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a new face at the helm and former PM John Howard was ignominiously dumped, actually losing his parliamentary seat to glamorous media reporter, but rookie Laborite, Maxine McKew. Well done!

To acknowledge the support of the Greens and radical environmentalists, the PM Kevin Rudd this year attended an International Climate Change Conference in Bali and promised that Australia would ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This intention to ratify still has to have Federal government approval.

Hopefully nothing will come of this political move since the world economy has taken a major turn for the worse and there are far more real and important things to worry about than the Kyoto Protocol even if it had a grain of truth about it which it hasn't.

Our understanding of climate science has progressed significantly over the last 20 years leaving behind the Kyoto supporters awash in a sea of what can only be termed eco-religious nonsense.

For example, CO2 gas is NOT an atmospheric pollutant, nor has it been shown to cause global warming. In fact, it is a valuable nutrient for the biosphere and it would be beneficial to have more of it. Currently it amounts to a meager 385 ppm and appears to be increasing by 1 or 2 ppm each year. This is a good thing. Even a level of 500 ppm would be nice in the long term but probably unattainable since CO2 gas readily dissolves in sea water and the oceans cover 70% of the earth's surface.

Scare-mongers say the oceans will become acidic and dissolve up all the coral reefs and there will be an environmental catastrophe! Really! Sea water is alkaline with a pH of over 8 and it would take a gigantic amount of CO2 to change this. It acts as a global "buffer system". In the geologic past, vast amounts of carbonate (Ca & Mg) sediments have precipitated out when atmospheric CO2 levels were much higher, due to massive volcanism associated with mountain building.

Global warming is bad for us? Tell that to the Scandinavians, Russians and Canadians! A little more warmth there would be appreciated. Higher temperatures and more atmospheric CO2 would improve crop harvests. Right now we have a global food crisis and can't produce enough grain to feed the world. The foolishness of converting corn to ethanol is now becoming apparent. Unfortunately the observed global temperatures show no change since 1998 and the most likely prediction is global cooling for the next few decades. A decline into another Ice Age is an overdue possibility.

In summary, man-made CO2 emissions have little, if any, effect on global climate which is controlled by Nature. We can't stop earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis or hurricanes but we can study these natural events, and like climate change which is always with us, hope to reduce their catastrophic effect on mankind. Cutting CO2 emissions will do NOTHING beneficial to mankind or the environment. So let's stop getting hysterical about these nasty natural events that we can do nothing to prevent and start enjoying the unique privilege of living on a dynamic planet!

Ends

Learn more about this author, Allan Taylor.
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