A business person hires someone to help him make money. It is an investment of his money to make more money. Sometimes a business person will hire somebody to make sure he doesn't lose money. That is also an investment but it is a more complicated calculation for the business person.

No business people are clamouring for people with green skills at the moment because a business does not need any green skills to make money or to protect them from losing money (expect a few pollution control people and they are mainstream now anyway). I'm pretty sure Heather Ridout knows all this.

She says AI Group "identified a strong demand for skills in technologies focused on addressing climate change, global warming and population growth." There is essentially no pressure on any business at the moment to address climate change and somebody please tell me what a business would do with a person whose expertise was addressing population growth. Is there one business in the world that employs a population growth person?

This just seems silly. What is the point of this article? Nobody has commented on it in 2 days so it certainly isn't nailing the hot topics. It appeared in The Australian on 8 October. Why? Does the AI Group want to give the impression that they are working on green issues while just doing nothing and leaving Australian Industry to business-as-usual?

Is the AI Group really concerned about global warming? No. Their position paper is full statements like "Our members are gravely concerned that Australia will move too fast and too far ahead of the rest of the world.”

If the AI Group is really concerned about population growth they would be lobbying the government hard to reduce immigration? No, in fact their 2007 pre-budget submission encourages more immigration; especially skilled immigration.

Somebody please. What was the purpose of this article?