Penny's Carbon White Paper

Today our government released it’s *White Paper* on Climate Change and the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) - why?

Because the planet is warming and we need to deal with it – pronto.

I haven’t yet read it all – because they have released 32 files and nearly 8 Mb of verbose content but my preliminary view is that it is either a bureaucrats dream or nightmare – there is an enormous amount of stuff there that seems designed to *obfuscate*.

In severe contrast with the Garnaut report – this one is full of stuff that I already know – or can’t understand. Whoever wrote this is a deft hand at producing content that seems designed to confuse.

Much of what I have read today is just a regurgitation of the problem and the need to act decisively with some detail about what has already been done/agreed. The Executive Summary alone is 35 pages of verbosity. Where is the new stuff Penny?

My initial impression is that much of this is a *marketing exercise* - with two key objectives.

1. To get the "deniers, nay-sayers and The Australian" on-side – a puny reduction is what the vocal anti lobby have been on-about and this delivers for them. Chris Mitchell should have a glowing "Editorial" in The Australian tomorrow. His vocal supporters in the business lobby will be jumping for joy at the crappy little attempt at mitigation. They can keep on pumping out *greenhouse gases* to their hearts’ content. No cost – no penalty and no need for change - all that lobbying seems to have worked.

2. The verbosity is also designed to obfuscate with those folks who have an understanding of the real problem and who want to see some real action. These people know that we can’t delay because there is no *PlanetB*. But it won’t work with this group who are already feeling frustrated by the delays of the past decade.

It amazes me that the first group don’t *get* the urgency to act. They view climate change as yet another *thing* that needs to be negotiated in order to get a competitive advantage over others. They haven’t yet worked it all out.

And frankly, I am over the BS that is put about by these turkeys – if they aren’t smart enough to realize that we need to act now then that is their problem – I am building a personal *mitigation plan and process* - designed to help me and my immediate family and friends get through the effects of a *post 450 ppm* world.

When we get there and these turkeys realize that they are seriously exposed – then they can *sit and burn* for as long as they like – the rest of us will be elsewhere.