Time for a Greens reality check - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

...Julia Gillard's decision to exempt petrol from her carbon pricing, both from the initial tax and the foreshadowed trading scheme, is a major step back from both effectiveness and efficiency.

The whole point about such a tax is its universality; as soon as you say you will put a price on some carbons but not others, you invite a rush of further applications for special treatment and hand the debate over to lawyers and accountants trying to dream up loopholes so their clients can join the privileged. There is less incentive to innovate and less money to encourage it, and of course a major source of emissions continues unabated. And most importantly it weakens the whole argument for action both at home and internationally, suggesting that Gillard, like Abbott, really believes that climate change is just another political problem which can be solved by slogans and spin, by smoke and mirrors.

Global Warming: China's Air Pollution Makes Climate Better, and Worse at Same Time - ABC News

Overall, global temperatures have been increasing for more than a century since the industrial revolution began adding gases like carbon dioxide to the air. But there have been similar plateaus, such as during the post-World War II era when industrial production boosted sulfur emissions in several parts of the world, Kaufmann explained.

Confirmed: no warming for a decade | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

The paper curiously blames both unknown natural factors and the big rise in China’s coal use, which is says means more emissions of sulfur to cool the planet. But shouldn’t that also mean more carbon dioxide, which we’re told would warm the wold dangerously?