Click for print sized Al Gore Halloween Mask, courtesy Forbes.com
SAFETY NOTE: Please don’t use this image to frighten children, oh wait, that happens in schools everyday when AIT is shown, nevermind…
From The West Australian newspaper
Climate change could haunt humanity forever: Garnaut
30th September 2008, 14:00 WST
Failure to deal with climate change now will “haunt humanity” forever, the nation’s top greenhouse adviser has warned as he issued a rallying cry for action.
Professor Ross Garnaut has warmed to the idea of a deep, fast cut to Australia’s emissions in his final report, released today.
After infuriating green groups earlier this month by calling for a 10 per cent cut in Australia’s emissions by 2020, he’s now more open to a deeper 25 per cent cut.
Prof Garnaut issued a blunt assessment of the dangers of climate change as he launched the 620-page report.
“If we fail, on a balance of probabilities, the failure of our generation will haunt humanity until the end of time,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“We are entering territory here that humanity has not been in before.
“We will delude ourselves if we think that uncertainty about the climate change science… is a cause for delay.”
And Australia would probably be “the biggest loser” among developed countries from climate change, he said.
Prof Garnaut has recommended Australia push for a strong global climate pact, which would mean a 25 per cent cut in emissions by 2020.
“Strong mitigation, with Australia playing its proportionate part, is in Australia’s interests,” the report says.
This ambitious target would be in the context of a global deal to keep atmospheric carbon concentration to 450 parts per million (ppm).
However, Prof Garnaut is pessimistic about the possibility of the world agreeing to this “strong mitigation” deal.
If his scepticism proves correct, Prof Garnaut wants the nation to push for a global atmospheric carbon concentration of 550 ppm, which means Australia cutting emissions by 10 per cent by 2020.
And if no climate deal is forged out of the United Nations process, Australia should cut emissions by five per cent, Prof Garnaut says.
“There’s no point in hiding from reality,” he said about the possibility of a strong global climate pact.
He wants Australia to start emissions trading in 2010, and warned consumers would pay more.
“Consumers will wear the majority of the cost of an emissions trading scheme, paying more for a range of goods and services as businesses pass on the emissions price,” he said.
Electricity would cop the biggest price rise, rising by 37 per cent by 2020 if a deep emissions cut was made, and by 21 per cent if a more modest cut was made.
Other prices would rise too, although the impact would be less than the GST had been.
“Petrol and food prices, general prices, will increase to some extent as a result of the ETS.”
Prof Garnaut wants Australia to spend $2.7 billion a year on research on low-emissions technology.
He wants emissions trading to start in 2010, with a fixed, rising carbon permit price until 2012.
Less than 30 per cent of the permits should be given to trade-exposed, emissions-intensive companies. Coal-based electricity generators would not get free permits or compensation.
Prof Garnaut thinks half the revenue from emissions trading should go to households, 30 per cent to businesses, and 20 per cent to research.
Householders would be able to access a “green credit” arrangement to install energy-smart appliances.
Prof Garnaut said the global financial crisis, which worsened overnight, was no excuse to delay acting on climate change.
“Financial crises are short-term phenomena … climate change is a long-term structural issue.”
He also lashed out at various business groups and industries which have warned they will have to shut plants, cut jobs and move offshore due to emissions trading.
“Why would you expect public policy advice in the national interest from the chief executive of a business who’s responsible to his board and shareholders for maximising the profit of that business?” Prof Garnaut asked.
“I think you are just looking at the world through the wrong end of the telescope if you think that that’s where you go to for objective public policy advice.”
AAP
terry46 (07:23:44) : “Alexjc38 you say you don’t think we are in for a treat this winter but that depends on how you look at it .I for one look foward to a cold in snowy winter .Living in western N.C. it’s been a few years since we’ve had a good snowfall .”
In fact I like the snow (the first day or so anyway, before it turns to slush) & have happy childhood memories of it. Here in London we usually have a little snow in February or March; maybe it will arrive earlier this winter – a white Xmas?
No, what I was thinking of was our skyrocketing energy bills! 🙁
“…GW alarmism might get thrown to the pit of public ridicule if we do get another 1963”
(According to the UK Met office, “1963: the coldest winter since 1740”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1963
Another possibility or two this fall and winter…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothar_(storm)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1703
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1946-1947
Kangaroo farming! I can see it now. Kangaroos bred to be fat, tasty, docile and lethargic. The wild ones will be a disease risk and have to be eradicated.
Prof Garnaut seems to have toned things down a few notches since his preliminary report a few months ago, nonetheless it is still a tale of unmitigated woe for the civilised world, just like the Stern Report (but, being Australian, with better cricketers).
