So you thought just because Australia’s got a carbon price, we might be able to move on from the interminable and tedious climate debates of recent years?
Think again.
Research out of Europe this week charts greenhouse gas emissions for the world and for individual countries, and it makes for grim reading. What the world is doing on climate change is not working. Emissions are rising and we’re exceeding our “carbon budget”. This Titanic has not turned around.
There’s been so much talk around international action on climate change, and the fruits of that talk are there in black and white in the research.
Australia’s painful progress towards a carbon price has got nothing on this. Strap yourselves in. International efforts to address climate change will be a troubled and high-stakes issue that will not go away for years.
Why are you surprised! This is certainly the most divisive issue in the world because of the changes required. The well off, the 1% in the US, Multinationals, Australia’s mining and others, that can’t even contribute anything meaningful to charity in their Country, etc don’t want to change the status quo were they continue to get richer and richer. The poorer nations want to improve the lot of their poor, China, India etc to match the advertising they see from the US, Australia, Europe etc. We will have to be on deaths door before anything will change in current climate.
My heads spinning with all this. Not a hope in hell that countries will do anything, I can see it now, portable oxygen bottles, masks, infra ray type goggles to see through the atmospheric gloom on our way to work.DA applications, “houses must be fully sealed from outside air” all activities will take place inside the dome, gigantic TV screens 3D reality all information via Fox/Ch9 etc. shock jocks in our living room. Jeez I think D.A sounds like the Blue Mts City Council, and the rest, well Harvey here I come.
Is the world heading for a carbon tax or a carbon war?
I share the pessimism. I hope the global warming deniers live long enough to feel the error of their ways.
I share everyone’s frustration, but Tony Abbott’s talk, and the other naysayers, can promote confusion to their heart’s content without much fear of consequences. Suppose a few of us decided that speeding on the roads won’t hurt anyone, so we do it, that many children are not hurt by sexual assault so it shouldn’t be a crime, suppose we promoted the idea of defense against murder charges where the dead person was disabled or a family member, or in wartime we actively promoted the cause of the enemy, then ways are available to silence us or convict us or whatever.
The promotion of opposition to taxes that we don’t agree with is under the circumstances a pretty serious crime against humanity. Other countries pursuing polluting practices is serious and is a matter for international action.
I am one who have a conscience about the anti social effects of proprty crimes and crimes against the person. With CO2, in case folk forget their chemistry, the world is already experiencing breathing problems with CO2 passing the 300 ppm level and rising. I expect to see 400 ppm in my lifetime. At these kinds of levels, a serious improvement in the human respiratory system needs to be looked at. This is a new paradigm in human health, international law and treaty arrangements.
Australia for one should be able to prosecute people for actions harming others, and nations need to face the international music soon, while we sort out protocols for enforceable treaties and laws supporting the reduction of combustion of petrocarbons.