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FW: Its not too late 9 Inbox x John James 6:23 PM (1 hour ago) to John I have prepared an urgent report and urge you to read. It is not long, and full of of pictures rather than scientific technicalities. I am reporting on an urgent consequence of heating in the Arctic.  Increased warming has created the immediate prospect of a massive release of methane. The urgency is that this promises to be so large it will dwarf in one outburst all the carbon we have ever produced. I asked friends whether I should send this out. It is such a monstrous story I felt I had to find support before posting it. Neal: In the marketing world they say you have to get your storey across to your audience at least eight times before they will accept you. So I say publish and publish and keep repeating what people need to know. Catherine: If for no other reason, this report is a good reminder of what really matters and of where we would be better served to put our attention. So here it is. How do you react? What can you do personally? John

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Charlie Wood – 350.org Australia charlie@350.org Unsubscribe	5:07 PM (54 minutes ago)
to me

Dear friend,

While Tony Abbott got all medieval on Australia by reintroducing knights and dames this week, the fight for fossil fuel divestment has broken into the public spotlight like never before.

From the Minerals Council launching a campaign against the divestment movement on Monday, to UniSuper announcing it will divest its Socially Responsible investment portfolio of fossil fuels today, this week has been a game changer, and the battle is swinging our way!

This is a long email. That’s mainly a reflection that there are thousands of people in this movement, doing amazing work. That means there is a lot to report on, and today, a lot to celebrate.

So here we go with the 5 big moves of the week:

1. UniSuper makes an exciting divestment announcement!

UniSuper is one of Australia’s largest super funds, with over 450,000 members and $30 billion under management. Since last month, over 1800 UniSuper members have asked the fund to go fossil free. Thanks to this support, we are now in negotiations with UniSuper over a comprehensive strategy for dealing with their fossil fuel investments. But excitingly, step one has been agreed to and today UniSuper notified their members that they will be divesting fossil fuels from their Socially Responsible fund. This is particularly excellent news given the campaign that the Minerals Council is now waging to keep our super funds wedded to coal*. Join us in celebrating this win by LIKING and SHARING our meme here.

2. Universities collude to avoid scrutiny and then get embarrassed.

Last night, ABC’s Lateline revealed that Australia’s Group of Eight** universities are colluding to avoid scrutiny over their plans to deal with the financial risks posed by their fossil fuel investments. The information was accidentally supplied by Monash University in response to a survey issued by the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP) to 300 Universities internationally.***

This is the ultimate irony. One the one hand, universities are leaders of sustainability and climate change research, innovation and education, with staff, students and alumni working to build a low-carbon future. Yet on the other hand, our universities are investing in industries that will ensure this future is unattainable. If you are connected to a university, click here to ask them how they are managing the financial risks of climate change.

3. Melbourne University announced it won’t divest. Fossil Free MU won’t stop there.

University of Melbourne students and staff are outraged today by a public statement from the University indicating that it will not divest from fossil fuels. The University claims that divestment will reduce their returns, despite a recent report by The Australia Institute in partnership with 350.org and Market Forces indicating that divestment doesn’t reduce returns and a statement from UniSuper today that their returns would remain “about the same” after divesting fossil fuels from their socially responsible fund. Click here to ask the University of Melbourne to change their mind and go fossil free today.

4. Fossil Free ANU present to the University’s council.

Responding to the Group of Eight collusion revelation, Fossil Free ANU, Australia’s longest running divestment campaign, turned up at the university chancellery this morning to deliver a strong message to ANU’s council and Vice Chancellor Ian Young, who heads up the Group of Eight. They were given the opportunity to present to council on the need to disclose and divest the ANU’s fossil fuel investments. Click here to support the campaign’s call for ANU to go fossil free.

5. The Minerals Council attacked 350.org & launched an anti-divestment campaign.

On Tuesday we wrote to you about the attack in Monday’s Australian on 350.org and the divestment movement from the Minerals Council CEO, Brendan Pearson. His attack revealed more about the coal industry than about those interested in challenging it’s license to keep polluting. It was also noted that the Minerals Council has begun an anti-divestment campaign, lobbying investors not to divest. You can read our response to Mr Pearson’s oped in our blog response here.

