In January 2014 OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría called for “a plan to achieve zero net greenhouse emissions globally.” Not to be outdone, Australia has an organisation named “Beyond Zero Emissions”.

• Try making steel without using coal and producing carbon dioxide.
• Try making cement without producing carbon dioxide.
• Try moving cattle road trains in the outback without producing carbon dioxide.
• Try operating an aluminium refinery on wind power.
• Try keeping electric trains, lifts and lights running on a still night without coal or gas backup.
• Try powering a container ship with sails.
• Try getting approval to build a nuclear power station or a new hydroelectric dam in Australia.
• Try feeding the people of the world while burning half of the food crops as biofuel.

The production of carbon dioxide is a direct measure of economic activity. To forcibly cut it must cause a recession. Russia, Poland, the Czechs, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, and Canada have already recognised this truth.

The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today is well below the optimum level for plant growth. Human production of carbon dioxide plant food did fall during the Great Depression and added to plant starvation and crop failures in those bleak years.

“Zero Emissions” is another selfish and destructive green slogan which, if pursued, will turn into a nightmare of jobless-ness, poverty and hunger especially for the poorer people of the world.