The head of the IPCC Mr. Pashauri is a former railway engineer so this analogy seems appropriate.

The CAGW gravy train, the Kyoto Express, has now been diverted into the Doha siding. Everyone except the current passengers and Ben can see the buffers ahead that tell us this is a dead end and the points have been switched behind the train. It cannot move forward or backward.

The rolling stock is empty, there is no track to complete the journey, the crew has gone, there is no fuel left and no one to drive or maintain the engine.

The new train of hope, enthusiasm, better economic prospect and no 10% tax on the Kyoto Express brings a wry smile to these passengers as it departs. They look back at the passengers on the Kyoto Express chattering excitedly; they can see their jaws flapping but don’t hear anything as the old rattler fades into the distance behind them.

Many of these passengers laugh as they recount the fading vision of Julia Gillard buying even more first class tickets on the old Kyoto express. She is still spending our money grumbles one passenger. No to worry says another; our new driver will nick her purse in November.

Ben, it really is time you dragged yourself screaming and kicking into the third millenium.

David,
For you and any others interested.

I recomend "The Complete Australian Bushfire Book" by Joan Webster. It was written after Ash Wednesday in victoria and is very readable and contains all manner of info. Good libraries will have it or get it for you.

Other than that the fire services in each state put out a wealth of information in various pamphlets and they are free.

If you live rural or outer urban, ask your local brigade what you can do to make the place safe. Do not expect it to still be there after if you evacuate.

The only answer to this hideous blight, the greens not coal, is to make sure any electorate which votes green and ultimately any person, cannot use electricity from fossil power.

579,

Your alarmism may be right however, it is wasted here. I don’t recall a skeptic ever being converted to a believer on any blog. Nor do I know of any believer being converted to a skeptic.

Not only are you fighting the wrong battle you are fighting with the wrong people and the wrong arsenal. If you think you are right, take it up with the IPCC who do not agree with you, nor does the Met Office. Nor do all the nations that have failed to agree to a Kyoto replacement, nor do the CO2 trading markets which have collapsed, nor do the governments that are withdrawing rebates and capital investment for green energy, nor do the renewables manufacturers and associated commercial opportunists who are withdrawing from the market, nor do the many economies that did not get what they were promised from the green economy and are now reverting to fossil fuel energy sources.

RENIXX is the key stock market index for renewables and tracks the worlds top 30 largest renewable energy companies based in the USA, EU and China. This market is down 90 percent since 2007. The wind industry in the USA, the largest in the world, is predicted to lose 70 to 90 percent of its orders. Spain’s solar market dropped 80 percent after subsidies were axed.

The main intergovernmental carbon trading schemes, the EU, UN, Copenhagen and NZ are done, finished, dying on the vine. They are all now trading at between 10 and 15 percent of both their volume and value as at 2007.

If your science is not good enough for those who sold it to you, it is definitely not good enough for us. All that’s left is the squawking commentariat.

Even if you are right there is no infrastructure left to deliver a solution. Now I’m not suggesting that all these global organisations know something you don’t but you do need to take the matter up with them, they might be able to help do something about it, we cannot. Get writing.

The article poses a very serious question, which very few of the comments attempt to address. I would simply point out that relying on the mining industry for most of your income is usually a bad idea as you lurch from from boom to bust. When the mining boom crashes, as it inevitably will, at some point in the future, it will take down the rest of the Australian economy with it. You only have to look at the effect of the high Australian has had on manufacturing, to understand this. The solution would appear to be, to steadily increase export taxes on minerals that lead to high levels of carbon emissions.
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is to make sure any electorate which votes green and ultimately any person, cannot use electricity from fossil power.
Posted by cohenite
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I am only to happy with that arrangement. I will use hydro, wind and solar, bio-fuel, plus 75% of the power produced by natural gas (methane is 75% hydrogen). You will probably be short of power more frequently than I will. It takes several hours to fire up a coal power station

Warmair,

it's refered to in economic circles as the Dutch Disease.
Wayne swan and julia gillard don't seem to have been aware of it, as in so many other areas, they've failled to introduce policy to counter effects or have introduced unfunded grandiose schemes or really stupid ineffective wasteful measures.