6. Stranded assets expert gets public and media attention.

Finally, we’ve seen great media coverage and turnouts for talks and panel sessions with Oxford University academic Ben Caldecott on the risk of stranded assets in Australia — something everyone with a super fund, bank account or investments should know about! Checkout some of the coverage here.

This week has been incredible, and as Friday brings the week to an end, we’re left feeling hugely grateful to all of the people that are building this wonderful movement. Our massive gratitude goes to all the people who have stepped up to become a regular giver or a one off giver this week! Thanks to you, we’ll be able to sustain and power-up the work that 350.org does.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Charlie, Vicky, Aaron, Blair, Josh and the whole 350.org Australia team

*‘Miners target funds to spread the message on coal’, The Australian, 24th March

**The Group of Eight includes: UNSW, ANU, Monash, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Adelaide, University of Queensland, University of Western Australia

***‘Students outraged by university climate collusion’, The Australian, 28th March; ‘Universities face claim they avoid scrutiny of fossil fuel investments’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28th March

350.org is building a global climate movement.

Become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and growing.

A more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, methane emissions will leap as Earth warms

New research in the journal Nature found that for each degree that the Earth’s temperature rises, the amount of methane entering the atmosphere …

[show more]

Credit: Image courtesy of Cristian Gudasz

[Click to enlarge image]

While carbon dioxide is typically painted as the bad boy of greenhouse gases, methane is roughly 30 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas. New research in the journal Nature indicates that for each degree that  Earth’s temperature rises, the amount of methane entering the atmosphere from microorganisms dwelling in lake sediment and freshwater wetlands — the primary sources of the gas — will increase several times. As temperatures rise, the relative increase of methane emissions will outpace that of carbon dioxide from these sources, the researchers report.

The findings condense the complex and varied process by which methane — currently the third most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and water vapor — enters the atmosphere into a measurement scientists can use, explained co-author Cristian Gudasz, a visiting postdoctoral research associate in Princeton’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. In freshwater systems, methane is produced as microorganisms digest organic matter, a process known as “methanogenesis.” This process hinges on a slew of temperature, chemical, physical and ecological factors that can bedevil scientists working to model how Earth’s systems will contribute, and respond, to a hotter future.

The researchers’ findings suggest that methane emissions from freshwater systems will likely rise with the global temperature, Gudasz said. But to not know the extent of methane contribution from such a widely dispersed ecosystem that includes lakes, swamps, marshes and rice paddies leaves a glaring hole in climate projections.

“The freshwater systems we talk about in our paper are an important component to the climate system,” Gudasz said. “There is more and more evidence that they have a contribution to the methane emissions. Methane produced from natural or humanmade freshwater systems will increase with temperature.”

To provide a simple and accurate way for climate modelers to account for methanogenesis, Gudasz and his co-authors analyzed nearly 1,600 measurements of temperature and methane emissions from 127 freshwater ecosystems across the globe.

The researchers found that a common effect emerged from those studies: freshwater methane generation very much thrives on high temperatures. Methane emissions at 0 degrees Celsius would rise 57 times higher when the temperature reached 30 degrees Celsius, the researchers report. For those inclined to model it, the researchers’ results translated to a temperature dependence of 0.96 electron volts (eV), an indication of the temperature-sensitivity of the methane-emitting ecosystems.

“We all want to make predictions about greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on global warming,” Gudasz said. “Looking across these scales and constraining them as we have in this paper will allow us to make better predictions.”

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Princeton University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Andrew P. Allen, David Bastviken, Ralf Conrad, Cristian Gudasz, Annick St-Pierre, Nguyen Thanh-Duc, Paul A. del Giorgio. Methane fluxes show consistent temperature dependence across microbial to ecosystem scales. Nature, 2014; 507 (7493): 488 DOI: 10.1038/nature13164

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Princeton University. “A more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, methane emissions will leap as Earth warms.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 March 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140327111724.htm>.

