Vikki Campion: No poor people here, we’re busy being green

Environmentalism begins with minimalism and it’s something Warringah renewables zealot Zali Steggall and the North Shore community wouldn’t know, Vikki Campion writes.

On the week that Warringah renewables zealot Zali Steggall featured in Vogue for her blinkered beliefs on wind and solar, the Mosman community that voted for her howled down suggestions the “village” should take housing commission tenants. No wonder she won.

Here is a closed-border approach philosophically against taking in impoverished families who cannot afford market rent anywhere, while expecting them — and the rest of us — to pay more to keep the fridge on.

It’s endemic of a group who don’t care for “the environment” rather only their own personal comfort.

Environmentalism begins with minimalism which the North Shore wouldn’t recognise if it sat on their face. Go to Mosman on the free council pick-up day and see the insane amount of consumables deemed “garbage” left on the footpath, instruments, furniture and crockery, while trucks from high-end Sydney furniture stores are busy making deliveries of new stuff.

There is no perfect, impact-free consumption because even the most organic vegan meal from an environmentally-friendly farm is still from land that could be a forest.

About the same time Steggall appeared in Vogue espousing the values of wind factories, the made-in-China wind towers across Australia were hanging motionless.

MP Zali Steggall. Picture: Supplied

Not one of them contributed any power to the grid on Tuesday. Eastern Australia was in the grip of one of our regular wind droughts, which can last for 30 hours or longer.

If David Jones Food Hall was relying on wind to keep the fridges on, the wind-drought would mean all the imported meats and cheeses set for formal dining room tables in Mosman mansions would be in landfill sooner than expected.

It’s no anomaly that the areas fiercest about paying more for renewables, who vote for Steggall in Warringah and Energy/Environment Minister (who can tell the difference anymore?) Matt Kean in Hornsby, both on Sydney’s affluent North Shore, are the same who indulge in rampant consumerism because while you vote politically every few years, you vote every day with your money by demonstrating your consumer preferences.

Every time you open your wallet, turn on airconditioning, buy a coffee, take an Uber, order Deliveroo, or buy groceries, you are voting.

A purchase that may seem clean and green is not linear — the biggest rort of all being recyclables that end up in landfill because it’s not profitable for garbage companies to tear them apart. If rubbish had value we wouldn’t be throwing it out; somebody would be paying us for it.

If Steggall and Kean wish to create a renewables-only utopia, then they must live by it. Install smart meters in every North Shore home and once they have hit their limit or when the sun sets and the wind stops, the power goes off.

Reliable power is not a luxury, it is a necessity. It’s not just a product, it’s a service. I am writing this during a blackout, which in Danglemah means no internet, no television, no radio and no phone calls. My modem, phone, television, fridge and washing machine are essentially just expensive bricks.

Wind and solar provide intermittent power, which cannot provide grid stability and which we cannot rely on.

Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

It only takes a truck getting stuck in a tunnel to bring Sydney’s entire traffic network to its knees on a good day. Now imagine it without power.

The trains would stop, the traffic lights would go out, there would be no aircon at home or at work, food at David Jones would spoil, the economy would grind to a sweaty, messy halt.

Matt Kean wants to captain a global push to stop carbon emissions from Macquarie St but won’t even share the modelling for his utopia with his federal colleagues. What has he to hide? If his data is solid, why not share it?

Upper Hunter Nationals MP Michael Johnsen amended Captain Kean’s legislation to bring in a renewables zone for his mining seat in the Hunter because he rightly believes we should not be reliant on one fuel source, one company or a monopoly. Competition is the only market force that will bring about cheaper power. And fair competition requires a level playing field, without taxpayer subsidies or market favouritism.

Money gives wealthy people with disposable incomes the privilege to vote via their purchasing decisions more often than poor people.

The wealthy should lead by example, and curtail their own consumerism, instead of trying to determine how the rest should live and impoverishing the working class in the process.

What they want is to import tech from China so they can use all the power they want and so long as it comes from a wind-to-electricity factory that doesn’t impede their harbour view. Their lifestyles won’t change, but ours will.

The best thing about divorcing yourself completely from any objective reality is the belief that companies will do the right thing for you, so you can just relax and signal your virtue by supporting those companies.

There is nothing like evading personal responsibility in the name of the environment.

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