"A majority of climate scientists say the long term warming trend is from 1998 to 2006". The statement itself is rubbish. Since when is eight years long term?

Why can't our media see through all this twisting and turning. A few weeks ago our government debt was short term, and that is going to be 10 years.

Where is signing the Kyoto protocol going to leave family Australians if this "carbon is pollution" scam creates another tax for no reason at all?

Global warming is not man made and it is time the supposed thinkers in the world woke up to the con job that has been pulled on them. Check this link www.cato.org/special/climatechange and read Dr Plimer's book. His evidence is very scientific with plenty of proof of refereed science.

Put a stop to this carbon nonsense before we all go broke and even more farmers take their lives.

Stop wasting money on fairy tales and spend it on helping farmers produce a good wholesome product, give us roads and rail that are efficient so we can market that product and help us to remain the most efficient farmers in the world.

Man made global warming is a total fraud. Much like all the industry that has jumped on the bandwagon, such as carbon offsets, windfarms, animal fart taxes and the like.

No one has been able to prove the earth is warming or has done for the last 10 years. Sounds like a bunch of high school geeks with nothing better to do with their time to me!

A carbon emissions trading scheme (ie another tax) is certainly a confidence trick against consumers. Even if it is supposedly aimed at large companies it will flow through to the end consumer. Companies can pass it on but end consumers can't. I am in agreement with all the comments above.

Congratulations, Senator Fielding. You are the first politician to have the guts to publicly cast doubt on the concept of "human induced climate change". There are many reputable scientists who have serious doubts about the current popular beliefs on climate change. Every politician should read Prof Ian Plimer's book, "Heaven + Earth Global Warming: the Missing Science".

"read Dr Plimer's book. His evidence is very scientific with plenty of proof of refereed science." "very scientifc" yes, valid conclusion... apparently not. The most notable thing about Ian Pilmer's book appears to be the speed with which it was shot down in flames. Apparently had the book been submitted as a refereed paper it would have been quickly dispatched to obscurity. There are enormous opportunities to be had in agriculture and industry for both domestic production and export from the development and application of emerging technologies. So Fielding found a dissenting voice in the ocean of climate scientists, yet again Australia is hobbled by a do nothing stance from the fringe minority. There are a heck of a lot of great ideas floating about Australia which can't get up and going because of a lack of a carbon price. These ideas are what could employ future generations of Australians, in both farming and industrial areas.

Currently all we are doing is protecting a bunch of very short term jobs in 18th century industries such as coal mining at enormous expense to future generations. At the same time other smarter countries are building huge patent portfolios and export industries in 21st century industries such as solar photovoltaics and wind (China might buy our coal this week but it is also the world's leading producer of alternative energy products with a strongly developing R&D base). The lack of local industry applications means we don't have a manufacturing base, this means we don't have a way of funding a research base, this in turn means we don't have a reasonable education base. Could this be the reason why Australia's education system is one of the lowest performing in the OECD, below a number of third world countries?

The substantial shrinkage in Australian exhibitors at major trade shows, offset by the increase in Chinese trade delegations tells quite a story about the state of manufacturing in Australia. As does a major regional University trying to run an Engineering curriculum with only one qualified engineer on staff. Better hope the magic fairy turns up soon or else the future for your kids is looking pretty bleak. Is there anything in the future of our kids likely to change when the best we can hope for is a Government and opposition pandering to fossil fuels suppliers and trade unions and the farming sector with it's head stuck in the sand wishing it would all go away?

