The International Energy Agency announced today that spiralling greenhouse gas emissions from human activities mean there is now little hope of limiting our rising global temperature to 2 degrees as agreed at the Cancun climate conference. Their report said "44% of emissions come from burning coal, 36% from oil and 20% from gas".
It's not as though we don't know what is causing the problem yet Queensland's government is planning to double our coal exports by 2030 and cover rural Queensland with 40,000 coal seam gas wells. It doesn't compute - unless they think money will save us.
Every year global overconsumption is recorded around the world. It records the day of the year when our consumption exceeds what the planet can sustain. In 2010 it fell on 21 August and it moves further forward every year. This so called development cannot continue. Something has to change.
* The Nordic region leads the way. They have shown over the past decades that growth is possible without increased environmental impact. The idea of sustainability goes hand in hand with the Nordic welfare state where it is their objective to enhance quality of life without depleting the earth's resources.
* In 1990 Sweden introduced a $100 carbon tax. It is now one of the world's most successful economies.
* Germany's Angela Merkel, in centre right government, on announcing she will phase out nuclear power by 2022 said this week "We believe we as a country can be a trailblazer for a new age of renewable energy sources".
"We can be the first major industrialised country that achieves the transition to renewable energy with all the opportunities - for exports, development, technology, jobs - it carries with it."
* Government in Scotland has announced the country will be running on 100% renewable energy by 2030.
Yet we keep hearing that Australia can't afford to get ahead of the rest of the world in responding to the growing climate crisis. We are orchestrating a crime against nature and the future.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Thanks Ross Gittins
Climate inertia shows ugly side of the Australian character
Ross Gittins, SMH May 25, 2011
It's a sore test of faith when people put power bills before their children's future.
LIKE most people, I'm an instinctive optimist. In any case, I see no margin in pessimism. If you concluded the world was irredeemably wicked, or destined for certain destruction, what would be left but to curl up and die? Since we can never be certain the end is nigh, much better to keep living and keep plugging away for a better world.
I confess, however, I've needed all my optimistic instincts to avoid despair over the terrible hash we're making of the need to take effective action against global warming. We're showing everything that's unattractive about the Australian character.
We pride ourselves that Aussies are good in a crisis, but until the walls start falling in on us we couldn't reach agreement to shut the door against the cold.
This week's report from the Climate Commission - established to provide expert advice on the science of climate change and its effects on Australia—tells us nothing we didn't already know, but everything we've lost sight of in our efforts to advance our personal interests at the expense of the nation's.
Its 70 pages boil down to four propositions we'd rather not think about. First, there is no doubt the climate is changing. The evidence is clear. The atmosphere is warming, the ocean is warming, ice is being lost from glaciers and ice caps, and sea levels are rising. Global surface temperature is rising fast; the last decade was the hottest on record.
Second, we are already seeing the social, economic and environmental effects of a changing climate. In the past 50 years, the number of record hot days in Australia has more than doubled. This has increased the risk of heatwave-associated deaths, as well as extreme bushfires.
Sea level has risen by 20 centimetres globally since the late 1800s, affecting many coastal communities. Another 20-centimetre increase by 2050 is likely, on present projections, which would more than double the risk of coastal flooding.
Third, these changes are triggered by human activities—particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation—which are increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with carbon dioxide the most important of these gases.
Fourth, this is the critical decade. Decisions we make from now to 2020 will determine the severity of climate change our children and grandchildren experience. Without strong and rapid action, there is a significant risk that climate change will undermine society's prosperity, health, stability and way of life.
That scientists still need to repeat these long-established truths is a measure of how much we've allowed short-sighted and selfish concerns to distract us from the need to respond to a clear and present danger.
In this we haven't been well served by our leaders. The Labor government's decline dates from Kevin Rudd's loss of nerve following the defeat of his carbon pollution reduction scheme in the Senate in late 2009, following the success of the Coalition's climate-change deniers in overthrowing Malcolm Turnbull and replacing him with a man whose record showed him willing to take whatever position on climate change he thought would advance his career.
