Knee-jerk opposition is no way to save the world
I was saddened, but hardly surprised to read Nelson warns Coalition may not back Rudd on climate change in this morning’s The Age.
[Australian] opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has flagged a looming confrontation with the Rudd Government on climate change, saying there is “a high probability” that the Coalition will oppose the Government’s blueprint to tackle global warming.
While the Coalition endorsed emissions trading to tackle climate change, “we need to carefully examine the science in relation to it”, Dr Nelson said.
Questioning the science behind global warming is like questioning the science behind infection, or evolution. Sure, you can always dig up a rank or two, mostly with their own, or their pay-masters’ agendas behind them, who will claim all manner of nonsense, but really Bendan the science is settled. Burning fossil fuels is killing the planet.
Dr Nelson, who last I looked had an approval rating somewhere around 8% - the lowest of any political leader in Australia’s history, goes on to add:
He said the Coalition believed in lower taxes, in “protecting people on petrol and electricity”, and in “making sure that we don’t have jobs and industries leave the country”.
As Liberal Party whistleblower Guy Pearse points out in his book High & Dry, there’s been a self-described ‘Greenhouse Mafia’ behind the scenes in Australian and North American politics for many years trotting out the same lies we see again and again in the current ‘debate’. Dr Pearse debunks the myth that industry will simply flee the country if an emissions trading scheme is imposed, pointing out that most of these fugitive industries are stuck here, like it or not. Indeed it’s hard to imagine the aluminium industry moving offshore to where the aluminium isn’t. Similarly, most economists, if they can be said to agree on anything, will agree that the price of oil and electricity has been increasing already, even without a price on carbon, and emissions trading is meant to keep the price of carbon emissions as low as possible. We simply can’t have a solution to global warming and keep the price of fossil fuels artificially low through tax-payer subsidies.
Climate change is a serious problem and half-arsed measures and lily-livered responses will not help. A war-time like effort is required and our whole society must embrace the changes needed to dramatically cut the emission of greenhouse gases. A carbon trading scheme is a critical part of the solution if we are to avoid devastating economic and social upheaval. — DS
