| Six key
questions on Climate for Wendy Creighton (Liberal), as she has declined
to take part in a one-on-one filmed interview to answer them (though the
other candidates have agreed to take part personal interviews, at a time
and place of their choosing). These questions were emailed to Wendy
(and the other candidates), on Sunday 2nd September 2006 1. It's agreed that a 60% cut in Global greenhouse gases by 2050 is the absolute minimum to avoid catastrophic climate change (though many expert voices say even this is wildly low). And if you Google:- 60% emissions cut 2050 . . . you'll get hit in the face by the awesome evidence for that. And as, per capita, Aussies emit more CO2 than any other nation (making our example to the World crucial), by what amount do your party's policies aim to reduce our emissions by then, and can you point me in the direction of the independent, scientifically peer-reviewed evidence for that? ********************************************************************** 2. Have you heard of "Climate Tipping Points," and can I have your comments on this extremely dangerous phenomenon? And here's a clue, Google:- climate tipping points ********************************************************************** 3. Here's a quote from Wendy Creighton, Liberal candidate for Forde "The new climate change measures announced in this Budget take the Australian Government’s investment in climate change to $2.8 billion." Is it true that that this $2.8 billion will be spent over 25 years, and do you think it's potentially misleading not to mention that? ********************************************************************** 4. Sydney University estimates Australia spends around $8.9 billion dollars a year subsidising fossil fuels (which certainly puts spending $2.8 billion over 25 years on climate change into perspective). Here's their paper:- http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/publications/CR_2003_paper.pdf What's your response to that? ********************************************************************** 5. John Howard's new "Solar Cities Programme" (and Australia's only solar powered electricity station at Mildura), will offset about 476,000 tons of CO2 a year - as shown by this Government press release (April 2007), re "Solar Cities":- http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/env/2007/pubs/mr16apr07.pdf . . . and this ABC Lateline programme, re the Mildura Power Station (Oct 2006, quoting Peter Costello):- http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1773703.htm Whereas Australia's coal powered electricity stations produce about 170 million tonnes of CO2 a year:- http://www.wwf.org.au/news/n23/ . . . which means all of the CO2 saved by Australia's Solar Power (added up), only equals 0.28% of the CO2 spewed by coal in this country. What's your response to that? ********************************************************************** 6. The Chinese plan to install 60 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030:- "According to Li, China's goal to develop renewable energy is to increase its installed renewable energy generating capacity to 60 gigawatts by 2010, about 10 percent of the total power capacity, and 121 gigawatts by 2020, 12 percent of the total." http://www.china.org.cn/english/2004/Oct/110012.htm . . . and 60 gigawatts is more than Australia's entire electricity output. Do you think that proves you can run a modern economy on renewables?
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