Rudd’s ETS more poisonous than a cane toad

At least one is believed to have caused the extinction of a native animal in one locality, and by the time you have finished reading this article hundreds of small furry, slimy and unique critters will have died. (they will still die even if you stop reading the yarn …)

The cane toad is poisonous in all its life stages, from egg to adult. Adult cane toads produce poison from glands over their upper surface, but especially from bulging glands on their shoulders when the toad is provoked. Almost anything that eats one dies rapidly from heart failure. (source: Dept of Environment and Heritage)

Recent studies in Kakadu National Park have demonstrated that local extinction of northern quolls is occurring following cane toad invasion. Over the next 10 years, the rest of the mainland Top End population of northern quolls are expected to disappear, along with much of the Kimberley mainland population. Fresh water crocodiles and snakes are also getting hammered.  (Source: Invasive Animals CRC).

Prior to the last election, Peter Garrett promised ‘A Rudd Labor Government will develop a National Cane Toad Plan under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to control the spread of cane toads.  The National Cane Toad Plan will be backed up by a $2 million innovation fund to develop management and eradication solutions for the cane toad menace.’

Fast forward to 2009, and this promise, much like Baz in the accompanying video has vanished ‘faster than a fart in a fan factory’. According to Minister Garrett’s departments website the Australian Government has committed to developing a plan to have a national cane toad plan, but nothing has happened.

It is a similar story with foxes which according to Environment Department; ‘are considered a threat to 14 species of birds, 48 mammals, 12 reptiles and 2 amphibians, with the orange-bellied parrot, spotted quail-thrush (from Mt Lofty Ranges), herald petrel, Gilbert’s potoroo and western swamp tortoise listed as critically endangered.

Again feral and not so feral cats are an environmental nightmare, with the Environment Department estimating there are approximately 3 million domestic cats and 18 million feral cats in Australia.  Predation by feral cats has caused the decline and extinction of native animals on islands. In addition, evidence from the tabulation of bird population responses to the eradication or control of feral cats shows that most bird populations do increase in size.

On the mainland, predation by feral cats (and foxes) threatens the continued survival of native species such as the eastern barred bandicoot in Victoria, which currently persists in low numbers in the wild and in several captive colonies. Feral cats have thwarted reintroduction programs for threatened species such as the numbat, golden bandicoot, burrowing bettong, mala and bilby in the arid and semiarid zones of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Of those species on the EPBC Act threatened species list, feral cats are considered a threat to 35 species of birds, 36 mammals, 7 reptiles and 3 amphibians, with 4 of those, the orange-bellied parrot, spotted quail-thrush (Mt Lofty Ranges), herald petrel and Gilbert’s potoroo, being critically endangered.’

I find it amazing that I have had people tell me how they are doing their bit for the environment by becoming a vegetarian, yet they own cats! Don’t get me wrong I like cats, but they are the most efficient predators I have ever seen. If they were serious about helping the environment they would have had their cats de-sexed and locked inside a maximum security cage every night.

I believe one of the greatest environmental ‘wins’ of the last 100 years was the release in 1950 of the myxomatosis virus which had an immediate and dramatic effect, killing 99.8% of rabbits. Rabbits did make a come back and the Calicivirus knocked them down again. I saw first hand around Broken Hill the dramatic affect removing rabbits had on the environment – plant species made an amazing comeback (think of all that stored carbon!). However, rabbits are famous for making more rabbits and have the potential to completely destroy our natural environment if not eradicated. It is worth having a look at this site http://www.invasiveanimals.com/invasive-animals/rabbits/index.html

I get angry when I think of the billions of dollars and hours being poured into changing the climate, yet, in comparison we are doing nothing to combat the greatest environmental issues of today.

Yes – ‘Climate Change’ is indisputable - it happens every day. What should sound alarm bells is that ‘Climate Change’ is now an industry. It is no longer about the environment, or the quolls or the herald petrel or the Gilbert’s potoroo. It is all about who can screw a dollar out of the public in the name of the environment.

We are voting on the creation of a market worth by some estimates trillions of dollars globally. What exactly is the product being sold? Isn’t it nothing more than a piece of paper giving the owner the right to produce a product using energy which releases CO2 into the atmosphere?

If an emission trading scheme is all about the environment, why are banks, and other financial institutions lining up to cash in on the trade. Even if you only pulled a commission on each trade of 0.1 percent, in a market which is estimated to potentially be worth trillions globally, that isn’t a bad day’s work. 

I recently received an invitation to the Carbon Market Expo Australasia 2009. According to their website ‘It is this year’s best opportunity to network with key domestic and international carbon market players and to develop the strategies to minimise costs and maximise benefits associated with emissions trading.’

The invitation claims, ‘the event boasts a cutting-edge speakers program, workshops and Trade Fair and will be attended by a diverse range of businesses including;
+  Carbon asset investors & managers
+  Carbon offset projects, wholesalers & retailers
+  Businesses with corporate or product emissions reduction strategies
+  Businesses manufacturing or retailing low carbon technologies
+  Providers of carbon accounting, auditing & verification services
+  Providers of carbon market advisory & facilitation services such as carbon
  pools, brokers, exchanges, legal advisers & risk managers
+  Research and education institutions active in emission mitigation & carbon
  markets
+  Government and/or private market-based emissions reduction initiatives

How much of the trillions of dollars generated by the trade in ‘hot air’ globally will actually be spent on the environment when one looks at all these parasitic industries the carbon market will be supporting? What exactly is it these people will be producing?

And how having created a global market worth trillions of dollars annually which is meant in theory to destroy its self through a diminishing cap on the amount of ‘hot air’ permits which can be issued, be stopped?

Does anyone else think it is odd that the man who derides the Coalition in long winded essays for being ‘neo-liberals’ is going to entrust what he calls the greatest challenge facing us, to the ‘free market’.  The Prime Minister seems to be suffering from economic policy bipolar disorder.

I am both alert and alarmed that the same companies which bought us ‘sub-prime loans’ and the Global Financial Crisis are now falling over them selves to get involved in carbon trading. I shudder to think how many Ponzi schemes will be spawned by carbon market and wonder, how, if governments around the world having failed in stopping Madoff and others believe they can regulate the trillion dollar carbon market?

The greatest threat to our environment is not climate change or global warming, but the actual policies and priorities put in place to combat all of the challenges facing our unique flora and fauna.

If we were really serious about changing the climate and wanted to reduce carbon ‘pollution’ by over 30 percent in real terms then we would be considering converting our base load power to nuclear energy.

In the meantime the ferals are running rampant and we need more than a plan to have a plan.