by Viv Forbes, winner of the 1986 Australian Adam Smith Award for “outstanding services to the free society”

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed there is more justification for a tax on the emissions of steam from a kettle on the stove than a tax on the emissions of carbon dioxide from the gas stove beneath the kettle.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that neither steam nor carbon dioxide is a harmful pollutant, both are essential to life, both are emitted by burning hydrocarbon fuels and both have some effects on weather and climate.

“We expect the government media clique and research mercenaries to parrot the prevailing political propaganda, but surely it’s time for the independent media to start promoting accurate language and real science in the global warming debate.

It’s time to “speak truth to power”.

“The Green alarmists claim that carbon dioxide is a “pollutant”? We know that many politicians lie to suit their agenda but this lie is so huge that it cannot be allowed to stand.

“Carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are the building blocks for all life on earth. All plant life, animal life, marine life and carbon fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal are composed mainly of various combinations of these four key elements.

“When any carbon compound is burnt in a fire or digested in a stomach, the carbon combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and the hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water. These reactions produce warmth and energy for mankind.

“All life needs food and water. Carbon dioxide is the keystone for all food on earth – it feeds all plants, which feed all animals. Water is the foundation for all drinks. Thus combustion of carbon fuels provides food and drink for all life on earth. Only a fool or a schemer could describe either of these gases of life as a pollutant.

“Both carbon dioxide and water are recycled via the atmosphere, and both make our climate liveable. Carbon dioxide is an invisible gas that has a tiny climatic effect. But water in all its forms such as vapour, clouds, oceans, rivers, rain, hail, snow and ice is vastly more abundant and influential in causing changes in weather and climate.

“If we need a “carbon pollution tax” to reduce global temperature we surely need a “water pollution tax” to reduce snowstorms and floods?”