Dear Mr Turnbull,

Your headline made me laugh out loud.

Like your colleague Mr Hockey, you've been sent forth to proselytize a policy lemon foisted on you by a dud PM. Not surprisingly, there have been cave-ins as the Coalition approaches an election they will certainly lose. But the polls say "it's time". The problem that you have is that the climate change issue overshadows the issue of economic management a thousandfold in the minds of many members of the public (including this swinging voter). If we don't protect the environment we won't have an economy at all.

Start thinking about your life in Opposition ... makes you shudder doesn't it? Frankly, I'm quite looking forward to the mass bloodletting that will occur on your side of politics. Just imagine Abbott, Downer, Nelson, Cosetello and yourself going at it hammer and tongs!

Perhaps our PM hasn't been properly informed about the problems of supply in relation to high grade uranium ore. An excellent and informative article on CO2 emissions and diminishing high grade ore can be found at

http://www.energyscience.org.au/FS02%20CO2%20Emissions.pdf

This is a three page (PDF & available in HTML) article from an Australian source and appears to be without bias.

Interesting to note only a nuclear reactor using high grade uranium emits no CO2 whilst in operation, but high grade ore will last just a few decades at present use levels. With an increase in reactors, it will last just two decades. Not long enough to stave off the end of cheap oil and reduce green house gasses to an acceptable level.
This information is something all Australians should read before the next election.

Good article, well written, factual and non-emotive. Sadly it is difficult to have a sensible argument with some of the environmental zealots who you see online here.

Practical, measured and safe improvements to energy generation can make a significant improvement to Australia's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions but arbitrarily setting targets, signing protocols and making other meaningless gestures will not. I'm certain that I'll be decried as some sort of Liberal apparatchik for supporting you but there are Australians in the community that think the Government is doing a good job on tackling climate change.

Personally, I am a greenhouse-sceptic and I think it is nothing short of vanity or arragance to think that humankind can, though its actions, cause climate change. However, I don't think there is anything to be gained by pumping millions of tonnes of gasses into the atmosphere. We should take practical measures to stop this and nuclear energy is one alternative that should be considered until solar, wind or some not yet invented technology matures to the point where it can provide base-load electricity to the grid.

Shadyoasis noticed that Mrs Turnbull is on the editorial board of OLO and asks is there any conflict of interest in having Mr Turnbull's article recycled from The Age ?

Good question, since it appeared in The Age right together with and alongside one written by Peter Garrett the ALP Environment Shadow Minister. I can only imagine the OLO editor couldn't get Mr Garrett's approval to publish.

I'm sure that OLO takes a balanced approach to publishing pieces from politicians in an election year.

Over-population is the elephant in the room that no politician wants acknowledge. The pity of it is that no-one is taking advantage of tha natural population decline that is occurring in most western countries and developing a viable model for a no-growth economy. Even if we halved per-capita carbon emissions today, in 50 years world population is predicted to double. On a more positive note, Reg Morrison's book Plague Species (New Holland 2003) suggests that human population is following a boom-and-bust bell curve typical of all plague species which will top out around 2030 and over the next 100 years return to 1900 levels.

I would like to see the carbon cost included in most things - like the dirt-cheap tinned fruit from South Africa and Greece which is transported here in ships spewing out greenhouse gases eqivalent to 300,000 cars a day. We desperately need to reward low carbon options. Instead, Howard and Co are planning to hand out licences to pollute to our biggest carbon emitters - even though they have been advised to auction them off.

The Liberals couldn't spell "environment" or "global warming" 12 months ago, and they still don't know what the terms mean or how to counteract them. I wonder if the Liberals are interested in plannning and building an Australia in which our grandchildren live a comfortable existence with fresh water, affordable nutritious food, jobs that nurture self esteem, affordable decent housing .