I spent yesterday at a conference in Brisbane hearing about “the future” and Australia’s place in “The Age of Asia”.
I enjoyed the talk at lunch by P.P.Shukla, the Indian High Commissioner to Australia, titled ‘The Emergence of Asia from India’s Perspective’. He commented that India only used to consider Australia in the context of cricket, but now people discuss Australia as a potential supplier of uranium.
Michele Levine from Roy Morgan Research Pty Ltd presented a paper titled ‘The Value of Listening to People’ (its almost a 1MB download) earlier in the morning based on polling which indicated 55 percent of Australians believe uranium should be exported for peaceful purposes.
I was fascinated that Roy Morgan Research was the “knowledge partner” for the conference. While i’ts certainly useful to understand what people think, I am not sure that polling people’s perceptions can be a substitute for facts and figures on how things really are.
The polling is interesting and indicates that most Australians consider global warming to be the most significant environmental issue facing Australia and the world. Furthermore, only 23% of Australians consider that “threats to the environment are exaggerated”, only 12% believe global warming concerns are exaggerated and 71% of Australians believe that “if we don’t act now [on global warming] it will be too late”.
Given the various comments at the conference about the extent of the problem of air pollution in China including Hong Kong, it seemed strange to me that there was no reference to the potential problem of global dimming?
The overwhelming concern about global warming was continued in the speech by Acting Queensland Premier Anna Bligh at the dinner. She made three points with respect to global warming:
1. The Queensland government is going to use money from the sale of its energy providers (Energex and Ergon) to fund future research into clean coal,
2. Climate change is the reason we have water restrictions in Brisbane, salinity and drought on farms and also land degradation… all of this under opening comment that the world is getting both “hotter and drier” as a consequence of global warming.
3. As a consequence of the worst drought in Queensland’s history, the Queensland government has no choice but to build a new dam for the south east of the state.
I wonder how the drought is going to fill the dam?
The best speech was the keynote address at the dinner by Rui Chenggang (Director and Anchor, China Central Television, People’s Republic of China). He questioned the perceptions of Australians about China. He made the point that while we in the West (with reference to Britian, the US and us, I think) may have rose to power through aggression and suppression, the same should not be assume of China. He said while you can’t find two leaves the same in the world, so history can not exactly repeat itself. He said that while we in the West associate China with the symbol of a dragon that is aggressive and breathes fire, for the Chinese the dragon breathes water and symbolizes peace and development. He concluded with the comment that “China might be different, if you see if differently”.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
I’m sure the Tibetans and Taiwanese feel reassured now that a talking head has proclaimed how peaceful the Chinese are. They should look in their own backyard before coming here to lecture us about “aggression and suppression”.
The 71% of Australians who believe we need to act now on global warming, would they be the same 71% who are applauding the higher petrol prices? There is a huge difference between what people say in a survey, and how they act.
” As a consequence of the worst drought in Queensland’s history, the Queensland government has no choice but to build a new dam for the south east of the state.
I wonder how the drought is going to fill the dam?”
Would this dam be slated for the Mary River, the other river system QLD lungfish naturally occur in? As long as it looks like the government is doing something, I guess it doesn’t matter how the drought will fill the dam, or whether a “living fossil” becomes a dead one.
To me, a dragon is an unassuming creature that wafts around the sea weed and sea grass beds. Maybe there is a link there… dragons=seahorses=dried organisms exported to China to enhance their wellbeing for their “peace and development” projects. I am being facetious btw.
Historically Tibetans and buddhism came from China, there has never been a country callled “Tibet”, something not mentioned by modern activists.
I agree with Paul Williams that it would be more useful to ask people how much they are willing to pay to mitigate climate change, whether they are willing to change their vote over it, etc.
In the context of mitigating global warming I am not so pessimistic about China. They are willing to go to the extent of social engineering if they think it is in the common good, cf the one child policy. They also, I think, have a history of economising and making compromises between freedoms and rights which may serve them well.
Perhaps this might have something to do with it.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=36209&newsdate=03-May-2006
“BEIJING – Glaciers covering China’s Qinghai-Tibet plateau are shrinking by 7 percent a year due to global warming and the environmental consequences may be dire, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.
Rising temperatures that have accelerated the melting of glaciers across the “roof of the world” will eventually turn tundra that spans Tibet and surrounding high country into desert, the agency quoted Professor Dong Guangrong with the Chinese Academy of Sciences as saying.
Dong warned the deterioration of the plateau may trigger more droughts and increase sandstorms that lash western and northern China. He reached his conclusions after analysing four decades of data from China’s 681 weather stations.
Han Yongxiang of China’s National Meteorological Bureau said average temperatures in Tibet had risen 0.9 centigrade since the 1980s, accelerating the melting of glaciers and frozen tundra across the plateau.
The Qinghai-Tibet plateau covers 2.5 million square km (0.96 million square miles) — about a quarter of China’s land surface — at an average altitude of 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above sea level. ”
Hello Jen – the paper from Morgan is well worth a read. Thanks for the tip!
I found a book “The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress” by Nathan and Ross (WW Norton & Co) an interesting read. They certainly argue that China’s history suggests that they are and have been obsessed with defense of a large complex country with many (often hostile) neighbours. The Chinese would strongly agree with Rog’s comment.
However I worked with a Chinese engineer this year who was university educated in Australia and decided to stay. He maintains that China sees the map of itself as rooster. That shape of course includes Tibet. However I am a litle concerned that, to my eye, it also includes the Korean peninsular.
rog, thanks for your understanding. we, chinese people, and our goverment are trying our best to change the environmental situation, it takes time as the “one child policy”, i believe we will do much better in the future.
jennifer, i am very interested in Mr Rui Chenggang’s speech, could you tell me where i can find it because it is very difficult for me to get the information in china, your reply would be greatly appreciated!
my e-mail address: estherding_mail@yahoo.com.cn
MSN: esthermailsky@hotmail.com
looking forward to your reply, thanks
I like your comment about different impressions of dragons in China. I have used a similar example when I published my grandfather’s autobiography – St George and the Chinese Dragon. He was an Englishman born in China in 1888. It is an interesting read, and well illustrated by photos of his life in China. He taught us tolerance, and acceptance of cultural differences. Please contact me if you want a good social history of his life in China from 1888 to 1922.