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Should government policies mandate reductions in carbon dioxide emissions?

For me the issue here is not one of global awareness but one of freedom to act and yet another example of a reactive government unable to captain a growing culture of decisions informed by fear and the need to nullify all possible forms of risk.

Like some Big Brother swirling overhead, they swoop down with legislation after legislation in an effort to mould society into their ideal. It's like trying to lay carpet over a bed of weeds, and sooner or later the weeds will poke their heads out and grow up through the synthetic roof covering their heads.

Responsibility and the right to act in the way we as individuals consider right, has been forgotten by a democracy intent on forcing people to behave under criteria they have ordained as socially acceptable.

And as usual they plan to use a shovel to crack a walnut. Oxygen good, carbon dioxide bad - let's enforce a reduction in carbon dioxide. Never mind the concrete jungles they create as they rip up more trees to lay yet more miles of badly assembled and badly designed road surface. Never mind the fact that carbon dioxide has been present in our atmosphere since the dawn of time, and that 50 percent of it will be absorbed by the sea.

I find little faith in Government policies which have buckled the education system, crippled the health service, bound and gagged the police force and infringed our civil lilberties in a million tiny ways, all bearable on their own but together creating a tidal wave of legislation hanging over our necks like a millstone. Government mandates take this a step further, imposing strict requirements that must be met.

What will be the outcome for those who fail to meet the mandate? And who will have the final say on just how much carbon dioxide should be reduced? And who will advise the government on how exactly these emissions are to be reduced - a whole plethora of possibilities is opened up as to how things must change, and who must change, in order to meet these new criteria.

Perhaps the government might like to consider their own hand in the situation. Their 'traffic calming' endeavours, for example, and anti-car city procedures which are the cause of endless tailbacks and traffic jams as people who might happily be at home sipping tea are forced to move at a snail's pace, all the while pumping out Co2.

This is one small example: everyday in a thousand ways we are contributing to our global climate, and yes, the cumulative effect of those actions is immense - but now the Goverrnment is looking for ways to reduce the carbon dioxide and you can be sure that everyone's lifestyle is under threat. Who knows where they might strike first.

Of course we need to continue to act in the best interests of our earth, to recycle our waste, plant more trees, reduce pollution in rivers and the air and of course, consider carefully our part in the overproduction of carbon dioxide. Let's continue to debate, let's continue to act, and let's do it without an overbearing government breathing fire down our necks and ordering us all about.

Learn more about this author, Michael Swain.
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