This is what
happens when a once proud 159 year-old newspaper
is brought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp
and begins to publish the political rot that Andrew Bolt spews forth…….
Doing nothing on climate
change not an option
On Tuesday, December 4 you published an opinion piece by
Andrew Bolt titled, ‘Less marching, more learning’, which included a reference to me
‘admitting’ that we “could stop all Australia’s emissions – junk every car,
shut every power station, put a cork in every cow – and the effect on the
climate would still be ‘virtually nothing’.”
Those are Andrew Bolt’s words, not mine, and they are a
complete misrepresentation of my position.
They suggest that we
should do nothing to reduce our carbon emissions, a stance I reject, and I wish
to correct the record.
On June 1, 2017 I
attended a Senate Estimates hearing where Senator Ian Macdonald asked if the
world was to reduce its carbon emissions by 1.3 per cent, which is
approximately Australia’s rate of emissions, what impact would that make on the
changing climate of the world.
My response was that the
impact would be virtually nothing, but I immediately continued by explaining
that doing nothing is not a position that we can responsibly take because
emissions reductions is a little bit like voting, in that if everyone took the
attitude that their vote does not count and no-one voted, we would not have a
democracy.
Similarly, if all
countries that have comparable carbon emissions took the position that they
shouldn’t take action because their contribution to this global problem is
insignificant, then nobody would act and the problem would continue to grow in
scale.
Let me be clear, we need
to continue on the path of reducing Australia’s carbon emissions. The fact
remains that Australia’s emissions per person are some of the highest in the
world.
In response to the
recent IPCC report, I urged all decision makers – in government, industry, and
the community – to listen to the science and focus on the goal of reducing
emissions, while maximising economic growth.
I was upfront about the
magnitude of the task: it is huge and will require a global effort.
We’ve never been a
nation to shy away from a challenge, or from shouldering our fair share of the
responsibility for solving global issues.
Sitting on our hands
while expecting the rest of the world to do their part is simply not
acceptable.
Dr Alan Finkel AO,
Australia’s Chief
Scientist. [my yellow highlighting]