Had Rudd the courage of his professed convictions, he would have taken the question to a double-dissolution election, fighting in defence of his ''great big new tax on everything''. Instead he dithered, eventually yielding to pressure from those in his party—including Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan—wanting to put the government's survival ahead of its duty.
Opposition leaders play a vital role in a democracy and are given considerable licence. They're not expected to speak the unvarnished truth. Dishonest scare campaigns have long been used by both sides.
I don't like using the L-word, but Tony Abbott is setting new lows in the lightness with which he plays with the truth. He blatantly works both sides of the street, nodding happily in the company of climate-change deniers, but in more intellectually respectable company professing belief in human-caused global warming, his commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 and the efficacy of his no-offence policies to achieve it.
He grossly exaggerates the costs involved in a carbon tax, telling business audiences they will have to pay the lot and be destroyed by it, while telling the punters business will pass all the costs on to them. He forgets to mention that most of the proceeds from the tax will be returned as compensation.
He repeats the half-truth that nothing we could do by ourselves would reduce global emissions, while failing to correct the punters' ignorant belief that Australia is the only country contemplating action. Last week's news that Britain's Conservative-led coalition government has pledged to cut emissions by half within 15 years is ignored. Economists call this mentality ''free-riding''; the old Australian word for it is ''bludging''.
But it's far too easy to blame our failure to face up to climate change just on our hopeless politicians. Our increasingly partisan media have failed to hold Abbott to account over his duplicity. Many have sought to increase circulation or ratings by joining in the fearmongering and denial. The media's love of controversy has led it to give doubters of the science of climate change a credibility they don't deserve against the overwhelming weight of science.
Australians are proud of their inbuilt bulldust detectors, but on this issue they seemed to have turned them off, happily believing whatever self-serving nonsense politicians, business people and media personalities serve up to them.
The one thing humans are meant to care about above all is the survival of their young. Yet people with the highest standard of living in history are whingeing that they couldn't possibly afford to pay a bit more for their electricity.
Ross Gittins is a senior columnist.
Ross Gittins, SMH May 25, 2011
It's a sore test of faith when people put power bills before their children's future.
LIKE most people, I'm an instinctive optimist. In any case, I see no margin in pessimism. If you concluded the world was irredeemably wicked, or destined for certain destruction, what would be left but to curl up and die? Since we can never be certain the end is nigh, much better to keep living and keep plugging away for a better world.
I confess, however, I've needed all my optimistic instincts to avoid despair over the terrible hash we're making of the need to take effective action against global warming. We're showing everything that's unattractive about the Australian character.
We pride ourselves that Aussies are good in a crisis, but until the walls start falling in on us we couldn't reach agreement to shut the door against the cold.
This week's report from the Climate Commission - established to provide expert advice on the science of climate change and its effects on Australia—tells us nothing we didn't already know, but everything we've lost sight of in our efforts to advance our personal interests at the expense of the nation's.
Its 70 pages boil down to four propositions we'd rather not think about. First, there is no doubt the climate is changing. The evidence is clear. The atmosphere is warming, the ocean is warming, ice is being lost from glaciers and ice caps, and sea levels are rising. Global surface temperature is rising fast; the last decade was the hottest on record.
Second, we are already seeing the social, economic and environmental effects of a changing climate. In the past 50 years, the number of record hot days in Australia has more than doubled. This has increased the risk of heatwave-associated deaths, as well as extreme bushfires.
Sea level has risen by 20 centimetres globally since the late 1800s, affecting many coastal communities. Another 20-centimetre increase by 2050 is likely, on present projections, which would more than double the risk of coastal flooding.
Third, these changes are triggered by human activities—particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation—which are increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with carbon dioxide the most important of these gases.
Fourth, this is the critical decade. Decisions we make from now to 2020 will determine the severity of climate change our children and grandchildren experience. Without strong and rapid action, there is a significant risk that climate change will undermine society's prosperity, health, stability and way of life.
