www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=59547As a parent of young children, I’m horrified by the story of Rachel & the Gladstone stingers, & also am loathe to hijack her story. But still, I see this as a symptom of a bigger picture.
In the 1980’s in Bowen, way up north, there were signs erected warning of the dangers of marine stingers, although it was a rare occurrence for people to actually come in contact with them. Over the years the stingers, the cane toads, the crocs, have slowly but surely been migrating further south with each new year. Marine stingers would have been unheard of in Gladstone in years past. Yet we brush these facts off as just peculiar events. The reason is that our climate is changing. Historically evolution has been natures way of coping with a changing climate. Living things have, over time, changed in response to there changing environment. But never in the history of our planet has our climate been subjected to such a sudden shock as it is at the moment, and the fact is that evolution is struggling to cope. There will be winners and losers but species are dying out faster than ever before, & that is surely bad for our ecosystems.
Other countries have moved on from the debate of whether humans are responsible for this rapid change, and are taking steps to attempt to limit our impact. Australia’s fossil fuel industry is worth billions to our economy each year. It has immense power, a massive war chest & a strong interest in maintaining it’s income stream. Likewise, of all the “Renewables” talk you read about of other countries, Iraq doesn’t rate a mention either.
The Greenies have already given up on their preffered target of 250 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere limit as being unachievable, & their new target of 450 ppm in no way assures that we can avoid catastrophic climate change.
I'm not a "Greenie" but I am very concerned, listening to the "Respected" environmental scientists. I work in the fossil fuel industry. The coal fired power station in which I work consumes 25000 tonne of fuel per day. Can you imagine how big a pile 25000 tonne is. Every day. In China they are commissioning a similar sized coal fired power station to this every single week. Newcastle Australia is the largest coal exporting port in the world. Over the next few years they plan to double it’s capacity. In the Hunter Valley the open cut mines have become so vast the mining companies don’t even bother trying to hide them behind tree barriers or earth mounds any more as it’s just become pointless.
I feel for Rachel & her family, but I worry for us all.
Colin
