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Australia Sabotages Copenhagen By Excluding Huge Agriculture GHG Emissions

By Dr Gideon Polya

17 November, 2009
Countercurrents.org

Australia is a world leading greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter as shown by the following data. As of 2008, “annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” in units of “tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year” (2005-2008 data) is 0.9 (Bangladesh), 0.9 (Pakistan), 2.2 (India), 3.2 (the Developing World), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (the World), 11 (Europe), 16 (the Developed World), 27 (the US) and 30 (Australia; or 54 if Australia’s huge Exported CO2 pollution is included (see Wikipedia, “List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_
gas_emissions_per_capita
and Gideon Polya, “Climate justice & climate injustice: Australia wants a 2020 per capita GHG pollution 15 times greater than Developing World’s”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group, 2009: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalley
climateactiongroup/climate-justice
).

However Australia is also the World’s leading coal exporter and 92% of its electricity comes from the combustion of fossil fuels (mainly brown coal and black coal). Accordingly, in assessing its carbon footprint egregiously dishonest, climate criminal Australia utterly ignores GHG pollution from its huge coal and liquid natural gas (LNG) exports (similar in magnitude to its domestic GHG pollution).

The Rudd Labor Government was elected in 2007 in a big electoral response to the anti-worker, anti-humanitarian and anti-environment policies of the extreme right wing, pro-war, pro-coal, Liberal Party-National Party Coalition Government that had been in power for a stultifying 12 years. Unfortunately, the Rudd-led Labor Party grossly deceived the voters – the Rudd Labor Government is essentially just as extreme right wing, pro-war, pro-coal, and anti-environment as the Coalition.

Rudd Labor was elected on a promise to “tackle climate change” but after signing the Kyoto Protocol in December 2007 (10 years late) it helped the US (the stand-out non-ratifier of the Kyoto Protocol) to sabotage the Bali Climate Change Conference (December 2007) and then the Poznan Climate Change Conference (December 2008) by refusing to commit to targets.

Rudd Labor stalled any action in Australia by appointing an economist, Professor Ross Garnaut, to spend nearly a year investigating what is essentially a scientific problem of how too deal with man-made climate change. After a further year of politicking it has yet to gets its proposed Cap-and-Trade Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) through Parliament.

The Rudd Labor ETS is dishonestly called the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) – whereas in reality it is estimated that Australia’s GHG pollution will INCREASE under the CPRS policies.

The ethical, pro-environment Australian Greens object to the CPRS (ETS) as a fraudulent and ineffective scam that auctions GHG pollution permits and then returns most of the money right back to the worst polluters. In contrast , within the Liberal-National Party Coalition Opposition most MPs are climate change denialists and the Coalition wants the ETS watered down even further before they will agree to it.

The Coalition have now got part of their wish – the Government has capitulated by agreeing to permanently exclude agricultural GHG emissions from the ETS. However this makes the ETS an utterly toothless tiger. The Cap on emissions is consequently impossibly low because it will now exclude from consideration the biggest Australian domestic source of GHG pollution, agriculture, which is responsible for over 50% of domestic emissions, while also ignoring Australia’s huge exported GHG pollution in the form of coal and LNG exports.

This latest decision of the Rudd Labor Government means that world leading per capita GHG polluter Australia is telling the World a few weeks before the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference that it will continue to pollute the atmosphere with GHGs domestically at more than 50% of its current level FOREVER, while continuing to expand its world leading coal exports.

Having already helped the US sabotage the 2007 Bali Climate Change Conference and the 2008 Poznan Climate Change Conference, US lackey, climate criminal and war criminal Australia has now also effectively sabotaged the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference a few weeks before it has even begun.

Readers must appreciate the horrendous downstream consequences of this Australian sabotage of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. Top UK climate scientist Dr James Lovelock has estimated that fewer than 1 billion human beings will survive the century due to unaddressed man-made global warming. This dire prediction means a Climate Genocide in which 10 billion non-Europeans will die avoidably this century, this carnage including about 6 billion infants, 3 billion Muslims, 2 billion Indians, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis. Further, the species extinction rate is already 100-1,000 times greater than before the 20th century – political inaction will mean destruction of much of the Biosphere (the ecosystems and species of the world).

The following letter has been variously sent to Australian media and MPs re the fraudulent Labor ETS proposal that is now frankly ecocidal and genocidal – adopted globally it would destroy most of Humanity and the Biosphere. Any MP who supports this ecocidal and genocidal ETS fraud will face an indignant electorate informed by 300.org and over 140 other climate action groups in 2010.

LETTER.

According to The Age (16/11): "The Government will permanently exclude agricultural [greenhouse gas, GHG] emissions and give farmers access to credits for good farming practices such as tree planting." [1].

According to World Bank Group environmental experts the world annual GHG pollution is 50% bigger than previously thought and the annual livestock GHG contribution is over 51% of the world total. [2].

The Australian Labor Government is thus committing to permanently ignoring over 50% of Australia's huge domestic GHG emissions.

This represents a monumental betrayal of Labor voters, Australia, Humanity and the Biosphere by the pro-coal Australian Labor Government.

Australia is a world leader in annual per capita GHG pollution with a domestic plus exported value 10 times the world’s annual per capita GHG pollution, 25 times India’s, 20 times the Developing World’s and 60 times that of Bangladesh. [3].

However the 2 major Australian parties (the Liberal-National Party Coalition and the Labor Party, collectively known as the Lib-Labs) are telling the world several weeks before Copenhagen that Australia will keep polluting domestically forever at more than 50% of the current level in addition to expanding Australia’s world-leading coal exports - betrayal, climate genocide, ecocide and terracide. [4].

Yours sincerely,

Dr Gideon Polya, Convenor 300.org (see: http://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/Home ), Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria 3085, Australia (telephone day & night: 03 9459 3649).

[1]. Katharine Murphy & Michelle Grattan, “Rudd bows to pressure on emissions deal”, The Age, 16 November 2009:.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/rudd-bows-to-
pressure-on-emissions-deal-20091115-igej.html
.

[2]. "Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, “ Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are …cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November-December 2009: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294 .

[3]. Gideon Polya, “Climate justice & climate injustice: Australia wants a 2020 per capita GHG pollution 15 times greater than Developing World’s”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group, 2009:
http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalley
climateactiongroup/climate-justice
.

[4]. Gideon Polya, “Man-made global warming. Is it too late to stop climate catastrophe?”, MWC News, 13 November 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/34410/42/ .

END LETTER.

What can decent people around the World do about this blatant, in-your-face, dog-in-the-manger refusal of climate criminal Apartheid Australia to stop polluting the common atmosphere of all peoples? The only thing that climate criminal Australia understands is money and legal action and accordingly one hopes Australia will be forced to respond positively to internationally-imposed Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs, Reparations demands and Climate Genocide prosecutions before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003: http://www.amazon.com/Biochemical-Targets-Plant-Bioactive-Compounds/dp/0415308291 ). He has recently published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ and http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya) and an updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History, Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2008: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ). He is currently teaching Biochemistry theory and practical courses to second year university agricultural science students at a very good Australian university.

 


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