Victoria's reliance on coal fired electricity has increased in the last decade, with both electricity generation and greenhouse pollution from coal increasing by over 9% since 2000, according to a report commissioned by Environment Victoria - Victoria’s Energy Mix 2000-2009 (Download PDF). The increase is despite the exponential growth in the wind sector, which has barely replaced the decline of hydro power due to drought conditions and climate change.
Environment Victoria’s Campaigns Director Mark Wakeham said in a media release that the report showed that Victoria’s energy mix was poorly balanced, and that progress in reducing the state’s reliance on brown coal would be very difficult unless the most polluting power stations, like Hazelwood, were replaced with clean energy sources.
Earth hour has grown from just one city - an estimated 2.2 million people participated in Sydney in 2007 - to 50 million people in 400 cities around the world in 2008 and even more in 2009. In 2010 more than 1,000 cities and towns in 120 countries around the world will, at 8.30pm on Saturday, March 27 turn off the lights for Earth Hour. It is a symbolic event that has been tirelessly promoted by the WWF to promote action on climate change. While it's impact by itself is somewhat negligible, although there is a noticeable power use reduction for the hour, it has increased general public awareness of energy use and it's contribution to climate change.
Lighting on 100 iconic landmarks will be turned off this year including the world's three tallest buildings - the new Burj Khalifa in Dubai, CN Tower in Toronto and Taipei 101 in Taiwan. Around Australia the lights will go off on Melbourne's Luna Park, Rialto Tower, Arts Centre and Crown Casino; Brisbane's Story Bridge; Adelaide's Town Hall and Rundle Mall Lantern; The National Library and Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower, Harbour Bridge and Luna Park will join this growing list.
Earth Hour Co-Founder and Executive Director, Andy Ridley said "The C40 suggests that cities are responsible for up to 75% of the world's carbon emissions, so their role in addressing what is unequivocally the greatest threat to the planet today is absolutely vital," Andy said. "By turning the lights off for Earth Hour, cities are reflecting the aspirations of their citizens as a community that has resolved to take action on global warming," he said.
But the climate change deniers are also organising. The American free-market think-tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute established the 'Human Achievement Hour' last year to combat the climate change environmental message of Earth Hour. In Australia, the Conservative Leadership Foundation, founded and chaired by Liberal Party Senator Cory Bernardi, is promoting the event. (The Age Mar 24, 2010 - Call to turn on the lights)
The Competitive Enterprise Institute receives funding from oil and energy giant Exxon, which also funds other climate denial organisations such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heartland Institute, Frontiers of Freedom and the Hoover Institute. ExxonMobil has funded a total of 70 groups running the campaign against climate science.
Since 1996, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has been intent on developing the campaign against climate science in Australia. In August 1997, the CEI and the Frontiers of Freedom front group sponsored a conference in Canberra, with the Australian and New Zealand Chambers of Commerce and the Western Mining Corporation (WMC) in attendance.
In August 1997, the CEI and the Frontiers of Freedom front group sponsored another conference, this time in Canberra, Australia, along with the Australian and New Zealand Chambers of Commerce and the WMC. Ray Evans and WMC's Managing Director Hugh Morgan played a significant role at the conference, and attendees included the Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and Environment Minister Robert Hill. Fisher claimed that tough emission reduction targets could put 90,000 jobs at risk in Australia and cost more than $150 million."
Speakers included American climate sceptic Patrick Michaels, climate sceptic politicians, Rep. John Dingell, Senator Chuck Hagel and Richard Lawson (President and Chief Executive Officer of the US National Mining Association and present at the earlier CEI meeting).
According to RJ Smith from the CEI, the purpose of the Canberra conference was to 'try and buck [Prime Minister John Howard] up a little more and let him know that there is support of the American people' for his government's obstructionist stance.
Later that year, an Australian at the CEI, Hugh Morley, noted on the CEI's website that 'If Australia sticks to its gun [sic], there might not be a Kyoto treaty after all'.
