Hi Ian, great to have you on OLO.

As you are about to find out, there are many warmers here who are hanging on by their fingernails and are setting our teeth on edge as they slide them down the blackboard.

There seems to be an inversely proportional risk for the warmers, the higher your public profile the less your opportunities to jump ship. Those not in the public domain can quietly abandon their warmer faith however, for those in academia, sciences, media and government, their best options seem to be a “bob each way bet” or an “exit plan”. The “please god let me be right” option is rapidly evaporating.

Your article starkly highlights the dilemma faced by those who have backed “forecasts by scientists” rather than “scientific forecasts”. What we need to hear much more of is not the how and what we got ourselves into, but more about the consequences of this collapsing phenomenon internationally.

Neither our media nor our politicians will tell us about the unfolding collapse of all things CO2. Sure, for those of us interested we can see that energy costs in Denmark and Germany are the highest; we know that Germany’s primary energy fuel is now brown coal, up by 3.2%, we know Denmark exports its wind generated electricity at low or no cost and uses German coal generated electricity for peak demand and backup, we know that Spain is carrying a 27Bn Euro energy debt, we know that Germany is legislating the removal of emission caps for coal power stations, we know that seventeen renewable energy companies have now collapsed with the further twelve on the brink, that the carbon trading market has collapsed, that Germany is facing CO2 based de-industrialization, that each “Green Job” costs 2.2 real jobs, and that most of the so called benefits we are force fed are not just spin, they are self evident lies.

What the public needs now is exposure to the grief and damage this has done to the nations that have already tried this destructive path.

Many thanks, more please

Professor Plimer, this article is a shocker.

You are way off on the wrong track here, for these reasons:

1. You cannot assert that there is no connection between CO2 and climate change or that AGW is not real. In doing this, you are just as much at fault as those you are criticising. We don’t know!

2. But we do know that it would be a damn good idea to err on the side of caution, when we see the atmospheric CO2 content going steadily upwards at the same time as we witness glaciers and polar icecaps melting.

3. It should be deemed to be a damn good move for our government to strive to do something about it, in line with international opinion and efforts.

4. There are very good reasons for striving to pull back on our addiction to oil and fossil fuels overall, quite apart from climate change. Peak oil is a much more important reason for implementing incentives to develop alternative energy sources.

5. The carbon tax really is only a token effort. We need a much stronger policy framework.

6. Yes it will add costs to business and households, in an uneven manner. But it is just one factor (and for most, a very small factor) in amongst many that are changing in cost, up and down, all of which is constantly changing household and business budget balances. But if it engenders some level of change towards are greener energy regime and makes us a little less addicted to fossil fuels, then it’s got to have a net positive effect.

7. It really is a crying shame that some esteemed professorial people such as yourself have joined the vested-interest lobby and poo-pooed the carbon tax, when you really should be espousing it or at least suggesting alternatives to achieving the same desired outcomes.

continued

I implore you to set climate change aside and think about peak oil and the development of a sustainable society.

If you do this, you will see that policies are badly needed to get us to move away from oil in the first instance and all fossil fuels in the somewhat longer term.

That doesn't mean abandoning oil, it just means changing the balance somewhat so that we are so totally addicted to it for out energy requirements.

Whether a carbon tax is the right way to do this, I don't know, but I do know that we need a decisive government that will implement a strong policy regime... and we need it urgently!

Yair, as soon as you become the slightest bit slack about thorough proof-reading, you are going to have pissy little errors creeping into your posts. It’s unavoidable.

So to reiterate a very important point from my last post:

That doesn't mean abandoning oil, it just means changing the balance somewhat so that we are NOT so totally addicted to it for ouR energy requirements.

the carbon tax was so important that Gillard advised Rudd to postpone it for years. THe tax is about doing a sleazy deal to appease the Greens. Everyone except the naive and deceitful know its got nothing to do with climate change. Unfortunately industry, councils and mums and dads are going to pay for this nonsense while the Government hands back money to burn more emissions in order to try and win a few votes back for after loing many for their deceit.

The carbon tax will add between 1 & 2 cents / KWH to the power bill depending on which state you live in. It was a good idea from the coalition to have it separated on the bill.
This is hardly breathtaking, price rise.
Some want to do nothing, and some want to er; on the side of caution, when it comes to climate change.
The drop off of employment and business, can be blamed on a host of reasons, online shopping being just one.
Mr Abbott has told everyone the sky is going to fall in on the 1-7-2012.
His prophesies may not happen. It is just a prediction.
What is worse is when educated people believe such predictions.
The need to lower our dependance on fossil fuels is now, or do we wait until we are like Europe, before we even begin to think about it.
Abbott has one agenda, and that is to gain power, at any cost.
As yet his attempts have been futile, and i say just as well for AU.
The introduction of the great big carbon tax, will fall into a composted heap of crap.