We'll 'probably' allow overseas emission reduction permits: Greg Hunt

Greg Hunt.

The Turnbull government will “probably” allow emission reduction permits to be bought from overseas, giving Australia flexibility to increase the targets it pledged at the Paris climate conference, Greg Hunt has predicted.

The environment minister signalled there was scope to tighten Australia’s international commitments to curb climate change, as some of his Coalition colleagues rubbished the significance of the deal reached in the French capital at the weekend.

The West Australian backbencher Dennis Jensen said the agreement, which enshrined a goal of limiting temperature increases to 1.5C to 2C compared with pre-industrial levels, was accompanied by “a lot of hype”. And the Sydney-based Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly mocked any suggestion that “the world is saved”.

Read The Guardian Australia story - “Greg Hunt says overseas emissions credits will'probably' be allowed.”

Scientists say human influence inquiry a waste of parliamentary time and resources

A

 group of prominent Australian scientists has warned climate sceptic MPs against wasting time and parliamentary resources on an inquiry into the evidence of human influence on climate change.

The scientists have sent a letter to West Australian MPs Dennis Jensen and Chris Back, offering to brief them on the latest science instead.

The letter was sent by Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland's Global Change Institute and co-signed by 12 others, including Professor Will Steffen from the Australian National University and Professor Lesley Hughes from Macquarie University.

Dr Jensen and Mr Back supported a motion at the federal Liberal council meeting last month, which called for a parliamentary inquiry to examine the evidence of climate change before the Government signs up to post 2020 emissions targets.

Read the ABC story - “Climate change: Scientists warn sceptic MPs Dennis Jensen, Chris Back against inquiry into evidence of human influence”.

Skeptics continue to argue, although the science is indisputable and the evidence convincing

Floods in Boulder, Colorado,
are further evidence that
our climate is changing.

Science has illustrated repeatedly, and conclusively, that humanity is headed for catastrophic climate change.

Yet the conversation about whether or not climate change is real continues unabated and if the election of a conservative government is any marker of concern, then most Australians align themselves with the skeptics.

Sitting here writing this, I can hear the television news in the background reporting on devastating floods in Colorado, U.S., in which 24cms of rain fell in just three days in Boulder, a city that normally receives only four cm of rain for all of September.

Climate change skeptics continue to hold their position, despite this overwhelming evidence that equates precisely with what the climatologists have been predicting.

With the world careering towards climate catastrophe, the Tony Abbott-led Australian Government rushes with enthusiasm to deconstruct whatever positive moves the former Labor Government had put in place to mitigate climate change.

Just today (September 13) the Melbourne Age reported that coalition MP, Dennis Jensen, who is a vocal climate science skeptic, has called on Prime Minister-elect, Tony Abbott, to appoint him as science minister.

In the midst of all this Rolling Stone magazine reports in a story headed: “Global warming is very real” that scientists continue to fight deniers with irrefutable evidence that the planet is headed for catastrophe.