Under the terms of the government’s nuclear submarine purchase, the first Australian-built Aukus class vessels come into service in the early 2040s. What else might be happening then?

According to the IPCC, at current rates, the planet will have warmed more than 1.5C above its pre-industrial state. In fact, many scientists believe temperatures could smash the 1.5C barrier as soon as 2030 or 2035 – that is, around about when Australia receives the first of its Virginia-class nuclear subs. //

It means drought and heatwaves disrupting food production, it means rising seas inundating the land, and it means millions of people fleeing regions suddenly rendered uninhabitable.

When you think about what the Australian people might require under such ghastly conditions, “nuclear submarines” do not top the list. //

With this deal, Anthony Albanese has now pledged vastly more money for hi-tech weaponry than Australia’s ever spent on preventing global warming. The $368bn allocated to nuclear submarines that may or may not ever arrive could, for example, have delivered a renewable energy grid, not once, nor twice but four times over.