I find two interesting things about both Garnaut and Stern.
First, there is nothing of substance in either Garnaut or Stern to suggest that the depredations they wish on the developed world will result in significant economic improvement in the poorest countries. Nothing they propose seems likely to help the poorest African countries reach self-sufficiency. Everything is tailored to helping Africa avoid the threatened deleterious effects of warming but that is just stand-still, not progress.
Secondly, the publication of both reports has spurred more and more people to question the presumptions on which it is all based. Suddenly there was a reason for those who accepted the AGW theory to question whether it really had any substance. But more than this, it switched the balance of the issue. The essential question changed from “is the AGW theory correct” to “are we prepared to accept the changes urged upon us”? If the answer to the new question is “no”, it matters not how many polar bears are forced to eat each other to prevent themselves getting too warm.
And we can be sure that the more St Al of Gore flies around on his private jet while the rest of us struggle with economic recession, the more people will question the sense of making life even more difficult for ourselves. The stronger the opinion that further sacrifice cannot be tolerated, the stronger the need for sacrifice must be pushed – but they can’t push it any stronger they are at maximum thrust and have been for years.
Recession is a wonderful thing for focussing minds on priorities.
My suggestion is that the main priority should be to put Gordon Brown in charge of the IPCC, he has a wonderful touch. He said he had abolished boom-and-bust, then we went bust; he backed Obama and McCain’s rating soared; he said McCain was great, Obama soared; he opened Lehman Brothers’ new office and praised their stability, then they folded; he visits football clubs before vital matches and they lose; he pledges his support for a government minister who then has to resign; just this week the Big Bail Out was going nicely until he said he supported it, then the vote was lost; and worst of all he visited an MP (Member of Parliament) who was terminally ill in hospital, the man had been given three months to live just the previous week and died the day after Gordon’s cheery face popped around the curtain. Yes, he’s definitely the man to head the IPCC.
Kangaroo, medium rare, with balsamic red onions on a bed of kumara mash – sensational. I think Garnaut’s package has merit!
Oh my goodness gracious me. I am listening to the debate between Governor Palin and Senator Biden. The latter has just said climate change is “all man-made”, “we know the cause”, “all man-made”.
I would be lost for words if it weren’t for the fact that I am not lost for words.
One can forgive JB for his position. He told Katie Couric that after the crash of ’29, President Roosevelt went on TV to explain what happened. President Roosevelt. In ’29. On TV. So I wouldn’t expect him to know much about anything more technical than a thumbtack. At least Palin knows which end of the rifle to point at the moose.
Back OT. Al Gore could haunt humanity forever.
Skippy
I remember that ref. But only because of my age. (To most Americans that term means Peanut Butter.)
The latter has just said climate change is “all man-made”, “we know the cause”, “all man-made”.
She’s doing okay–except she didn’t kick him around on his ridiculous economics. She needed to smack him around hard and heavy on that.
And she did pay lip service to AGW. (Biden makes me ill; he’s worse.)
As a liberal I have not merely been abandoned by the democratic party, I have been orphaned.
Unfortunately the American public is about as savvy on economics and foreign policy as it is on AGW. It will take years of cooling to make us see sense. (Both in terms of temperatures AND GDP growth.)
As for Australia, if its polity can sell out to AGW with the record of SH cooling . . .
“She’s doing okay–except she didn’t kick him around on his ridiculous economics.”
Economics is as fluid a subject as you can get at the moment!
I think they both did very well in an enormously high-pressure environment. Added very little, if anything, to the Presidential race but that’s only to be expected when they are fighting over a bucket of warm … ok, I’ll use the clean version … spit.
FatBigot (17:14:09) :
Remind me never to get on your bad side. I would, no doubt, fold like a cheap card table.
And evanjones : “As for Australia, if its polity can sell out to AGW with the record of SH cooling . . .”
Yes, interesting that nobody talks about that half of the world.
And she says “nucyuler”. We don’t need another elected functional illiterate…
I take it back about Palin. On further review she talked about cyclical climate and did not directly address cause.
We don’t need another elected functional illiterate…
As an expatriate exile of the “ivy-league intellectual class” (Columbia U., MA in Ashamed of American History) I would FAR rather have mostly correct policies from a sensible, reasonably intelligent man who splits his infinitives than a whacked-out Plato’s Republic vision of a hI-Q boob with intellectual pretensions. What we don’t need is a 180-IQ genius like Carter.
just like the Stern Report
Don’t get me started on the goddamn Stern goddamn Review . . .
