The bickering and divisions we have seen in the Coalition of late is nothing short of extraordinary and highlights just how divisive the issue of climate change still is in Australia.
A recent visit to New Zealand confirmed that the Kiwis too suffer from climate skepticism. So it begs the question, if Australia, a country with a left wing majority government and a public that is overwhelmingly concerned about climate change, has to go through so much exertion and drama in order to implement an effective emissions trading scheme, then what hope exists for the entire planet at Copenhagen?
In some respects, it depends on what newspaper you read, but the general consensus from the GreenCollar brains trust is that any framework agreement with a hint of realism about it is still at least 12 months away.
So if we avoid the numbers game and roughly work out the cost of another year of inaction, we can confidently assume that the long term targets set by many governments to 2020 and beyond suddenly look a lot tougher. Are we fighting a hopeless fight?
No. We have to keep going. Each of us as individuals may have limited mass market impact, but by coming together as a community and working with each other we can affect great change and influence.
