Guest essay by Eric Worrall

The Guardian has accused Aussie Prime Minister Scott Morrison of “not wanting to engage”, after he beat a hasty retreat when charged by “Fight for Planet A” host Craig Reucassel carrying a large bunch of black balloons.

Fight for Planet A: the team behind War on Waste want to put climate crisis back on the agenda

Host Craig Reucassel uses balloons to give Australia’s emissions a visual representation and we’re left in no doubt there are too many of them

Brigid Delaney @BrigidWD
Tue 11 Aug 2020 13.39 AEST

There’s a scene in Fight for Planet A that is both absurd and thrilling. The host, Craig Reucassel, has tracked down the prime minister, Scott Morrison, at an event at a Sydney beach. A pile of black balloons representing Australia’s carbon emissions have been attached to the back of his shirt and as he runs down the beach chasing Morrison, one really does wonder if he’ll just lift off and float away. The prime minister’s minders stop Reucassel before he can tackle the prime minister who, in bare feet and boardshorts, is walking away as quick as you can in soft sand. But the metaphor is obvious: Morrison does not want to engage with Australia’s outsized emissions problem.

Over three episodes, the team that made the ABC’s highly successful War on Waste delve into the more abstract but urgent issue of carbon emissions, and with it a vital question: how do you convince Australians that something they cannot see represents their greatest existential threat?

…

“No one knew how long the pandemic would last, how serious it would be, how it would change people’s psychology. It’s still bad, but to some extent, with the exception of the situation in Melbourne, we have come to terms with it,” he says.

And although global lockdowns have caused emissions to plummet, it is long-term behaviour and policy change that will make a difference in the long term. So how do we make that happen?

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/aug/11/fight-for-planet-a-the-team-behind-war-on-waste-want-to-put-climate-crisis-back-on-the-agenda

I am no fan of Scott Morrison, but in an age when terrorist violence is an ever present threat, why would anyone in their right mind want to “engage” with an unbalanced looking shouty person charging at them holding a large bunch of black balloons?

Judge for yourself, the trailer below contains a short clip of the stunt.

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