Postby M. Henri Day » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:11 pm
In reading Professor McKibbin's interesting paper, I was reminded of Voltaire's observation to the effect that «le mieux est l'ennemie du bien». One «sensible» approach might be for the Australian government to implement his ideas domestically (making its own decisions regarding the costs of long-term and short-term permits, as no international agreements exist here) now and, in 2012, the terminus of Kyoto Protocol, compare the results obtained in controlling the rise in carbon emissions nationally with the target set for that country under the Protocol (I speak here of «controlling the rise in» carbon emissions rather then of «reducing» them, as the goal set for Australia in the Protocol was a level of emission some 1.08 times those emitted in 1990). Doing so would demonstrate the sincerity of the Australian government in dealing with the problem of carbon emissions (which Professor McKibben regards as necessary), and in the event that emissions in 2012 under this regime in fact proved to be less than those envisaged under the Protocol, the argument for constructing a successor to the latter along the lines advocated by Professor McKibben would be very strong indeed. If, however, Mr Howard's government merely uses these ideas (or others) to point out the imperfections in the Kyoto Protocol, without taking any serious steps to curb emissions, then cynical persons like myself might be excused if we suspect that that government was motivated by another agenda than the common weal of the people of Australia and the world....
Henri
曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟？
