Energy Minister Martin Ferguson arguing with a paper mache head of himself at the opening of the HP Zwar park upgrade on August 22.
The Greens oppose the CPRS not because it is too weak, but because it will point Australia in the wrong direction with little prospect of turning it around in the timeframe within which emissions must peak, says Senator Christine Milne.
Ferguson urges “science, not green faith” in letter to Batman residents
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Energy Minister Martin Ferguson used a taxpayer-funded letter to slam a push for zero emissions as “faith based”. In the letter, sent to residents in Ferguson’s Batman electorate in response to a running battle in the pages of local rag The Melbourne Times, the minister claims that “science, not green faith, must be the basis for addressing climate change”, echoing a range of known climate sceptics including Andrew Bolt. The spray appears to chafe with the carbon-reduction efforts of the Labor-aligned Darebin Council, which recently pledged to cut its emissions to zero by 2020. The council’s boundaries substantially overlap with Batman’s.
The stoush began on August 22 after Ferguson was confronted by protestors, including several ALP members, at the opening of a Preston park upgrade. The protest was attended by Labor mayor Diana Asmar, who was happy to pose with a sign adorned with the slogan “Nice work Darebin Council, shame about the Feds”. After the speeches concluded, Ferguson remonstrated with a protestor wearing a paper mache head of himself, before being driven away in a Comcar. Independent activist and former council candidate Darren Lewin-Hill followed up with a letter to The Melbourne Times, questioning Ferguson’s commitment to the council’s target and accusing him of draping himself in “feel-good” projects:
The letter seems to have hit a nerve — not only did Ferguson respond with his own letter to the editor defending the Rudd government’s stimulus package, but he followed up with the bulk mail-out to Darebin residents, presumably paid for by his Department of Finance printing allowance.
Greens councillor Trent McCarthy told Crikey that Ferguson’s dummy spit was ”disappointing, lacking leadership, and out of touch with the local community”. “It seems bizarre the local member would be bagging a policy that has the support of local ALP members, especially given it was developed over an extensive six-month consultation process,” McCarthy said. He said that it appeared Ferguson had conflated protestors’ calls for zero local emissions with the feasibility of an Australia-wide target. Under its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, the Rudd government has pledged to reduce emissions by 25% if the rest of the world agrees and by a minimum of 5% if other countries do nothing. In The Melbourne Times, Ferguson described zero emissions as “…admirable but not technically achievable”. Several Labor or Left-controlled councils in Melbourne’s north, including Banyule, Hume, Manningham, Melbourne, Moreland, Whittlesea, Yarra and Nillumbik have joined a zero emissions “northern alliance” backed by Darebin. Other councils around the country, including Adelaide City Council, have previously pledged to work towards zero emissions. Batman is one of the safest Labor seats in the country. However, an influx of Green-tinged voters, especially around the seat’s southern boundary, has upped pressure on Ferguson to back the council’s pro-environmental push. Earlier this month, Ferguson was outed as a leading “climate change sceptic” by resources industry CEO Philip R. Wood in a corporate presentation. In April, Bolt urged the minister to emerge from the “closet” on the issue. Bolt, like Ferguson, is fond of the “faith-based” riposte to green arguments on climate change and has questioned the contribution of humans to global warming. Ferguson’s office emailed the following statement to Crikey responding to the fracas:
Crikey asked Climate Change Minister Penny Wong’s office whether she endorsed her cabinet colleague’s comments, but was told the minister couldn’t be contacted. |
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7 Comments
Go Martin. The emperor has no clothes.
I love it, Ferguson, calling for science-based climate change policies, oh stop it!
Lets examine that shall we?
Cuts:
Science - rich countries at least 40% by 2020 on 1990 levels, to give us any chance of avoiding runaway, catstrophic climate change. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/21/2691324.htm)
Ferguson - 5-25% by 2020 on 2000 levels.
Energy:
Science (Prof Karoly et al in a letter and Dr James Hansen of NASA) - need to phase out coal burning and replace it with renewable energy ASAP. (see: http://www.loe.org/images/090515/Letter%20on%20coal.pdf and http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20090713_Strategies.pdf
Ferguson - lets burn coal for as long as we can so the coal corporations can keep paying my salary.
