Australia has a new government, and we have moved towards the European norm, with a minority government. There has been much talk that this will paralyse the government, but I disagree.

It is obvious that if the current status quo of broken promises and inefficient government continues Labor will be rightly consigned to the wilderness for a generation. Separately the independents need to justify their choice if they are to retain their seats, and the Greens would like to solidify the protest element of their vote so all parties have considerable reasons to make the arrangement work.

I would very more than normally optimistic if the Greens would immediately control the balance of power in the Senate, but unfortunately that senator with a learning disability is still there for the next nine months, especially after his recent toing and froing.

All the independents bar one have indicated a preference for a price on carbon, and several have gone further with our own MP Robert Oakeshott endorsing Ross Garnaut’s views and Tony Windsor introducing a private members bill in the past requiring action on Climate Change.

Even more encouraging both seem keen on reforms to reduce the influence of business on government. Fingers crossed.

I have been reading Ronald Wright’s A Short History of Progress which is very amusing if depressing. He makes the point that most human civilisations have ignored the environmental degradation they have caused until it causes or abets their collapse, and proposes that this next collapse will be the big one. First a couple of quotes

“It is entirely up to us. If we fail – if we blow up or degrade the biosphere so it can no longer sustain us – nature will merely shrug and conclude that letting apes run the laboratory was fun for a while but in the end a bad idea.”

On the human brain he says “We are running twenty first century software on hardware last upgraded 50,000 years ago or more. This may explain quite a lot, of what we see in the news.”

While I agree that we are taking massive risks on all sorts of fronts I see a glimmer of hope in two areas he does not discuss, the speed of technology change, and the rapid reduction in population growth which results from female education and emancipation. Both these are so recent that they have not affected any previous collapse, and both might help us avoid collapse. The rate at which new and improved techniques for energy generation and saving are being suggested shows that even the minor amount of government regulation and encouragement so far can unleash a wave of innovation. If we get serious before its too late we can probably retain most or all of our standard of living.

Last Sunday we opened our house and garden as part of Sustainable House Day, and had 125 odd people visit us. As ever, we ended the day tired but happy, having met some interesting and enthusiastic people. It’s all enough to make you feel almost optimistic.