Poirot, you old closet tory,

Abbott is no Gillard.

lol.

You know, the great pity of it all is that a marvelous opportunity has been lost to dive headlong into an unprecedented surge of new and truly meaningful technological innovation - to reduce the world's stubborn and self-defeating reliance on fossil fuels, and particularly on OIL.
Figure: All world goods transported by fossil-fueled (substantially OIL fueled) vehicles - ships, airlines, trucks, cars, trains - and the bulk of industry and manufacturing relying on electricity derived from coal or gas fired (or nuclear) power stations. And all using OIL one way or another.

Oil may not be finite, given the potential for developing alternative, renewable sources - from plant or algal innovation or marine creature exploitation - but in the meantime we have to contend with deep-sea rigs, oil spills, tar sands environmental holocaust, CSG question-marks, and uncertainties regarding nuclear alternatives.
And all still relying on OIL, for exploration, development and exploitation.

What chance would there have been, back then at Kyoto, if OIL supply, and its projected future complications, hazards and limitations, had been identified as 'the greatest challenge of our times'?
A total 'no show', given the power of Big Oil and of so many interwoven multinational vested interests.

Given an alternative track, what might we now be seeing? Cheap efficient electricity for all in the first, second and third world, even at the remotest outpost, clear skies over Beijing, Los Angeles and so many other industrial centres, and the shelving of any further destructive ravaging of environment and ecosystems?
But, what do we have? Ultra High-definition TVs, iPhones and iPads, GFC and WARS.
Has the world simply focused on the wrong 'big picture'?

Tony Abbott speaks of improving our road systems, but not a word of the benefits of high-speed and urban rail. A convert? Luke warm at best it would seem, but not alone in not seeing the wood for the trees?

More evidence that interest in climate change is waning – see the activity time line here: http://climatechange.carboncapturereport.org/cgi-bin/topic?

Interest in carbon credits is also waning – see the activity timeline here: http://carboncredits.carboncapturereport.org/cgi-bin/topic?

Hardly a pulse, eh?

"Tony Abbott speaks of improving our road systems, but not a word of the benefits of high-speed and urban rail."

I suppose the fast-train, wheeled out by this duplicitous government as a distraction from its perfidy and incompetence, would run on wind and solar power.

"The article asserts Australia is a minor direct contributor to world emissions therefore shouldn't act alone. It follows that people shouldn't vote for a change of government Sept 14 since individual votes are insignificant."

What a stupid thing to say; one is an election in a democracy where everyone should value their vote and rights; the other is a scam, a lie and a vehicle for ideological and financial subterfuge

Poirot

'If you're telling me the "principled" Opposition are just spinning me a load of old cobblers to get elected....then I say - "What else is new?"

Yea its unfortunate how all are corruptible Poirot although Abbott has a million miles to catch the Greens/Labour/ Inndependants who have made a habit of lying to the electorate. Abbott should of stuck with his instincts knowing that man made gw was c-ap. Those instincts have proven a lot more reliable than the charlatons who continue to use the issue as a cash cow. They have no shame and its a pity Abbott plays the game. Personally I would think more of Abbott if he said it for how it is. I think he has learn't from Gillard and her mob.

cohenite,

You sadly disappoint with your hasty, ill-considered and unnecessarily malignant comment.

With my comment I was trying to suggest that there is greater merit in striving to harness the efficiencies of trains for mass people and cargo movement than aiming simply to put more and more oil guzzling and pollution spewing vehicles (private and heavy transport) on new bigger and better roads.
If you see no merit in this suggestion, then why not put forward a counter proposition, rather than going off half-cocked?
And, I was referring to possible action by an Abbott government, and not to any plans, 'in train' or otherwise, of the current ideologically bereft mob.
So, to what pray tell does your retort of "a vehicle for ideological and financial subterfuge" actually refer?

Then, to add insult to injury, you conflate, and rant on at someone else's comment, (derived from some source I have not identified) regarding the value of voting in a democracy?
Confused and confusing.
Not one too many beers perhaps?
Definitely not up to standard.