The Australian denial movement, funded by the WMC and other big business groups, and led by the Institute of Public Affairs, has had a relationship with the US climate sceptics ever since. Meanwhile, Australia has adopted a weak climate policy, only signing the Kyoto treaty after the Howard administration lost power in 2007.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has a history of attacking climate science and the IPCC reports. This year, on 16 February 2010, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, along with Fred Singer, filed a lawsuit to the US demanding that, on the basis of the hacked emails and so called 'flawed datasets', the EPA drop all its proposed regulation on CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
So what is in it for these guys (and they are predominantly male)? Short term profit from mining, energy use while the world goes ever so slowly to hell.
The mining and energy sector is facing a similar public relations battle to the tobacco industry which consistently hindered research, ran public relations campaigns against legislative changes. The energy and mining sectors have learnt from the tobacco industry, with a far better funded and more vociferous campaign, including intensive lobbying and buying off our politicians for minimal action. The political decisions that do get through have amounted to exercises in greenwashing.
So who is for turning out the lights for an hour from 8.30pm on Saturday 27 March as a public demonstration of action on climate change?
Takver is a citizen journalist from Melbourne who has been writing on Climate Change issues and protests including Rising Sea Level, Ocean acidification, Environmental and social Impacts since 2004.
The first shipment of coal from Newcastle's third coal loader has been delayed by climate activists from Rising Tide. The docking of the Sunny Success bulk carrier was delayed at the newly built terminal by one protestor chaining himself to the wharf, and four others in a boat on the harbour.
Steve Phillips, spokesperson for Rising Tide Newcastle said "The new coal berth at Newcastle will increase Newcastle coal exports by around 30 million tonnes per year. That is equivalent to a 13% increase in Australia's greenhouse pollution. The expansion of Australia's biggest contribution to climate change is being managed, encouraged, and approved by state and federal Labor governments."
"Everybody knows that Tony Abbot's Liberal Party are climate change deniers. The laughable climate policy they have announced this week is a street-tree planting program, and will do absolutely nothing to reduce greenhouse pollution."
"But the Labor party are in denial too. They are completely in the thrall of lobbyists for the coal industry - the very cause of the climate crisis. They would have the Australian public believe that the number one cause of climate change in Australia and around the world can continue to massively expand, year on year, while greenhouse pollution is magically reduced regardless. That is pure fantasy."
"Coal exports are the number one climate issue in Australia," concluded Phillips.
Newcastle currently exports around 90 million tonnes of coal per annum (Mtpa), making it the world's biggest coal port. The industry is dominated by transnational mining corporations BHPBilliton, Xstrata, and Rio Tinto. Newcastle coal exports are expected to more than doubled to 211 Mtpa capacity with the current export expansions implemented. Planning is now underway for a fourth Newcastle coal terminal to take exports to more than 300Mtpa.
Coal exports are Australia's biggest contribution to climate change (creating more greenhouse pollution than all domestic sources combined), but the emissions from coal exports are not included in our greenhouse accounts.
Round the world protest against coal mining, export and power generation are growing.
From the top of the chimney stack, in Northern Bohemia, Greenpeace Climate and Energy campaigner Jan Rovensky said: “The Prunerov coal plant is a global shame. Plans to extend its life make a mockery of efforts to protect the environment, people and avoid catastrophic global climate change. It should be shut down by 2015 and replaced with energy efficiency measures and investments in renewable energy. Then the Czech Republic’s global shame would become a global example.”
Protest campaigns to stop the highly destructive Mountain Top Removal mining in the US Appalachian mountains are continuing. More Information: Mountain Justice | Climate Ground Zero
So the common brown butterfly flaps its wings in Melbourne creating ripples around the globe through it's central role in a new study that shows a causal link between human induced global warming and a natural event. The Common Brown butterfly has become an important harbinger of changing climate for Melbourne and Australia. A landmark research project discovered a causal link between increasing greenhouse gases, regional warming and the change in timing of Butterflies emerging in spring over 10 days earlier than they did 65 years ago, a shift that has been linked by the study to regional human-induced climate change.
