Apparantly there is no way to influence demand for housing.

  • Gorgritch_Umie_KillaM
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    1 year ago

    I’m a little more hopeful enough people vote and direct their efforts in a way now that will force a higher level of engagement with these sorts of issues over the long term, (ie, heat island effect, aggressive and hard suburban areas). I think the example of Bush Mead is a reasonable start, an estate that maintained some untouched bush, and other older trees in amongst the houses, is an indicator that attitudes have begun to shift a little.

    Athough if we are at the beginning of an attitudinal change, it needs to be large enough to make a meaningful difference. Thats not Bush Mead. And it probably neccesitates changing the way we build dwellings. Options could include smaller footprints, built together with shared walls, i’m sure theres a lot more.

    Age, or more specifically ‘Generations’ (eg, Boomer, Y, X) distinctions is something i put very little weight on now. The defining characteristics that people ascribed seem to me, to be a result of people acting in their own best interests in the micro or macro situations they find themselves on. The tricky part of this is to convince people to assess their self interest in a wider sense. But people, en masse, only seem to take this view on when that wider sense has inarguable existential difficulties.

      • Gorgritch_Umie_KillaM
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        1 year ago

        Well, while i don’t disagree the Venn diagram between those who hate trees and those who said No would have more than a significant middle section, i was only saying ‘hopeful’ in regards the environmental policy area, not in general political winds.

        And yep, for sure with the land clearing. I’d say the thoughtless attitudes go back further, the key difference being the industrial capability lessened the km^2 able to be cleared. And the Greens were a fairly friendless bunch in the beginning thats for sure. But their success is actually one of many examples why I do have hope in this area. The Greens vote is as large, by memory larger last election, as the Nationals is now. There are key differences in the geographical positioning of those votes which result in less Greens reps and more Nats reps, but the raw numbers are still important, and the direction of travel is also. Momentum in these things builds slowly, but is hard to stop.

          • Gorgritch_Umie_KillaM
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            1 year ago

            Tanks definitely made things easy for them!

            You and I see this topic very differently. I see an increasing trend to mainstreaming of environmental action. It isn’t always great, but a corner has been turned, this means theres less fights in the media about it.

            I’d say last federal election had climate and environmental issues at it’s heart. From the Greens huge result, the Teal independents coming in hot as well. And the Labor party winning majority, but not by much, that sends a message. Nationals hardly moved, i think they gained maybe one seat? Liberals down like twenty? Hanson and Palmer just about flatlining, from where they were.

            I saw the lack of argument over environmental policy through the eyes of an IPCC author I heard on the radio a couple years ago. They said something to the effect of, ‘theres nothing really to argue about anymore, the science is largely done, climate change is happening, the lived experience largely equates with what the climate models predict.’

            Also the financial world has identified the value, especially since Solar went under cost of coal, that signified a huge change. Murdoch doing his directive from on high, meaning they think the popular mood has swung towards needed action. Then, the IRA bill got passed in the US. This signalled two things for the private business world,

            1. Way lower risk because the number one customer, the US government, is backing climate action projects.

            2. Private enterprise isn’t going to be left to fail alone, thus threatening their whole business, if a venture falls over.

            Rishi Sunak in the UK backing away from Britains climate action leadership is just about the only big thing i can think about that swam in the other direction.

            But of course, i list all these hopeful actions in a time when the rubber has well and truly hit the road on climate change, and we are going to reap what we’ve sewn with the turmoil and unnecessary losses that entails. All we can hope for is more competence from ourselves. (I mean ourselves as the collective)