[crispinb]

Yes absolutely, of course. No-one can deny the outsized political significance of those margins along many dimensions (marginal rural constituencies, the Liberal/Nat/LNP right-wing factions, Alan Jones' grumpy gossiping old men, perpetually outraged about anything done by anyone under 60, the Murdoch press, etc).

I guess my point is that these extreme margins gain their power only because of the nihilism of the skittish 'moderate' Australian majority, which knows enough, and cares little about anything of significance.

[yassam]

Good analysis.

I've recently been reading The Australian online, and any time there's a climate related article, there are literally 100s of comments almost all of which are rabid climate deniers. It's stomach churning to read.

No idea how representative of general population, but my gut-feeling is that it's a significant minority, e.g. 10-20%.

[carl_sandland]

Yeah it's depressing, but have you not noticed a change or shift in tone at least in the media ? I'm hopeful this swings the focus back onto science and mitigation, and away from the economy. Every time our PM says "we must balance the environment with a healthy economy for all" I want to explode: what does that even MEAN. Economic activity is a function of human activity and humans need to like... breath?

I've been encouraged by some of the interviews and coverage with local government officials, they seem to be really shocked into a truth: I wish we could do better than a temporary 'concern' over the earth.