‘If we don’t dig I t up, someone else will’

One of the most pervasive lies in Australian public debate was thoroughly exposed three times in recent weeks. The lie is: if we don’t dig it up, someone else will (IWDDIUSEW). If Australia doesn’t dig up huge amounts of coal, gas and oil, some other country will do it instead, so we might as well mine as much as we can. Pointing out the existence of other miners of coal, oil and gas is supposed to negate Australia’s role in the supply chain and shift attention towards reducing the demand for fossil fuel. Demand for fossil fuel is largely other countries’ responsibility and there is little Australia could or should do, because, y’know, IWDDIUSEW.