EcoRadio

Category: Climate chaos

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. 

  • Rudd on the nose for lacking fortitude

     

    John Howard used to often attribute his longevity not to the fact people liked what he stood for but the fact they knew what he stood for.

    Rudd has managed to cultivate an image of standing for whatever is popular and then turning tail at the first whiff of grapeshot. The Newspoll is reflective of what the party polling has been finding internally.

    The response to the Henry review has been universally derided as weak.

    But this assessment misses the key point: that it is not timid to impose a massive tax and to pick a fight with the mining industry and the business sector more broadly.

    It will be a tough fight against powerful interests that has not started well for the Government.

    If if backs away, however, the damage will be severe.

    Rudd is in a corner and all eyes are on how well he responds.

    Poll: Is the Rudd government’s popularity in decline?

    Poll form
    1. Please select an answer.
    3. View results
    No, polls come and go. Issues such as the ETS and interest rate rises are beyond its control.

    11%

    Yes, it has been one backflip after another. It’s decision to put the ETS on the backburner was the final straw.

    89%

    Total votes: 6901.

    Would you like to vote?

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    Poll closes in 18 hours.

    Disclaimer:

    These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.

  • Voters want climate action now: Greens

     

    “They don’t want it delayed. They’re in favour of this alternative now that the Government’s CPRS scheme is not going ahead until 2013,” Senator Brown said.

    “This is the live option now before the Parliament and Australians are swinging in right behind it.

    “[Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd should have another look at the simplicity of this alternative which was recommended to him by Professor Ross Garnaut.”

    On Tuesday the Government announced that it was shelving the controversial emissions trading scheme (ETS) until at least 2013.

    Mr Rudd has previously described climate change as the “great moral challenge of our generation”.

    But he said the ETS was shelved because of the Opposition roadblock in the Senate and the lack of a breakthrough at last year’s Copenhagen climate talks.

     

    Climate jobs

     

    Meanwhile, the Community and Public Sector Union has dismissed calls to sack the public servants who have been working on the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme (ETS).

    Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says there is now no need for the 500 staff in the Climate Change Department following the Government’s decision to delay the ETS.

    CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood says the idea that you could just sack highly skilled employees who could be used elsewhere is unfathomable.

    “These are highly skilled people that the public service is struggling to attract and retain,” she said.

    “The notion that you should just sack them because a program doesn’t go ahead is just silly.”

    Tags: environment, climate-change, government-and-politics, federal-government, greens, brown-bob, brown-bob, australia

    First posted 2 hours 52 minutes ago

  • Absolute Political Cowardice

    From: GetUp! <info@getup.org.au>
    Date: Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 9:53 PM
    Subject: Absolute political cowardice

    **News: Kevin Rudd has betrayed his promise to take action on climate change. Click here to hold him to account.**

    Dear NEVILLE,

    “Absolute political cowardice… an absolute failure of leadership.”1 That’s what Kevin Rudd said just months ago about those who wanted to delay action on climate change. He was right.

    Yesterday Kevin Rudd betrayed his promise to act on climate change, deferring action until 2013: six years after he called climate change the moral challenge of our age.

    So what can we do about it? To start, we have to ensure this doesn’t go unnoticed – doesn’t go unanswered. Every Australian who took the Prime Minister at his word should see this video of his climate backflip. Together, GetUp members number 350,000. If we each forward this to five friends, we can reach millions.

    Click here to see the video

    www.getup.org.au/campaign/climateinaction

    The Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was a mess of a policy: a paltry 5% target, and what the Govenrment’s own advisor, Prof. Ross Garnaut, called “one of the worst examples of policy making we have seen on major issues in Australia.”2 But this is about far more than another policy delay.

    Time and again, Kevin Rudd has betrayed the support Australians gave him last election. And yesterday, he broke faith with us on “the great challenge of our time.”3 It is time to say enough. It is time to take a stand and declare a vote of no confidence in Kevin Rudd’s leadership on climate change:

    www.getup.org.au/campaign/climateinaction

    We could say a lot about this latest backflip, but Kevin Rudd himself perhaps said it best. Here’s what he said just months ago about delaying climate action:

    “….When you strip away all the political rhetoric, all the political excuses, there are two stark choices – action or inaction.”

    “…The resolve of the Australian Government is clear: we choose action, and we do so because Australia’s fundamental economic and environmental interests lie in action. Action now. Not action delayed.”

    “…the eighth excuse cannot be far away – which will be to wait until the next year or the year after until all the rest of the world has acted at which time Australia will act.

    “…What absolute political cowardice. What an absolute failure of leadership. What an absolute failure of logic.”4

    The Prime Minister said it right: what absolute cowardice. And as he said in that same speech:

    “It’s time to remove any polite veneer from this debate. The stakes are that high.”

    Right again: it’s time to remove the veneer and speak truth to power – and that’s what GetUp members do best. Please share this email and video with friends, and click below to join the vote of no confidence in Kevin Rudd’s climate decision:

    www.getup.org.au/campaign/climateinaction

    Together we are 350,000 voices and 350,000 votes that cannot be ignored. Let’s stand together to say ‘no more excuses, no more delays: it’s time to act on dangerous climate change.’

