farmdoc's blog post number 285

After Charles Dickens’s 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, today’s post is titled A Tale of Two Countries. First. the USA: the world’s biggest greenhouse gas producer, and a Kyoto protocol non-ratifier. But with a new President who, according to salon.com, understands the cause and gravity of global warming: ‘Fortunately, Obama clearly gets it. He devoted more of his inaugural address to clean energy and global warming than even the strongest advocate could have imagined…(and)…he has assembled a team with unmatched knowledge and commitment to solve the climate problem’. The USA also has Repower America, an organisation chaired by Al Gore, that aims for 100% clean electricity within ten years. Can America do it? Yes it can – if it really wants to. Now to Australia: the world’s biggest per capita greenhouse gas producer. Until early 2008 a Kyoto non-ratifier. With a Prime Minister who appears not to understand the gravity of global warming, who has not assembled a dream team, who has formulated a pathetically inadequate (5%) carbon reduction target, and who has no vision and no plan and so reportedly has squandered billions of dollars of solar infrastructure investment. Luckily the USA and Australia share the same planet. So I’m hoping upon hope President Obama and his people will pull the rest of the world up by its bootstraps. This is our last chance. It’s now or never.