The University of Melbourne led study found that over a 65 year period, the mean emergence date for adults of the Common Brown butterfly (Heteronympha merope) has shifted 1.6 days earlier per decade in Melbourne, Australia. The findings are unique because the early emergence is causally linked with a simultaneous increase in air temperatures around Melbourne of approximately 0.14°C per decade, and this warming is shown to be human-induced (anthropogenic).
Lead author of the study Dr Michael Kearney from the Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne said the findings could help our ability to forecast future impacts of climate change on biodiversity. "Shifts in these seasonal life cycle events represent a challenge to species, altering the food and competition present at the time of hatching. Studies such as ours will allow better forecasting of these shifts and help us understand more about their consequences," says Dr Kearney.
The research was conducted by Dr Kearney and PhD student Natalie Briscoe. Professor David Karoly from the School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne contributed the climate modeling work. Co-authors include Dr Warren Porter (University of Wisconsin) and Drs Melanie Norgate and Paul Sunnucks from Monash University. The study, funded by an Australian Research Council grant to Monash, Melbourne and Wisconsin Universities, was published in Biology Letters, a prestigious international journal of the Royal Society.
"Scientists have previously observed that biological events are happening progressively earlier in spring over the past few decades. This new work has tied the earlier emergence of butterflies directly to a regional temperature increase, and has tied the temperature increase very strongly to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations caused by humans," said Professor Karoly.
Science has filled in the lines between the dots, but our politicians are still to take the necessary actions in regard to controlling greenhouse gas emissions.
Round the world protests against coal mining, export and power generation are growing with actions in the Czech Republic, Scotland and Australia occurring on March 22.
In Australia, the first shipment of coal from Newcastle's third coal loader was delayed by climate activists from Rising Tide. The docking of the Sunny Success bulk carrier was delayed at the newly built terminal by one protestor chaining himself to the wharf, and four others in a boat on the harbour.
Steve Phillips, spokesperson for Rising Tide Newcastle said "The new coal berth at Newcastle will increase Newcastle coal exports by around 30 million tonnes per year. That is equivalent to a 13% increase in Australia's greenhouse pollution. The expansion of Australia's biggest contribution to climate change is being managed, encouraged, and approved by state and federal Labor governments."
Phillips attacked both the policies of the ruling Labor Party and the conservative opposition are in denial on climate change "They are completely in the thrall of lobbyists for the coal industry - the very cause of the climate crisis. They would have the Australian public believe that the number one cause of climate change in Australia and around the world can continue to massively expand, year on year, while greenhouse pollution is magically reduced regardless. That is pure fantasy."
Newcastle currently exports around 90 million tonnes of coal per annum (Mtpa), making it the world's biggest coal port. The industry is dominated by transnational mining corporations BHP Billiton, Xstrata, and Rio Tinto. Newcastle coal exports are expected to more than doubled to 211 Mtpa capacity with the current export expansions implemented. Planning is now underway for a fourth Newcastle coal terminal to take exports to more than 300Mtpa. More at Australia Indymedia article
From the top of the chimney stack, in Northern Bohemia, Greenpeace Climate and Energy campaigner Jan Rovensky said: "The Prunerov coal plant is a global shame. Plans to extend its life make a mockery of efforts to protect the environment, people and avoid catastrophic global climate change. It should be shut down by 2015 and replaced with energy efficiency measures and investments in renewable energy. Then the Czech Republic's global shame would become a global example."
