Harking back to your second post Rob, you wrote:

<< What can we do about it ? The first what comes to mind are our political leaders. This actually depends on us going to the polls. >>

Yes, but first we need candidates who are going to try and do something to bring about much better government control of big corporations, as well as all other things that are not in keeping with the achievement of sustainable societies.

It is no just good at all deciding whether to vote Liberal or Labor! If you vote for either of them, you are effectively supporting business as usual. And our illustrious main parties have got the voting system RIGGED whereby your vote for any other candidate almost always ends up counting for one of the two big parties, even if you specifically want to not vote for either of them. Such is the nature of the despicable compulsory preferential voting system. The only ethical or principled thing you can do is put in a null vote!

Then there is the problem of any candidate or party with our desired agenda that looks like it might have a chance of winning power, being subjected to really dirty tactics and misinformation from the corporate world and their continuous-growth-forever buddies, to the point where the average citizen doesn’t know what to believe.

And even if an elected rep or two did win power, they’d still be pushing sh!t uphill to get anywhere.

They’ve got it wrapped up, Rob. We can’t penetrate it. Not before our society faces massive upheaval, at least.

<< Australian Government has shown its leadership in climate change issues…...How to control corporate greed in general ? The lesson learnt from the carbon tax case gives us a quite clear guidance. >>

Rob, I see it very differently. I think Gillard has tried to be seen to be green while upholding business as usual. Big business is going to be barely affected. The mooted reductions in emissions are piffling. Economic growth and population will continue unabated, which will make any reduction in emissions with the current weak incentives IMPOSSIBLE!

It is touted to be the first step in a change of direction towards a greener future. I very much doubt it. It is almost definitely more of a final step, with further measures to reduce emissions being trivial and spaced out over long periods, if we see any at all.

It is another enormous win for corporate power, and their political puppets.

Austin Powerless,

what Julia Gillard was saying before the election, it is a question of semantics. She was definitely saying about carbon pricing and climate change issues. However, this is not my point. I do not intend to defend her.

The point is that anthropogenic climate change is real and scientifically nothing has changed over the last year to justify the recent change of public perception. Media have recently created misinformation which is reiterated by almost anybody around. It clearly is related to the carbon tax issue. It is then political not scientific.

I would refer you again to the last IPPC report which concluded that there is 90% probability that climate change is anthropogenic, based on extensive international research.

Why media create misinformation ? I wrote about it in my previous posts. I only do not understand why we can so easily be fooled by them.

Ludwig, I wrote nothing I disagree. However, if we drop carbon tax now, we could forget about ETS and real renewable energy incentives / policy for long.

I believe in small incremental steps. Evolution not revolution. For this reason Julia Gillard deserves a little bit support. Hovever, revolutions are also sometimes required...

**Yabba, **

A dead giveaway you ignore my link ( how unprofessional and rude)

THEN -
You refer to Yabby as Yabba- how typical . Call yourself whatever you like but your personality is showing.

Some farmers up NT picked up something on face book and stuck it on just grounds and they are still talking about certain personality's.

I will leave the gullible to waste their time.

Ludwig:

>>> Corporations or large companies, or small companies for that matter, can be excused for being greedy or trying to generate maximum profit and out-do their competitors.

The problem lies fairly and squarely with governments and the terrible lack of independence of government from the business sector. Not only a lack of independence but far too cosy a relationship, to the point where governments DO do the bidding of big business to a very large extent.

It is up to governments to regulate the profit motive or greed factor or whatever we may call it. But they just dismally fail to do this, on all levels from local to federal, and not just in this country but around the world. <<<

Then we're totally screwed. Deregulation (which was heavily promoted by private business) has been the political spin since the 80's. So its business-as-usual if no-one from the private sector is thinking long-term, which is what sustainability is all about, and their financial support to governments continue to influence policy.

The blame for our current situation goes across both business and government. The two are far too symbiotically linked for one to be blamed for all wrongs. And as others like to point out both are made up of people - the responsible and the irresponsible, seems to me that the 'irresponsible' are in ascendancy on both sides and are threatened by change to their lifestyle.