Janama,

Perhaps you just contemplate how precarious the basis of any form of life form is, let alone advanced complex intelligent life like our own. It is only possible if there are stable and favourable conditions lasting at least hundreds of millions of years in the midst of a vast void totally inhospitable to life. Even on earth the actual region in which life can thrive is tiny, comprising only a thin skin on its surface.

To tamper with the planet in the way we have by, for example, digging up, so far close to a half of all the carbon that was sequestered by biological and geological processes spanning many tens of millions of years, is unbelievable folly.

Whilst it may be impossible to know beforehand precisely how these changes will impact upon our life support system, no-one can possibly pretend to know that it will not be extremely detrimental.

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Amongst the most foolhardy out of all the astonishingly shortsighted governments around the world would have to be the Queensland Government of which Judy Spence, who is participating in this forum, is Police Minister.

When our polar ice caps are melting and our athletes are suffocating in Beijing from the pollution that our coal is feeding into, without knowing how to stop the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, as Judy Spence has acknowledged here, the Queensland Government is planning to triple our coal exports coal by 2030.

Judy Spence, I hope you are thinking very carefully now about what you are going to say to your children and grandchildren when they reap the terrible whirlwind that your government is now helping to sow. If you have any concern for their welfare, you will raise your voice loudly within your government against the environmental vandalism it is now committing in return for its thirty pieces of silver.

If they don't listen then I urge you to speak out in public. If you were to do this, your name would be celebrated and revered not just in Australia, but around the whole world and for many generations to come.

quote: Whilst it may be impossible to know beforehand precisely how these changes will impact upon our life support system, no-one can possibly pretend to know that it will not be extremely detrimental.
endquote:

daggett, why should it be detrimental? - we are also animals on this planet under the auspices of Mother Nature, what we do - she does - one could say. Or do you believe we are separate from nature?

Please show us how our actions are impacting upon the stability of this planet. The planets plant output has risen due to the increased temperatures and CO2, great for wheat crops. The biological output has also increased, more food for every living thing. The antarctic is NOT melting, it's at a record size at the moment and has actually been cooling over past years. Life's opportunities have never been better - That's the SCIENCE!!

Oh - the drought I hear you say. The greatest drought Australia has ever recorded occured from 1895 - 1903, 8 years straight and well before CO2 output came into the equation.

I'm sure Judy Spence can answer your other emotional outburst for herself.

Janama, I think you raise an important point. The question of whether man is part of, or outside nature, is more than an idle philosophical question in the context of this debate, yet it is hardly raised. The position one takes, and the assumptions adopted therein, will have a significant affect on the way one views and acts on situations - what we should control or shouldn't, what we can control and what we can't. What bugs me is an inconsistent flipping between the two by many. If the philosophical grounding isn't there you can basically argue anything you like and always 'seem' right. I probably haven't explained this very well.

LATO, liked your point about Dr Pauchari's recent comments. After seven years drafting the latest report with all that stuff about certainty, comprehensive peer reviews and so on, he basically undermines it in a press comment. Was he claiming the Fifth Assessment? The whole process seems to have become quite farcical.

Ross Garnaut rightly points out that global warming is very real. Senator Brown has been
telling us that climate related catastrophes are almost imminent!

And yet our policymakers are pinning their hope for Australia’s future on the introduction of a carbon emission trading scheme, hoping that this ( even if countries like the US, China and India do not participate ) will be able to turn global climate around in a matter of a few years!

This is like hoping to get the Titanic to avoid the iceberg ( if there one! ) just by blowing in the wind!

Our policies should not assume that climate change is going to stop. Rather we should identify as specifically as possible what would be the main events that would likely hit Australia as the impact of climate change worsens and then allocate resources in order to best mitigate the impact of such eventualities should they arise.

For example, long periods of drought plus significantly higher temperatures to me seem to indicate an increased likelihood of major bush fires also threatening our major cities, possibly happening simultaneously during the same season. And yet, our main bush fire fighting forces are just volunteer based, are seriously under funded and generally under equipped to meet major situations. Our aerial fire fighting equipment is hardly worth writing about. At the same time, tens of billions of dollars are spent every year on ‘defence’ and on hugely expensive military equipment which may never be used.