Globally , there is general agreement that there is a problem . It's not just you and me . That's why we have the Paris Agreement .
You might not think there's a problem but the vast majority of the western world do .
Humankind has benefited massively from the use of fossil fuels . We simply can't ask China and India to curtail their evolution from the third world to the first world while they watch us doing it .
But , just as we evolved from burning wood to moving to coal , oil , gas , uranium , biowaste etc so should we keep evolving .
That's the thing about humans . We're pretty clever when we want to be . Renewables have gone from being totally useless to somewhat practical now . There are plenty of examples of that .
And we know for sure that as they are developed they are only going to get more efficient and cheaper . Fossil fuel is only going to go the other way .
So , the best we can do is to foster that development so that more renewable generation is rolled out . We can't stop countries evolving just as can't tell people to stop having babies . But what we can do is reduce the impact as best we can .
I'm not saying we should get out of fossil tomorrow . I was an advocate for building a new Hazelwood in Victoria as part of a sensible transition to renewables .
It's just like having insurance . At the end of the year you don't say " well that was a waste of money because I didn't have an insurance claim " .
The difference here is that we are developing a viable alternative to fossil fuel that we will be able to use forever . In maybe 100 years there will be no emissions from vehicles or power stations . Those kind of developments take a long time to achieve .
