I see a parallel with the captain of the Korean ferry disaster being charged with murder, and captains of our national boat.
The Korean boat captain assured his charges that they would be safe if they followed the direction of the crew, placed an inexperienced mate in charge, directed the passengers to stay in place below decks while the ship foundered, and the passengers died while the captain abandoned it.
Is that different to Abbott assuring us that there is no danger from climate change, placing inexperienced and uncaring people as his advisers, advising us we will prosper if we expand our coal mining and gas fracking and exports, and instructing us to carry on being good consumers believing that economic growth is the solution to all challenges, taking no action to secure ourselves?
Of course he and captains of capitalism will abandon the ship for the refuges they can build for themselves from the spoils they have aggregated, for example by accepting bribes from industry, and in turn using our money to bribe industry, such as wanting to pay them to stop polluting (pollution abatement will cease as soon as the bribe money runs out!).
We must remember that these people are in the captain’s (and the admiral’s) seat. They have access to all the information from our taxpayer-funded research institutes to know what is coming and to know the solutions available, and have a responsibility to be informed by it, to make sure it is shared with us, and to lead us in a safe direction.
I am afraid the Korean boat disaster is going to play out on a massive scale over the next few short decades, right down to it being our children predominantly being the ones on the foundering ship.
I am impelled to say this in the context of this good Echo article.
https://www.echo.net.au/2014/04/renewables-changing-nature-power-manufacturing/
It shows just how vast is our ability to respond. This ability is not new; we could have been building renewable energy since the 1970s, and be starting from a much higher installed base with many of these newer technologies tried and tested by now (with trillions of $ saved globally on not buying fuel to burn and by having avoided military buildup and wars to secure access, and yes, millions of lives saved from avoided wars and coal pollution).
Dr Paul Taylor, TweedCAN
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
