This follows a petition, organized by the Australia Greens, to tell Labor and Liberal not to gut Australia's environment laws by handing most federal powers over to the states.  If you're Australian and you still think you care please sign it online, link below.

http://greensmps.org.au/content/petition/minister-burke-dont-hand-your-powers-states

The Australian Labor Party is under pressure from Big Business, to sell all of the remaining parts of Australia to Big Business. What kind of hold Big Business has on the ALP I do not know, but the ALP tries so very hard to placate Big Biz, we can tell who has whom by the throat, or is it the donation, or post-politics retirement jobs, or is it all amoungst good friends of crony capitalism. The ALP greatly watered down the Carbon Tax, and soon it will evaporate into a Big Biz trading scam. The ALP has gone soft, with all its ministers converted to the litany of "free market" mumbo-jumbo, at least for attempting explanations to the public, or defending its Actions in parliament against the true free-market believers.  In a free market, everything goes to the highest bidder.  All the Big Biz bidders are much richer than the average Australian worker, and Australian Environments get to be prized auctioned items.

The first step in the sale, is to gut national environment laws by giving away the Environment Ministers approval powers to state government. As all state governments have a strong track record of selling public assets to private and international interests, this will expedite the entire sale of Australia by parts before their use-by date.  Now that carbon pricing is going to be on the market, all of Australian Environments can be put on the market as well, right?

Who really governs Australia?

In April this year, a special meeting of Big Biz leaders hijacked a meeting of state and federal governments (COAG). They demanded the weakening of Australia's environment laws. The ALP has promised this, cowed by some unspecified threat. Its all about cutting "green" tape. This December, the state Premiers and the Prime Minister will meet again at COAG to take the next step. Big Biz is also having meetings with the ALP to demand they water down the RETS (Renewable Energy Target Scheme), especially Big Coal owners such as Origin Energy.  The ALP politely asked the Climate Change Authority, but its Big Biz that gets the last say.

What is Australia's use by date?

This is not a specific date, as its more likely to be set by the average global warming anomaly.  By the time this reaches 4 degrees, (which means 5-6 degrees over land) northern parts of Australia will be un-liveable, or just to hot to work outside, and too hot for food to grow.  So its important for Big Biz to sell overseas the most valuable timber, minerals and energy resources, while there are still people alive to extract them, and buy them. 

Most of our ecosystems will be kaput if we wait too much past 2 degrees, if we follow the self-fulfilling prophecies of government policy. The Australian Government likes predictability, and 4 degrees of climate change is predicted by climate science, if we continue to take the orders from Big Biz as usual. The rich love predictability, They can use it to work out best how to make money, and go for the strategic investments.

The great big Australian die off.

The problem with all our ecosystems, including native forests in Tasmania, is that they won't be well adapted for a 4 degree warmer world, and so will most likely die off.  It is therefore import for Big Biz to harvest and sell every last saleable tree trunk in Australia well before that time.  Huge bush fires and forest fires could lose it all    Nothing will be able to grow on soil depleted, drought afflicted lands, so the future expected value of land for agricultural use can be effectively written off, when compared to its mining potential, as all Environmental Assessment for Coal mining leases show. Destroying the land by mining proves the point. Its not worth anything afterwards.

According to Barry O' Farrell, every square millimetre of NSW is so much more valuable for Coal Seam Gas than agriculture, since agricultural land is given no value in the future, so every last economic extraction of Coal Seam Gas must take place, before all the free water for Big Biz disappears. Barry has already written off the value of all national parks and natural conservation areas in NSW, so he has left them to the Shooters Party, as long as there is no mining lease involved.

Before it gets too hot, it will be important for the millionaire shareholder survivalists to stash as much cash as they can, convert it into international currencies and precious metals, and stuff it in various offshore havens and northern hemisphere banks, so they can fly themselves and their loved ones out of Australia when it gets too uncomfortable.  Top ranking Liberal and ALP party members all have their last flight tickets booked. Canada may be a popular destination, as long as one avoids tar sand mining areas.

The rest of the Australian population will be one day left to fend for themselves, in the hands of their Chinese overseers. Nations close to the Arctic circle will be trying to keep out  hordes of refugees from the south, or trying not to sink in the smelly bogs underneath melting tundra. Only large amounts of pre-paid cash will guarantee a Climate Change passport to cooler climes. Ordinary people of Australia will  be excluded.  They will be considered to be part of the cause of it all, having for years ignored climate change warnings in favour of having an oblivious good time.

Here is a link to an Andrew Glikson document about our future that is 4 degrees warming and beyond

Andrew Glikson: The world at 4 degrees. Last call on climate.  http://www.countercurrents.org/glikson210410.pdf

Andrew has also submitted many fine articles on climate change to the The Conversation.