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Who do you think will make the best President of the United States?
"My fear is that McCain drops dead and Sarah Palin becomes leader of the, so called, free world. ..."
Who do you think will make the best President of the United States?
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Is Sarah Palin qualified to be Vice President?
"NO!!"
EXCISE CUT 'WILL HURT POOR'
Wednesday, 16 July, 2008RELATED CONTENT
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Do you welcome an emissions trading scheme, or do you fear you'll be worse off? The government has unveiled details of its emissions trading scheme. It says low income earners and some industries will be compensated but warns it may drive up inflation.
COMMENTS
First [1][2] LastEmissions trading is not necessary, because our CO2 emissions are not causing the so-called "global warming". The facts are that the globe has cooled since 2001, despite CO2 emissions steadily increasing. The ETS will just be another "income redistribution" scheme to transfer hard-earned dollars from your wallet to those making less money. It's just another tax.
what global warming?
Econimic Suicid: I expect to see a lot of people losing their jobs and the last of our manufacturing industries moving off shore. I also expect to see cheap goods being imported into Australia by countries that have no such hang ups.
An ETS will do nothing except cost millions of dollars, send businesses offshore and increase the cost of living for "working families". People are already struggling with interest rates, groceries, petrol, rent/mortgages. Why implement a system which has failed in Europe and has done nothing to reduce emissions?
Do we really believe the government, who will reap billions of dollars in extra taxes/permits/levies,will distribute all that money back fairly to the Australian population? Whats wrong with giving incentives to net reducers of carbon outputs? The rest of the market place will rush to keep up with cheaper non polluting industries and utilities. The amount of difference Australia's efforts will make on a world scale is tiny compared to America
I may be personally a few dollars worse off every year, but I welcome the ETS, and I feel the Opposition is misguided to oppose it. Australia can't force China,India or any other "big polluter" to change, but we can set an example, and provide a template for others to follow if they want to save the planet for future generations.
Simple solution for simple minds. TTFC is on the right track Global Warming as a coverall for the parless state of our enviroment. It isn't simply CO2 it is much more than that its poluted water/disapearing water sources. A vanishing balance eco structure the consequences of which we don't yet know all the details. It's melting Artic ice its sea currents its diminishing food production areas. Its CO2 . The Carbon trading on its own is not enough. Giving exclusions,compensations simply means business as usual with nobs. We need a comprehensive suite of programs to move us to a more sustainable life style.
I am all for an emissions trading scheme, PROVIDING the taxes go 100% toward investing in new technology to find alternatives to oil and fossil fuels, and to improving public transport infrastructure.
I have to say that I am impressed by both A GUY WHO KNOWS FROM MELBOURNE and ROB FROM ACT, both of which are well educated and mature enough to talk so frankly on the present world issue of Global Warming, Peak Oil, Peak Energy, and the Population Bomb. The major fault in the Australian psyche is the lack of awareness of the issue of Global Warming. The problem, with this problem, really comes down to a total lack of understanding of what Global Warming actually means, and the fact that when scientists talk about C02, they are really talking about all of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere which trap heat. These gases include - water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, CFCs, SF6 and several more industrial gasses such as nitrogen trifluoride NF3 which is used in the manufacturing of the Plasma
I see Australia this way: people expect to be given too much here. If things cost too much they complain, yet they expect to maintain the status quo, which is clearly not possible. People expect to drive their cars and have cheap carbon based power, yet not have to spend billions on desalination plants due to cliamte change. People expect massive changes to be made to adapt to climate change, yet expect that their lives should not have to change. People expect to be able to damage the environment, yet not have to pay for it. People exepect to have big cheap houses yet not have to pay too much to drive a car. People in Australia expect and demand far more than our environment can deliver. I genuinely believe that many people in Australia are naive or quite simply stupid when it comes to the environment and what will happen and what we have to do to change things. The word stupid is intechangeable with dumb and uneducated. Australia sincerely needs to pull its head out of its @rse.