A darker shade of green

It’s been flabbergasting the amount of negative stories that are being uncovered with the various federal government environmental programs, which is adding an unfortunate darker shade to what were seen to be ‘green’ initiatives.

Sustainability refers to the ability of human society to persist in the long term in a manner that satisfies human development demands but without threatening the integrity of the natural world or society. It’s an aspiration. It provides direction.

Over recent decades however, it’s become apparent that the pathway of human development is in many ways ecologically unsustainable and humanly undesirable. Although problems are contested and debated, it appears that the trend is one of greater evidence and concern with these issues, not less.

That’s why many of us have entered into this sector – even though there appears to be so much wrong in the world, it just means there are abundant opportunities to try and help make things better. It also means governments are getting actively involved.

Unfortunately, it appears that when there is a considerable pot of public money up for grabs, there will inevitably be some unscrupulous operators wanting to dip into it as deeply and as quickly as possible, to the detriment of the rest of us trying to do the right thing. As a colleague of mine once stated, “every bright light attracts a dark shadow”.

The insulation rebate program is an obvious example. The latest stats related to that fiasco are¹:

Homes installed: 1,200,000

Cost so far: $1.5 billion

Installers killed: 4

Homes given bad insulation: 160,000.

Homes now at risk of fire: 78,500.

Homes burned: 105.

Homes at risk of electrification: 1500.

Homes with incomplete insulation: 95,000.

Homes with fraudulent installations: 5000.

Taxpayers will now foot the expected $50 million bill to strip foil insulation from up to 50,000 houses or install electrical safety switches to help correct faults in the bungled scheme². Aside from the deaths, the debacle has also created on-going fire hazards

And then there was the recent Herald Sun front page report about the Government's Solar Hot Water Rebate which paid $1600 a pop to install solar hot water systems in what was only meant for households. Instead, they also went to motels, caravan parks and sporting clubs! As one example, a bank of 17 free hot water units were installed at a small football club, without even hooking the units up to solar panels!

See another Herald Sun article for further examples. It appears that some “savvy” installers had cottoned on to the fact that it was in their financial interest to fit multiple hot water systems above the capacity actually needed by the user.

And then of course, we have the Green Loans debacle that careened out of control and which the government is now trying to tidy up, too late for some people who paid for training in a career they may now never be able to enter.

Let’s not forget that many householders and other members of the public have benefited from the incentives. However, it’s a real pity that great ideas to help us progress to a more sustainable society have been mismanaged and got railroaded by a minority for their own immediate financial gains. Unfortunately, the rest of us who have been trying to do the right thing, also get tainted by the same brush.

References:

1. Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/pm-wastes-our-billions/story-e6frfhqf-1225839758679

2. Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/greg-combets-50m-foil-clean-up-bill/story-e6frgczf-1225839337844