Fantasy land with emissions
Updated: Jun 21, 2021
Greg Sheridan tells it how it is with emissions of CO2. Some of my best friends believe CO2 (and methane) are not creating global warming, and other friends think we are on the road to perdition.
If the latter view is correct, the world is busy in fantasy land.
Greg Sheridan
The Australian, 17 June 2021, P11. column one
The G7 nations, and other democratic nations like Australia are reducing emissions of allegedly nasty gasses. As the Aussie Prime minister keeps refusing a target ‘zero by 2050’ we are criticised, especially by clever people from the EU.
Mr Sheridan presents some highly relevant facts.
‘China alone accounts for more greenhouse emissions than the whole of the G7. The broad structure of emission growth and decline is that rich nations’ emissions are stable or declining, those in developing nations are rising. The US’s emissions have declined 15 per cent since 2005, Australia’s by 19 per cent.’
‘According to UN and World Resources Institute figures, between 2005 and 2018 China’s emissions increased by more than 70 per cent, India’s by just under 70 per cent, Indonesia’s by nearly 40 per cent’.
‘The future of global greenhouse emissions will not be determined by G7 countries but by developing countries, which have shown almost no interest in imposing any cost in their attempts to meet climate targets’.
There you have it, gentle readers. If my sceptical friends are right none of this will matter. If the climate worriers are right our children and grandchildren will face some awful dilemmas.
Thinking about the next two generations will, or should, mean a large dilemma for this generation. The latest pandemic is probably just the beginning. Rising greenhouse gas emissions go with other problems. Rising temperatures go with a rapidly growing world population and major losses of species.
Even if, through some miracle, the world gets industrial emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2050, world population with current ‘free for all’ policies will mean the human population will keep rising and many other species will disappear. Lack of attention to this issue is very likely to mean more pandemics as the planet fights to reduce excess people and their gassy emissions. I hope Greg Sheridan and other brave journalists will address this issue before long.
Kulture
Fiona Prior visits 'Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize'. More here.