Seems to be a dream in the minds of many of those in positions of power and influence both here and overseas..
At the recent World Economic Forum at Davos, Christine Legarde chief of the IMF drew attention to climate change as the ‘biggest economic problem’ faced by the West, a position eagerly adopted and praised by those wishing to appear to be conscious of and dealing with ‘the problem’, such as our Foreign Minister Bob Carr.
Speaking in an interview from Davos with the ABC, Carr picked out this statement on climate change as the most important beside the other various crises being discussed, like how to overthrow uncooperative Middle Eastern governments, and support our proxies with new arms sales…
Carr postulates that we’ve wasted so much time in Australia on Climate Change denial, unlike so many Western nations .. and then describes the disasters from Climate Change as a collosal self inflicted burden resulting from ‘our addiction to fossil fuels’.
So far so good, you might think, till the interviewer points out that our coal exports are the second largest in the world .. Carr: “well that’s true we’ve got a coal based energy sector, and coal is relatively cheap, and it’s er, the er higher quality of , er, coal (incomprehensible ) …. and the moral response is that we are pricing it, and we are leading the global push for a comprehensive network of agreements..” etc etc.
Now I know that Carr isn’t the climate change minister or whatever, but this looks like the government’s position in a nutshell: – we have to keep our coal exports flowing to keep our economy growing, and help other countries to keep producing the products we need to maintain our excessive lifestyles, but we’ve more than done our duty to help cut (the rise in) emissions by introducing the “Carbon Tax”.
Our planned emissions by 2020 will be at least 15 % higher than now, but will be called a 10% cut because we will buy someone elses supposed emissions cuts, at the knockdown price of $3 a tonne… this is our “moral response”.
People in the industry know better of course, like Ian Plimer, onetime AGW sceptic and sci-fi author, who now is appointed director of a nice little shale gas earner for mining guru Gina Rhinehardt:
Wodonga & Albury Toward Climate Health (WATCH) 