions of young people have begun to understand the stakes, their fears given voice by that young lady from Sweden, with her moral intelligence and her capacity to wield the truth like a saber. We can sit back, all us smug citizens, and watch the floods, the cyclones, the heat waves, the bush fires, the droughts and our insurance premiums with a rising sense of foreboding and doom. Or we can be as brave as an innocent young girl and decide that now is the time to stand and fight!”

 

Our democracy has been hijacked by a handful of powerful corporations and industrialists who serve themselves with the support of a de-facto right wing state media. On a global scale, unpicking what drives world leaders, politicians and presidents comes back to control of oil and natural gas reserves and maintaining the dominance of coal in the energy mix.