ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 (Australian Capitalism as a Driver of Climate Change) examines various industries and social practices that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately climate change in Australia. Despite its relatively small population of some 25.7 million inhabitants, Australia had made a disproportional contribution to climate change because both its ecological and greenhouse gas emissions are quite large. Australia’s high level of greenhouse gas emissions is driven by its heavy dependence on fossil fuels for energy, particularly coal; heavy reliance on private automobiles and airplanes for both domestic and international travels; agricultural and forestry industries; a growing number of large office buildings; and a culture of consumption, which includes large dwelling units filled with numerous energy-dependent appliances and electronics products. Australia not only generates carbon dioxide emissions from its heavy reliance on coal, albeit diminishing due to the uptake of solar and wind power, but it outsources it having been the first or second leading exporter of coal, particularly to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China, and more recently the world’s leading exporter of liquid natural gas. Finally, Australia’s third largest exporter industry, international education, also results in air transport emissions from frequent movement of students in and out of Australia.
