This morning I was watching Dr Karl Kruszelnicki as he described the probability of a massive meteorite hitting the earth in the next 50 to 100 years and the damage it would cause. The last one the size of a swimming pool hit around 1908 in Siberia and flattened 2,500 square kilometres of forest. Lately another meteorite has hit Jupiter (July 2009) and created an effect the size of the Pacific Ocean. The extinction of the dinosaurs was apparently caused by climate change attributable to cooling caused by a meteorite. What terrified me the most was that Mr Rudd might have been watching the same program.
Mr Rudd would have to save the planet with a Massive Meteorite Tax (MMT). First of all he would work out who was going to be affected that is people living above ground. He could create a tradeable permit system to live above ground, permits which the government would issue, and reduce the number of permits each year. This would deliver a market approach to moving Australia underground.
If you argued against the scheme Mr Rudd could say that you were denying the existence of massive meteorites and putting all of humanity at risk. It would be stated that on the basis of evidence the existence of massive meteorites was overwhelming and we in Australia are not going to sit back and do nothing. He could create a new cause de jure to be demonstrated for and rallied around. Mr Rudd could be a world leader and go to forums in certain Danish towns stating that he was leading the world in burying Australia. He would affirm that if Australia could be successfully buried that other nations too could bury their economy and people, using Australia as a working example.
Other nations who actually had space programs would ask why we were “leading” on an issue when we did not actually have a space program and you needed a space program if you were going to stop a meteorite in space. Domestically Australians would ask whether the tax the government was collecting would have any effect in stopping massive meteorites. Mr Rudd would trot out the silver bullet line, “so you suggest we sit back and do nothing while the world is at threat to massive and catastrophic meteorites”
Ultimately strong political players would get free permits to stay above ground and pensioners would get compensation to purchase permits in the short term to stay above ground. The traders of the permits would invest their windfall gains from trading in the Catastrophic Meteorite Reduction Scheme (CMRS) to move out of Australia and take the risk of living above ground, Southern France on the Mediterranean being a preferred destination.
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David Allender
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