Viv's battle against carbon tax

Viv Forbes stands next to a giant cactus in his garden in Rosevale. Mr Forbes is the chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition which is opposed to the Federal Government’s Carbon Tax.

Claudia Baxter

YOU will find plenty of people who disagree with the decisions made by politicians down in Canberra.

But down at Rosevale, south of Ipswich, one man is determined to do something about it.

Viv Forbes formed the Climate Sense Coalition about four years ago to inject some "common sense" into the ongoing climate change debate.

However, the group's fight for balance on the climate change argument took on extra significance when the Federal Government released details of its carbon pricing scheme in July.

Now Mr Forbes, whose group boasts 30 members and a strong online presence, is preparing to do whatever possible to stop the carbon tax coming in.

"It just went, to my mind, an unbelievable extent. I couldn't believe it could have got to this stage," Mr Forbes said.

Put simply, he doesn't believe carbon dioxide controls the climate, that there have been warmer periods in the earth's history and that warming is not a threat to the biosphere.

"If you look at it, it's only government that's saying this is a problem, and it's only almost exclusively government-paid scientists who are saying it's a problem," he said.

"Once they retire from the CSIRO or the Bureau of Meteorology, you find them saying different things altogether."

While believing in climate change seems to be a popular notion, the geologist turned sheep and cattle farmer said he received plenty of support for his views.

The long-time QT letter contributor said many Australian's opposed a carbon tax.

"The absolutely stupid and baseless view that we could possibly cut our carbon dioxide emissions by 20% is just not possible," Mr Forbes said.

"The only way they could manage to do it, is to send most of our industries like our aluminium, our steel and our cement industries overseas - that'd cut it, but there'd be an awful lot of people without jobs."

With a package of bills related to the carbon tax being already going through parliament, Mr Forbes said his group would step up its campaign.

For more information, visit the Climate Sense Coalition's website.

The legislation

• The first carbon tax bills were introduced into parliament earlier this month.
• About 500 large polluters will be required to pay for their pollution.
• Those businesses account for around 60 per cent of our carbon pollution.
• More than 300 submissions were received in response to the draft legislation.