I hate to say I told you so, but I was right about Australia’s renewable transition | Caleb Bond
I don’t mean to gloat while people are suffering, but I saw this coming, writes Caleb Bond.
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You should count yourself lucky if you can afford to worry about climate change.
Not even young people are obsessed with it anymore.
The days of Greta Thunberg are over and the yoofs are now worried about – you guessed it – money.
Mission Australia’s 2024 youth survey found 56 per cent of respondents aged 15-19 were concerned about the cost of living, making it far and away the most important issue.
It knocked climate change and the environment off its perch which last year was the top concern for 44 per cent of young people.
This year it dropped to 27 per cent.
Equality and discrimination was knocked out of the top four issues for young people, replaced by violence, safety and crime.
That just about says it all.
It’s all good and well to have a social conscience if you can afford it – but most people are battling away to put food on the table.
They may have some concern about climate change they’re much more concerned with being able to turn the lights on for a reasonable price.
That’s why the teal and Greens phenomenon has largely occurred in the inner city – more money means less worry about paying for the soaring cost of living caused by their environmental policies.
Bugger the rest of us, I suppose.
And that’s the most ironic thing about this – energy is one of the biggest drivers of inflation due to soaring costs that have largely been caused by renewable energy policies designed to abate climate change.
Everyone wants to save the planet until they realise they can’t save themselves.
I hate to say I told you so – and I don’t really want to gloat because people now cannot afford to pay their bills – but I have been saying for years that it’s all good and well to introduce renewable energy to the grid, however it must be done in a way that is advantageous for consumers.
The opposite has happened, of course, and now we are literally paying for it.
Danish scientist and environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg was, nine years ago, set to open a policy centre at the University of Western Australia but he was drummed out by the uni’s weak leadership after academics hit the roof.
His crime was to say exactly the same thing as me – that any transition to renewable energy must be done in a way that does not disadvantage people.
He even, shock horror, believes that the effects of climate change may be overstated.
If only we’d let him set up shop, perhaps we’d be in a different situation.
Next time someone lectures you about climate change, ask to see their pay slip.
They want to stop the world from frying – but they’re quite happy for you to meet that fate because you can’t afford to turn your air conditioner on this summer.
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