Coral Bleaching: Who's in charge?

Back in May, almost 20 years after the world’s biggest modern coral bleaching episode, eco-warrior Tim Flannery said coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef should become an election issue. Like much of the long list of environmental disasters being brought on by climate change, coral bleaching has been on the political agenda for more than two decades. The constant reporting of these looming catastrophes has created a complacency born of the assumption that if we have our best scientists working on our most pressing problems then we’re doing all we can, right?

As we know, the scientists have identified the problems and those who still have their jobs are busy monitoring the changes and calculating the use by date for planet Earth. What’s missing in this equation is action to prevent disaster and repair the damage. The media has done a great job showing us pictures of the collapsing ice caps, while giving equal time to climate change deniers to ensure a balanced debate, but what they haven’t reported is that the people who make decisions on our behalf are actually working in the interests of the carbon industrial complex.

If you take a few minutes to study the fall of great dynasties in the chequered history of human civilisation, you may find instructive the analogy of a head of state famously playing his violin while a once great city-state burned to the ground around him.