Wizz-bang economist Ross Garnaut, the erstwhile hero of the "Climate Change with Market Trimmings" set, has just released his recommended emissions reductions targets for Australia. Actually, to be honest, he has just avoided the issue entirely, and promised Business As Usual.
So, what has Garnaut (author of the 548-page tome of eye-shrivelling economic "analysis" of the impact of climate change on Australia) recommended? A reduction of 10% by 2020!!!!! (The pdf is available from here).
That's right! Only TEN MEASLY PERCENT in emissions reductions in 12 years, setting an initial carbon price at $20/tonne of Co2!
The wombats are gobsmacked. We read the entire bloody object several times, as well as the similarly-sized Green Paper produced by the Commonwealth Government, and we are highly critical of those, for failing to even come close to recommending adequate action on climate change. For instance, this ludicrous belief that somehow 550ppm of CO2 is in any way livable (despite the science clearly showing otherwise).
But Garnaut's latest recommendation is a smack in the face to even those most willing to buy his lie - that business and the free market - can save the world from disaster. After the initial sounds were made about climate change being a "diabolical problem" and such-like, the business sector (AiG, BCA, the big mining companies) all started to whine and weedle about the damage to the Australia economy it would all cause - not least becasue many of these villains threatened to bugger off overseas with their capital unless....
And this was after Rudd had promised to hand out billions of dollars in sweeteners to the big polluters for their doing absolutely nothing.
At the moment it seems like the air itself is almost dripping with fear and dread at what the next concessions the muppets and puppets in boardrooms and parliaments around the country are going to trot out and shove down our necks. Already in view - Garnaut jaunting around the global circuit, recommending to the world how to pretend to stop global warming while actually fattening the corporate pigs at the public trough.
I think Bernard Keane at Crikey has it when they say that Garnaut's targets are so low, the sea level will rise above it in one year.
When it comes to it, this is just further proof that capitalism, its market, and it's tools and playthings in government, are incapable of solving the crisis that they have created. No contest. We face a choice - ecosocialism or barbarism.
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