February 9, 2007
Flannery Frustrated
Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, was clearly frustrated. He was being interviewed by Adam Spencer on ABC Radio this morning following last night's debate about Climate Change on the 7:30 Report between Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Garrett.
In Flannery's opinion, Kerry O'Brien had asked the crucial question of the Environment Minister and Labor's Environment Spokesman: "What is your core response to tackle the root causes of greenhouse emissions?"
To me Turnbull was advocating an inadequate revised view. Sure, the Howard Government now - finally - acknowledges that climate change is real. But I don't agree with their nuclear solution. It will take too long and the associated risks are too great. I felt that Garrett was very much curtailed by his party (I wonder if he still sings those provocative Midnight Oil lyrics in private). As Tim Flannery said this morning, he expressed an "aspirational vision" but there was no policy. It's all very well to set a target of reducing emissions by 50% but what should the government be doing to enable that to happen?
What has frustrated me about the public Climate Change debate in Australia in recent months is the almost complete absence of serious consideration of the potential of solar power. Turnbull continually writes it off as a limited, small-scale solution. So I was delighted to hear Tim Flannery this morning express the view that it is possible to develop technology that will enable us to transform the power provided by the sun into electricity to power a city.
I hope that Tim Flannery continues to use his time as Australian of the Year to advocate sensible solutions to this global problem. It's about time the Australian federal government got serious and invested substantially in developing solar power technology.
Posted to Environment, Politics by Keith Pitty