It seems that the global zeitgeist has ferociously outpaced the Rudd government in much the same way that basic reality has outflanked at least half the Abbott-Minchin-Robb COALition.
Although they have not announced an overall carbon pollution reduction, China has just announced a 40 per cent reduction in ‘carbon intensity’. Unfortunately, this measure was invented by colleagues of George Bush. It indexes carbon emissions to GDP. Hence, the Chinese are essentially locking their economy into a radically more energy efficient paradigm.
For China, who care enough to send their President to Copenhagen, this is a first solid step. For Australian climate sceptics and other idiots, it’s one less stalling point. No longer can they say that we should wait until China acts.
So get ready to hear Andrew Bolt, Stephen Fielding et al talking up the ‘global cooling’ myth. Apparently, because the globe hasn’t turned into a ball of molten lava in the last 12 months, all projections looking 10, 20, 50, and 100 years ahead are science fiction. Add to this the leaked (hacked) ‘Climategate’ email, in which an IPCC scientist stated that elements of the climate model don’t fully mirror current weather patterns, and it’s obvious that climate change has been one big media scam.
Rather than a catastrophic phenomenon which scientists even fifteen years ago predicted would be, at least in part, unpredictable.
Unpredictable, also, was a government elected with a mandate for climate action choosing to water down targets, pay billions to polluters, say yes to almost everything demanded by their opponents, and excise the crossbench independents and Greens. Then again, one of those ‘independents’ is Stephen Fielding, who again this week launched the equivalent of an 8-year old’s tantrum in the Senate, this time to aid in Coalition filibustering as he moaned about the evil popular influence of Al Gore’s film An Innocent Truth (yes, he got that one wrong too).
Amazingly, it has not been the Rudd government’s timidity and big talk to attract global attention. It has, instead, been The Perils of Malcolm. BBC Worldwide has been reporting that negotiations with the federal opposition have collapsed amid Liberal infighting, and that the result may well be a change of leadership and the calling of a snap election in which they would certainly be destroyed.
It is likely – not certain, but likely – that such an election would see Fielding sacked from the Senate, more Greens elected, and Nick Xenophon put in a much better position to bend the government’s will as part of a progressive and newly empowered crossbench that strengthens rather than weakens our democracy.
Xenophon has been pushing endless well-prepared modelling and research upon a hapless Penny Wong. Bound by party discipline and exasperation with a scheme already reconfigured three times, she has been bound to politely reject his input. Xenophon, however, has continued to argue that his proposal would save $50 billion, impose a smaller burden on lower and middle class families, enable much higher carbon reductions, and better environmental outcomes. At this point, the only hope for his plan would be continued Liberal rejection of the CPRS and a double dissolution delaying an outcome until February next year after the Senate is flushed clear.
For the environment, for us – the Australian public, and future generations, this would be the best possible outcome. The CPRS and ETS as they are now are deeply flawed. They can only be seen as better than nothing if they are considered as framework. But we should remember that Kyoto was also a framework.
12 years on, the time for action is still now.
Picture: SMH
Kenneth Davidson, The Age: Power giants crying foul: What a joke!
