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Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Australian writer: Lack of leadership on climate change one reason for UK riots

It was bound to happen. Sooner or later somebody would blame the riots in London and elsewhere in the UK on climate change or lack of action against it. Gavin Heaton, "a valued contributor to (Australian)  Business 2 Community" thinks that the rioting is a result of lack of leadership "on big, moral and social issues such as racism, asylum seekers, access to opportunity and education, and yes, even climate change":

Now I in no way condone the violence that is taking place. But it is important to point out that these type of events occur when populations are disenfranchised, when disadvantage is baked into the institutions that make up our society, and when access to opportunity, to a future worth living, is limited by where you were born and where you went to school.

The woman in this video says, “we’re not fighting for a cause” – and she is right. Decades of social, political and cultural neglect reinforced and amplified by the divisiveness of dog whistle politics has led to this point. As Laurie Penny explains:
The people running Britain had absolutely no clue how desperate things had become. They thought that they could take away the last little things that gave people hope, the benefits, the jobs, the possibility of higher education, the support structures, and nothing would happen. They were wrong. And now my city is burning …
It’s a terrible situation.
But we’re also seeing the same thing here in Australia. We’re following the same path. Rather than leadership on big, moral and social issues such as racism, asylum seekers, access to opportunity and education, and yes, even climate change, we see minute focus on what our politicians believe they can get away with. It’s the bare minimum in terms of social policy.

Read the entire article here

It would not surprise anybody if Heaton, or some other ecofundamentalists, would soon start blaming extreme weather events, caused by global warming, "big oil" and the "climate deniers" for contributing to the riots.

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