“INPEX’s Ichthys Gas Project is expected to unnecessarily condemn the Northern Territory to a sentence of a 30% p.a. increase in greenhouse gas emissions for the next 40 years (approximately 5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year).” said Michael Cauce, Coordinator of Climate Action Darwin.

“That’s the equivalent of dumping over one million cars (1,162,800) worth of pollution onto the Territory every year.”

The big polluters warn a carbon tax would be a disaster - jobs would go offshore, and so could whole industries. But is it true, or a giant con?

". . . no listed company had a carbon cost greater than 5 per cent of pre-tax earnings . . . "

The environmental movement in Australia was the first in the world to become a political movement and Australia was home to the world's first Green Party. Australian public opinion and policies have been swayed in the past on crucial issues such as land conservation and nuclear power, but what about climate change?

By YCAN Convenor Pablo Brait  (www.ycan.org.au)

The Multi-Party Climate Change Committee (MPCCC) made up of Labor, Greens and independents has just released the framework for a carbon price. There are very few details other than the starting date of 1 July 2012 and the notion that it will be a fixed price (essentially a carbon tax) for the first three to five years before shifting to a cap-and-trade scheme. Agriculture will be excluded but all other sectors are potentially included.

With the military on the job and perhaps the post-1945 Marshall Plan on her mind, Queensland premier Anna Bligh has designated recovery from the floods “a reconstruction task of postwar proportions.”

The words are deliberate: ‘”I want people to understand how big it is, and how long it might take,” because the machinery of government needs to be reshaped.

"People know we have not placed a price on carbon pollution and that, until we do, Australia will struggle to meet even moderate targets...."

The climate negotiations came to a close last week in China. This was the final meeting before the crucial conference in Cancun, Mexico.  The closing plenary of the talks was not without drama. Delayed for over an hour head negotiators huddled around the hall desperately seeking common ground. Puzzled faces around the room were asking — is this Copenhagen all over again?

While the global population's set to top nine billion by mid-century, non-human life is dying at rates not seen in 60 million years. Scientists are calling it the sixth great extinction, a catastrophic drop in the number of the world's plant and animal species. The UN's holding a major biodiversity meeting in Japan . . .

The figures are staggering. UN scientists estimate that the world is losing 200 species every day - that's every day. And here's another one for you: the total number of vertebrates on the planet - that's mammals, reptiles, fish, birds and amphibians - plummeted by a third between 1970 and 2006.

And while Australia has one of the richest and most unique range of species, we also have one of the highest extinction rates. But because most of us live in cities, isolated from the rhythms of nature, we don't seem to notice the carnage. It may be the International Year of Biodiversity, but research shows that most people don't know what biodiversity is or why it's important.