I’ve been wondering for a while now, why Australia is so hell bent on destroying its own economy. The desire to do the right thing is admirable. If however doing the right thing is going to cost us heaps then we should think about whether doing the right thing alone is enough.

Doing the right thing must produce the desired outcome. If it doesn’t, we really must reconsider.

We have generally decent neighbours. No one does anything to destroy the area we live in. Last weekend, while I was having a cup of coffee Tress and I noticed a big kelpie stopping in front of our house, on our nature strip. It arched its back and lowered its behind. It promptly left some souvenirs. I rushed out of the house and sure enough, its owner was just a stone’s throw away walking in the park. I went up to him and told him what his dog had just done. He apologised, came up to our nature strip and bagged the goodies. Our neighbourhood is alright. People generally do the right thing.

Imagine living in a neighbourhood where people throw rubbish all over the streets. Dogs happily crapped wherever without their owners picking up after them. If I did the right thing by paying someone to clean up, it would be silly of me. My action alone would not clean the place up. My neighbours would have to agree not to mess the place up. The whole neighbourhood must agree to keep the place clean and tidy. Only then would my efforts be worth the while.

What good would it do if we impose a prohibitively expensive emission trading scheme but everyone else go on polluting? Australia would force its economy to be handicapped by additional costs without any benefits whatsoever. We can do the right thing but if the bigger polluters like America, China and India go on their own polluting ways we’d have incurred the additional costs for nothing.

I think Ross Garnaut has just owned up to that (and a few other points such as global warming isnt caused by human) and Kevin Rudd should re-think. Penny Wong should too, and not insist on acting unilaterally without corresponding commitment from other countries.