Managing director of Ebono Institute and major sponsor of The Generator, Geoff Ebbs, is running against Kevin Rudd in the seat of Griffith at the next Federal election. By the expression on their faces in this candid shot it looks like a pretty dull campaign. Read on
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7:21 AM (2 hours ago)
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Butterfly Report + Jeremiah, the Frog
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| “Butterfly Report + Jeremiah, the Frog” is available on my web site or directly here.
~Jim |
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Dr. James E. Hansen |
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| Weather on Steroids Is Global Warming, Stupid: Paul Barrett Bloomberg On Oct. 17 the giant German reinsurance company Munich Re issued a prescient report titled Severe Weather in North America. Globally, the rate of extreme weather events is rising, and “nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Hurricane Sandy TucsonSentinel.com Unfortunately, Sandy is only the latest in a line of recent extreme weather events that have severely afflicted Americans in the past two years. Other disasters include the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, record-breaking temperatures … See all stories on this topic » |
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Monbiot.com
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Posted: 29 Oct 2012 02:44 AM PDT An open letter to the former ministers who appear to have let a devastating tree disease into the UK.
To Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for the Environment from 2007 to May 2010 and Caroline Spelman MP, Secretary of State for the Environment from May 2010 to September 2012. Sent to them by email on 28th October 2012 and published on the Guardian’s website, 29th October 2012. Dear Hilary and Caroline, I am writing to ask why you failed to ban imports of ash seedlings and saplings from continental Europe into the United Kingdom, when it has been clear for several years that the species was widely infected on the Continent with ash die-back (Chalara fraxinea). You are both said – by people who worked with you and others who know you well – to have taken your brief as secretaries of state for the environment seriously. Yet it now emerges that there were repeated warnings from experts about the spread and gravity of the disease, and that European ecologists – as well as British foresters and conservationists – were begging the UK government to take all necessary measures to prevent the fungus from arriving here, so that there would at least be one uninfected redoubt. Am I wrong in thinking that you ignored their warnings? If so, could you show me what action you took to prevent the disease from arriving here? At the moment Owen Paterson, the current secretary of state, is being held responsible for the problem. But by the time he took charge of Defra, it was too late. All he could do was to shut the stable door after the horse had bolted. I believe that politicians will not take the long-term consequences of their decisions seriously unless they are held to account for them. Political short-termism is one of the natural world’s greatest threats. So, though neither of you are now in government, I think you both have some explaining to do: quite a lot of explaining, in fact. If ash die-back is now spreading across Britain as a result of your combined inaction, you carry responsibility for causing one of the greatest environmental crises ever to have struck this country: a profound loss that will be felt by everyone who loves the natural world. I would be grateful if you could tell me what happened – or what didn’t. Why did you fail to ban imports of live ash trees and to take other measures necessary to prevent the arrival of the disease? Was it an obsession with free trade at any cost? Was it a desire not to be seen to be “anti-business” by regulating corporate activity, however strong the case for so doing? Was it the lack of political incentives, as very few people outside government were aware of the danger, which meant that the political cost of inaction was low? Why did you fail to alert parliament and the public to the danger? I have checked the parliamentary record, and found that not a word has been said there, in any forum, about the disease before 11th October 2012. There is a single mention of the pathogen before October 2012 on the Defra website. A progress report on plant biosecurity published in July 2012 notes that, at an unspecified date, but presumably during the previous winter, “Fera made a significant interception of Chalara faxinea [sic] on ash plants imported from the Netherlands and followed this up with FC [Forestry Commission] providing assistance in the form of disease recognition.” In other words, Caroline, your department was aware that infected seedlings were arriving in this country and that officials did not possess the expertise required to spot them. Yet you still allowed imports to continue. What were you thinking? Where were the urgent warnings, the urgent action required to defend this country from a pressing threat? Those of us who are now dreading the likely outcome of the disease, and wondering how, in the information age, we could have been kept in the dark about it by the department you ran, would dearly like some answers. I undertake to publish them as soon as they are received. Thank you. Yours Sincerely, George Monbiot |
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ABC © Enlarge photo
A former ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) chief has labelled Australia’s preparedness for dealing with disasters as poor.
Peter Dunn led the ESA from 2003 until 2006 and has co-authored a private study looking at disaster responses in Australia over the past decade.
The study, titled Senior Leadership in Times of Crisis, found that those in senior leadership roles were inadequately trained, often to the detriment of the whole effort.
Mr Dunn says emergency leaders should not have to learn it all on the job.
“Senior leaders often don’t recognise what is an evolving event until it becomes out of scale,” he said.
“[They] often don’t understand the personal characteristics and behaviours they need to exhibit to make sure that they give confidence to their teams, and their teams are prepared to bring them bad news early.”
Mr Dunn says themes emerged of poor communication and a lack of leadership.
“The people on the ground are really well trained,” he said.
“But we don’t spend the same time training those people to take on the very senior roles where they’ve got to bring all parts of government together.
