RickInOz

Sometimes there are issues so blindingly obvious that you wonder how they become overlooked, and yet it happens.

The title of this thread is tangentially relevant as, if climate change continues on course, there may not be many trees left to block the view.

Recently an attempt to introduce emission capping through a carbon trading scheme was voted down for the second time in the Australian senate. Admittedly it is just a band-aid solution but at least it shows that the incumbent Labor (sic) government is trying to adopt a more environmentally-minded position.

But, as predicted, the Nationals refused to come to the party and, spurred on by climate-change-deniers in their ranks, voted against. They are far too similar to the Republican party in every way, and their cavalier attitude to the environment apes their American cousins. Their obligatory defence maintains they are supporting jobs and the economy, but other countries have shown that there is much money to be made through carbon offset schemes.

In any case, this should not be necessary in Australia. We have sun in abundance and millions of desolate square kilometres in which to install solar farms. Adelaide is also blessed by having predictable strong prevailing winds, and already a fair amount of electricity is generated by wind power. Annoyingly the same Nimby attitude as found in the UK is preventing more widespread roll-out of turbines.

But all of this is still missing one golden opportunity for almost limitless energy production with a neutral carbon footprint. I may have posted this statistic before, but here it is again … Australia has the world’s largest reserves of uranium and yet generates no power whatsoever from it. The legacy of atomic weapons testing in the 1950s clearly still has left the country with baggage, and all proponents of nuclear power have been shouted down.

I think this is a pitiful, narrow-minded, short-sighted attitude. Of course I understand why it is held, and sympathise with those affected, but it is time to let go of the past and look to the future. We cannot continue relying on the planet “taking another one for the team” while we burn fossil fuels at ever increasing rates to match demand. Unfortunately, until the current crop of blinkered and obstinate politicians move on, I can’t see anything changing. Maybe when their multi-million-dollar houses are underwater they will finally wake up. Pity is that, by then, it will be too late.