I would like to reply, point by point, to Brian Panisset’s letter about the tax on Carbon pollution in the Independent 21 July 2011.
Mr Panisset says China and India are doing nothing about climate change. This is not so. It is true that China is still building coal burners but it is also investing hugely in solar technology and a former NSW solar expert is now making pots of money in China because Australia ignored the potential of his ideas.  China and India are catching up on our way of life and, as Malcolm Turnbull says, it’s a moral question that western countries need to put effort into combating climate change as we are the countries that created the problem.
Mr Panisset says that the tax will hurt Australian businesses. On the contrary, Treasury analysis shows that the CT/ETS will affect businesses less than the imposition of the GST. And there are many opportunities created by the CT/ETS as the economy steers towards sustainable technologies.
Mr Panisset says that we’re experiencing global cooling right now. In geological time we may be in a cooling phase, but the polar ice sheets and glaciers are melting; sea levels are rising; extreme weather events are occuring. Conclusion — the earth is NOT cooling.
Mr Panisset says that volcano eruptions put huge amounts more carbon in the air than humans. No — if you look at the data, volcanic eruptions are a mere blip in comparison to human generation of carbon particles in the air.
Mr Panisset says that the Federal Government is mathematically incompetent. That can’t be true — we’re the envy of the world, we hardly noticed the GFC, our national debt is miniscule (especially in comparison to Japan, USA, Italy, Greece, etc) and our economy has a sound basis, particularly with the acknowledgement that the costs of carbon pollution have to be factored in.
Mr Panisset seems to think that there is no evidence for human-induced climate change. Then how come every country’s Academy of Science (UK, USA, France, Germany, Russia, NZ, Australia, India, China, etc) accept that there is overwhelming evidence?
Mr Panisset says that we are hurting our children’s future with a CT/ETS. The opposite is true. For barely any pain at all, less than the GST, we need to safeguard our planet by controlling carbon emissions for our children’s sake.
Finally, Mr Panisset says that we need to see “reliable evidence devoid of self-interest and rent seeking”. This I do agree with. So I discount the evidence of Barnaby Joyce’s so-called expert, Dr David Archibald, who stood up at the anti-Carbon rally at Town Green a few weeks ago. If you google Dr David Archibald you will find that he is the “CEO of many oil and mineral exploration companies”. What was that again about self-interest and rent seeking?
Ms Drusilla Megget
