Mail Bag
Mail Bag
Letters from our readers.
Australia Condemned Over Global Warming
The Australian community is highly critical of our Government's stance on
global warming. I am sure most are embarrassed and outraged by the behaviour
of our representatives at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Nauru.
On behalf of the Climate Action Network Australia, I write to offer support to Pacific Islands nations who are concerned about rising sea levels and climate change and have decided to confront the big polluting nations like the United States and its supporters like Australia.
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In April 2001, a national opinion poll found that 80 percent of the Australian public want the Government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol Treaty, regardless of what the United States does.
The Australian Government sent its Defence Minister to the Pacific Islands Forum meeting this year - you would think to defend low-lying Pacific Islands nations from rising sea levels and damaging climate change caused by burning fossil fuels.
However, the Australian Government is only defending our coal, oil and aluminium industries. Our Government has outsourced its responsibilities to the United States, by working at the Forum to water down the Pacific Islands¹ condemnation of the United States President¹s decision to walk away from the Kyoto Protocol.
At the same time, up to 50,000 people of the Carteret Islands and Bougainville are reported to be facing starvation as high sea levels wash away their islands and contaminate freshwater supplies.
At the recent climate change talks in Bonn, the Australian Government decided not to provide funding to assist countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change already being experienced.
With a national election in Australia this year, there is an opportunity for all political parties to reconsider their position - it makes much more sense for an Australian Government to build alliances with its real neighbours in the Pacific than simply do what the United States tells it to. If Australia can work with the Pacific nations to protect whales, why not also to protect Pacific peoples, their homelands, and the atmosphere from climate change?
To find out about what the Australian community and environmental movement are doing on this fundamentally important issue, please see our website at www.climateaustralia.org. We would like to develop stronger links with Pacific Islands nations to take more effective action to prevent damaging climate change.
Anna Reynolds,Climate Action Network Australia
Broome, Western Australia
