Am I the only one, or are others getting as sick as I am of the shallow, cliché ridden utterances of both sides of this “debate”?
The government is pushing their carbon tax, which will become law on July 1 next year, making the fundamental mistake of calling it a “Tax”, thereby ensuring they have a marketing problem, while the Opposition is opposing, anything, everything, while quietly using a nonsense 5% reduction in emissions to be derived from “Direct Action” whatever that is.
Irrespective of the position you choose to take on the question of what we should do about global warming, if anything, it would be nice to have some facts as a basis for the debate.
It is pretty clear that the planet is warming, the facts show that over the last years, whether you want that definition to cover 20, 50, or a 100 years, the globe is warming.
Now we have a fact to use as the basis of the debate, lets be a bit sensible about how much emotionalism we employ to push any particular barrow, and straying from the facts should be greeted with howls of outrage by the taxpayers who will ultimately bear the costs of the implementation.
Oh, and this condemnation of the quality of the political debate, not just in this country, but in many countries is much wider than the question of climate change, just look at how effectively our elected leaders are grappling with the economic meltdown of the US and Europe. As Charles De Gaulle is reported to have said, ” I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians”.
The debate is posturing and everyone knows it. I am at a loss to understand why this dumb dance continues. Anyway, this just out — thought you’d be interested:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-credits-system-tarnished-wikileaks
My point is that the “debate” is debased by the lack of facts. It seems the political argy bargy in the US is at least as bad as here, with what from a distance appears to be a well meaning but largely ineffective President using terrific oratory to put a view that is trashed by hysteria.
In Australia, we have the political gridlock of a hung Parliament, where the Opposition has thrown rational conversation, facts, and any pretext of a consistent philosophical base against the wall in the pursuit of power, and a Government spooked by the thought of losing the trappings of power, unable to see past the next opinion poll.
Australia will pay a large price for this brand of political opportunism, and I shudder to think about the impact of the loss of the international leadership of the US as Europe melts down.
Nothing America doesn’t will have a significant impact as long as China and their billion citizens keep pouring pollutants into the air, land, and sea. It’s not worth hurting our economy for a 10 minute delay in warming. Let’s not dump sewage in our waters. Let’s not dirty our skies with sut, but let’s also not kill our economy just so we can say, “wasn’t our fault.” I ran into your blog through a WordPress thing on my dashboard that was featuring you. Here’s by wordpress blog.
http://ryankantor.com/category/politics/