I hope you can read these published letters to the editor as they will explain the letter at the end of this post.
And this is my response followed by our Liberal Member Dan Tehan's response!
And there
it is! I'm sure the Coalition runs ' Fear Through Misinformation' workshops for all its MPs. With
brain deadening regularity we have heard the same old routine about the evils
of the so called carbon 'tax'.
Again, I
urge small businesses not to listen to them.
Firstly,
Mr.Tehan omits to say that the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee was not
unanimous in supporting the application of the carbon price to heavy on-road
vehicles. It is yet to be passed in parliament and may not be passed at all.
Even if
it is passed, the plan is that carbon pricing for transport fuels will not have
an effect at the petrol pump or at service stations. Any extra cost will be
handled either through the existing fuel tax system or the new carbon pricing
mechanism and after July 1st 2014, small businesses earning under $2 million
per year can apply for tax exemptions. Also, there will be a number of grants
available to help small businesses become more sustainable.
Secondly,
it's not a 'tax' but a system of permits and in 2015 Australian companies will
be able to buy and sell permits from the European Union Emissions Trading
Scheme. That's why it's called a ''price' and not a 'tax'. You cannot sell a
'tax'. The Coalition uses the word 'tax' for its negative impact. It's not a tax.
Giving
pollution a value, initially $23 a tonne and now linked with the fluctuating
Euro price, motivates the change to
solar, wind and geothermal. Australia's emissions have reduced
considerably since its introduction.
Thirdly,
the Greens are most emphatically not a part of the Labor Party. Labor is in a
minority government and sometimes, if a vote is close, Greens or Independent
MPs will caste the determining vote. It's called 'the balance of power'. All
parties were invited to join the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee but the Coalition declined.
Attention all Coalition MPs! Stop acting like petulant children, accept defeat and admit that the price
on greenhouse gases is essential to the fight against climate change.
Four-Degrees Briefing for the World Bank: The Risks of a Future Without Climate Policy
ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2012)
— Humankind's emissions of greenhouse gases are breaking new records
every year. Hence we're on a path towards 4-degree global warming
probably as soon as by the end of this century. This would mean a world
of risks beyond the experience of our civilization -- including heat
waves, especially in the tropics, a sea-level rise affecting hundreds of
millions of people, and regional yield failures impacting global food
security. These are some of the results of a report for the World Bank,
conducted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and
Climate Analytics in Berlin. The poorest in the world are those that
will be hit hardest, making development without climate policy almost
impossible, the researchers conclude.
"The planetary machinery tends to be jumpy, this is to respond
disproportionately to disruptions that come with the manmade greenhouse
effect," PIK's director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber points out. "If we
venture far beyond the 2-degree guardrail, towards 4 degrees, we risk
crossing tipping points in the Earth system." This could be the case
with coral reefs which face collapse under unabated global warming, or
with the Greenland ice sheet. To melt the ice sheet would take thousands
of years, yet this might be an irreversible process that could start
soon. "The only way to avoid this is to break with the fossil-fuel-age
patterns of production and consumption," says Schellnhuber.
Climate impacts: Heat waves, sea-level rise, yield failures
Already today impacts of climate change are observed. The Russian
heat wave in 2010, according to preliminary estimates, produced a death
toll of several thousand, annual crop failure of about 25%, and economic
losses of about US$15 billion. Extreme events like this at 4 degrees
global warming would become "the new normal" in some parts of the world,
according to the report. In the tropics, the coolest months at the end
of the century are likely to be substantially warmer than the warmest
months today.
Sea level, under this scenario, would rise by 50 to 100 centimeters
within this century, and more so in coming centuries. The rate of rise
varies from one region to the other, depending on sea currents and other
factors. Projections suggest that sea-level rise will be strongest in
countries like the Philippines, Mexico, and India.
Within economic sectors, too, tipping effects with rapidly increasing
damages can occur, for instance in agriculture. Already, observations
showed that important cereals are sensitive to temperature increases
passing certain thresholds, resulting in large-scale yield failure.
Changes in the water cycle can aggravate this, when droughts occur or
flooding affects farmed land.
World Bank President Kim: "A 4-degree warmer world can, and must be, avoided"
"The report draws from the current state of science and delivers new
analysis of heat waves and regional sea-level rise, so of course there
remain some uncertainties," says William Hare, co-founder of Climate
Analytics in Berlin and guest scientist at PIK. "We work with that by
defining risk as potential damage multiplied with the probability -- a
rather improbable event can be a great risk if its impacts are huge."
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim who was nominated early this year
by US President Barack Obama and assumed his new position in July, has
personally been briefed on the 4-degrees report by Schellnhuber some
weeks ago in Washington D.C.. "A 4-degree warmer world can, and must be,
avoided -- we need to hold warming below 2 degrees," President Kim now
said in a statement. "Lack of action on climate change threatens to make
the world our children inherit a completely different world than we are
living in today. Climate change is one of the biggest single challenges
facing development, and we need to assume the moral responsibility to
take action on behalf of future generations, especially the poorest."
