Reducing "carbon footprint" a waste of time

One of the consequences of Penny Wong's two-errors-in-four-words Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is that energy conservation by households will be a total waste of money.

"Individual efforts to reduce energy use will have absolutely no effect on the level of Australia's emissions," he said. "The least understood feature of the ETS is that the more effort households put into reducing their energy use, the more spare permits they are freeing up for the big polluters [it's not pollution - Ed]. It is a zero-sum game."

A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said every Australian should help reduce carbon pollution [again, it's not pollution - Ed] and contribute to meeting Australia's emissions reduction target.

"Improving energy efficiency in our homes will position Australia to set even more ambitious carbon pollution [yet again, it's not pollution - Ed] reduction targets in the future," she said.

But Mr Denniss dismissed these claims: "If Minister Wong is genuinely proud of her system, she should honestly and simply explain to the public that for the next 12 years at least, nothing they do to reduce their emissions will have any impact."

I really worry about Penny Wong. I can only assume from the way she speaks that she hasn't got the first clue about what her ETS is supposed to be reducing. If it's pollution, it should be sold to the electorate as such. If it is carbon dioxide (and I'm tired of saying this) it's NOT pollution!!

Read it here.

UPDATE: My fuse finally blew this morning - I wrote to Penny Wong asking her to justify her use of the term "carbon pollution" in relation to carbon dioxide. I will let you know if I get a response.