The End of the World as We Know It !

(orig. posted 9 Nov 2006)
Wow - a dramatic heading, but it's not an exaggeration.
It's been so exciting just in the last few months.
Things are really starting to happen in the fight against global warming.
It seems like we have reached some sort of tipping point.
Finally all but the real nutters (Andrew Bolt) agree that all of the pollution that
the human race is pumping into the air is changing the climate of the planet.
It is not so many years ago that the people who were warning about
global warming were considered the nutters.

But just lately things are happening.
Former vice-president of the U.S. Al Gore created a film about the problem
and has been travelling the world speaking about the problem.
The scientific community has reached a consensus that humans are
warming the planet (except the flat-earthers).
Despite this, politicians like George Bush (junior) & John Howard
refuse to do anything about greenhouse emissions.
Well, that all changed with a report released by the British Government
called the Stern Review. This report was commissioned by the British Government
and was done by a highly credentialed guy Sir Nicholas Stern former chief economist of the World Bank.

This report - thank goodness - finally put a figure on the financial cost of doing nothing.
Up to this point in history, people have been able to pollute the air at no cost.
They say - coal power stations are much cheaper than solar or wind energy, but they don't count
the cost of cleaning up all that carbon dioxide. (incidentally, the amount of CO2 that a coal-fired
power station puts out is incredible!) This report points out how much cheaper it will be
to act now, rather than facing the consequences of global warming later on (it was in the trillions of dollars).

Finally, people like John Howard who look no further than the bottom line are able to see why we should do something about global warming. Mind you, he's only just coming around to the idea that it actually exists.

What we really really need is a carbon tax. That is, tax industry for the amount of CO2 that they pump into the atmosphere. This would give businesses the financial incentive to take up renewable energy and encourage research & development in the area.