Protest campaigns to stop the highly destructive Mountain Top Removal mining in the US Appalachian mountains are continuing. More Information: Mountain Justice | Climate Ground Zero
Natasha Verco, an Australian nonviolent environment activist living in Sweden, and Noah Weiss, an American citizen who lives in Denmark, are facing numerous charges in trials which started on March 16 and 19. Verco, who has organised non-violent direct action with Friends of the Earth Sydney and who has been part of the Climate Justice Action (CJA) network in the lead-up to the summit in Copenhagen, has been charged with organising violence, organising public disorder, significant damage to property, and organising disorder during the international talks on climate change which took place in Copenhagen last year. If found guilty, Verco faces a maximum of twelve and a half years in prison.
Their trials are part of a campaign of police repression carried out by the Danish police during the COP15 in which over 2,000 people were arrested within a week of protests. Of all arrested, only around 30 were charged with any crime, and those that were charged were kept in jail for between one week and 47 days without trial.
Some have already gone to trial and either been acquitted or received small jail sentences and heavy fines for charges such as assaulting a police officer or throwing a stone. Some have also been deported and banned from Denmark for 6 years. Noah And Natasha are the first two to go to trial of seven accused of organizing demonstrations, and face much stiffer jail sentences (a year or more) then those who have previously gone to trial. The case is being brought on minimal and sketchy evidence, primarily acquired through dubious phone taps and other types of police surveillance.
Speaking a day ahead of the start of the trial, Verco recalled her arrest in a Guardian article: "On December 13 I was riding my bike down by the Copenhagen lakes,and a plainclothes police woman jumped out at me and pushed me off the bike. She took me to an unmarked police van with six or seven plainclothes policemen. I asked them 'Are you randomly picking me up?' and they said 'No, we hunted you'. They held me by myself in an underground carpark for about 16 hours, I think. Then I was taken to Vester prison and held there for three weeks and two days. I was charged the day after I got to prison, but bail was refused because, they said, the investigation was ongoing and I would influence it if I was released."
Verco and Weiss say they both had their phones tapped, along with 17 other activists, which is legal under recently introduced terror legislation in Denmark. Verco said: "I feel nervous and indignant at the same time, I wonder what the hell they're going to argue because I can't see what evidence they've got for these charges. And looking back at the calls that they've taped, it feels very invasive. Under the new terror laws they can do this, but it seems to me that applying terror laws to activists is steadily eroding the base of our democracy."
Verco was heavily involved in organising the day of action on December 14, but was arrested before it happened. When it took place, she was still being held by police. "The police say that they prevented anything happening by taking me in. There was no violence, and no disruption of the public infrastructure, because they'd arrested me."
During the fortnight of talks, dozens of protests from the small to mass rallies of 40,000 people, took place; the Danish police arrested nearly 2,000 people. The police are now processing nearly 200 legal complaints about the treatment of the arrestees. Verco and Weiss were both involved with CJA, the network which helped to organise some of the protests during the talks, most notably the Reclaim Power demonstration outside the conference centre for the negotiations.
Natasha Verco appeared in court on Tuesday 16 March with a heavy police presence at the courthouse. The hearing had to be moved to a larger room to accommodate Verco's numerous supporters. Also at the court was American Noah Daniel Weiss, who is due to face similar charges on 19 March.
"They are grasping at straws and part of the reason they can do that is because we are foreigners," Natasha Verco said in a Sydney Morning Herald report before the trial.
At the first day of hearing one of the original charges was dropped ("planning to damage infrastructure") The other charges where changed to "attempted" from "attempted and partially carried out". The trials might not finish till August.
Takver is a citizen journalist from Melbourne who has been writing on Climate Change issues and protests including Rising Sea Level, Ocean acidification, Environmental and social Impacts since 2004.
In a joint statement released on Monday by the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology the stark facts on global warming were outlined: that Australia's climate has already changed with more extremely hot days, fewer cold ones, wetter in the north and drier in the south-east and south-west.The statement outlined in five sections a snapshot of temperature, rainfall, oceans, atmosphere, and what this means for Australia in coming decades.
