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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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  • NASA study examines Antarctic sea ice increases

    NASA study examines Antarctic sea ice increases

    Posted: 13 Nov 2012 11:19 AM PST

    NASA and British Antarctic Survey scientists have reported the first direct evidence that marked changes to Antarctic sea ice drift caused by changing winds are responsible for observed increases in Antarctic sea ice cover in the past two decades. The results help explain why, unlike the dramatic sea ice losses being reported in the Arctic, Antarctic sea ice cover has increased under the effects of climate change.

    Warming temperatures will change Greenland’s face, experts predict

    Posted: 13 Nov 2012 10:48 AM PST

    Global climate models abound. What is harder to pin down, is how a warmer global temperature might affect any specific region on Earth. Researchers have now made the global local. Using a combination of climate models, they predict how different greenhouse gas scenarios would change the face of Greenland and impact sea level rise.
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  • Experts: sea levels rising faster than expected

    Experts: sea levels rising faster than expected
    IceNews
    American researchers have claimed that the rise of sea level may be happening at twice the rate previously thought. The news comes via a newly released study conducted by geologists from the University of Colorado in Boulder. The report says that sea …
    See all stories on this topic »
    IceNews
    $1.24 billion needed to rescue Saigon from flooding
    VietNamNet Bridge
    VietNamNet Bridge – By 2070, there will be nearly 10,000 hectares, 257,000 people, 1,494 km of roads and many production facilities, industrial parks being flooded due to high tides and the sea level rise, according to a workshop assessing the risk of …
    See all stories on this topic »
    VietNamNet Bridge
    UM Professor Finds Greenland Absorbs Large Amounts Of Melt
    The Roundup
    Scientists know that sea level currently rises about 3.2 mm per year, with about half of that rise comes from melting ice around the world. Researchers estimate that 20 to 40 percent of that new water comes from Greenland. Harper led a team of …
    See all stories on this topic »
    Can US adapt to surging storms in time to avert coastal damage?
    Alaska Dispatch
    Along the US East Coast, where Sandy and last year’s hurricane Irene left chaos in their wakes, a perfect storm of rising sea levels and coastal development is brewing. Forty-two percent of the dry land up to one meter above sea level is already …
    See all stories on this topic »
    The Moral of Sandy
    Project Syndicate
    Consider sea–level rise, which caused by far the most damage in New York. Models show that the world’s most ambitious climate policy, the EU’s “20-20-20” plan, will have a net cost of roughly $250 billion a year for the rest of the century, or about …
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    Project Syndicate
    Tell Us: Is this Extreme Weather a Symptom of Climate Change?
    Patch.com
    A study funded by the Rhode Island Sea Grant, found that the sea level around the East Bay has increased eight inches since 1930. By 2100, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council said to expect three to five feet of sea level rise.
    See all stories on this topic »

     

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  • Will Al Gore’s 24hrs of Reality campaign start to hit home?

    Will Al Gore’s 24hrs of Reality campaign start to hit home?
    Business Green
    This is an on-line, worldwide live broadcast aiming to connect the dots between global climate change and extreme weather events. It is the second global event that Al Gore has organised aiming to bring the world’s attention to the connection between …
    See all stories on this topic »
    Hurricane Sandy increases societal awareness of climate change
    UW Badger Herald
    Desai added global warming is likely to change the probabilities of extreme weather events. “We expect hurricanes to intensify, though not necessarily change in frequency with increased warming,” Desai said in an email to The Badger Herald. There are …
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  • Royal commission to consider confessional seal

    Royal commission to consider confessional seal

    AM

    By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen

    Updated 2 hours 53 minutes ago

    Video: Royal Commission must be done properly: Roxon(ABC News)
    Related Story: Irish judge warns abuse inquiry will take time
    Related Story: Abuse victims sceptical of Pell’s response
    Related Story: Pell accuses press of exaggerating Catholic abuse
    Map: Australia

    The royal commission into child sex abuse is likely to consider whether Catholic priests should be forced to tell police about crimes against children told to them in the confessional.

    There are growing calls for priests to be subject to the same mandatory reporting rules that other professions are, despite church rules that the confessional should remain secret.

    Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon says the idea that priests are not required to go to the police with information about child abuse is “abhorrent”.

    “Child sex abuse is a crime, it should be reported, and I know that the royal commission is going to have some very complex issues to deal with,” Ms Roxon told ABC News 24.

    “But I think we can’t afford to say that that should not be on the table, because clearly that is a concern.”

    Australia’s most senior Catholic, Sydney Archbishop George Pell, yesterday said the seal of confession was “inviolable”, a position that has put him at odds with some senior MPs who are part of the church.

    We asked our readers if priests should be compelled to reveal crimes against children told to them in the confessional, Here is what you had to say.

    New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell, who is a Catholic, says he cannot fathom why priests should not be required to pass on evidence of child abuse to police.

    “I think the law of the land when it comes to particularly mandatory reporting around issues to do with children should apply to everyone equally,” Mr O’Farrell told AM.

