In the absence of Australian consumers having any actual influence on historical global climate variations, Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt has decided to justify his incessant outrage and reframe our national guilt as “the third-largest exporter of climate pollution in the world.” To confirm his outrage, he typed the last three words in all capitals – “IN THE WORLD”. There’s room to escalate though, as he refrained from an exclamation mark or three.

When Greens outrage prompted a ban on Australian live cattle exports to Indonesia because the journey was long and cruel, the Indonesians ordered much more beef from Brazil. That meant more cattle endured a much longer journey with much lower animal welfare standards. The kneejerk response made things much worse for animals in the world on balance.

Big picture balance or long-term consequences is not something the Greens have any familiarity with. Instead, they use emotional and manipulative language to sustain the short-term outrage necessary to justify their relevance in Australian politics.

Now the Greens and their like-minded lemmings are insisting the global climate change emergency will half-solved if we stop exporting Australian coal and we are simply making pollution worse by waiting another second.

Yet, if angry Adam couldn’t get his soy latte from his favourite vegan ethically-sourced roaster near his Fitzroy office, would he stop drinking soy lattes — or would he just wander along Brunswick Street and get it somewhere else?

Likewise, nations currently buying Australian coal wouldn’t simply convert to windpower (though in ample supply) if we stopped exporting coal, they would simply buy it elsewhere. The overall result, on balance, in the long term, would be that much more coal would need to be consumed by those customers putting more pollution in the air. Australian coal is simply the best because it takes far less of our quality coal to produce the needed energy.

If angry Adam wants the world burning less coal, the logical solution is to give them more Australian coal. It’s not exporting pollution. It’s exporting better quality coal to significantly reduce inevitable pollution.

But if we did what angry Adam demanded, there would be much more pollution in the world.

Dave Pellowe is a speaker, writer and political commentator and blogs at PelloweTalk.com.

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