“That’s the secret of success.”
| Superstorm Sandy spurs talk of global warming The Seattle Times Scientists agree rising sea levels caused primarily by global warming could worsen the effects of storms such as Hurricane Sandy, particularly the surge of water in low-lying areas, a cause for concern in coastal communities. By Erika Bolstad … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Flood barriers bid to save New York’s fragile shores Brisbane Times David Chen, Mireya Navarro. As water levels continue to rise, officials will be forced to find money for better protection. Tweet · Pin It · Email article · Print · Reprints & permissions. A fire fighter surveys the smoldering ruins of a house in the … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cato Institute Halloween trick: issues report masquerading as an “Addendum” to … Climate Science Watch In 2009, a scientific assessment of Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program warned in its key findings that “coastal areas are at increasing risk from sea–level rise and storm surge.” Now … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Experts warn of superstorm era WJXT Jacksonville The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in 2007 that the global average sea level would rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of this century. More recent projections suggest that the melting of Arctic sea ice could mean a rise in … See all stories on this topic » |
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| How Global Warming Made Hurricane Sandy Worse Climate Central There are three different ways climate change might have influenced Sandy: through the effects of sea level rise; through abnormally warm sea surface temperatures; and possibly through an unusual weather pattern that some scientists think bore the … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Roger Pielke Jr.’s Blog: How Much Sea Level Rise Would be … By Roger Pielke, Jr. One of the more reasonable discussion points to emerge from efforts to link Hurricane Sandy to the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions focuses on the role that future sea level rise will have on making storm impacts worse. Logically … Roger Pielke Jr.’s Blog |
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| A/Prof Kevin Walsh, ‘Losing higher ground: hurricanes and sea level … The impact of Hurricane Sandy has been great. The bad news is that in the future , the impact of a similar storm would be even greater, due to the projected sea … www.sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/…/aprof-kevin-walsh-losing-… |
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| Sea level rise will make Hurricane Sandy’s NYC typical by the year … With climate change, a 9-foot water level rise isn’t that far off. arstechnica.com/…/sea-level-rise-will-make-hurricane-sandys-… |
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| Hurricane Sandy: Neither weather nor tide nor sea level can be … Climate Central provides a fascinating GIS tool called Surging Seas allowing users to explore effects of combined storm surge, tide and sea level rise on … www.skepticalscience.com/print.php?n=1686 |
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| Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo Admit to Relationship … With the impending rising sea levels, it is being predicted that in 100 years, New York’s waters will be at the level we today call “storm surge,” so unless a system … inhabitat.com/…/mayor-bloomberg-and-governor-cuomo-adm… |
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7:09 PM (25 minutes ago)
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This email isn’t a call to action, just a quick update on the latest pokies announcement, and why we must keep fighting in this campaign.
You may have heard today that the Parliament has passed a set of watered-down pokies reforms. I just received an email (included below) from Karen, a GetUp member whose husband took his own life because of gambling addiction. She is urging us to keep up the fight on pokies reform, and I couldn’t agree more.
There’s more detail here for those who are interested, but here are the 3 most important facts:
1. The gambling industry is pretty happy with this legislation: a sure sign that it’s still rubbish.
2. This is exactly why we must continue to focus on the corporations who own and operate pokie machines. Moving the biggest operators in the market – like Woolworths – will completely change the game. Not only will it immediately start to reduce the blight of problem gambling, but it will also mean there are companies with an incentive actually to lobby for reform as this fight continues.
3. The reforms are a long way from what the Productivity Commission recommended to reduce the harm of problem gambling. The legislation relies on a solution called voluntary pre-commitment has been demonstrated over and over again to be a failure. So in the meantime we must keep up our campaign.
For more detail about the package, click here.
When government makes some change, however inadequate, it’s natural to feel a little relieved that at least something is being done. But GetUp isn’t just about change, it’s about change that makes a difference. We have more actions planned for this campaign next week, and we’ll be in touch about them soon. If you read Karen’s email below, I think you’ll agree that our work here is far from done.
Thanks for all that you do
Sam, for the GetUp Team.
—Here’s the email that Karen sent me. I wanted to pass it on.—
Hi Sam,
I want to urge you to continue your campaign against poker machines despite the legislation announced today.
I’ve been following this campaign since the beginning. Sixteen years ago I lost my partner, Robin, to suicide after he lost everything on poker machines for the third time. People who become addicted to gambling are not anti-social misfits. They come from all walks of life and most are like Robin – good people who get sucked in by this pernicious and manipulative form of gambling. Robin was a wonderful man – a trade -union official who was adored by his members, a fabulous father and a true mate. I believe that poker machines stole him from us.
I’m sure the changes we are requesting – to have a cap on the amount of each bet and on the amount you can lose in an hour, would have made a huge difference to him. Compulsive gamblers don’t do it for the money – they do it for the adrenalin. So with a cap, there is still the adrenalin, but also some sort of reality check as well as the possibility of some money to take home to feed the family.
If we can’t get rid of these machines, at the very least we can make them do less harm.
Please keep fighting.
Karen T.
To donate to GetUp’s ongoing work, please click here: https://www.getup.org.au/donate
GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 2, 104 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.
