Monday, December 15, 2008

Rudd gives up on climate

The Rudd government has officially given up on an effective climate action strategy in an announcement at the National Press club today.

The Prime Minister announced that Australia would emit 95% of its current emissions in 2020, and would only go down to 85% if pressured by the rest of the world.

In either scenario, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would rise indefinitely, making the complete melting of the Arctic ice cap very likely.

As Mr. Rudd made the announcement, three Newcastle women interrupted him, yelling "No! You have given up on the Great Barrier Reef. We will never walk away from climate change!"

The gallery, filled with senior journalists, cabinet members and Greens parliamentarians, appeared stunned as they heard the news.

It is unclear what science Rudd is using to back up his targets.

Five minutes after the announcement, 15 people occupied Rudd's Brisbane office and 50 people converged on Wong's Adelaide office, calling on the government to halve carbon emissions by 2020 and indicating that they would continue to take direct action if the Government failed to address the science.

It is expected that waves of people from community climate action groups will stage similar protests over the next week.

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