The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity.Â
AN area of ice covering about 18sqkm has broken off Canada’s largest remaining ice shelf. The ice floe drifts off the Ward Hunt shelf Trent University researcher Derek Mueller said yesterday he would not be surprised if more ice broke off during the northern summer from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, a vast frozen plain Continue Reading →
From the Australian MELBOURNE, Adelaide and Sydney will blister in temperatures of more than 50C by 2050, according to the first hard look at the impact of climate change on extreme weather. The forecast is part of a long-term prediction that temperatures on the hottest day of the year will rise dramatically in parts of Continue Reading →
From The Age Greens leader Bob Brown says his party will lead the national parliamentary debate on climate change, pushing for tougher cuts in emissions and massive funding for public transport. Addressing the Australian Greens national Council meeting in Hobart, Senator Brown said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have failed to show mature leadership if Continue Reading →
The CO2CRC Otway Project has reached the first major milestone with the storage of 10,000tonnes of carbon dioxide two kilometres underground in a depleted natural gas reservoir. “We are closely monitoring the carbon dioxide through one of the world’s most comprehensivegeosequestration monitoring programs and every indication is that the carbon dioxide is behavingjust as researchers Continue Reading →
FOR the Brumby Government, “clean coal” is the state’s saviour. Like a shining white knight, it comes riding in, rescuing the state’s vast brown coal riches from the carbon scrap heap. The message is that clean coal technology will save not only 1370 jobs in the Latrobe Valley, but Victoria’s electricity supply itself.
However, as the day of reckoning approaches – when companies will have to pay for the pollution they emit – experts and industry leaders are not quite so sure the story will end so well.
A few days ago, Richard McIndoe, whose company TRUenergy owns Yallourn, one of the state’s big four brown coal power stations, warned that without Federal Government help to soften the impact of an emissions trading scheme, “the generators will be effectively bankrupt and therefore not able to operate from December 31” this year, because the value of the assets would be so diminished.
Professor Garnaut will release the long-awaited draft review of Climate Change this Friday July 4th and will attend public forums in capital cities next week. The public forums start in Perth on Monday July 7 and end in Brisbane on July 11. You can register to attend the forum at www.garnautreview.org.au. Garnaut describes the report as, Continue Reading →