That scientists still need to repeat these long-established truths is a measure of how much we've allowed short-sighted and selfish concerns to distract us from the need to respond to a clear and present danger.
In this we haven't been well served by our leaders. The Labor government's decline dates from Kevin Rudd's loss of nerve following the defeat of his carbon pollution reduction scheme in the Senate in late 2009, following the success of the Coalition's climate-change deniers in overthrowing Malcolm Turnbull and replacing him with a man whose record showed him willing to take whatever position on climate change he thought would advance his career.
Had Rudd the courage of his professed convictions, he would have taken the question to a double-dissolution election, fighting in defence of his ''great big new tax on everything''. Instead he dithered, eventually yielding to pressure from those in his party—including Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan—wanting to put the government's survival ahead of its duty.
Opposition leaders play a vital role in a democracy and are given considerable licence. They're not expected to speak the unvarnished truth. Dishonest scare campaigns have long been used by both sides.
I don't like using the L-word, but Tony Abbott is setting new lows in the lightness with which he plays with the truth. He blatantly works both sides of the street, nodding happily in the company of climate-change deniers, but in more intellectually respectable company professing belief in human-caused global warming, his commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 and the efficacy of his no-offence policies to achieve it.
He grossly exaggerates the costs involved in a carbon tax, telling business audiences they will have to pay the lot and be destroyed by it, while telling the punters business will pass all the costs on to them. He forgets to mention that most of the proceeds from the tax will be returned as compensation.
He repeats the half-truth that nothing we could do by ourselves would reduce global emissions, while failing to correct the punters' ignorant belief that Australia is the only country contemplating action. Last week's news that Britain's Conservative-led coalition government has pledged to cut emissions by half within 15 years is ignored. Economists call this mentality ''free-riding''; the old Australian word for it is ''bludging''.
But it's far too easy to blame our failure to face up to climate change just on our hopeless politicians. Our increasingly partisan media have failed to hold Abbott to account over his duplicity. Many have sought to increase circulation or ratings by joining in the fearmongering and denial. The media's love of controversy has led it to give doubters of the science of climate change a credibility they don't deserve against the overwhelming weight of science.
Australians are proud of their inbuilt bulldust detectors, but on this issue they seemed to have turned them off, happily believing whatever self-serving nonsense politicians, business people and media personalities serve up to them.
The one thing humans are meant to care about above all is the survival of their young. Yet people with the highest standard of living in history are whingeing that they couldn't possibly afford to pay a bit more for their electricity.
Ross Gittins is a senior columnist.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
SORRY DAY another chance to be sorry.
Greens look for more action on Sorry Day
The Australian Greens have today reaffirmed their commitment to better
outcomes for the Stolen Generations, using Sorry Day to focus on taking
further steps towards a better Australia.
"It is poignant that this year, Sorry Day comes just as the national
discussion paper on the recognition of Indigenous people in Australia's
constitution is launched and we engage in a national discussion" said
Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Issues said today.
"We believe that Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians
has the potential to be the basis for lasting and meaningful change in
our society.
"I am encouraged by some of the work being done around the country to
deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal people, including practical
measures to overcome the sad legacy of the Stolen Generations but more
needs to be done.
"The National Sorry Day Committee's Progress Scorecard is used to
measure the progress of the Stolen Generations Working Partnership and
has highlighted the importance of continued and improved support for
important services and programs.
"For example, the scorecard identifies a number of instances where
funding from the Federal Government's mental health package could be
invested to improve support services for Stolen Generations and their
families. Mental health remains a serious concern in many Aboriginal
communities, and services are often under-resourced.
I'll be at Balaangala Gardens, 98 Yooralla St The Gap for a ceremony and tree planting from 4.30 till 6pm, organised by the local reconcilliation group.
The Australian Greens have today reaffirmed their commitment to better
outcomes for the Stolen Generations, using Sorry Day to focus on taking
further steps towards a better Australia.
"It is poignant that this year, Sorry Day comes just as the national
discussion paper on the recognition of Indigenous people in Australia's
constitution is launched and we engage in a national discussion" said
Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Issues said today.
