Things continue to be quiet as folk wait and see what will happen to climate legislation in the USA, where it looks fairly bleak, and the dissentients have a field day trashing the whole of climate science because the Himalayas are not going melt quite as quickly as we thought they would. Marc Roberts of Throbgoblins continues to read the prevailing mood accurately in the two cartoons I attach to this post. He now seems to be again producing a cartoon a day, and I am totally addicted. Strongly recommended.
The weather in Europe and North America is very unusual, and though I haven’t noticed anyone linking the two, I vaguely wondered if the Gulf Stream is still working at “normal” speed. You may recall that one of the possible global warming feedbacks is a slowdown in the North Atlantic circulation and that as at last July it had slowed about 20% since 1950. This would cut down heat transfers to northern latitudes and therefore result in very cold winters. While this is pure speculation, it does seem possible, and if so would appeal to my sense of the ironic that the cold winter has provoked the unthinking to again confuse weather with climate and shout out the death of global warming from the rooftops.
Meanwhile in Australia we are now presented with a choice between an alleged 5% cut in emissions which is horrendously complex and is unlikely to do anything much but further line some well healed banker’s pockets and another scheme which we will pay for and which again is likely to do no real good. There is some good to come out of this however in that there is now increasing pressure on the Rudd government to explain their scheme and the more they do this the worse they will look. This is probably not sustainable going into an election, so things may change, which is exactly what may be happening. The Greens are sending out emails stating that:-
“With your help, we could be on the point of achieving a breakthrough on climate action.
Last month we wrote to you about the Greens’ proposal to break the political deadlock over the Rudd government’s CPRS. We urged all parties to embrace Professor Garnaut’s suggestion of a two year interim scheme with a fixed carbon price, no trading and no offsets.
I am very pleased to tell you today that we are now in constructive negotiations with the government around this proposal.”
This would allow the government to do something simple, clear and definitely beneficial before the election and (hopefully) craft a more comprehensive scheme afterwards. There is definitely a bit of a minor backlash against carbon trading, so a simple tax may be becoming more politically appealing. This is a well written comment in the SMH on the subject.
So please, spend 10 minutes writing a quick short letter and using the Green’s website (here) to email it to a number of the major newspapers. It took me less than 15 minutes total to hit all of the list. If you do this please ensure you enclose your name address and phone number and keep it short (150 words or so). My letter follows for reference.
Both the major political parties are in a pickle on their response to Climate Change. Rudd has crafted an impossibly complex scheme which will have little real effect other than further enriching the bankers and major polluters, while Abbott is desperately trying to persuade the majority of Australians who want action that he doesn’t really think its “absolute crap”.
Enter the Greens with a simple sensible solution; adopt Professor Garnaut’s suggestion of a two year interim scheme with a fixed price, no trading and no offsets. After all he was the one chosen to recommend action in the first place, though he has been almost completely ignored while commercial interests have overridden the national interest.
Australia will be one of the first and hardest hit, and we need to act, if nothing else to persuade others to do so. This sends a clear message while China and the USA decide our long term fate.
