The Australian Carbon Tax Debate

I really don’t know what the fuss is about! Doing the same as we have always done may have been the only course of action when the world was younger and the population a great deal less than today, but this is far from the ideal today.

The three imperatives for sustainable life (of any type) are clean air, clean soil and clean water. Without these three – all three at the same time – life as we know it could not exist. It is much cheaper and easier to be proactive and prevent a dire situation rather than be reactive and try to correct an already dire situation.

I know that there have been hotter and colder periods of the Earth’s geological history and that these episodes may be cyclical. But I also know that at no time in our geological history have there been so many humans on earth pumping out so much pollution whilst simultaneously plundering the very means whereby the Earth regenerates itself. The chemicals, the toxic waste – air borne, water borne and lodged in the soil - that we human’s generate reduces the earth’s capacity to absorb the pollutants. These pollutants also have a deleterious effect on the life of us humans – the very people who are causing the problem in the first place by affecting our own health (lung cancer for one) the food we eat (the animals and plants) in ways yet to be determined. I suppose there is some poetic justice in this, unpleasant though idea may be.

This plundering of the Earth’s resources (in the name of economic necessity) and this continual generating pollution (also in the name of economic necessity) must be reduced. It cannot continue unabated. People will never do this voluntarily (there is too much money involved) so they have to be forced to change their ways, and taxation is the most effective way of doing this.

I for one have no objection in paying this tax. For those that may be interested I also support the so called “Mining Tax” as a means of providing a fund to keep Australia going when we have no more iron ore, or oil, or rare earth minerals to sustain our, expected, standard of living (and to pay for filling in the huge holes left in the ground by the miners).

The status quo is not a viable option. The Earth will still be around for millions of years – I am not sure about us, at least not in the form we are familiar with.