"We believe that Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians
has the potential to be the basis for lasting and meaningful change in
our society.
"I am encouraged by some of the work being done around the country to
deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal people, including practical
measures to overcome the sad legacy of the Stolen Generations but more
needs to be done.
"The National Sorry Day Committee's Progress Scorecard is used to
measure the progress of the Stolen Generations Working Partnership and
has highlighted the importance of continued and improved support for
important services and programs.
"For example, the scorecard identifies a number of instances where
funding from the Federal Government's mental health package could be
invested to improve support services for Stolen Generations and their
families. Mental health remains a serious concern in many Aboriginal
communities, and services are often under-resourced.
I'll be at Balaangala Gardens, 98 Yooralla St The Gap for a ceremony and tree planting from 4.30 till 6pm, organised by the local reconcilliation group.
Monday, 23 May 2011
It's surreal
The Climate Commission's first report released today is titled "The Critical Decade". It warns that our decisions this decade will determine whether our children will spend their lives struggling with a climate out of control. Will Steffen, the report's author and professor of climate change at ANU warns that we need a clean energy revolution starting now. We need to decarbonise our economy and way of life and move to clean energy, now. If we fail to do this we will miss the last remaining opportunity to safeguard the future.
You'd think that a message like this would preoccupy the nation's thinking, dominate news broadcasts and stop us in our tracks. You'd think every one of us would be imploring governments to facilitate this transition to renewable energy at the very least for the sake of our children and grand children. And talking to our neighbours about what more each of us could do to pull our weight. That political parties would stop arguing and legislate today to reduce our carbon emissions, the proven cause of this, the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. And the 17 government subsidies of the fossil fuel industry would be transferred to industries waiting in the wings to build a renewable energy future. That groups like BZE with its costed plan for transitioning to renewable stationary energy within a decade would be consulted about how to do it.
But none of this is happening. It's just business as usual. What will it take to move us to demand a change of direction necessary to safeguard the future?
You'd think that a message like this would preoccupy the nation's thinking, dominate news broadcasts and stop us in our tracks. You'd think every one of us would be imploring governments to facilitate this transition to renewable energy at the very least for the sake of our children and grand children. And talking to our neighbours about what more each of us could do to pull our weight. That political parties would stop arguing and legislate today to reduce our carbon emissions, the proven cause of this, the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. And the 17 government subsidies of the fossil fuel industry would be transferred to industries waiting in the wings to build a renewable energy future. That groups like BZE with its costed plan for transitioning to renewable stationary energy within a decade would be consulted about how to do it.
But none of this is happening. It's just business as usual. What will it take to move us to demand a change of direction necessary to safeguard the future?
Saturday, 21 May 2011
International Biodiversity Day
It is always with sadness that I stop to reflect on biodiversity. My species has done such an all pervasive job of removing and altering the habitat of our fellow species that so many of them have been driven to extinction and many more are on the brink. In fact the sixth great extinction is happening now at our hands.
Queensland has a worse record than the other states combined. At last count we were responsible for 53% of plant and animal extinctions. In many cases we have eradicated species before we have even mapped their presence.
South-east Queensland is a biodiversity hotspot. It is also trying to accommodate the major population flow in Australia. Over 1000 people per week have been moving here for many years. We have lost 50% of our koala population in the last three years. Does that mean in three years hence they will all be gone?
I'm trying to find something positive to say on this topic of biodiversity.
If anyone can help me find the words, I welcome your response.
Queensland has a worse record than the other states combined. At last count we were responsible for 53% of plant and animal extinctions. In many cases we have eradicated species before we have even mapped their presence.
South-east Queensland is a biodiversity hotspot. It is also trying to accommodate the major population flow in Australia. Over 1000 people per week have been moving here for many years. We have lost 50% of our koala population in the last three years. Does that mean in three years hence they will all be gone?
I'm trying to find something positive to say on this topic of biodiversity.
If anyone can help me find the words, I welcome your response.
