Climate Change, Global Warming - Why Argue?

I am sick of the climate change, global warming, clean energy generation argument.

I am over the Paris Climate Agreement and the Stockholm debacle.

I don’t want to hear any more from the Right-Wing advocates of coal mining or the Green Politics of emission free living.

The intellectualisation of solar v wind v gas v coal argument is of little interest.

We hear sound and principled arguments advocated articulately by well credentialed scientists providing dire warnings about the demise of the planet.

We have the same arguments discredited by seemingly similarly well qualified whoever’s.

On one hand, it is easy for a politician to claim to be “not climate change sceptic” while on the other hand insisting climate change is in no way "man made". Naturally, they try to appeal to everyone’s self interests.

It is popular to talk up the need for reliable and cheap power generation without taking responsibility for having a system at breaking point. It is not as if politicians from either side, since the Keating and early Howard years have had courage of foresight for long-term infrastructure investment.

But back to the climate change, global warming scenario – the one I am sick of.

As I see it, the issue is really, really simple.

It doesn’t matter if climate change science is real or false. It doesn’t matter if clean coal is a genuine alternative to dirty coal, or if natural gas is the way to go.

It just makes sense to me that irrespective of the science or the politics, we simply should stop pumping dirty stuff in to our atmosphere, river systems and oceans.

If making a decision to maintain a clean and sustainable artesian water system means ceasing coal seam gas extraction, lets do it for the clean water need. It is not a global warming decision but a clean water one.

If we make a clean air decision, the need to retrieve carbon stored in the ground over many thousands of years in order to release it again in to the atmosphere is non existent. 

If the health of our reefs and tropical oceans is threatened by way of a huge coal mine, lets make a decision to keep the reef clean. Keeping the reef clean may mean insufficient coal for generating power, resulting in solar or wind generation, however the reason is keeping the reef and waterways pristine.

Forget about climate change and simply make decisions to have the cleanest air possible and the purest of water systems, inland and ocean.

If this guides our basic decision making it doesn’t matter if the climate science is true or false, if global warming is man-made or not. What matters is having a safe and healthy environment for ourselves, our children and their children.

Clean air and clean water just makes sense and you don’t need to be a scientist to know this, or make decisions accordingly.