Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Carbon Trading

Warming Alarmists Lose Yet Another Debate

By

In celebration of World Environment Day, the Queensland Division of the Property Council of Australia convened a breakfast meeting last Friday morning (June 3rd) to debate the topic “Australia needs a carbon tax”.

Leading speaker for the motion was Mr. Matthew Bell (Climate Change & Sustainability Services, Ernst & Young), supported by Ms. Kellie Caught (Acting Head of Climate Change, WWF Australia) and Mr. Kirby Anderson (Policy Leader, Energy Infrastructure, General Electric).

Speaking against the motion were Mr. Michael Matusik (Director, Matusik Property Insights), supported by Mr. John Humphreys (Director, Human Capital Project, University of Queensland) and Professor Bob Carter (James Cook University and Institute of Public Affairs).

The audience of about 150 persons were treated to some pointed exchanges, with the team speaking for the motion concentrating rather more on the science, and their opponents almost exclusively on the economics and cost:benefit analysis of the introduction of a carbon tax.

One compelling argument was the observation that to introduce a carbon tax of $25/tonne of carbon dioxide would cost around $100 billion by 2020, for a notional benefit of 0.0002O C (two ten thousandths of a degree) of warming averted.

The opponents of the tax were awarded a clear win, on rendered applause, by debate Chairman Mr Mark Ludlow (Australian Financial Review).

The Carbon Tax: All Style no Substance?

By

If the government was really serious about reducing carbon emissions it could just tax the coal industry to death.

Instead it plans to make us pay more for everything by introducing a carbon tax and then compensate us and everyone potentially disadvantaged. The concept has not caught on with the average Australian who is against it.

In an attempt to sway public opinion, Hollywood superstar, Cate Blanchett, is now appearing on television endorsing the tax.

Cate has a lot of style, but does her message have any substance? Have any readers of this blog seen the advert? What exactly is her message?

Value Adding in Australia, The Beginning of the End: A Note from Viv Forbes

By

News Alert: Smelting and refining of Mount Isa copper in Queensland to cease

The recent Xstrata decision to phase out their world class copper smelting and refining operations in Australia tells us that the taxes, processing, transport and energy costs that Xstrata expects in Australia are already uncompetitive.

The dreamers in the Canberra cocoon always drool about “value adding”. Their carbon tax will surely cause all mineral processing plants in Australia to lose value, and some will surely close. Low cost coal and diesel power will no longer support our high wages. The value adding will take place in Asia.

We are watching a slow tragedy unfold – the end of an era. Once the mineral processing plants leave, they will never come back. We will be back to the pioneering era of mining – dig it out and ship it off.

And the final tragic irony of the Isa story is this – sending partly processed copper concentrate overseas, instead of smelting it at Mount Isa, will about triple the transport burden and do the same to carbon dioxide emissions.

[Read more…] about Value Adding in Australia, The Beginning of the End: A Note from Viv Forbes

See you at the Rally in Brisbane, on Saturday

By

GROWING up in Brisbane thirty years ago I attended People for Nuclear Disarmament rallies and was part of the protest when Joh Bjelke-Petersen was awarded an honorary doctorate. This Saturday I will be returning to Brisbane to be a part of the No Carbon Tax Rally.

Politics is very different now. Some of my old Moreton Island Protection Committee friends have gone on to successful careers within the environment movement where it is now possible to have a well-paid and respectable job for life.

They have become part of the establishment, while the No Carbon Tax Rally will be attended by what the same establishment increasingly and unfairly label “misfits and oddballs”.

It is certainly unfashionable to be a global warming sceptic but that doesn’t make it wrong. Indeed while global warming may now be considered the great moral issue of our time, in another thirty years the current obsession with carbon dioxide may be recognised as misguided.

During the recent protracted drought when Wivenhoe Dam was at 17 per cent capacity and falling, Tim Flannery wrote in New Scientist that because of global warming the dams would never fill again – not even when it rained. I can understand why governments concerned by such advice tried to introduce an emissions trading scheme.

