June 5 is World Environment Day. Over the last decade, consciousness about the need to protect the environment has grown to the extent that, these days, youth in particular are clear that humankind can either have an adverse or a benign impact on the natural environment.
Yet governments the world over are guilty of ignoring growing sentiment to protect the environment, as well as the increasing scientific evidence of the catastrophic nature of many environmental problems.
The Howard government is no exception. On the eve of World Environment Day, it has been caught red-handed reassuring mining industry bosses that it will not jeopardise their profits when it attends the international Climate Change Conference on greenhouse gas emission targets in July.
A secret resources department briefing paper passed to the Minerals Council of Australia indicates that the government intends to put its narrow economic interests ahead of a global environmental problem. Federal resources minister Senator Warwick Parer says he will fight to protect the coal industry's exports. Currently the industry is making a concerted pitch for Asian markets.
Parer has also been pushing for the removal of export controls on all mineral exports except uranium. Fortunately, this has been temporarily shelved (the Senate blocked the bill) but there is no certainty that it will not reappear at a future date.
The Coalition's move to abandon the Labor government's woodchip export quotas is also of major concern. Apart from the threat this will pose to Australia's last remaining native forests, it is yet another indication of preparedness to trade off working people's quality of life for short-term profits.
Meanwhile, ERA's application to mine uranium at Jabiluka in Kakadu in the NT and CRA's bid to mine at Kintyre in Western Australia look set to gain government approval.
Given the far-reaching consequences of these moves, it is surprising that criticism from the environment peak bodies has been so muted. It seems that the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Wilderness Society are more interesting in gaining the ear of Coalition ministers than in mobilising public support in defence of the environment.
Some of their leaders even believe, naively, that they have some bargaining power. Without the active backing of large sections of the population, this is patently untrue.
The peak bodies have an important role to play in bringing environmental issues into the public arena and arguing for action. In the past this has provided an impetus for other organisations and individuals to get involved.
While the peak bodies negotiate with politicians behind closed doors they forget their allies in the struggle. One such ally is the trade union movement. While most trade union leaderships, imbued with the Accord's class collaborationist thinking, mistakenly believe that profit levels have to remain high to protect jobs, many rank and file trade unionists are concerned about environmental problems, and not just those in their back yard.
This World Environment Day comes at a time when basic living standards are under enormous threat. Until trade unions and the environment peak bodies realise that a narrow, nationalistic approach can not even begin to find solutions to global environmental problems, our quality of life will continue to deteriorate.