Global Warming Growing

Global warming appears to be on everyone’s minds lately, and rightly so. From scientists telling us the world is going to end, to the prime minister saying it’s all just rubbish, it seems everyone wants to put their two cents in. We are well aware of the threat of polar ice caps melting, and we know the ocean is going to rise as a result, but are we willing to do our bit to stop it from happening? We like our air conditioners and our fridges; they are much too convenient to dispose of. And don’t event think about ridding the world of cars, we are much too busy for that. The rising climate is somebody else’s problem not our own. Well the fact is, we’re wrong. It is our problem. Yours and mine. The world is suffering at the hands of our mistakes and we are too proud to admit it.

The UN have recently implemented the Kyoto Protocol calling for all countries of the world to commit to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, or at least partake in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. The Kyoto Protocol now includes more than 160 countries globally and yet, Australia and the United States have signed, but currently, refuse to ratify it.

There is evidence all around us to prove that global warming is here and affecting us already. We are facing drought worse than we’ve ever seen before and yet, we refuse to admit there is a problem. Global warming has Victorians facing worse bushfire conditions than those that resulted in the horrific Ash Wednesday infernos of 1993. And as if that wasn’t quite enough, Victoria just had the hottest October in 92 years, but, there are no worries here. We can push Mother Nature a little further and continue to eject hundreds of tons of emissions into the air with no apparent shortcomings for a few more years at least. If you can’t see something it’s not real, isn’t that how things work? Out of sight, out of mind. If we can’t see the hole in the ozone layer, and the ice melting it’s not really our problem.

UN figures show that Australia’s emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest per capita in the western world, apart from the tiny Luxembourg. They have grown by 1.5 tonnes a head since only 1990 and in 2004, Australia’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases almost equaled that of France and Italy combined, which have three times our population.

Every day Australia pumps out 72.5 kilograms of greenhouse gases per head. That means every day, Australia sends up greenhouse gases almost matching the body of it’s people. Not bad for a nation currently in an obesity epidemic! We should really be congratulating ourselves; finally we have become the best at something. We are no longer standing in the shadows. We earned our place at number one. The spread of Australian cities, cheap petrol and fuel inefficient cars have resulted in our transport emissions being particularly high. We also have one of the world’s highest populations of cows per head, which gives us spectacularly high emissions of methane, which cows burp out endlessly. Not really our fault that the world is ending now is it? We can all sleep easy with this and any number of other scapegoats we have convinced ourselves are at fault.

As the world’s second highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gas we should have been the first country in line to sign the Kyoto Protocol. We should not be dawdling and loitering in the back. Globally we need to commit and show other nations we are serious about this problem. Nationally, something has to be doe about the current trend that is our gas emissions. Higher taxes for large contributors perhaps? Or more concentration on finding friendlier sources of energy. Whatever the solution, it needs to be found soon because Australia and the rest of the world cannot continue along this path. Something beyond talk and debate is needed to fix this planet that we have destroyed.