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Why this ad? 2013 Mazda MX-5 – m.mazda.com.au/MX-5 – New. But Already Iconic. Everything a Roadster Should Be.

Alice Jay – Avaaz.org	11:06 PM (9 hours ago)
to me

Dear friends,

A kangaroo court in Egypt just sentenced 528 people to death. This is likely the biggest mass execution ruling this century, but one man has 10 days to stop the killings. Let’s call on Grand Mufti Allam to use his moral authority to provide clemency and block this barbarous ruling. Join the urgent call to stop the executions:

A kangaroo court in Egypt just sentenced 528 people to death. This is likely the biggest mass execution ruling this century, but one man can stop the killings.

Egypt’s most important religious figure, Grand Mufti Allam has 10 days to reject the decision. Religious leaders are already condemning the ruling, and as the first Mufti to be elected by his peers, he has a legitimate mandate to be the nation’s moral leader. Let’s create a global plea from people of all religions to provide clemency and block this barbarous ruling.

This was a political show trial — the military regime is using the firing squad to wipe out the opposition. If the world does not speak up, the consequences for Egypt and the world are beyond dangerous. Sign now to save these lives and stop a spiral of violence — when one million of us have joined, religious leaders in Egypt will deliver our call for compassion directly to the Mufti:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_mass_execution_loc/?bhPqncb&v=37970

After the hope of Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands took to the streets to overthrow decades of dictatorship, the Egyptian people democratically elected a Muslim Brotherhood government. But last summer the military staged a populist coup, Brotherhood supporters rioted, and then the military declared the party a terrorist organisation and violently cracked down — 16,000 democracy activists, journalists, and even teenage school girls have been arrested!

The trial was a joke — on top of charges of rioting and destruction of property, the 528 are all accused of killing one police officer, and defense lawyers were barred from the sentencing session, which lasted less than an hour! But this is not a one off — the judiciary is repeatedly being used to crackdown on political dissent, while security forces accused of killing hundreds of protesters are rarely held to account. There are real security threats, but as the military authorities’ iron fist and intimidation grows, extremism is fuelled.

This is the harshest mass conviction in modern Egyptian history, but what happens next in this case could have repercussions way beyond Egypt. Sign the urgent petition now asking the Grand Mufti not to rubber stamp state-sponsored murder and to provide the ethical leadership Egypt desperately needs:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_mass_execution_loc/?bhPqncb&v=37970

The world has kept silent as this regime has launched an all out attack against an imperfect but elected government and brought democracy in Egypt to its knees. Global leaders trumpet democracy at every opportunity and strongly condemn anti-democratic plots from Crimea to Caracas. But not in Egypt. Now if the world looks away and allows this cruel mass execution to happen, a dangerous message will resonate across the globe that the world will stand by democracy, except for political Islam. That will empower one small but very dangerous group that can hurt us all: the extremists.

Time and again the Avaaz community has forcefully advocated against brutal injustice and for peaceful, meaningful reconciliation between embittered communities. Right now Egypt’s future hangs in the balance, and a wildly unjust and provocative ruling like the one handed down in Minya could push it over the edge. Let’s bring the people’s voice to this precarious situation and ensure that these 528 lives are saved.

With hope,

Alice, Nick, Oli, Wissam, Bissan, Mais, Emily, Ari, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Hundreds of Egyptians Sentenced to Death in Killing of a Police Officer (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/world/middleeast/529-egyptians-sentenced-to-death-in-killing-of-a-police-officer.html

Egypt Opens Another Mass Trial of Islamists (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-sentences-529-death-police-attack-23036881

‘Fast’ death penalty for 529 Brotherhood supporters will be appealed: Defence (Ahram)
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/97456/Egypt/Politics-/Fast-and-bizarre-death-penalty-for–Brotherhood-su.aspx

Egyptian court sentences 529 people to death (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egypt-sentences-529-to-death/2014/03/24/a4f95692-6992-461e-aaf1-9bc84908a429_story.html