2011: The Year of the Ant?
By Craig Roussac. First published by Ethical Investor.
December, 2010
What a marvellous spring we just had! Not too hot, not too cold, plenty of rain – the countryside and gardens are looking great. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, strong La Niña conditions contributed to “Australia’s wettest August to October period on record.” It certainly was quite a contrast to recent years when the spring growth was so stressed.
It wasn’t only the vegetation and animals looking stressed. Many of us humans felt the same way. If you think about it, when things dry out we get an indication of what conditions will be like only a few short years from now when alarming climate change projections arrive. Furthermore, what’s the point of battling to make our economy cleaner and greener when various Australian state governments are regularly announcing expansions to their aging coal-fired power stations that, at latest count, will increase CO2 emissions by well over 10 million tonnes per annum in coming years?
This year we haven’t had to think constantly about climate change. So why not take the opportunity to relax?
Perhaps 2011 will be the year to dust off Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper. You’ll recall how the ant worked steadily all summer storing up food for winter, while the grasshopper just sat nearby happily singing away. When winter arrived, the situation was reversed and the grasshopper found itself dying of hunger while the ant had plenty.
When it comes to issues like climate change, social inequality and biodiversity loss, we Australians are behaving like the grasshopper. And yet, it is precisely these benign economic times when we should be working most diligently. Periods of economic and/or environmental calamity are not ideal for taking on the big ‘discretionary’ issues. Is there a way forward?
Perhaps the commercial property sector gives us some cause for optimism. Mandatory disclosure of the carbon emissions intensity of buildings just came into effect. The legislation was much anticipated, even if the scheme’s ultimate form was not. It picks up on something that’s been happening for a while now: a growing awareness of the linkage between environmental impacts, customer (I use the term broadly – in this case tenant/occupier) expectations and operational efficiency. Buildings with lower impact cost less to run and they address a demand from occupants for greener office accommodation. If energy was priced to reflect its true cost (both direct and indirect) the demand for better buildings would grow much higher.
If in 2011 we start to see more honest pricing of resources, such as energy and water, coupled with easy to understand product information, we will have a way forward. We can draw encouragement from the fact that an ever-growing number of people are choosing to make responsible choices despite market forces pushing them in the other direction (think rainwater tanks, the resurgence of the suburban chook and the veggie garden). With regulated increases in energy and water prices coupled, hopefully, with clearer labelling of products, maybe we’ll start to witness more genuinely rational behaviour in 2011. The year of the ant?
Roussac, A.C. (2010). 2011: The Year of the Ant? Ethical Investor, Nov/Dec 2011, Issue 94: 50.
