They were shocked at the damage caused by that recent cyclone, said to be possibly the most severe in the Pacific in recorded history. There were huge areas where the vegetation had been completely levelled, they said.

Australian troops were there to help restore some of the most seriously damaged facilities, but so were the Chinese. There were Chinese flags all over the place, they said, but they saw only one Australian flag.

Are we being too coy about our foreign aid efforts? Do we need more flags or to just continue our work quietly?

This first-hand report of the damage caused by the cyclone came not long after we had an excellent, but very sad, report on the future of the Great Barrier Reef.

It showed coral around the world was being damaged, largely because of an increase in the oceans' salinity, due to an increase of carbon gasses in the water.

Then followed those devastating forest fires in Canada, the worst on record.

And there are still the die-hards who refuse to acknowledge that climate change exists or that we should do anything about it.

One politician said that because Australia produces only about 1.3 per cent of the world's carbon gases, there is not much point in us doing anything about it.

That attitude is like a person in a sinking boat refusing to help bail the water out because there were 99 other people there to do the job.

Or, to take it further, to say that because I don't earn much money there is no point in paying any tax: let the rest of Australia pay for my lifestyle.

Or, as we are only one of the seven or so billion people on earth, our individual efforts would have little impact on climate change. Let everyone else on earth do something about it, but not me!

The real message, however, must be that everyone on earth has a responsibility towards maintaining the health of our planet, but most of all, our decision-makers have to make some big decisions on our behalf. The coming election campaign will provide some indication of the candidates' or the political parties' policies to take action on our behalf.

We once had an effective policy, which involved a 'carbon tax' on electricity, which was designed to make us aware through our hip pocket nerve of the amount of electricity we were using, energy created by burning coal.

It led to an election and change of government, but nothing much being done about carbon gases since then.

These days, one party's policy is to pay the polluters to stop damaging the environment. The cost won't be paid for through a special tax (a carbon tax). The money will come from our general taxes. What is the difference? We still pay for it, but the critics are quiet about that.