How do we repay the environmant for the water we take? Do we want the mighty Snowy and the Murray to run? Should the debate be about how to put back into the system what we have taken out, or is it about carving up a scarce resource.

We all understand the need to conserve water, but how should the water we have be distributed amongst the various end users? Should the farmer pay the same for a litre of water as we do in the city? Should water cost the same in a drought year as it does in a year of abundance?

Are we being taken up the creek without a paddle with the water debate? Will we end up with a real market or is the debate a smokescreen to unleash yet another privatisation of a resource.

Do we want Tim Flannery as an honest broker, or do we prefer the outcome delivered by politicians?

The glaciers recede in New Zealand in absolute harmony with the industrial revolution. We have been searching for the science to explain the impacts on climate and debate the increments and debate whether mother nature has the capacity to eventually correct the imbalances.

In the last thirty years the debate has now moved from deriding those who understood the impacts of the Greenhouse effect and of pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. At least now the debate is about the rate of the approaching crisis and its impact.

The Stern report seems to mark a watershed in the thinking of the broader communities. Climate Change has moved from the University to the Board Room and now has a place at the Dining Room table.

What is Carbon Trading? Is it about robbing Peter and paying Paul and saying you are even? Is it reasonable to push a hell of a heat load into the atmosphere along with alot of carbon dioxide, buy a plantation as an offset and claim you are a good guy because you are neutral. Is the referee neutral, or does he play for the planet, Earth?

How much carbon does a Mallee Gum lock up, and what happens if we clear the paddock. Is Carbon Trading the answer for the big macro players, or do individuals count?

What sort of carbon resources qualify. Do I need to be a wealthy pine plantation owner to share in the benefits of trading, or does the big gum tree in our front yard really matter. When we bury carbon dioxide in an emptied disused oil reservoir, does the community buy the reservoir from the oil company, so that they win as it comes out of the ground as well as when it goes back?

If we can not come to terms with the equity of carbon trading as a community, then there is no chance of the nations of the world reaching an agreement. For now, we can start by understanding the issues a little bit better.