Crikey

There can be little doubt, on any reading of the past 24 hours, that we live in testing times. The day brought two big issues to the notice of all Australians. First there were the US markets, which as we woke to the news of the failure of Congress to distribute billions in saving largesse, lay gasping like a beached fish. Then came the final report on climate change from our own Professor Ross Garnaut.

This combination, with its blended scent of ripe, rolling cataclysm, seems all but overwhelming. But let’s dig in. The fact is that neither situation — the apparent demise of bubble capitalism and the encroaching environmental endgame of climate change — can be solved through political lip service or quick-fix palliatives.

The truth is probably that even had the US House passed the $700 billion bailout bill, debt and structural malaise would eventual take markets back to the brink. Likewise, there is little point dancing on the pin trying to find a sellable solution to climate change. Both issues have the potential for devastation. Both need solutions that go beyond the popular and populist, solutions that run to the brutally effective and unpalatable. That’s the emerging reality we all have to embrace. It’s beyond pure politics, and the normal rules of blithe, cynical, media engagement. It’s real.