For too long as a country we have been ignoring the issue of our pollution of our natural environment.
We have, as a people, failed to consider the acidification of our rain, failed to consider the increasing soil salinity, turning some of our most productive farmland into dustbowls and failed to consider the loss of our endangered species.
We have become increasingly aware of environmental problems since the 1970s but we keep on pretending that this is all oh so new to us and that we don’t really know what is going to happen.
In 2007 there was consensus between all parties and for three years we all seemed to agree that the best way to deal with the damage we were making to our environment was with the introduction of an ETS.
Since Abbott became Opposition leader, he has been using the same smoke and mirror campaign as the tobacco industry to try and stop us taking any action. As a country we rejected his direct action con job and elected the Labor Party and the Greens to do what needed to be done to save our country from a desolate future.
I look forward with interest to see the details of the new carbon trading program which has now been announced and hope that this is the first step in a rational considered approach to saving our environment.
It is the best hope we have, not just for our children but our grandchildren as well.
W Peterson,
Banora Point
