What will it take to get action on Climate Change

A friend has pointed this newsletter out to me which is an enormous source of information on environmental issues - particularly climate change.

In the latest issue, it states that yet another report on climate change reveals our dire future. Consider the following:

[The report] further projects the following outcomes:

• Temperatures may rise by 3.5 degrees if industrial emissions output continues at the current rate
• Rates of sea level rising may increase rapidly, owing to the sudden loss of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica
• Alpine zones will be drastically affected, inducing a steep drop in snowfall
• World hunger and human displacement will continue at an unprecedented rate as sea levels rise, an additional 200 to 600 million people will be suffering from malnutrition.
• By 2080, between 1.1 billion and 3.2 billion people will be suffering from water scarcity problems.

The newsletter mentions the specific references to Australia:

The report also contains a chapter on Australia, detailing the expected occurrence of coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef on a large scale by 2030. Additionally, the draft IPCC report estimates the cost to agriculture in the Murray Darling Basin at $780 million to $1.17 billion as salinity continues to wreak havoc on the agricultural industry.

Yes I know, yet another report. Many of us are aware of impending disaster, even if we didn't know the detail.

What has been the response? Well take this laughable response from NSW Premier Iemma: lets call a summit! Another summit is just another excuse for the State and Federal Governments to create a media stunt to show they are trying to do something. We don't need summits we need political strength to make immediate policy decisions, announce them and implement them.