runner:>>it is usually the youth that leave lights and heaters on.
They also want to stay at luxury resorts.
also work or study in comfortable offices where they insist on air conditioning and heating.
To think that somehow Gen Y is exempt from this consumerism is an absolute joke.<<

That’s it runner hook into them,… little buggers.
The salient thing is that we were once those very same malleable youths before the career, partnering, kids and bills straightened us up.

The issue is of course the indoctrination of the youth for political gain. If Julia gets in again we may see the voting age plummet to 16. It has some merit in law on which to mount a case. Nothing surprises me with this current crop of Fabians.

And air travel.. lets us not forget airplane trips as the young tend to travel more. Try to tell them that international airlplane travel really messes up their carbon budget, and see how enthusiastic they are about saving carbon then..

Curmudgen, do you count Ramya's trip to Copenhagen to finger wag at everyone on her Carbon budget .. or would she get "offsets", for being pious?

You're on the money Ramya. ALP's cynical politics with CC are at it's own peril. A carbon tax is a matter of when, not if. If it takes them losing power this time around, so be it. Regardless of current political fashions, I'll bet that in terms of reducing carbon emissions to avert disaster, we'll be where we need to be in twenty years.

Failure to act on climate change may well be the death of conservative politics in this country.

As for the haughty responses from the deniersaurs...ho hum. The evidence keeps mounting, they keep denying. That's more than enough of my time wasted on these politically conservative reactionaries. The future is yours, they're history. Politicians know it, they know it.

It is ironic that shelving the ETS will turn out to be the Gang of Four's best decision. It is disappointing that so many are too brainwashed to appreciate the decision.

Ken Fabos, it is not solely the responsibility of one person (the Oz PM). It is a Govt caucus/cabinet/select committee combination responsibility, along with input from experts in and around the country and around the world. Perhaps Rudd had that right.

There is no quick fix, especially without wide consensus - world-wide consensus including the big emitters - probably best coordinated through the UN.