    Thanks,
    The GetUp Team

    PS – On refugees, on human rights and now on climate change, Kevin Rudd has broken faith with us. It is time to stand up with one voice and tell the Prime Minister he has lost our confidence. Click here to sign the declaration.

    –Sources–

    1The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institue, 06/11/ 2009.
    2Prof. Ross Garnaut, The 7.30 Report, ABC, broadcast: 12/10/2009, reporter: Kerry O’Brien.
    3The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Opening Remarks to the National Climate Change Summit, Parliament House, Canberra, 31/03/07
    4The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institue, 06/11/ 2009.

     

    __________________________

  • Labor shelves emissions scheme

     

    Mr Brown says the Government could do a deal with the Greens, but lacks the political will to do so.

    “Climate change is real. It is stalking Australia. It is threatening the Great Barrier Reef. It is threatening the Murray-Darling Basin,” he said.

    “We have seen projections of up to 90 per cent loss of productivity of the Murray-Darling Basin this century if climate change isn’t tackled.

    “It is up to the Australian Government to be responsibly taking the action now … beginning with this budget.”

     

    Climate ‘inconvenience’

     

    The Opposition’s climate action spokesman, Greg Hunt, says he is sceptical about the Government’s agenda.

    “It is a pea and thimble game because what is absolutely clear is that last year’s greatest moral challenge has become this year’s inconvenience,” he said.

    “The Government is concerned about the financial impacts of their enormous impost on electricity and grocery prices and the Government is concerned about its impact on the budget.”

    Mr Hunt says the Government may have realised that the Senate is not going to agree to the ETS any time soon.

    Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has told Radio National it is clear there is not enough support to pass the legislation.

    “I think it’s very clear that we don’t have much hope of getting the legislation through the Senate,” he said.

    “We’re disappointed and I’m sure the broader community is disappointed.”

    The Prime Minister’s office is refusing to comment.

    A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Government remains committed to the scheme as the best and cheapest way of reducing carbon pollution.

     

    Climate concerns

     

    The decision to shelve the ETS comes as a new survey shows climate change could be a deciding factor in the next federal election.

    The poll, conducted by Auspoll on behalf of the Climate Institute, Conservation Foundation and other groups, shows climate change is still of great concern to two-thirds of Australians.

    The chief executive of the Climate Institute, John Connor, says 35 per cent of voters are more likely to vote for the Rudd Government if it takes stronger action on climate change and only 16 per cent are less likely.

    “About two-thirds of Australians are concerned over climate change,” he said.

    “We’ve had a lot of muck-raking and misleading advertising campaigns from big polluters but concern is still strong.

    “We think that the parties that take stronger action on climate change will be rewarded at the next poll.”

    And Mr Connor says delaying the ETS is economically reckless.

    “It’s not government for the good of Australia, or the good of humanity. We are still emerging from delicate global talks,” he said.

    “We actually think there’s been better momentum, but Australia taking an act like this really throws us back five years.”

    Tags: environment, climate-change, government-and-politics, the-budget, federal-government, australia

    First posted 2 hours 9 minutes ago

  • Huge current discovered in southern ocean

     

    Huge current discovered in Southern Ocean

    Posted 3 hours 37 minutes ago

    Scientists say the discovery of a deep ocean current in the Southern Ocean could provide new insights into climate change.

    Australian and Japanese scientists found the current using measuring devices anchored to the ocean floor about 4,200 kilometres south-west of Perth.

    Dr Steve Rintoul from the CSIRO in Hobart says the current is flowing about three kilometres below the surface and carries 40 times as much water as the Amazon River.

    “It’s a larger part of the deep ocean current system than we expected,” he said.

    Ocean currents help regulate the Earth’s climate by storing and transporting heat and carbon dioxide.

    Dr Rintoul says the discovery will help ongoing studies of climate change.

    “We’re seeing signals of change, we’re seeing the water is fresher than it used to be,” he said.

    The scientists plan to return to the region next summer.

    Tags: environment, oceans-and-reefs, science-and-technology, australia

  • Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks, sparking pollution fear

     

    A coast guard officer, Katherine McNamara, said she did not know whether crude oil was spilling into the gulf. The rig also carried 2,649,700 litres of diesel fuel, but that would be likely to evaporate if it had not been consumed by the fire.

    Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said crews saw a sheen of what appeared to be a crude oil mix on the surface of the water. She said there was no evidence that crude oil had been released since the rig sank, but officials are not sure what is going on underwater. They have dispatched a vessel to check.

    Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network, said the oil would do much less damage at sea than it would if it hit the shore.

    “If it gets landward, it could be a disaster in the making,” she said.

    Doug Helton, incident operations coordinator for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s office of response and restoration, said the spill was not expected to come onshore in the next three to four days, unless the wind changed.

    Crews searching for the missing workers have covered the search area by air 12 times and by boat five times.

    Family members of one missing worker, Shane Roshto, started legal action in New Orleans yesterday accusing Transocean of negligence. The action said Roshto was thrown overboard by the explosion and was feared dead, though it did not indicate how family members knew what happened. The suit also names BP. Transocean and BP were not immediately available for comment.