The much vaunted "Australia in the Asian Century" white paper assumes that governments and recipients of their R&D grants are best placed to pick marketplace winners. The figures say otherwise 

Storey Hall was an appropriate place for over three hundred people to face six Climate Commissioners as it has the look and feel of a space that was shifted from Luna Park.

The CSIRO is responding to set of national needs defined by the government of the day – combating climate change and making computer model forecasts of the disasters facing us if we don’t.

Did Douglas Adams anticipate Climate Change modelling?

As a demonstration of how to present scientific discovery and understanding, the contrast between the possible discovery of the Higgs particle and climate science progress could not be more different.

A careful examination of the likely causes of variations in methane emissions suggests there is little or no basis for concluding that the variations of the last twenty years are due to human activity.

Professor Garnaut sees a tax on carbon (dioxide) as not sufficient to drive innovation. He wants to encourage companies by luring them with extra rewards. But this looks a bit like the Cargo Cult of New Guinea.

The proposed carbon farming initiative would make it virtually impossible for an individual farmer to remove the trees and revert to food production. This is contrary both to Australia’s international obligations and its self interest.

Now they want to tax methane. It is difficult to imagine a more surreal policy, where no one else in the world understands or intends to bother with methane but we must set an example.