The Australian Government will release its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme White Paper on December 15. This will include a target range for greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. Australia has drawn considerable criticism from the international community because it has reneged on its commitment to announce it targets at the climate negotiations in Poznan. In an interview with Kerry O’Brien on the 7.30 Report, Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stated:
KEVIN RUDD: … And I’m sure when this is delivered, early next week, we’ll get attacked from the left, from the right, we’ll get attacked by various radical green groups saying that we haven’t gone far enough because we haven’t closed down the coal industry by next Thursday.
KERRY O’BRIEN: I think that’s a little unkind, but …
KEVIN RUDD: Well, I think it’s – no, Kerry, this is absolutely true. We’ll be attacked from the far right and by various business groups, I suppose, and certainly the Liberal Party, for doing anything at all. And we’ll be attacked by extreme green groups for not taking the most radical course of action.
KERRY O’BRIEN: Okay.
KEVIN RUDD: We intend to steer a balanced course.
As well as using straw-man style arguments to attack critics, the Prime Minister is arguing that his target will be appropriate because he will be criticised from both sides. This does not make sense — whether Australia’s targets are appropriate depends on the science, on whether they are equitable, on whether they are achievable, and whether they will increase the likelihood of a comprehensive international agreement that will mitigate climate change. What is not relevant is whether they are criticised by participants in two different sides of a political debate. Instead of underestimating the intelligence of the Australian public, the Prime Minister should address the important issues.
The following cartoon illustrates the Prime Minister’s argument quite well (hat tip to JulieG).
Update: There is an open comments thread and links post on the White Paper at Larvatus Prodeo. The White Paper is here, the target range is 5%-15% reductions compared to 2000 by 2020.
December 14, 2008 at 7:40 pm
[...] political tensions pointing the Rudd Government toward a low target for 2020 emissions reductions. Peter Wood has a cartoon that illustrates the problem with that “sensible centrist” approach. And [...]
December 15, 2008 at 11:59 am
Cheers, Peter – that cartoon really sums up a lot about our government’s approach to climate change right now.
December 27, 2008 at 4:07 am
Keep going, Peter. Very best wishes for 2009.
Thanks for all you are doing to protect the environs from wanton, irreversible degradation and global biodiversity from massive extirpation; to preserve Earth’s resources from relentless dissipation and the future of our children from reckless endangerment; to save “the pale blue dot” from the ravages of unbridled global overproduction, overconsumption and overpopulation activities of the human species in these early years of Century XXI.
December 29, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I didn’t know where else to post this, but it’s in regards to Rudd considering the possibility of allwing former Guantanamo Bay inmates into Australia. I am so angry about this on so many levels!!! Rudd won’t even look at my case, as far as he is concerned, it’s not ‘his’ department! Please read below and see what I am up against…they want to let former felons in, but won’t give my 3 year old daughter a visa!
I am an Australian citizen and have been living in Bali, Indonesia for the past 3yrs, going through a difficult adoption process, while my husband and family are in Australia waiting. I have had KiKi since she was 5 weeks old, she is now 3. We were given a tourist visa to Australia in January, it was valid for 3 months, we only stayed one month. We did not overstay, we returned to Bali.
When I applied again, for a 1 year visa, it was refused as the DIAC officer decided that since I was going to sell my bike and TV – this proved I would never return to Bali with KiKi – it proved to him that I would overstay KiKi’s visa. I provided DIAC with sufficient information to show that I would return, but the visa was still rejected.
DIAC hide behind phrases such as “.. what’s in the best interest of the child ..”. I believe “the best interest of the child”, KiKi, is to be with me, her mother, the only mother she has ever known, and be reunited with the rest of her family in Australia. Please note that it is not uncommon here in Bali to find a child (newborn, usually female) dumped in garbage or in the river.
In the past 6 months there have been so many female babies found dumped in the garbage in the area where I live. In 2006, they found 9 babies from January til September, drowned in the river. Remember these are only the ones they find. Abortion is illegal here, this is what they do. If a child is born by cesarean, it costs a lot of money, and it is not unusual for the parents to walk out of the hospital abandoning the child because they cannot afford the high hospital bill.
Australian Immigration authorities never like to admit their mistakes, you only need to look at the Cornelia Rau and Alvarez scandals of a few years back. I need to be with my husband and family, KiKi needs to be with her daddy, we need green grass, clean water, a home…
You can visit the following sites: My URL: myspace.com/layonsari FACEBOOK: Bring KiKi Home and YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbeWHchKJGI
Sign the petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/bring-kiki-home.html
Thankyou!
December 31, 2008 at 8:19 am
The dangerous devotion of so many leaders to a “business as usual” status quo as well as to unbridled global economic growth and outrageous per capita overconsumption could prove to be lethal for our children also to worship because these forms of idolatry could soon become patently unsustainable on a relatively small, evidently finite and noticeably frangible planet like the planetary home which God has blessed us to inhabit……and not to ravage as the leading elders in my “Not So GREAT GREED GRAB Generation” have been advocating so religiously and doing so recklessly in these early years of Century XXI.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176