10/07/2008, David Barnett:
If Australia wants to cut its production of greenhouse gas there are two measures open to a government with a bit of guts. We can go nuclear, and call a halt to immigration ...I won't wade into the energy debate, but I agree that our environment and cities cannot support the current population. So further increase of population from immigration should stopped.
... our production of CO2 is on an upward trend, while in the rest of the world it is down. Why? Because our rate of population growth is three times greater than the global rate of growth. Ross Garnaut gives us that evidence, but skirts the implications, preferring to plump for taxation through an emissions trading scheme ...
We could instead end immigration, which brings in people from countries with low living standards to one where their contribution to atmospheric gases must be greater. This would be immediately effective ...
There is no water in the rivers because we have increased the population five- or sixfold in my lifetime, way beyond the capacity of the world's driest continent.
Those are my conclusions from Garnaut's evidence. They won't ruin anybody. Furthermore, they will still work to the nation's benefit even if the greenhouse effect turns out not to exist, or not to exist in a significant manner.
The air will be cleaner and electric cars, charged overnight in the garage, will make sense. Our cities will cease becoming more and more miserable every year. Hot water will be free ...
We must face the fact that the days of mass immigration are over, and we must face the facts about power generation. Coal pollutes the air. Uranium does not.
David Barnett is a Canberra writer.
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