We here in Oz have been subjected to one of the most dishonest polictical debates I can remember lately, over how we should respond to Global Climate change.
Out Government continually states that we cannot take decisive action on climate change that might hurt the economy. This is then taken as the base of the argument, that is any response will hurt the economy.
To me this ignores 2 important things:
- Our current activities (buring fossil fuels) are hurting us to the tune of Trillions of dolars a year in opportunity costs for the future.
- Many countries are already reducing carbon emmissions and their economies are growing just fine
And then I heard one to top it all, the head of our national generation body has had the gall to suggest that if we are to enforce limits on emmission they would expect to be ‘compensated’. I would have thought that we the nation, should expect to be compensated for the damage these folk are inflicting on us.
At the very least, all subsidies to coal, ga and petroleum companies must be cancelled immediately and reinvested into non-polluting technologies. And we should be making them pay the same price for water that everyone esle has to pay. That way at least we get an idea of what the real cost to the economy is of our current practises, rather than this insane distortion that makes coal, etc seem relatively cheap.
Of course I would then add an environmental tax on the carbon and other impurities these filthy industries inflict on the community.
We need to have a real discussion on Climate change and to do that we need to dispel the myth that coal is cheap.
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