Global Warming

Apologies for the lack of posting yesterday, but I had the day off yesterday with the dreaded lurgy which continues to make my life a misery.  Ever since from returning from leave last week, I have been running like a tap and it escalated yesterday with sinus headaches and a bad dry cough.  So I took the day off and it has done nothing for me but make me stressed about the things that are going on at work.  So I am heading in despite the cough and headaches and blowing my nose continuously…

But what I want to write about is the whole debate on the environment.  I am all for the current initiatives that have been taken up by various media groups and the world renowned scientist David Suzuki continues to push the agenda and I think its probably the #1 issue in the world today.  But at the same time I cant help but think its all to late and the damage has been done.  I can recall David Suzuki being interviewed when I was a kid about the dangers the world faced and he was ridiculed.  Even today, John Howard has basically denied it as an issue and only when it starts to become a national issue that may have some impact on the election results, does he make positive statements.

I watched Channel 7 Sunrise this morning and they regularly have Liberal MP Joe Hockey and Labor MP Phillip Rudd on for a debate.  Now these two guys I actually have a lot of respect for.  Both of them would make great leaders for their respective parties and for me to say that given my left wing leanings of Joe Hockey, that’s probably the best compliment I can ever give a Liberal politician.  But Joe Hockey was there defending the indefensible and he knew it.

Do you know what the Liberal Party has done to relieve the issue of Global Warming?  They have since 2000 given a $4000 rebate to home owners should they take up solar energy in their homes.  Converting a house to solar energy by the way costs $15,000 so it still requires the average home owner to fork out $11,000.  What home owner has that laying around?  Where is the return on investment for the average punter?  And Hockey’s proposed alternate solution is to invite concerned citizens to plant a tree in the bush to assist with reforestation.

All fine initiatives at the local level, but surely a federal government should be looking at the bigger picture?  Desalinisation plants, nuclear energy, large scale infrastructure schemes to assist in transporting water to areas that require it – large cities and rural farmlands.  These are the things that are required.  Let the local green groups worry about “planting a tree” style initiatives.  The government needs to act on a larger scale and not get caught up in small householder stuff.  But we cant do that because we’re pumping cash into things like Iraq and the War On Terror™ and don’t have a dollar to spare…