David Suzuki warns on Australia’s fate if we ditch carbon pricing

Tony Abbott will doom future generations if he ditches carbon tax September 18, 2013 SMH, David Suzuki ”………..Half the coral on the Great Barrier Reef has disappeared in the past 27 years and its size could halve again in the next decade with degradation of the environment and the increasing frequency of cyclones.
Bushfires in Australia are getting more severe and more frequent. I see in Sydney you have already had your first fires barely a week into spring. And what has your new government done in response? As soon as Mr Abbott won power, he promised to wind back Australia’s recent efforts to combat global warming.
His promise to scrap the carbon tax, a tax which had been a timid step in the right direction, to close down your green energy bank and to reduce the rebates for buying solar panels, all send a terrible signal to your entrepreneurs and to the community.
And all of it is being done in the name of saving the economy.
But for more than 20 years the insurance industry has been telling us we have all been paying more for changes in the climate. Why aren’t we listening to the insurers, the hardest business heads of all?
I would have thought Australia would be leading the world in developing a new economy because climate change is going to devastate Australia.
Instead, mining magnates are manipulating the debate in Australia just like they are doing elsewhere. Like the tobacco industry before them, they have known for years that climate change is happening and that burning fossil fuels is at the heart of it. But to maximise their profits they have continued to sow misunderstanding and confusion, funding the sceptics to perpetrate the myth that global warming is junk science.
They should be ignored because there is no confusion in the scientific community about what’s happening to our planet and what the future holds unless we change the way we live.
A carbon tax is just one small step to encourage companies and individuals to reduce dumping rubbish into the atmosphere.
Don’t Australians pay to put their junk into landfill?
The consequences of dumping our junk in the atmosphere are far greater than leaving garbage in the streets so why don’t we limit it by making people pay to dump it? It’s the most basic lesson of economics. Anyone who understands and cares about the environment and economics will know ditching the carbon tax is not only crazy, it is absolutely suicidal.
David Suzuki is an award winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. He will speak at a City of Sydney City Talk on Tuesday, September 24, at City Recital Hall, Angel Place. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tony-abbott-will-doom-future-generations-if-he-ditches-carbon-tax-20130917-2tx0j.html#ixzz2fHLpA7ov