The Extra Costs Us All

Newcastle Herald

Monday August 11, 2008

Jeff Corbett

YOU too can sense it, even if you seldom step beyond your world of energy-guzzling house, four-wheel-drives and privilege. The tide of community attitude has turned.

You may already be looking back on the days of the almost universal envy and approval of your massive four-wheel-drive as the good old days, because you sense now disapproval, condemnation even. No longer is the monster a badge of success, no longer the emblem of an adventurer; instead it's the stamp of an ecological vandal.

Yes, you do sense that, and you can admit to yourself that it's not just the cost of fuel that has turned your mind to relieving yourself of the four-wheeler. You've got two? They were salad days, eh, when having one for the wife as well was the ultimate expression of rugged power.

Of course you feel foolish. You might even have moved on from that vague sense to feeling that you're a parasite, that you're using up more than your fair share of the world's finite resources. Some of us would feel sorry for you if you hadn't been so happy to reduce your own risk in an accident at the expense of ours.

Yes, the tide has turned, somehow as tangibly as the ocean tide turns. Suddenly we're over massive, and even big. We no longer envy waste, or the wherewithal that is prone to waste.

Ostentation has long been tasteless, but now it is obscene.

The mansions designed and sited in such a way to maximise the profile for the passerby are now damning instead of impressive. Young hoons spin their tyres, old hoons spin the facade as far as possible across the block. Drive through some of the new estates on the outskirts of Lower Hunter towns and the mortgaged extravagance is ugly and shocking.

We are entering the age of prudence. Suddenly we want to weigh our demands on our planet, we sense a responsibility to pass the Earth to our children and grandchildren in good shape. And so suddenly it's hard to understand why, the determinant is sustainability not gratification.

The tide isn't racing yet, but already it appears that money will not be the currency of this new world of prudence, providence and frugality. More people are questioning, as I have, the right of some to use more than their fair share of a finite resource simply because they can afford to.

For a long time money has given the wealthy the unquestioned right to waste as wantonly as they wish. Why should it continue to do so?

Should being able to afford the extra fuel required by a four-wheel-drive entitle the owner to that extra fuel? Should being able to afford the extra electricity to air-condition and power a mansion entitle the owner to that electricity? The extra water?

It is the extra that is the most expensive for the rest of us. The money of the gluttonous does not compensate us for the draining of oil reserves, for the need to build new power stations, for the massive cost and impact of such as the proposed Tillegra Dam outside Dungog.

Does money grant a right to a greater share of resources we all own together? No longer. Look the four-wheel-driver in the eye and shake your head he knows why.

In many ways the change in the tide of our attitude was simply from big to small. We fear big government, we're disgusted by big banks, we're over big supermarkets. We're worried by big China, and if we're not we should be, and we'll all be relieved when George Bush's overblown view of the US is outta there. Does any Australian supporter of the invasion of Iraq refuse now to accept that he or she was deceived?

We want Kevin Rudd to shrink our role in international affairs to one of prudence. It's a dangerous world out there and we don't want to be dragged into it again.

We want a smaller imprint, a smaller home. We're embracing organic, hand-made or small-batch production, growers' markets. People are seeking out old skills in the growing and production of food at home.

We've just moved from an era of excess to an era of frugality. Waste and excess will be the new evil.

Not a moment too soon.

Blog with Jeff @ www.theherald.com.au

Do you sense the change in community attitude? Where will it take us? jcorbett@theherald.com.au

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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