Conservative (former) Prime Minister John Howard has been thrown out on his rump. Howard always pissed me off. He wouldn’t sign Kyoto, supported the war in Iraq, and has a dismal record on the environment (sound like any leader you know?). Well the people of Australia, who are currently suffering a “thousand year drought” which most scientists feel is a direct result of a warming climate, have decided to punt the idiot out of office and instead elect someone with a more sustainable policy on the environment.

The new Prime minister, Labor leader Kevin Rudd (that’s him on the right), has promised to sign the Kyoto Protocol on capping greenhouse gas emissions, leaving only us the U.S. Of A as the only industrialized nation yet to sign it. If America doesn’t do something serious about CO2 soon I see a future in which we are universally reviled. I can only hope that the polls that show Americans are ready to do something about climate change are correct, and they put their vote where their mouth is and elect a president that is serious about the environment (might I suggest Mr. Kucinich).

Adding insult to injury Howard also lost his home district, only one other sitting prime minister has lost his district in the 106-year history of Australia’s federal government, ouch. In essence Howard was a pro-coal, pro-denial, anti-peace candidate, and the people of Australia were fed up. Much of Australia’s recent economic boom was due to exporting of coal, that ended up in dirty Indian and Chinese power plants. China is set to pass the U.S. as the worlds biggest CO2 emitter mostly due to coal power plants.

Rudd plans to pull Australian troops out of Iraq, leading to an even smaller “coalition of the willing.” He also will join the rest of the civilized world in participating in Kyoto, and has a plan for doing something about Australia’s mega drought.

“Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward,” Rudd said Saturday in a victory speech before hundreds of cheering supporters in his home state of Queensland. “To plan for the future, to prepare for the future, to embrace the future and together as Australians to unite and write a new page in our nation’s history.”(via)

So there you go, another old guard gone. How much longer will it be before all nations realize that regardless of their political policy towards other nations, a failed ecosystem will effect everyone. They might “hate us for our freedom” but really they should be hating us for our reluctance to do anything serious about global warming. The United States has always been a world leader. We used to be the city on the hill, the shining example to the rest of the world. Now thanks to people like George Bush and Dick Cheney we are the laughing stock of the world, and an out of control CO2 emitter with little in the way of plans to stop.

This upcoming election is perhaps the most important one in the history of this country. We are at the intersection of a crisis. Be is wireless wiretapping, torture, illegal war, climate change, peak oil, or any number of other problems that look to rear their ugly heads in the next four years, it is not only imperative that we pick someone with the skills and vision to guide us through these problems, but that we pay attention and make sure that we continually keep this person in line. We can’t just elect and forget. Educate yourself on the issues, get involved, vote and then keep in touch and let your elected officials know that you want a better future.