Simple errors in carbon debate
letter published in The Australian, 31 December 2009
[square bracketed
sections omitted by Ed]
Your editorial about the implications of the Copenhagen fiasco (30/12) displays confusion.
It is suggested that “the countries that produce the pollution ... will now work among themselves on ways to reduce it”. Yet the one thing that is clear from the Copenhagen discussions [-there was no debate -] is that [two major emitters] China and India will not agree to binding emissions targets and [another major emitter] the US is very unlikely to legislate such a target.
[You do rightly say that for Australia “to exceed what other countries put on the table would be ... idiotic”. But this must surely imply a zero target.]
You also wrongly claim that “public opinion all over the world has decided global warming caused by greenhouse gases is a problem”. With continued cooling, there is growing scepticism about this and that will increase once the full extent of [warming] “adjustments” to temperatures by advisers to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is revealed.
[Before any decisions are made by Australia there must be a proper independent investigation of the methodology being used by the researchers used by the IPCC in calculating temperatures.]
Yours faithfully
Des Moore
Director, Institute for Private Enterprise
South Yarra, Vic