Radically changing 2-Party Australian & Western politics: how Greens can force required climate action

World action on climate change was sabotaged at Copenhagen in 2009 by the US with the help of other world leading per capita polluters, notably Australia. Now we are seeing a re-run of Copenhagen at Cancun. However progressive people in the 2-Major Party Western Lobbyocracies can do something to force requisite strong action on man-made climate change - they can adopt a radical strategy of refusing to support the more progressive but still woefully inadequate major party (Labour in the UK, the Democrats in the US) until it firmly commits to immediate requisite strong action on climate change.

We are running out of time on climate change action. In the short-term this strategy will yield ultra-conservative governments (Conservative in the UK, Republican in the US) but ultimately is the only way decent people force the more progressive major party to take serious action on climate change.

This radical proposal is illustrated below in relation to climate criminal Australia, a country with an annual Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution 60 times greater than that of Bangladesh (see "Climate Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/clima... ) but which has gone to Cancun with a derisory bipartisan commitment to "5% off 2000 Domestic GHG pollution by 2020" (see "Australia’s “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” endangers Australia, Humanity and the Biosphere": https://sites.google.com/site/yarra...).

Most Australian Greens voters have a dangerously flawed electoral strategy of giving their second preference to pro-fossil fuel Labor which is just as bad in practice as the pro-fossil fuel Liberal-National Party Coalition when it comes to climate change inaction. Responsible pro-Humanity, pro-Biosphere Australian voters must vote 1 Green and Put Labor Last until Labor agrees to major action on climate change, this involving at the very least a firm commitment to cessation of CO2 emissions by 2020 and the corollary of 100% renewable energy by 2020.

Australia has a compulsory preferential voting system in which voters must list their order of preference for all candidates. Politics is dominated by the 2 major groups, the pro-war, pro-fossil fuels Liberal-National Party Coalition (the Libs) and the pro-war, pro-fossil fuels Labor Party (the Labs) together with minor parties of which the most important is the Greens. If there is no party with 50% of more of the vote, the preferences of the minor parties are successively allocated.

In the 2010 Federal elections the primary vote (first preference) was roughly 38% (Labor), 34% (Coalition), 12% (Greens) and 6% (others). With about 85% of Greens second preferences going to Labor, the final 2-party preferred vote was 50.1% (Labor) and 49.9% (Coalition)(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austra... ). In the washup Labor (72 seats) was able to form a barely manageable Minority Government with the help of 1 Green, 1 Green-ish independent and 2 conservative rural independents (a total of 76 seats) versus the Coalition (72 seats plus support from 2 further independents for a total of 74 seats).

The Greens are the kingmakers. Except for extremely safe Labor seats, Labor can only win seats and thence form Government with the help of Greens preferences. However the pro-Planet voting strategy of most Green voters (85% of second preferences to Labor) is fatally flawed because in practice the pro-war, pro-fossil fuels Labs are just as ineffective on climate change as the pro-war, pro-fossil fuels Libs. Thus Australia’s Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution was over 4% greater in 2009-2010 under a Labor Government than that under a Coalition Government in 2006-2007. Further, both the Libs and the Labs have the same devastatingly ineffective GHG pollution policy of "5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020".

Current Green voter preference strategy simply means that they reject a neocon Coalition Government in favour of support for the neocon Australian Labor Party (ALP) which is just as bad as the Liberal-National Party to the point that the ALP has been described quite accurately as Another Liberal Party.

What can pro-Planet voters do? In short, pro-Planet voters must vote 1 Greens and Put Labor Last until Labor agrees to requisite massive action on man-made climate change. This is a win-win strategy because (a) if Labor refuses to act properly then it will be punished by exclusion from government, noting that currently the Labs are just as bad as the Libs in relation to climate change action and (b) if Labor decides to act responsibly with requisite massive action on man-made climate change it will be returned to government.

Note that this argument assumes that, despite its current appalling inaction on climate change, traditionally reformist and progressive Labor is more likely than the Libs to ultimately take requisite action on climate change. Further, Green voter support for Labor will require massive action by Labor on climate change - whether you drive over the cliff at 1 kph or at 100 kph the end result is the same.

What must Labor commit to in order to secure second preference from Green voters?

Top climate scientist Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany, and Chief Government Advisor on Climate and Related Issues during Germany’s EU Council Presidency and G8 Presidency) says that the World must achieve zero (0) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 if it is to have a 67% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2 degree C temperature rise (not very good odds: would you board a plane if it had a 33% chance of crashing?). Further, "all men are created equal" means that there must be equal GHG pollution per capita over the next 40 years for all people. This means that world-leading per capita GHG polluters such as the US, Canada and Australia must cease CO2 pollution by 2020 (for a detailed analysis see Beyond Zero Emissions Zero carbon Australia by 2020, ZCA 2002, Report: http://media.beyondzeroemissions.or... and BZE: http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/... ).

Responsible voters in Australia who care for species diversity, Humanity, the Biosphere, children, grandchildren and intergenerational equity must vote 1 Green and Put Labor Last until Labor at the very least commits to cessation of CO2 emissions by 2020 and the corollary of 100% renewable energy by 2020 (eminently achievable according to the acclaimed BZE ZCA 2020 Report). Indeed anything less will mean that Green voters will themselves be betraying Humanity and the Biosphere.

Of course reaching Zero Emissions is just the beginning. Top scientists, including the UK Royal Society working Group on Coral, say that we must urgently return the atmospheric CO2 concentration from the current damaging 392 parts per million (ppm) for a safe and sustainable environment for all peoples and all species (see 300.org: https://sites.google.com/site/300or... ).

For the sake not just of Australia but for the whole Planet please tell everyone you can how we can radically alter do-nothing, lobbyist-beholden, 2-Major Party politics in Australia and indeed in all the other Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies that are all fiddling while the Planet burns.