Ben's Blog

June ‘25

I live in the country, I was raised in the country. Country folks always complain about the weather, but they don’t do anything about it. They also complain that nobody listens to them. Well, the reason nobody listens to country folks is because by-and-large, we don’t have grasp of WTF is going on out there in the big, wide world.

We have to work long hours, them focus on looking after our families and our community. We have to keep in sink with the views of our community. So naturally, we tend to have little time or interest in what is going on in the outside world. That is our prerogative, but we should have enough nous to see that if we know very little about the big, wide world, our opinions about it will have very little value. So we should not be surprized if  those cherisihed opinions are ridiculed and dismissed. On the other hand, there is a growing number of country folks who are aware of what is going on in the big, wide world. They are leading the way on innovative farming techniques, like regenerative farming. They are leading the way on defending the land from fracking and environmental degradation, they are beginning to grapple with the question of what happened to the original owners of their land. These people are listened to, the wilfully ignorant are not, and nor should they be. They should be ignored!

There is no conversation to be had with country folks until they are prepared to act on climate. Most people in the country refuse to even recognize the existence of the climate crisis as it wreaks havoc all around them. They studiously ignore all information outlets that do not share their ignorance. The National Party is marching proudly in the opposite direction, abandoning the Paris Climate Agreement altogether. The rural community is the backbone of the coalition. It is only now that they have finally lost their power to influence government policy, that we are able to cease giving a voice to climate deniers, and start taking this crisis seriously. There are now 43 coalition members in Parliament, 7 of whom are in the major cities: Sydney 4, Brisbane 2, Melbourne 2, Perth 0, Adelaide 0, Hobart 0, Canberra 0, the other 36 are in the country, 16 of them in rural Queensland. The Coalition should really call themselves The Queensland Country Party. It is rural Queensland that has been holding back the country. Thank God we can now ignore them.

We can only have a conversation if we all share the same basic facts. We must ignore the opinions of the ignorant country folks who are not prepared to accept the fact that the increasing number and severity of floods, fires and droughts is caused by climate change, and that we must do more than brace ourselves for the next calamity.

Everyone has a right to an opinion, but we should dismiss that opinion if it is based on wilful ignorance.

We have all known about climate change for over 30 years now, but some folks in the country deliberately block out anything they don’t want to hear. This is much easier to do in isolated communities than in the city, where we can’t help encountering diverse opinions from people who know what they are talking about. It is time for us country folks to come to grips with the modern world, and start  shaping it.

Ben Boyang June ‘25

Further Reading…