Let’s be honest. Ferguson is only an MP because his daddy was one and because he’s in a safe Labor seat. He is rude, in the pocket of the fossil fuel corporations, and totally ignorant about the immense threat that climate change poses. His letter to his constituents (shown to me by a friend of mine that lives in Preston) was so petty and badly written that he obviously wrote it himself, because he didn’t get any public relations person onto it. It reads like something a ten year old child would write when his friends wouldn’t let him play with his toys.
The man is a disgrace. He is certainly not fit to be a government minister.
I love it, Ferguson, calling for science-based climate change policies, oh stop it!
Lets examine that shall we?
Cuts:
Science - rich countries at least 40% by 2020 on 1990 levels, to give us any chance of avoiding runaway, catstrophic climate change. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/21/2691324.htm)
Ferguson - 5-25% by 2020 on 2000 levels.
Energy:
Science (Prof Karoly et al in a letter and Dr James Hansen of NASA) - need to phase out coal burning and replace it with renewable energy ASAP. (see: http://www.loe.org/images/090515/Letter%20on%20coal.pdf and http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20090713_Strategies.pdf
Ferguson - lets burn coal for as long as we can so the coal corporations can keep paying my salary.
Let’s be honest. Ferguson is only an MP because his daddy was one and because he’s in a safe Labor seat. He is rude, in the pocket of the fossil fuel corporations, and totally ignorant about the immense threat that climate change poses. His letter to his constituents (shown to me by a friend of mine that lives in Preston) was so petty and badly written that he obviously wrote it himself, because he didn’t get any public relations person onto it. It reads like something a ten year old child would write when his friends wouldn’t let him play with his toys.
The man is a disgrace. He is certainly not fit to be a government minister.
Oh well, I suppose a person could dream…..
Imagine if all those good burghers in the milds of Preston, started getting bolshie and thinking green.
Then again, perhaps Lindsay Tanner and Marn could swap electorates.
Like I said. Just dreaming…….
If you watch the old docu droma The Dismissal you will see the resources minister Rex Connor as the patriotic struggler trying to get Australian ownership and development of Australian resources. Presumably this is also the raison d’etre of Ferguson too in the ALP heartland complete with his pronounced strine - and no criticism of that here. Snobbery doesn’t wash especially with the tribe.
As to his false claims about “the Australian Government” paying for various stimulus projects. Au contraire - as abc radio national commentator Alison Carabine told all of Sydney audience 2 weeks ago, those school signs are “blarney”. Her point is its the taxpayers who pay for the school upgrades, the parks, the make job projects. The taxpayers, not the government as such. That’s you and me. That’s 10% of consumer items from each and every person with coins in their pocket, professional, unemployed, labourer, green voter.
So Martin, know your place. You work for the voters not the other way round.
The faith, indeed blind unthinking faith in all of this is the faith of Martin Ferguson and many others that, despite overwhelming evidence coming from knowledgeable scientists, they can support and encourage increasing levels of green house gas emissions without inflicting permanent and escalating damage on the world which we share.
I am no raving looney on the subject of anthropogenic climate change and sea level changes, however I consider Martin’s stance to be that of a modern-day King Canute, quaintly demanding that his will be obeyed and the tide go back out, despite the absolute scientific certainty that this will not happen.
Best of luck, Martin. There is a world of difference between wishing and knowing. You are a dill.
Anyone who uses claims of “faith” against community groups wanting to take tougher action on Climate Change is just providing clear evidence that they do not accept humans cause Climate Change.
Science can only tell us what the rammifications from different scenarios of GHG ppm in the atmosphere will be. It is up to the community, with all its values and politics, to determine what level it is willing to accept. “Green Groups” who are risk-adverse and want zero emissions are clearing basing their response on the science, but are taking a risk-adverse reaction to it. Other groups, who accept the science may take a less risk-adverse reaction and agree to lower cuts.
But, if anyone claims this is “faith” - they can not logically be attacking the response to the science - as everyone has their own right to react to it how they like. instead, they are attacking the science itself. It is further proof that Ferguson is a sceptic.