(The best thing I can say about it is that I’m getting paid to rip it to shreds.)
http://stopthehousingbailout.com/ and http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
Two ways to contact your representives and let them know you do not support the additions to the bailout bill. Its about time we educated some of our lawmakers, dont ya think? I cant watch either of the house or senate feeds without hearing someone use the term ‘global warming’ I guess no one told them its been changed to climate change…
What really makes that mask of AlGore so scary is the blank eyes. Sorta like the lights are on, but nobody’s home.
Of course, this brings to mind the old Halloween song:
“I was working in my lab, late one night;
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight…”
Apologies for being OT, but they found the wreckage of Steve Fossett’s plane in the Mammoth area, and Mammoth Mountain emits vast plumes of CO2. Could the two be connected?
“Climate change could haunt humanity forever: Garnaut”
I laughed like a drain.
It really is ironical! For a change, the headline is almost spot on. But alas! not for the reasons that I imagine the author had in mind when s/he penned the line.
Climate change WILL haunt humanity forever….and ever….and ever….and…
Get used to it! As I have read somewhere or other – you might just as well try to stop the clouds from scudding across the sky as ‘stop climate’.
I see Jeff Albert is this blog’s resident [snip]. So pronouncing a word differently from the way that you may pronounce it is being functionally illiterate, and more damning for you, than saying, no pronouncing, that an incredibly complicated system such as climate change is all man made? Yikes. Or maybe you were being sarcastic? Please say you were.
Note: It seems this is the first time you have posted here, so this is a friendly FYI that ad hominem attacks at fellow commentators are unwelcome. – Anne
Wow, you put a lot of words into my mouth. I made zero comment on either VP candidate’s AGW leanings. I merely said she can’t pronounce “nuclear”, which is a very simple word to pronounce, yet so many people seem to have a problem with it. It’s not a matter of it being different from the way I “may pronounce it”, but from the way the word is spelled and the legitimate pronunciation, either in UK or American English.
FYI, my last name is Alberts, not Albert. If you can’t figure that out, just call me Jeff. Meanwhile, I’ll think up some really cool things for the letters “RFN”.
That particular pronunciation is not as large an aberration as you feel. From Webster:
“Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \\-kyə-lər\\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, United States cabinet members, and at least two United States presidents and one vice president. While most common in the United States, these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers.”
It is most common away from the US East coast. In part, this is probably because it was the version actually taught in private schools through the 1980s on the Pacific coast.
Conform if you so desire. But it is hardly a sign of “Functional Illiteracy.”
The Master List of Things Caused by Global Warming
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
has been updated to include Deaf Polar Bears
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/30/bs-alert-polar-bear-hearing-affected-to-due-global-warming/
general health risks, a surge in legionnaires disease, an increase in tigers eating people, and, worst of all, a threat to Haggis
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7648481.stm
That’s right, there might not be enough sheep’s lung to make Haggis, because of global warming.
John-X (14:17:01) : “… an increase in tigers eating people, and, worst of all, a threat to Haggis…”
Some Greens might see these last items as Global Warming benefits – fewer pesky humans due to tiger predation, and another meat item off the menu.
BTW, re famous winters of the recent past, I recommend a book called Frozen In Time, by Ian McCaskill and Paul Hudson – basically a fascinating and sobering account of the impact of the winters of 1947, 1963 and 1979 in the UK.
Incidentally, following the great snow of 1947, and the floods caused by the thaw, there was “one of the hottest and most prolonged drought summers on record”. This pattern also seems to have occurred quite a few times back in the LIA – extreme swings from bitterly cold winters to summer heatwaves. Interesting.
alexjc38 (15:19:39) :
” This pattern also seems to have occurred quite a few times back in the LIA – extreme swings from bitterly cold winters to summer heatwaves. Interesting.”
There does seem to be a coincidence of warm or hot summers and cold, harsh winters.
The only reason I can think of offhand is “increased meridional flow,” but there’s probably much more too it than that. Over most of the US this summer we had very persistent subtropical high pressure – new record for consecutive 90 degree days in the Denver area.
The 70s were notorious for cold winters, but there were also hot summers. Anyone in the UK old enough to remember the summer of ’76 will never forget it – bubbles forming in the hot asphalt…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave
And just in case Kevin Rudd’s real concern of climate change needs clarifying !
Immediately after taking office he removed the solar elecricity rebate scheme brought in by the previous govt. A measure which proably would have had the biggest impact on reducing CO2 if continued and expanded. This demonstrates his true belief on AGW.
As George Orwell quotes
“Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely….”
How much money will Kevin (et al) make from all this false propoganda. And how long will the (farting) sheep follow….?