But since, the drought has broken, and the dams have filled – in the case of Wivenhoe to overflowing.

But instead of reassessing the evidence, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has appointed Professor Flannery, the very man who claimed the drought would last forever, to head up a new Climate Commission.

Reminiscent of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen days, governments are again treating the Australian public as fools. The ideology is still extreme and based on nonsense – just different.

We live in a land of drought or flooding rains and so governments need to take natural climate cycles seriously and to recognise that the bigger our cities, the greater the risk of running out of water or being washed away – unless we plan appropriately.

Banning certain categories of light-bulb, or even introducing a carbon tax, is not going to return the Australian climate to some sort of benevolent natural state.

So I am travelling to Brisbane to be a part of the No Carbon Tax Rally on Saturday.

It is my opportunity to very publically show my concern for current government climate policy.

I would like government to stop treating climate as a slogan and cast around a little wider for advice including by listening to the many well qualified meteorologists, hydrologists and paleoclimatologists whose more accurate forecasts have so far been ignored – because they don’t believe carbon dioxide is a major driver of climate change.

The proposed tax will not stop climate change and the way it is currently being formulated it will not even reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

See you at the rally!

***********
Republished from The Courier Mail, May 5, 2011 pg 29

The Rally is this Saturday outside Parliament House, from 11.30am. Parliament House is in the Brisbane CBD at the corner of George and Alice Street. Don’t forget to bring a sign and also your extended families.

Congratulations! Successful ‘No Carbon Tax Rally’ in Sydney

By

The ‘No Carbon Tax’ rally in Sydney today was the first item on the ABC television news tonight.  According to the ABC it was attended by 4,000 people.   Others claim 6,000.

http://www.2ue.com.au/blogs/2ue-blog/passions-run-high-at-carbon-tax-rally/20110402-1cs8x.html 

Well done and congratulations!

Organisers tell me they are learning much about how to organise, how to put on events, the politics and media management.  They say that these rallies are only the beginning and that more actions, media events, fund-raisers and rallies will be organized in due course.

http://www.nocarbontax.com.au/?p=602 

I will be speaking at the Brisbane rally on Saturday May 7, 11.30am to 1.30pm, outside Queensland Parliament House – Cnr George and Alice Streets.

Facebook: Brisbane Anti Carbon Tax Rally http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187575497948860

I hope to see you there.

Europe Giving up on Climate, More Interested in Economy?

By

The Spectator magazine sponsored a debate ‘The global warming hysteria is over: Time for a return to sanity’ held on Tuesday at the Royal Geographical Society in London. 

According to Andrew Montford who attended the event:

“I was a bit disappointed overall – none of the presentations managed to combine slick presentation with a strong coherent argument…

“Here are some of the things that stuck in my mind. The first was the sense of anger in the auditorium. People were just very, very annoyed about what was going on. There were times when the warmists on the stage looked taken aback by the heat that they were receiving.

“Simon Singh’s presentation was memorable, but unfortunately mostly for the wrong reasons. He set up what he called a credibility spectrum, with scientists and academies on one side and sceptics on the other and called on us to trust the establishment on the climate change issue…

“Benny Peiser’s talk was the one that intrigued me. He essentially argued that the science is irrelevant – that the public have made their minds up and that they vote out any party that pushes the green line too far. He also noted that they have moved on to other issues, such as the economy.”

Benny is clearly of this opinion writing in Public Policy Europe that:

“The global warming hysteria is well and truly over. How do we know? Because all the relevant indicators – polls, news coverage, government u-turns and a manifest lack of interest among policy makers – show a steep decline in public concern about climate change.”  

This may be the situation in Europe, but unfortunately we are lagging behind in Australia.   At least, it would appear the Australian media and government doesn’t seem to realize that the public is giving up on the issue even here. 

************

Links
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/3/30/the-spectator-debate.html
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/136/climate-fatigue-leaves-global-warming-in-the-cold