Carbon Tax Day

Above Us Only Sky.....

  • Homepage
  • Astronomy & Science
  • Current Affairs
  • Life in General
  • Sceptical Comment
  • Local Comment
  • About

Jul 1: Carbon Tax Day

Australia
The new Australian Carbon tax begins today, 1st July 2012.

We are now taxing Australia's most prolific polluters and the sky has not fallen. It is time for thinking people to move on. The question now ought to be: what action needs to be taken to reduce the impact of climate change? Are we on the right path with the Carbon Tax? Or are there better ways to deal with it?

Yet I still hear people complaining that they have no belief in global warming. Belief? It's not a religion, where you can choose your own personal version of unreality! It's science, where you deal with facts.  People may choose to have no belief in the facts - but that does not make them non-facts!

The science on global warming has already been settled. Climate scientists are telling us this, by a huge majority. Not just in Australia but world-wide.

One of the biggest problems in this long "debate" is that a mere 3% of climate scientists dissent from the mainstream view that climate change is of human origin. Why is that a problem? Because most media debates represent the issue on a "50-50" basis and gives a "balanced" view of both arguments. That is not balanced debating, that is grossly skewing it in favour of the conspiracy theorists. That is why the solid conclusions of informed professional scientists, based on decades of collected data, are disbelieved by a large proportion of the public. The crackpot alternative was given equal time and gained support because of it. 

As a non-scientist, I cannot base my belief on direct personal examination of the data, so I do what I do in other branches of science. I accept the mainstream argument as being the best current explanation. I accept the science but I will adjust my view on climate change if the current 97% support of climate scientists drops to 49%.

It astonishes me that people will go along to listen to astronomers talk and accept every word without question, yet many of them refuse to believe a single word a climate scientist says! Yet they both use the scientific method. They both gather data and analyse it. They both then produce a model based on the analysis and if it compares favourably with the evidence then that becomes the accepted model. Yet an astronomer is believed whilst a climate scientist is branded a liar. It's a contradictory position which makes no sense. When belief in science depends on whether Alan Jones pronounces if he agrees with it or not, then we are heading back to the stone age.

The public should make up their minds whether to accept the mainstream scientific method or go follow the Alan Jones "Hillbilly" method, which is to loudly shoot down honest scientists on talk-back radio because he doesn't like what they say; and convince his audience it is a scientific conspiracy.

If you don't like Labor's Carbon Tax, then come up with a better solution to climate change and I'll listen. However, not liking a tax is no reason to disbelieve the science behind it.

As a Liberal supporter, I have been waiting for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to come up with a coherent climate change policy. Embarrassingly, he hasn't, because he just sees this issue as his passport to The Lodge. 

People also deny climate science because they are not attracted to the cost of the solution. They don't want to pay for it. As I have continually said, we ignore scientists at our peril and anyone who believes we can solve climate change at no cost is kidding themselves.



Posted by roger in Australia

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

No comments


The author does not allow comments to this entry

Above us only sky...

The glory of the 'heavens' above us are real, their starry splendour is visible to those who look up; but the glory of 'Heaven' is a sad delusion of human minds.
This is the personal blog site of an atheist astronomer.

Wise words

"Praying is like picking up the telephone and talking to the dial-tone. There's no-one at the other end to heed what you have to say."
Roger Powell

Categories

  • XML ABOUT (3)
  • XML ASTRONOMY & SCIENCE
  • XML Astro Forum: MAS (31)
  • XML Astronomers (5)
  • XML Astronomy (56)
  • XML Camera & tripod (41)
  • XML Citizen Science (9)
  • XML Climate Change (10)
  • XML Cosmology (5)
  • XML Dharawal (2)
  • XML Extra-terrestrials (11)
  • XML Lightning (5)
  • XML LX-90 Notes (11)
  • XML Polar Aligning (5)
  • XML Science (2)
  • XML CAMPBELLTOWN
  • XML Bigot watch (12)
  • XML Campbelltown Comment (13)
  • XML CURRENT AFFAIRS
  • XML Australia (33)
  • XML Human rights (2)
  • XML International (7)
  • XML Same-Sex Marriage (22)
  • XML LIFE
  • XML Football (13)
  • XML Life at work (6)
  • XML Life in general (24)
  • XML Life in the Sixties (3)
  • XML Life under the knife (4)
  • XML Photography (7)
  • XML What cheeses me off (10)
  • XML SCEPTICAL
  • XML Baloney watch (7)
  • XML Clear thinking (27)
  • XML Decline of Religion (28)
  • XML Ethics (11)
  • XML God delusions (40)
  • XML Vatican watch (26)

All categories

Syndicate This Blog

  • XML RSS 0.91 feed
  • XML RSS 1.0 feed
  • XML RSS 2.0 feed
  • ATOM/XML ATOM 1.0 feed
  • XML RSS 2.0 Comments

Blog Administration

Open login screen
 

Layout by Andreas Viklund | Serendipity template by Carl