Settling for failure

Age
13 May 2011, Page: 10

IT'S becoming apparent the government "aspires" to a weak emissions reduction target, but will settle for complete failure ("Baillieu: carbon goal aspirational", theage.com, au, 12/5). The government tried to frame its cop out over the partial closure of Hazelwood (one of the most emissions intensive power stations in the world) in the rhetoric of economic responsibility.

The truth is that we are perilously close to points of no return in our climate system, and real economic responsibility can only now be achieved in conjunction with urgent action to combat climate change. Leading climate scientists are telling us that the world is resolutely on the path to 4° of warming in the latter half of this century enough to trigger a mass extinction and reduce Earth's carrying capacity to less than 1 billion people.

So what is our government doing to confront this crisis? Committing $50 million to HRL's proposed coal power station, trying to dismantle our nascent wind power industry, and now abandoning its commitment to reduce reliance on our dirtiest source of electricity. They are not fit to govern.

Shaun Murray, Yarraville