"This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through . . . a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels."
US President Lyndon B. Johnson, US Congress, February 1965

"The climate system is a capricious beast, and we have been poking it with a sharp stick"
- Wallace Broecker, Columbia University, 1987

"We will pay for this one way or another. We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and will have to take an economic hits of some kind. Or will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll. There is no way out of this that does not have real costs attached to it. That has to hit home."
General Anthony C. 'Tony' Zinni, USMC (Ret.)
Former commander-in-chief, US Central Command,
National Security and Climate Change, April 2007 http://securityandclimate.cna.org/


“… these kinds of temperature changes (above 6 degrees) would change the ocean circulation patterns and end up with much of the oceans going anoxic – very low oxygen content – which would then promote bacteria which produce hydrogen sulphates, and these would rise and take out the ozone layer, and also make it somewhat difficult to breathe. This is by 2100.”
- Dennis M. Bushnell, chief scientist, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
‘Climate Wars’ Gwynne Dyer, Scribe Publications. In an interview with the author, February 2, 2008


"It's simply a matter of giving up our current teddy bears, which we love to clutch, which is the conventional hydrocarbons, fossil carbon fuels, and going of into what we need to do to save ourselves."
Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist, NASA Langley Research Centre
in an interview with Gwynne Dyer, February 2, 2008. Printed in 'Climate Wars'

“From all of these perspectives, the evidence gathered by the Review leads to a simple conclusion:
the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.”
Sir Nicolas Stern, STERN REVIEW: The Economics of Climate Change, HM Treasury, United Kingdom


From 'Funny Weather' by Kate Evans (Myriad Editions) UK;

"The evidence is there. The damage is being done."
Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister, 1989

"Climate change is already fully under way."
Thomas Loster, chief executive, Munich RE foundation

"Climate change is real ... prepare for the consequences"
Joint statement by the science academies of Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and the USA.

"Climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism."
Sir David King, chief scientific adviser to the UK government

Major emitters come clean:
Global Warming a serious problem

Human activities such as agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) produce additional greenhouse gases, which are accumulating in the atmosphere. Scientists believe the build up of these gases is causing an "enhanced" greenhouse effect, which could cause global warming and climate change.
Source: Australian Coal Association http://www.australiancoal.com.au/coal-and-the-environment_coal-and-climate-change.aspx

"We recognise that climate change is a reality that presents global social, economic and environmental risks and requires a global response."
Xstrata Coal Source: http://www.xstrata.com/sustainability/environment/climate/

“Energy security is absolutely critical in the issue of climate change and our capacity to meet the greenhouse challenge”
Alcoa Chairman, Alan Cransberg, reported in The Melbourne Age, Sat November 29 2008 Business P. 6

“Rio Tinto believes that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from human activities are contributing to climate change.”
Source: Rio Tinto website: http://www.riotinto.com/ourapproach/7193_climate_change_and_energy.asp 1/9/2009

“BP supports precautionary action to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and works to combat climate change in several ways.”
Source: BP website http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9026192&contentId=7048539

Caltex accepts the conclusion of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20 th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations".
Source: Was at Caltex Australia http://www.caltex.com.au/community_cli.asp

At Chevron, we recognize and share the concerns of governments and the public about climate change. The use of fossil fuels to meet the world's energy needs is a contributor to an increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) — mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane — in the earth's atmosphere. There is a widespread view that this increase is leading to climate change, with adverse effects on the environment.
Source: http://www.chevron.com/globalissues/climatechange/ May 2008

“Shell is serious about the energy and climage challenge and serious about being an industry leader in managing climate risk”
Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell plc
Source: http://www.shell.com/home/content/media/news_and_library/speeches/2008/jvdv_cbi_london_24112008.html

 

Articles

What ignoring Kyoto has cost us
by Alan Kohler, Financial commentator, Author of the Eureka Report

We are now reaping the consequences of not taking the Kyoto Protocols seriously enough; 12 years later we still have 85 per cent of our electricity generated by coal, a lot of it brown coal, and coal remains our largest export.

This has allowed the size of the average Australian home to become the largest in the world.

Research put out this morning by CommSec shows that the average new house in Australia is now 214.6 square metres, bigger than the US for the first time and almost double the average in the rest of the western world. That means more air conditioners and heaters, more lights and more electrical appliances.

The only way having the world’s biggest houses powered by coal would have been a good idea was if global warming had gone away as a problem, and the movement that culminated in that meeting in Kyoto in 1997 quietly evaporated – but it hasn’t.

Over the weekend another group of world leaders – the Commonwealth Heads of Government – committed themselves to reducing greenhouse gases, declaring: “Climate change is the predominant global challenge”.

The meeting in Copenhagen next week of every country on the planet will conclude something similar, without actually coming up with a specific international emissions trading scheme to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocols. But that’s just a matter of time.

The climate change sceptics have lost the argument, and so have the carbon taxers: momentum continues to build for a global scheme to create tradeable carbon emissions permits.

It means countries that have been building nuclear power stations, wind farms, solar arrays, hydro power and using more gas over the past 12 years will soon have an advantage over Australia because we haven’t been doing those things.

Instead we’ve been sailing along happily with coal and enjoying electricity prices at least 50 per cent below the rest of the world.

Now we are facing not only a huge increase in electricity prices over the next five years with enormous disruption to industries and businesses, but also an extremely dangerous political convulsion.

The conservatives are on the brink of splitting over the proposed emissions trading scheme, which would cause a permanent change to our political structure and entrench Labor in power for decades.

It may be that by putting off the Senate debate on the ETS Joe Hockey can keep the pro- and anti-ETS factions together on the conservative side of politics more successfully than Malcolm Turnbull has been able to.

If the US plus a few more countries come up with emissions trading schemes next year, even Wilson Tuckey and Barnaby Joyce will presumably have to bow to the inevitable.

At which point life in Australia will begin to change. On Inside Business yesterday, Michael Hitchens of the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network told me the government is underestimating the price of carbon permits.

The latest government assumption is $26; Hitchens says it is more likely to be $35-40 – something we can’t control because our permits will be internationally tradeable and Australian emitters will be able to import them.

That means electricity prices will rise by 30 per cent, not 15 per cent. Even a 15 per cent increase in the price of electricity across the board would have a big effect on the structure of the economy; 30 per cent in a hurry would be devastating. And that assumes the coalition is still in one piece.

By ignoring Kyoto, John Howard has a lot to answer for.