Rupert Murdoch - half right on climate

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation gave the first Boyer Lecture at the Opera House yesterday. He made some comments about climate change, which the mainstream media picked up and spun in such a way as to indicate that he was a closet greenie, but that isn't the whole story. This is the text:

Climate change is another area where Australia needs to lead. I'm not sold on the more apocalyptic visions of climate change.

Unlike too many policiticans...

But I believe the planet deserves the benefit of the doubt. I believe there will be great rewards for those Australians who discover new ways of reducing emissions or cleaning the environment. [He then briefly discusses his own companies' emissions reduction programs.] Our emphasis should be on practical solutions. It is to take the lead in developing real alternatives to solve the problem by offering clean, cheap energy to meet the growing demand.

I don't agree that the "benefit of the doubt" argument, but as much as the next person, I am in favour of reducing pollution and cleaning the environment - who wouldn't be? Practical solutions means adaptation. But his next comments are the most pertinent (completely overlooked by the Herald and The Age, of course):

We cannot address climate change merely with emotion. The ultimate solution is not to punish the economy by imposing standards that the rest of the world will never meet.

This, unfortunately, is precisely what Rudd, Wong & Co intend to do. And finally:

It is to take the lead in developing real alternatives to solve the problem by offering clean, cheap energy to meet the growing demand.

Read it here.