Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Third Reading Speech
Senator TROETH (Victoria) (10.37 am)—I rise today to indicate support for the amended Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 [No. 2] and related bills. Firstly, I would like to put on the record that my party, the coalition, has a long and proud history of protecting the environment and protecting jobs. The one advantage I do have in this chamber is that I have a greater longevity than probably most people in the chamber and a greater lifespan. Having lived on the land for 30 years and also having lived in cities, in that time I believe that the climate has changed substantially. In particular, rural areas have changed sufficiently that agricultural enterprises of a region have had to change as well. Droughts are longer and rainfall has dropped. For instance, in the farming area where I lived in Western Victoria, the rainfall when I went to live there in the mid 1960s was an absolutely permanent 33 inches—dare I say it, on the old scale—every single winter, and you could not drive trucks in the paddocks between May and September. The rainfall in that area has now dropped to about 19 or 20 inches, which is a substantial drop, and the fact is that many livestock farmers have been able to change their farming practices to cropping, something that would have been quite out of the question in previous years. The severity of weather events is also much greater than it was in earlier years.
I have not always been convinced. I, like most Australians, have had to be convinced that there has been climate change and that humans were the principal cause of the additional warming the world is facing. I point out that since 1950 the world population has trebled. If that has not had some influence on the way our climate and atmosphere works, I would like to know what has. When I considered my own personal observations, combined with what I believe is the sheer weight of evidence from an overwhelming number of scientists and science academies, it became clear to me that we must act on climate change—and it is churlish and irresponsible to say that because there is disagreement around particular aspects of climate science, the whole of the science is discredited. That is not how science works. Science is constantly refined and expanded upon as more information becomes available and discrepancies between theory and observation are investigated and resolved. The fundamental criticisms that some of the sceptics have levelled against the science, I believe have not stood up when they have been responded to. In short, I believe that there is global warming, that greenhouse gasses generated by humankind are the principal source of the excess of the greenhouse gasses, and that we need to take steps to remedy this or there will be severe economic, social and environmental consequences, both immediately and increasing in severity in the future.
I am not a scientist, and I do not seek to rebut every single claim made by people who disagree with the climate science. However, with one possible exception, none of my fellow members of parliament are scientists either, and I believe that we have to rely on what I would call learned authority to make our own best judgment on this. I would like to make some general points, though, so that the Senate can understand the type of information that informed my choice. I do apologise for the paraphrasing of the information—as I said, I am a not a scientist. Some claim that there is a natural cycle, that earlier periods have been warmer, that water vapour and urban heat islands are more important than carbon dioxide, and that carbon dioxide is a natural and important part of the life cycle of the planet. To my understanding, these claims are more or less true but, as usual, the devil is in the detail. Just to compare the impact of human activity, volcanoes are cited by some as a major emitter of CO2, and I understand that they were an essential element that led to the warming of the earth that allowed life on earth to begin. Volcanic activity worldwide produces annually approximately 200 million tonnes of CO2. Human industrial activity produces 24 billion tonnes. Humans produce 100 times more CO2 than what was needed to thaw the ice age.
There have been and there continue to be natural heating and cooling cycles in the climate. The CO2 levels have risen and fallen as a result of these cycles, and CO2 is an important part of the natural greenhouse effect that allows life on earth to exist. The levels of CO2 have sometimes led and sometimes lagged behind temperature changes, due to basically a feedback loop, and it accelerates the direction each variable is heading in. Previous warming periods have either not been as warm as the period we are in, or the hotter heat levels have not been as widespread. Rather, they have been localised to a particular hemisphere and largely offset by cooler temperatures elsewhere. But I firmly believe that what we are currently witnessing is a consistent widespread heating. Water vapour, urban heat islands and regional variations have been accounted for in the projections and observations and, while they do play a part, they do not represent the cause of the change. They have been present for long periods of time and have had a constant effect. The issue is what is causing the change to a sustained heating period. Overall, it is the combination of scientific factors that makes the need for action so compelling. The extent, the speed, the severity and the potential consequences mean that, even if you accept there is only a small chance of these factors, we should take action. It is my belief that there is a strong likelihood that these consequences will come to pass if we do not take action.