I don’t profess to be overly knowledgeable about the goings on and off about our environmental policies or the proposed ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) where industries are taxed for polluting the environment but what I do know are useless politicians when I see them.
The government have put up an ETS that has been blocked in the parliament by the opposition Liberal party who claim that industries like the coal industry will lose thousands of jobs because of this. Call me a fool but I thought we were going away from dirty industries and into cleaner green industries like solar and wind power industries? Why are we trying to protect the coal industries? They should be slowly fading away as we try to set up policies to encourage investments and job creation into cleaner industries. I’m sure the coal industry will be able to survive. It’s just a fact of life that certain industries fade away and new ones are created. It’s been happening over time and it will continue to happen till the time of our great great great grand children, there’s no denying this fact. The government will now have to wait another 3 months to propose an amended bill to the parliament.
The Liberal party also question why Australia which emit slightly above 1% of the world’s pollution has to come up with an ETS now that would supposedly put Australian jobs at risk when the US, China, India and other major polluters have not committed to any set reduction in their CO2 emissions. Any attempt to reduce CO2 emissions on Australia’s part would be futile and irresponsible to Australia’s economy if the rest of the world do not play ball. The government have countered by saying Australia being one of the largest polluters in the world per capita needs to show leadership and lead from the front in an issue where everybody is waiting to see what the others are doing first before committing to anything.
While on the surface the Liberal party’s stand on this issue sounds right and the government’s ETS may need a little more work to get right, it is better than dragging our feet and doing nothing at all which is what the Libs are doing and we can only come up with one conclusion and that is, they are climate change sceptics who would do anything to not to deal with the real issues of climate change as they don’t believe it is real enough to ‘jeopardise’ Australian jobs. The Liberal party firstly need to be united as a party and acknowledge that climate change is indeed real and not pussy foot around the issue. For the survival of the generations after us, we need to act and we need to act now. Australia should lead and lead from the front if necessary. If you believe in Global warming, what difference does it make if you pass the bill now or later? What difference does it make what the rest of the world does, if you believe that Global warming is real and we do the right thing to cut our pollution. Is the Liberal party saying that if the rest of the world does not cut emissions as much as Australia would like it to, then it would follow suit or stretch out negotiations further? It’s under these circumstances and under these kinds of leadership that nothing gets done and important issues never get resolved.
The world has no choice but to do the right thing. John Howard paid the ultimate price by losing his job and his electorate with his reluctance to believe that climate change was real until the end when it was already too late. Australia should not wait but to act now and act decisively. Does the Liberal party even know how many real jobs would be lost and how many real jobs would be created with the introduction of this ETS? It’s easy to say that jobs would be lost but where are the details? On the flip side, what are the consequences of not acting? What are they waiting for? If we are to have cleaner energy, the coal industry will need to be cut down in size sooner or later anyway, so why not sooner? I’m afraid the plethora of excuses spewing out from the mouths of the Liberal party members on this issue are unpalatable and hopefully they will pay the ultimate price once again when Kevin Rudd calls for a double dissolution election, get his ETS through and render the Libs useless and send them into the political wilderness until a time when they can learn to be more useful.
The government have put up an ETS that has been blocked in the parliament by the opposition Liberal party who claim that industries like the coal industry will lose thousands of jobs because of this. Call me a fool but I thought we were going away from dirty industries and into cleaner green industries like solar and wind power industries? Why are we trying to protect the coal industries? They should be slowly fading away as we try to set up policies to encourage investments and job creation into cleaner industries. I’m sure the coal industry will be able to survive. It’s just a fact of life that certain industries fade away and new ones are created. It’s been happening over time and it will continue to happen till the time of our great great great grand children, there’s no denying this fact. The government will now have to wait another 3 months to propose an amended bill to the parliament.
The Liberal party also question why Australia which emit slightly above 1% of the world’s pollution has to come up with an ETS now that would supposedly put Australian jobs at risk when the US, China, India and other major polluters have not committed to any set reduction in their CO2 emissions. Any attempt to reduce CO2 emissions on Australia’s part would be futile and irresponsible to Australia’s economy if the rest of the world do not play ball. The government have countered by saying Australia being one of the largest polluters in the world per capita needs to show leadership and lead from the front in an issue where everybody is waiting to see what the others are doing first before committing to anything.
While on the surface the Liberal party’s stand on this issue sounds right and the government’s ETS may need a little more work to get right, it is better than dragging our feet and doing nothing at all which is what the Libs are doing and we can only come up with one conclusion and that is, they are climate change sceptics who would do anything to not to deal with the real issues of climate change as they don’t believe it is real enough to ‘jeopardise’ Australian jobs. The Liberal party firstly need to be united as a party and acknowledge that climate change is indeed real and not pussy foot around the issue. For the survival of the generations after us, we need to act and we need to act now. Australia should lead and lead from the front if necessary. If you believe in Global warming, what difference does it make if you pass the bill now or later? What difference does it make what the rest of the world does, if you believe that Global warming is real and we do the right thing to cut our pollution. Is the Liberal party saying that if the rest of the world does not cut emissions as much as Australia would like it to, then it would follow suit or stretch out negotiations further? It’s under these circumstances and under these kinds of leadership that nothing gets done and important issues never get resolved.
The world has no choice but to do the right thing. John Howard paid the ultimate price by losing his job and his electorate with his reluctance to believe that climate change was real until the end when it was already too late. Australia should not wait but to act now and act decisively. Does the Liberal party even know how many real jobs would be lost and how many real jobs would be created with the introduction of this ETS? It’s easy to say that jobs would be lost but where are the details? On the flip side, what are the consequences of not acting? What are they waiting for? If we are to have cleaner energy, the coal industry will need to be cut down in size sooner or later anyway, so why not sooner? I’m afraid the plethora of excuses spewing out from the mouths of the Liberal party members on this issue are unpalatable and hopefully they will pay the ultimate price once again when Kevin Rudd calls for a double dissolution election, get his ETS through and render the Libs useless and send them into the political wilderness until a time when they can learn to be more useful.
What do you expect from Climate change sceptics?
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