The best of times or the worst of times?

Many believe we are enjoying the best of times. No doubt some are. To do this though, we have to believe that anthropogenic climate change is not real. We have to close our minds and completely ignore the terrible injustices that occur to our fellow human beings every day. We have to pay no heed to the environmental degradation and accelerated destruction of species.

To believe we are living in the best of times, we not only have to filter out these injustices, but we have to do so with absolute conviction. We have to believe that what we experience on a daily basis is the experience of all, or at least attainable by all. Further, we firmly believe our economic growth on this finite planet is justified because it will benefit everyone.

After all, for we who are fortunate and indeed very privileged in today's world, unemployment is low, the economy as a whole is doing well, life expectancy is increasing, technology is purporting to make our lives easier and more enjoyable and our consumption knows no bounds.

But at what cost?

This economic model we are wedded to is powered by fossil fuel and mineral resource extraction. The latter is likely to continue, albeit at a reduced rate, as we learn how to recycle the minerals we have already extracted, used and thrown away. The end is nigh for the former; this is clear given the emerging ethic of transformation around the world to renewable energies as a source of power. It seems the companies that make their money from the fossil fuel industry are in an unseemly race to get as much money from it as possible, before the window closes.

The economic model for the best of times would be one based on a knowledge platform of innovation and sustainability. Queensland should be leading the world in this domain.

As parts of the world are starving, in our 'civilized' society we are spending a vast amount of money trying to arrest diseases that result from over-eating. If ever there was a paradox demonstrating how we have deluded ourselves that we are in the best of times, this is it!

Just as our food choices will affect our health down the track, the decisions we make now for our planet will be far reaching. Most of us have created offspring in the belief that the future will serve them well. Whether it does, for now is in our hands.

We, with other industrialized nations, are living a lifestyle that is changing the global temperature. While being told that digging up and burning fossil fuels is a key driver of climate change, our state government in Queensland plans to double, even treble our coal exports by 2030. To build our economy around a commodity that is destroying the future is ill considered.

The Insurance Australia Group recently held a business round table with BP Australia, Origin, Swiss Re, Visy, Westpac and the Australian Conservation Foundation. They concluded that action on climate change is required on all fronts. They recognize the insurance industry will need to be key players as climate change is the outstanding major threat to their business survival.

We are living in the most affluent time in history, but our affluence has come at a massive cost to the planet we so depend on. I believe the most difficult insight for most of us is the realisation that we are changing the climate. It all seems so preposterous. But the evidence is that our choices are destabilizing the climate.

We have been told, as recently as April this year, by the Climate Commission that unless we reduce our emissions within ten years, the warming we are causing will be irreversible and ever increasing. If this isn't serious, then God help us. It's going to be a very rough ride, especially for our children.

We have failed to respect the natural world. Instead of seeing ourselves as custodians of this magnificent planet, we have viewed it as a "resource" to exploit and plunder for our own material short-term benefit - oblivious to the havoc we have created and continue to create.

We got to hear last week that we have taken to extinction the Western White Rhino. The news offered a fleeting chance for those of us who heard it to pause and grieve for our destruction of this magnificent being. Mostly we never hear. A hundred species a day are taken to extinction. Gone without any public acknowledgement, any regret, any awareness.

We make egocentric choices and see them as smart. Using drinking water to flush our waste in our dry land is a typical one. Yet, who amongst us even questions this daily habit?

As Geraldine Brooks, the current Boyer lecturer said in her first talk in the series, "Our Only Home," every niche on earth shows the signs of man. We have respected no place enough to stay away and let it be. We tamper with everything.

Arguably, our two most fundamental needs are food and water - things we have taken for granted. Food security is now top of the agenda for many governments. In order to meet our anticipated world population of 10 billion by 2050, we will be required to increase our food production by 70 per cent. This coincides with the cry of subsistence farmers worldwide that, with our climate destabilized, they can no longer rely on knowledge of their local weather patterns. This means, in turn, that they can no longer assure a food supply for their families.

Queensland is one of the world's most productive food bowls, but our government is now prioritizing coal seam gas over food, as it authorizes the rapid spread of mining over most of the state, including the Darling Downs. Do we really want our Sunshine State turned into an industrialized vista?

We hear predictions from future thinkers that wars will be fought over water. We already have dissention in Australia over water. As attempts are made to face up to our responsibility to return over allocated water to the once mighty Murray, vested interests prevail and yet again the environment is betrayed.

The best of times values natural heritage, equity, social justice and community as the cornerstones of a happy, healthy society. Without these four pillars, the minority who benefit from the resources that are extracted (either directly or indirectly) are able to delude themselves that they are in fact living in the best of times.

Unfortunately for us, that minority is in fact the majority in Australia. So our understanding of how the rest of the world is faring is very limited. It's not that collectively we don't care, it's just that the injustices that exist in the world are not omnipresent in our lives and therefore we are able to use our carefully developed and protected filters to great effect.

I live in hope that we can learn to live without these filters and then perhaps the best of times are just around the corner.