The particular irony with regard to agriculture is that there is such enormous potential for farmers to play a leading role in the replacement of fossil fuels based energy and products with green replacements. By extension this also means develop profitable and stable farming ventures across a wide range of Australian farming conditions. For years I have watched projects in bio-energy and bio-plastics fail to get a start due to the unrealistically low price of the fossil fuel based feed stocks. These projects have had the capacity to create large areas of rural transformation and renewal by creating the need for increased employment in decentralised areas of industry and farming. I sat through meetings watching rooms of aging farmers listening to researchers trying to raise interest in various new projects. Sadly the sons had gone to the mines, the fathers were too old and inflexible in their thinking and the projects withered; in Australia at least. So if the previous correspondent would like to blame the global warming bandwagon for increasing rural suicide rates I would like to suggest an alternative and that is when the biggest opportunity to make a buck in the history of mankind came along (an ethically acceptable one at that!) most Australians couldn't see it and were too busy trying desperately to cling to the sinking ship of "Business as usual". That would make me pretty depressed too. Doesn't give your grand kids too much to proud of... Wait and see how well Australian agriculture goes when the US, China and EU reach agreement on substantive carbon targets, seize the moral high ground and start placing tariffs on goods from carbon pariah countries such as us.

Be careful Steve, Ms Wong will have you burnt at the stake. Thank god there is someone in the government that is prepared to question the so-called science behind climate change that is being pushed by economists like Garnaut and Stern and a has been vice president, Al Gore.

The comments so far demonstrate limited thought and limited understanding of the climate change debate. The strong language and views expressed reveal more of their bloggers' inadequate thinking on the subject. For example: I am aware of 4 reviews of Prof Plimer's book. There is great praise for the massive amount of work addressed and praise too for his BEBUNKING OF CREATIONISM. But his book has many flaws in its interpretation of the works quoted. There is utterly no question that human kind has and does influence the environment detrimentally, many of which are being addressed, eg polluted rivers now cleaned up, soot covered cities now cleaned up, many industrial health threats cleaned up. The claim by the science community and the sceptics is that there is a rise in temperature concurrent with the industrial revolution. But the two sides differ in that the current orthodoxy has evidence that of all the known causes the most prejudicial and correctable is excess carbon.

Australian agriculture should be booming and a world leader but as highlighted by the many comments above, except Greg Y, it is full of luddites. As a young professional for the past 10 years I have been waiting patiently for Australian ag to take off but it has failed time and time again because the leadership has no vision, is not willing to change and cannot look at things globally. I have a passion for ag and its potential but like many of my peers am now looking for an out because we are tied of fighting those opposed to everything. How many more studies and scientific analysis is required for you to realise the way we are functioning is unsustainable. Even if climate change is proven wrong our progress, greed and lack of consideration will still bring us down. This is the first step in changing our culture and habit. Australians consume more energy, water and resources per capita than any other country. We should provide leadership. Go to India and Pakistan and see the slums, the population explosion. Tell those people they must act with us and spend what little money they have. The pollution of China, the plastic tide in South America. I bet Bob, the concerned Northerner, John have never ventured outside developed countries. Our impact on the planet is real, the real question is what, when and how bad will the tipping point be when we final act???? Maybe in another 10 years Australian ag will emerge but until then, if I had my time again to chose an industry and career I wouldn't bother with ag until the luddites are gone.

"Thank god there is someone in the government that is prepared to question the so-called science behind climate change that is being pushed by economists like Garnaut and Stern and a has been vice president, Al Gore." And all of the climatologists on the planet... Don't let the science get in the way of a good ad hominem attack ;-) To get a glimpse of what the researchers are actually saying about the subject try spending a while reading at http://www.realclimate.org. Particularly with regard to Ian Pilmer's book. To get an idea of where someone like China is heading have a look at http://climateprogress.org/2009/06/08/china-begins-its-trans ition-to-a-clean-energy-economy/

You may choose to disagree with the views at both sites but at least you may do so with a bit more perspective than blindly parroting the facts espoused by people who are commonly funded by fossil fuel interests. Regardless of your views the difficulty for all of us on the sidelines is that we have to take so much on trust as we have so much difficulty in deciphering scientific views, particularly when there is so much in the way of 'paid' dissenting views which gain traction.

Science aside, it seems difficult to believe that the entire climate science community, consisting of various groups, academic and industrial, varying religions, competing nations, have all managed to agree on throwing out any ethical considerations, lifetimes of career respect, and are participating in a grand conspiracy to further their research funding by inventing climate change. Yeah right, that would be easy to keep under wraps...