Whither Australia or wither Australia?

Secondly, Mr Howard should create a Super Department of Sustainability with a vision of an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable Australia and charged with converting our unsustainable socio-economic systems into sustainable systems. It would have an oversight role, ensuring that basic criteria for sustainability concerning the use of resources and the assimilation of wastes would be met.

A Department of Population would produce a population policy that would stabilise our population size, thus constraining one of the underlying drivers of unsustainability. The Economic Departments would change tack by encouraging green forms of development. They would give primacy to the ecological rather than the economic sphere since the economy is only a part of society, which, in turn, is dependent on the environment.

And, importantly, we need the scientific knowledge base that can provide the economic, social and ecological understanding relevant to ESD, and appropriate institutions that can respond promptly to threats to our life-support systems. This is important because, although we know that ecological trends are now unsustainable, little is known about the resilience of ecosystems and their resistance to collapse.

A transcendent issue is that of spatial scale. Ecological problems vary from local to global. Adequate ESD management is partly a global exercise and thus Mr Howard will need to promote a Global Management Authority within the UN.

While the above is just a sketch of policy, alternatives to the endless growth model are needed because human survival itself may be at stake. This makes sustainability the top priority nationally and globally. Having won three elections and being close to retirement, Mr Howard has little to lose and could start the profound paradigm shifts necessary for the transition to an ecologically sustainable economy.

It would be the ultimate irony if Homo sapiens, the wise man, were to become the author of his own extinction.