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Letting the British lead
Conservative leader David Cameron has announced his intention to drop Britain's carbon emissions to 50% of their 1990 level by 2029, calling it an environment propelled low carbon industrial revolution.
He has recognised the imperative of taking leadership in clean energy technology. The government will support the birth of a new manufacturing industry in renewables.
Their conservative party is clearly very different from our own.
It makes our meagre 5% reduction target by 2020 pale into insignificance.
Let's hope our conservative party was listening to yesterday's news from England. And for that matter our party in government as well.
He has recognised the imperative of taking leadership in clean energy technology. The government will support the birth of a new manufacturing industry in renewables.
Their conservative party is clearly very different from our own.
It makes our meagre 5% reduction target by 2020 pale into insignificance.
Let's hope our conservative party was listening to yesterday's news from England. And for that matter our party in government as well.
The Godfather of the Environment Movement
Just saw David Suzuki's film "Force of Nature". It's autobiographical and he made it for his 75th birthday, to say what he wanted to say before he dies. He says we bow before the percieved need for economic growth as we used to bow before dragons and demons - all three are figments of our imagination.
And the questions we don't ask in the way we live our lives are:
How much is enough?
Are there no limits?
How I wish I could reassure him that the world now understands what he has been saying all these years, and that we are fast moving along an alternative pathway that respects the air, the water, the soil, the sources of all life.
And the questions we don't ask in the way we live our lives are:
How much is enough?
Are there no limits?
How I wish I could reassure him that the world now understands what he has been saying all these years, and that we are fast moving along an alternative pathway that respects the air, the water, the soil, the sources of all life.
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Photo of the launch of my candidacy
Adam Stone, candidate for Mt Coot-tha, myself, Senator Bob Brown and Senator Larissa Waters at the
Mt Coot-tha launch of our campaign on 2nd May 2011.
Greens ready to adopt strong emissions targets
Greens Ready to Adopt Strong Emissions Targets
Wednesday 11 May 2011
The Australian Greens remain 100% committed to using all methods
possible to implement science-based emissions reduction targets, despite
misleading reports in today's press
"The Greens work every day inside and outside the Parliament to do
everything we can to get Australia on track to achieving the pollution
cuts we need to tackle the climate crisis," Australian Greens Deputy
Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.
It was the Government's refusal to budge beyond a 5% reduction by 2020
in greenhouse gas emissions that led the Greens in January 2010 to
propose a compromise approach to start transforming the economy by
introducing a trading scheme with a fixed price until an agreement on
targets can be reached.
"If we cannot get agreement on responsible targets in an emissions
trading scheme, the best way to make this happen is by introducing a
price signal to start the process towards transforming our economy from
polluting coal to clean, renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency,
protecting forests, creating jobs and more.
"The idea that the fixed price period will be without a target is old
news, frankly, as that is what we are working to achieve with the
current negotiations.
"The whole point of the hybrid model to put a price on pollution, teamed
with policies to drive renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean
transport and more, is to get Australia moving on building a new clean
economy and come back to agree on targets further down the track.
"Once the scheme is operating from July 1 next year with a fixed and
rising price, we can return to negotiating targets. When that succeeds,
trading will follow.
"This process is set out in the Carbon Price Framework Agreement agreed
between The Greens and the Government and announced in February this
year.
"Critically, when it comes time to transition from a fixed price to a
trading scheme, we will have the experience of carbon pricing and enough
investment will have been made in the right direction to take on the
truly ambitious, science-based targets that we need in order to tackle
the climate crisis.
"To suggest that this approach demonstrates the Greens shelving our
ambitious targets is patently wrong.
"What we need now is both the Government and the Coalition to be upfront
about the ambition of the targets that will be necessary to constrain
global warming to below 2 degrees. That is well above a 5% target."
Tim Hollo
Media Adviser
Senator Christine Milne | Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Climate
Change Spokesperson
Suite SG-112 Parliament House, Canberra ACT | P: 02 6277 3588 | M: 0437
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