More criticism of Australia’s policies
We are not the only ones to criticize the environmental and climate change mitigation policies of the Australian Federal Government of John Howard. Victor Mallet has an commentary in the FT, which says in part:
“Two arguments can be advanced as to why Australians should stop worrying about the environment. The first is that Australia is “green” enough, especially when compared with its pollution-ravaged neighbours in Asia.
This is an illusion, based on blue skies that are kept that way by Australia’s small and scattered population of 20m. On a per capita basis, Australia is a big polluter and by most measures the biggest producer of carbon dioxide among industrialised countries, largely because it burns coal to produce electricity and because low population density means greater transport distances and inefficient energy use.
The second argument is more pernicious. The anti-green brigade contends that Australia’s impact on the global environment is insignificant. The fate of the planet lies in the hands of the vastly more populous and polluting economies of China and India. Action by Australia is therefore futile.
Leave aside for a moment the fact that Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter - its customers could, after all, find other coal to burn.
Then consider the diplomacy. Australia is a vital US ally in Iraq not because its troops fight insurgents, but because the Australian presence allows Mr Bush to say he has allies in the conflict. The same is true of climate change and the environment.
Australia’s dismal record on green issues, along with its membership of the anti-Kyoto group known as the AP6, provides cover for the worst abusers of the global environment. Gao Guangsheng, director of China’s Climate Change Coordination Office, deftly played the Australia card at a recent climate change meeting, pointing out that if Australia had China’s population of 1.3bn it would be producing many times as much carbon dioxide as China does today.
Australia - its seas fished by pirates, its territory infested by alien animal and plant species, its soils over-exploited and poisoned by salt and its fresh water in short supply - should be the last country to provide excuses for other nations unwilling to change their behaviour for the good of the planet.”