Madness afoot in U.S. Republican presidential pre-selections

Madness afoot in U.S, presidential
pre-selections with Republican
Ted Cruz promising to end the 'war on coal'.

Republican candidate Ted Cruz promised to roll back what he calls President Barack Obama's 'war on coal' if he's elected president.

The Texas senator made the pledge in a speech to the Republican State Convention in Casper on Saturday.

Wyoming, the nation's leading coal-producing state, has seen hundreds of coal industry layoffs in recent months as several of the nation's largest coal companies have filed for federal bankruptcy protections.

Calling America, "the Saudi Arabia of coal," Cruz promised to roll back federal regulations he says hamper coal production.

The Obama administration recently imposed a moratorium on new coal leases.

Wyoming and other states have mounted legal challenges in recent years to US Environmental Protection Agency regulations tightening emission limits on coal-fired power plants.

"Hillary Clinton promises that if she's elected, she's going to finish the task and bankrupt anyone associated with coal," Cruz said.

"I give you my word right now, we are going to lift the federal regulators back, we are going to end the war on coal."

Obama, in announcing the restrictions in 2014, said carbon emission cause health problems and contribute to global warming.

Read the Ben Neary story in the BusinessDay section of today’s Melbourne Age - “Republican candidateTed Cruz vows to fight against 'war on coal’.”

(Stop the bus, I want to get off – madness is afoot among Republican candidates in the U.S. presidential pre-selection process with Ted Cruz showing his disdain for climate science in allowing full-rein to the use of coal and Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, Clara Powers, of Wheatland, telling the crowd she has three grandchildren and "I do not want any of them working with next generation science."

"I do not want my grandchildren to believe in evolution. I do not want my grandchildren thinking that global warming is more important than our national security," she added.

My shoulders droop – obviously, neither Cruz, Trump, or any of their supporters has any faith or belief in science,the science that has delivered modernity to their lives, and ache for the “the good ‘ol days”, which any objective investigation will quickly and irrefutably illustrate, were not so good – Robert McLean.)

Questionable morals and greed result in Climate Change

More people are blowing the whistle.

With all the recent talk in Australia about banks, ethics and culture, it is worth noting the disturbing results of a survey into workplace ethics in the financial services industry in Britain and the US that reveals ethics are going backwards despite beefed-up regulation and penalties.

It is a fascinating survey, particularly in light of the recent financial scandals in Australia and the debate about the merits or otherwise of a royal commission into the financial services sector.

‘The more money earned, the more unethical the behaviour is likely to be’

Indeed, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull himself recently called out the banks' culture of greed. He made it clear they needed to look at their culture to ensure it wasn't motivated by only profit and high salaries, and that "honest employees should be rewarded, not punished, for blowing the whistle on crooked colleagues".

Read Adela Ferguson’s opinion piece in “BusinessDay” in today’s Melbourne Age - “Ethics forgotten amid culture of greed and code of silence.”

(The unethical morals and greed appear to arise from and so support the world’s prevailing capitalist economic system seem to recline in comfort with circumstances that have colluded to manifest as climate change. Bluntly, climate change, that is the damage caused to the equilibrium of earth’s climate system, is the outcome of our misunderstanding of prioritizing private wants ahead of public needs – Robert McLean.)

The world has passed Martin Ferguson by

Martin Ferguson - still living in
fossil fuel era.

Martin Ferguson appears to misunderstand how the world is changing.

The former Labor Resources Minister today illustrated that he is still locked in the fossil fuel era.

Mr Ferguson has long been critical of the New South Wales position of adhering to a moratorium on coal seam gas and now argues that the “NSW disease” is catching and pushing the Northern Territory to the brink of “catastrophic” gas shortages.

The exploitation of coal seam gas, or “fracking as it is colloquially known brings many known and unknown problems; many matters that are simply an extension of issues directly linked to human-caused damage to Earth’s atmosphere.

A planned $800 million pipeline to bring the NT gas to Queensland means jobs for many and viewed through Mr Ferguson’s antiquated and seriously dated prism, the pipeline and it associated fracking makes sense.

Evidential experience shows that fracking is a short-term answer and rather than spending millions on what will ultimately be a dinosaur, Mr Ferguson should be pushing for, and encouraging people to invest in and create renewable energy, either solar or wind and, particularly in northern Australia, tidal energy.

Overseas experience shows that renewable energy creates as many, if not more jobs than those of the now dying fossil fuels industry.

Read the story in the BusinessDay section of today’s Melbourne Age - “Former resources minister Martin Ferguson blasts NT Labor on gas.”