Comments on: Poznan climate talks: All eyes on Penny Wong

By: Graeme Lewis

Graeme Lewis — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Yes - time marches on, and the talk-fests continue. It is so cute to taalk about targets to 2020, but when one re-states the base for these targets, the time frame becomes an impossible target.

But the talk goes on - and who better to continue the all-talk-no-action record of our Government, but Penny Wong. Talks so well but achieves nought. The Murray will be bone dry before she ever does anything to ameliorate its problems.

So sad!!!

By: Andrew Glikson

Andrew Glikson — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Correct,

In addition to the Pacific Islands, the Great Barrier Reef, the Murray Darling Basin, consider:

1. At or near +2 degrees C, implied by 550 ppm CO2 rise, considered "acceptable" by some, part of the Greenland ice sheet and part of the west Antarctica ice shelves will melt, with consequent sea level riseon the scale of meters.

2. Consequence A: Hundreds of millions of refugees from low-lying river deltas (China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietman, Egypt, Thames River, Netherlands and part of NW Germany, Florida ... the list goes on).

3. 80 percent of Australian live in large coastal cities.

4. Nor does Wall Street sit too high above sea level ...!

By: Ian Redpath

Ian Redpath — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

If they look to Australia, what will they see? Certainly no commitment to a significant reduction target.
Our government’s major effort to date has been the Emissions Trading Scheme, which I regard as mostly a mechanism to cheat - you just pay to pollute. And of course coal fired power companies and other polluters pass the costs on to consumers, so we pay them to pollute.
It’s only in the area of protecting forest that an ETS has real potential - to earn credits for not deforesting. To earn credits for protecting and extending the carbon drinking wilderness. I fear the credits largess to polluters to get them on board the ETS may undermine the capacity of developing nations to trade the value of their intact forests. And no doubt they may choose to chop them down to plant biofuels instead.
And Andrew, Greenland is already melting…