I'm really scared about the direction the world's politicians, and especially both major Australian parties, are heading on climate change. The science says the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere (about 430 ppm CO2e) may be enough to tip the planet over the 2ºC warming that will lead to catastrophe.

Any target that keeps adding more emissions until beyond 2050 will very likely take us beyond this tipping point. I fear that even The Greens have got it wrong with their recent upgrade to 30% below 1990 GHG levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Beyond Zero Emmissions, George Monbiot and even the Stern report (see Box 8.1 on page 195 in Part III) back this up.

This is a global emergency. We should be on a war footing to fight climate change. Our target should be zero emissions now. "Now" may translate to 2020, but we should keep saying "now" because we need to start today and go all-out.

I have summarised this in my article for the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre newsletter. Please tell me it ain't so!