We need serious, immediate action on climate change
This is not a case where we can sit around and debate which of several proposals is least inconvenient to us
The editorial “Carbon tax critics want a national summit. Are they serious about solutions?” (April 16) proposes that the prime minister call a first ministers’ summit, but only on the condition that the premiers show up with “sound, visionary, cost-tested plans for combating climate change at home” that could replace the federal price on carbon scheme.
Setting aside the fact the premiers would agree and then simply do what they had planned on doing anyway and it would turn into a circus, the editorial demonstrates that its authors don’t quite grasp the situation.
This is not a case where we can sit around and debate which of several proposals is least inconvenient to us.
This is a situation where we need to throw everything we’ve got, as fast as we can and as hard as we can, in the hope that we can quickly reduce emissions and avoid disaster.
In case we have left our heads buried in the sand too long (which we may well have done), we also need to be planning more drastic measures.
Many climate scientists who, 10 or 15 years ago, were loath to even discuss the concept of geoengineering now concede that we are going to blow through the 1.5 C of warming we had agreed to try desperately to avoid.
We did it last year. Soon, it will become a regular occurrence on our way to the never exceed level of 2 C of warming.
These scientists now reluctantly agree that we need to prepare for a quick rollout of unprecedented and untested geoengineering techniques in an environment where we don’t completely understand what we’re doing.
They hope it may be a short-term solution to staving off disaster while we work furiously to eliminate emissions. In case it’s not clear, that’s both at the same time, not either/or.
Why would scientists agree to such a seemingly reckless plan? It is because they know the alternative is orders of magnitude worse and you must play the hand you have been dealt (or, in this case, we have dealt ourselves).
The thing about science is that it doesn’t matter how many people don’t believe in vaccines or that the Earth isn’t flat.
Vaccines still work and the Earth is round. The warming of the globe that we are causing is incredibly dangerous and foolish.
This fact isn’t altered by the number of people who don’t believe it or don’t wish to act in their own best interest because it is inconvenient for them.
If the premiers have sound plans for combatting climate change at home (and there are plenty), they should stay home and implement them immediately.
They should also encourage the federal government to speed up the increases in the price on carbon and remove all subsidies going to the oil and gas industry. That would represent a true grasp of the situation. It would also represent leadership.
As for the authors of this editorial, they need to do their research and start encouraging serious action, as opposed to making foolish suggestions to a prime minister who, at least in some small part, gets it and who could probably be convinced to show more leadership and get serious about protecting the country’s citizens and, more importantly, not throwing future generations under the bus.