    “How can you possibly, by the continuation of this practice, potentially continue to give… a free pass to people who’ve engaged in the most heinous of acts?”

    Federal Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne, who is also a Catholic, believes criminal law should take priority over church rules when it comes to child abuse.

    “If a priest hears in a confessional a crime, especially a crime against a minor, the priest has the responsibility in my view to report that to the appropriate authorities,” Mr Pyne told ABC News.

    “In this case the police, because the church nor the priests should be above the law.”

    Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has backed the idea, saying there are already various legal requirements on people if they become aware of sexual offences against children.

    “The law is no respecter of persons – everyone has to obey the law, regardless of what job they’re doing, regardless of what position they hold,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Brisbane.

    Asked if that included priests as well, Mr Abbott replied: “Indeed.”

    Each state and territory has its own mandatory reporting requirements, with the South Australian rules specifically excluding disclosures made in the confessional.

    Consultations begin

    Audio: Nicola Roxon joins AM(AM)

     

    Ms Roxon has begun consulting with her state counterparts about the scope and scale of the royal commission, but says it is already clear that more than one commissioner will be required to do the work.

    The inquiry is likely to begin early next year, and Ms Roxon is warning it will take years, not months to finish the investigation.

    But she says people should not view it as a substitute for police action, and is urging people with evidence of child sex abuse to go to the authorities.

    “Individual matters still need to be dealt with first and foremost by the police,” she said.

    “Part of the complexity in dealing with the terms of reference is to make sure that the focus, as the Prime Minister has said, is institutional and systematic and working out ways to protect children better in the future and make sure that our institutions don’t fail them.

    “But we also need some sort of outlet for individuals who want to be able to tell their story and make sure that the commissioners are aware what happened with them.”

    The Prime Minister announced the royal commission on Monday, in the wake of explosive allegations from a New South Wales police investigator who accused the church of covering up evidence in relation to paedophile priests.

    The inquiry will cover the treatment of children in all institutions – not just the Catholic Church, which has been facing particular scrutiny.

    “We’re asking the royal commission to look at what went wrong in particular institutions,” Ms Roxon said.

    “This isn’t an inquiry just about the Catholic Church but it obviously will include them.

    “Ultimately I think the thing that’s important is to pick commissioners with high standing and appropriate experience and let them do the job that the Government and the community is asking them to do, which is sifting through what any sorts of barriers, institutional or systematic were there, that when children who had already been treated appallingly raised matters they were then let down as well by other adults.”

    Key interviews: The road to the royal commission

  • Italy floods prompt fears for future of farming

    Italy floods prompt fears for future of farming

    Experts blame warming ocean and climate change for rash of storms that farmers fear risk Italian signature crops

    Floods in Tuscany

    The floods reach Romagnano, Massa, Tuscany. Photograph: Riccardo Dalle Luche/EPA

    The floods that have devastated Italy over the past week could become even more severe in the future, threatening food production and destroying the country’s natural beauty, experts warn.

    Storms have battered ancient towns and left large swaths of farmland in Tuscany under water, prompting a warning from the region’s governor, Enrico Rossi, that “climate change is making us get used to ever more violent flooding“.

    Three people were found dead on Tuesday after their car fell from a collapsed bridge near Grosseto, while the town of Albinia was under two metres of water. As army units were called in to help locals evacuate, towns in neighbouring Umbria were also put on alert and sections of the main road linking north and south Italy were blocked by water. On Monday a 73-year-old man was drowned in his car by rising floodwaters near the walled town of Capalbio, with residents evacuated near Cortona, the setting for the novel Under the Tuscan Sun. Much of the rich farmland of the Maremma had become a lake of mud.

    In Venice water levels were receding after the city’s sixth-worst flooding since records began in 1872.

    Leading Italian meteorologist Mario Giuliacci said: “The Mediterranean has warmed up by 1C to 1.5C in the last 20 years, meaning that Atlantic weather fronts passing over it absorb more vapour and more heat, which means more energy. And that means ever more violent storms and more rain when the fronts hit Italy.

    “An average of 80mm of rain should fall in Italy in November. In the last 40 years it has gone over 100mm 11 times, seven of which are since 1999,” he added.

    Giuliacci said the lower pressure brought by the storms was producing stronger winds. “The Scirocco wind which blew north up the Adriatic this week prompted the unexpected high water which swamped Venice,” he said. The sea level rose by 149cm in Venice on Sunday, flooding 70% of the city.

    Italy is getting increasingly used to disastrous flooding. In 2010, 150,000 livestock were drowned by floods in the Veneto region. In 2009, 31 people were killed by floods and mudslides in Messina in Sicily, while six died last year when floods surged through Genoa.

    Floods have also been blamed on the number of illegally built homes in Italy which block water courses and prevent natural drainage.

    However, a clear pattern of climate change is emerging, and affecting Italy’s agricultural output, an official from Italy’s farmer’s lobby, Coldiretti, said.

