"When Gore convinces America, Howard will agree" says Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald has accepted the "Carbon Credits Domino Theory" first formulated by the Carbon Coalition months ago on this blog. "Nothing will change here until Gore manages to convert enough Americans to change US policy. Then our Prime Minister may be converted, as he was for nuclear power after his last trip to the ranch," says Professor Barry J. Allenin today's Herald. The Professor contradicts many of the assertions made by PM Howard to fillibuster his way past global warming issues, such as the fact that the dispute about whether global warming is man-made exists only in the media, not among scientists. Only the US and Australia, of all the Western countries, did not sign the Kyoto Protocol. Arguments for this were that China and India would not do so and carbon credits were a tax that would destroy the economy. "Last week the true impact of carbon credits became evident," he reports. "European companies are gaining carbon credits by funding the reduction of emissions in China. How about that: Kyoto leading to a reduction of emissions from the future major contributor to global warming?"

Like arguing over the cost of life boats on the Titanic, the Prime Minister's arguments about the impact on the economy of a carbon trading regime are hard to justify. Corporate Australia is coming to grips with the likely economic damage that will follow extreme weather events, such as cities running out of water, deeper, longer droughts in productive rural areas, electrical storms, cyclones, and rising sea levels invading coastal business and residential precincts, including CBDs of cities like Sydney. The PM will be safely out of Kirribilli House by then.