It is nonsense to suggest, as Tim Flannery does in Weather Makers, that oil and coal are "rascally fuel" and that we are "pilfering the buried bounty of this alien world".

And it is nonsense to dismiss the suggestion in this way. The difference between a nutrient or medicine and a poison is the dose rate. Although we would be more comfortable with zero intake of polonium, excessive consumption of water can kill – and has done so.

Paracelsus publicly recognized such difference half a millennium ago, but apparently was still a bit ahead of the author of this blog.

The basic problem facing humanity is intemperate excess: Of consumption, of waste, of human population

“…it is ignorant to talk about a carbon-free economy…”

Of course it is. A carbon-neutral economy is what we need to strive for, or actually an economy in which considerably more carbon is being locked up than emitted into the atmosphere.’

“It is nonsense to suggest, as Tim Flannery does in Weather Makers, that oil and coal are ‘rascally fuel’ and that we are ‘pilfering the buried bounty of this alien world’ “

Not at all! Flannery is quite right. I find it strange that you should level this criticism within the context of the article. As you say;

“…it is the rate and balance that matters…”

And for as long as that balance is way out of kilter, coal and oil are very “rascally” fuels indeed.

Incidentally, you wrote;

“Uniquely, legumes can access atmospheric nitrogen through these bacteria…”

David, symbiotic bacterial nitrogen fixation is not unique to legumes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation#Non-leguminous_nitrogen-fixing_plants

Tyical. David Smith gives us a reasoned, learned alternative to the usual left-wing, ideological blathering, and he is greeted by more blather for his trouble.

I was pleased to see that menace Flannery put back in his box.

The point about us all being linked by the carbon cycle should be noted by the new government as they consider what to do about coal exports. Apparently we would be gasping for breath with CO2 levels in the primordial world but aeons of life starting with algae have converted that to oxygen. Now in just a century or two humans have dug up the coal and oil formed by that process and converted it back again. My feeling is there may be a practical limit to how much we can tinker with that process eg with turbocharged tree planting or ocean fertilisation. Better to live well within the error margin which unfortunately means either fewer people or a more frugal lifestyle.

Leigh me ol’ mate

Pray tell what “blather” Colinsett and/or Ludwig have expressed here that has got on your goat.

"Sustainability is not about the arrival of any one system: it is about identifying problems, researching solutions and adopting them."

The problems of anthropogenic releases of CO2 are already identified. The solutions are already evident, however, no adoption of these solutions have yet occurred by our recently deposed federal government or state governments.

And I would have thought the author, seemingly qualified in all matters carbon, would have alluded to the environmentally destructive releases of industrial carbon.

We all know we can't survive without carbon. However, we all know that pyrolysis of the polluting hydrocarbons is killing us and this planet.

Industrial stacks in Australia are emitting uncontrolled, untested polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into our atmosphere, our food, our water, our soil, our animals and our bodies. Benzo(a)pyrene is a known mutagenic and carcinogenic.

Then we have the BTEX group. Benzene, toluene, ethylene and xylene. Benzene is a Category 1 carcinogen.

Other Volatile Organic Compounds - dozens of them. All going up the stacks to convert to CO2.

Persistent Organic Compounds are more carbon based chemicals also forming in industrial stacks and fly ash, and considered the most lethal chemicals known to man.

Yet state and government "regulators" refuse to enforce conditions to cap any of these destructive atmospheric chemicals. Scrubbers or other pollution controls are rarely mandatory. These are the transboundary, bio-accumulative, chlorinated contaminates which have no respect for any nation's boundary or eco systems.

'It is nonsense to suggest, as Tim Flannery does in Weather Makers, that oil and coal are "rascally fuel" and that we are "pilfering the buried bounty of this alien world".'

How right you are Tim Flannery - these are indeed the rascal fuels.

"Perhaps the world is one or none."

The world WILL be "none" Dr Smith if we continue to incessantly excavate Mother Nature's waste respositories.

She showed great wisdom in interring these hazardous wastes though I doubt she anticipated man's stupidity in digging them up!