    “This year Sicily produced its first crop of bananas, while oil is now being made from olives grown in the foothills of the Alps,” he said.

    “The Italian climate, with ever drier summers and violent rains in the winter, looks set to become more like north Africa than, say, France,” added Giuliacci.

    A hot, arid summer this year, followed by the floods, has ensured that more traditional Italian produce, which finds its way into kitchens around the world, is increasingly scarce, said Coldiretti.

    Italy’s wine harvest dropped 6% to a 40-year low, while the apple harvest was down by 22%, pears by 13%, chestnuts by 50% and honey by 25%. Production of flour destined for making pasta dropped by 12%.

    Said Coldiretti: “The risk is the increase of imports of ingredients pretending to be made in Italy, like Chinese tomato concentrate and Tunisian extra virgin olive oil.”

  • Abuse victims sceptical of Pell’s royal commission response

    Pells of ” POPULATE OR PERISH’ Fame, It has also been stated that the Catholic Church will hide behind its Confessional Box Privacy provisions in the Royal Commission when questioned.

    i

    Abuse victims sceptical of Pell’s royal commission response

    By Samantha Donovan and staff, ABCUpdated November 13, 2012, 8:36 pm

    Some of the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy do not believe the Archbishop of Sydney’s statement that the Catholic Church has learnt the error of its ways.

    In the wake of the Prime Minister’s decision to call a royal commission into institutionalised child abuse, Cardinal George Pell today said he believed many claims involving the church were .

    “We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church. We object to it being exaggerated,” he said.

    “We object to it being described as the only cab on the rank.

    “We acknowledge simply with shame the extent of the problem and I want to assure you that we have been serious in attempting to eradicate it and deal with it.”

    The leader of Australia’s most powerful Roman Catholic diocese said he would cooperate with the nationwide inquiry, but told reporters the church had improved its processes in dealing with abuse allegations.

    “I have just been attempting to explain [over] the past 16 to 20 years, we have addressed [the issue], these are adequate procedures,” he said.

    “Nobody has written to me saying this procedure is inadequate or that procedure is inadequate.

    “What we have had is general smears like, with due respect, I suggest you are making that we are generally inefficient, that we’re covering up, we’re moving people around.

    “Where that is done it’s against the protocols.”

    The Melbourne response

    But in Victoria, some are still critical of the so-called Melbourne Response, which Cardinal Pell set up to handle complaints in the late 1990s.

    Cardinal Pell confirmed again today he had accompanied paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to his court hearings several years ago.

    But he said he did not realise at the time the impression this would give to victims.

    Ridsdale, from the Wimmera region in western Victoria, was jailed in 1993 after admitting he abused more than 20 children.

    In 2006, the priest was sentenced to an extra 13 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to further charges.

    Melbourne man Stephen Woods was 14 when he was raped by Ridsdale.

    Mr Woods listened to Cardinal Pell’s comments with interest and told ABC radio’s PM program: “He seems to be setting up a narrative that the Catholic Church is now the victim, that they are the ones who are just one of many assaulters in the society.

    “Yet I can’t think of any other organisation that has had so many, even though there are many clergy, but they have had so many paedophiles.

    “And of course, tens of thousands of victims.”

    ‘Failed systems’

    Cardinal Pell said the Melbourne Response had been “very well regarded” by many.

    But that is not Mr Woods’s impression.

    “Working for (support group) Broken Rites we’ve had cause to come across a lot of people who have said that the Melbourne Response, as well as the Towards Healing, are both very failed systems,” he said.

    “They offer very small amounts of compensation and they are very lawyer-intense and very legalistically concerned.

    “So people have very often come out of it just feeling far more assaulted.”

    Mr Woods believes the Catholic Church is not responding well to news of the royal commission.

    “They still don’t get it. They just still don’t get it because I think they are afraid because so many bishops over the years have been so culpable of so many crimes, particularly cover-ups, that I think they are afraid of what’s going to come out,” he said.

    ‘No smear campaign’

    Chrissie Foster’s two daughters were raped by their parish priest when they were in primary school.

    “(Cardinal Pell) was saying there was a smear campaign against the church and there’s not a smear campaign at all,” she said.

    “People are merely telling the truth and trying to be heard about their experience with the Catholic Church; the abuse in the first instance and then the treatment from the Catholic Church, and the hierarchy and the processes after that.”

    Ms Foster was particularly struck by Cardinal Pell’s insistence that the seal of confession is “inviolable”.

    She believes it is one of the big issues for the royal commission to consider.

    “I know he was insistent on it not being looked at, but I think there needs to be mandatory reporting within the confessional about child sexual assault,” she said.

    “This canon law is the law of a foreign state, the Vatican. How can a foreign state law overrule our civil laws in Australia to protect our Australian children?

    “My daughter suicided. My other daughter binge drunk and then got hit by a car.

    “She received 24 hours care. And all the care Emma had up until she died; the church didn’t pay for that.”

    The Federal Government has released information for those who want to provide information that may be considered by the royal commission, which is likely to begin in early 2013.