At the launch of the statement Dr Greg Ayers, Director of the Bureau of Meteorology said that climate change is real with impeccable data being collected for more than 100 years: "Australia holds one of the best national climate records in the world," Dr Ayers said. "It's there for anyone and everyone to see, use and analyse."
CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Megan Clark said "With this snapshot, Australians will be better prepared for the next step of planning for how to adapt to a changing climate and how to also take action to reduce the impacts of climate change. CSIRO has been working with industry and in sectors of the economy such as agriculture to prepare for and implement necessary changes."
The veracity of human caused climate change has been under attack from climate sceptics and denialists in recent months. Professor Peter Coaldrake, Chair of Universities Australia, commented that "Climate science has taken the brunt of the attack. Now is the time to stand up for the quality of Australian science and research and to emphasise the need for evidence-based policy outcomes that recognise the lessons from science." he said about the statement which "confirms the clear view of top Australian scientists, expert in the field, that Australia's climate is changing."
Caption: annual rainfall trend 1960-2009 - BOM
The statement details that the mean temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees from 1960 to 2009, but with some areas experiencing 1.5 to 2 degrees of warming. The greatest warming has ocurred during spring - a mean average of 0.9 degrees.
While annual rainfall has remained stable averaged out across the continent, there is a strong trend for more rain in central and northern Australia, and less in the southwest, south, southeast, and east coasts, where much of the population is located.
Rising global sea level has ocurred at a global average of 3mm per year from 1993-2009, but actual sea level changes will vary based upon local ocean currents. Around Australia's coasts sea level has risen 1.5-3mm in the south and east and 7-10mm per year in the north and west. The global average for the 20th century was 1.7mm per year. Mean Sea surface temperatures around Australia have increased by about 0.4°C in the past 50 years.
The oceans of the world currently absorb about 25% of the human generated carbon emissions resulting in ocean acidification. Carbon dioxide is more easily dissolved by cold water - shelled marine life are particularly under threat in the Southern Ocean and the Arctic with far reaching implications for the whole food chain, ocean ecology and biodiversity threatening a major marine extinction.
Caption: atmospheric CO2 measured at Cape Grim - BOM
The Cape Grim baseline air pollution station, operated jointly by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology in an isolated spot on north-western Tasmania, provides vital information about changes to the atmosphere in the Southern Hemisphere.These air pollution stations tend to be isolated from urban areas to avoid industrial contamination. Similar stations are based at Baring Head near Wellington, New Zealand, and on top of Mauna Loa, Hawai. The data from Cape Grim shows atmospheric CO2 increasing to 386ppm in 2009. Atmospheric methane, an even stronger greenhouse gas, is also increasing.
So what are the projections for the future? An average temperature rise by 0.6 to 1.5 ºC by 2030. If global greenhouse gas emissions continue at business as usual levels, warming is projected to be in the range of 2.2 to 5.0 ºC by 2070. Temperatures will be moderated near the coast and in Tasmania and higher in central and north-western Australia. Most of this temperature increase will be felt through an increase in the number of hot days. Expect less rainfall southern areas of Australia during winter, in southern and eastern areas during spring, and in south-west Western Australia during autumn. An increase in the number of dry days is expected across the country. It is likely that there will be an increase in intense rainfall events in many areas, like the one in March which extended from Northern Territory to Victoria, including a major hail storm.
Now we just need action to curtail carbon emissions while the Federal Government continues to push it's amended and flawed CPRS scheme and the Opposition it's pitiful direct action plan. Both clear examples of talking green and doing next to nothing - greenwashing - while State Governments continue to subsidise polluting electricity generators, coal export and development of new mines such as the World's largest coal mine: the Waratah Coal Galilee mine in central Queensland.
Takver is a citizen journalist from Melbourne who has been writing on Climate Change issues and protests including Rising Sea Level, Ocean acidification, Environmental and social Impacts since 2004.
Melbourne experienced a hail storm March 6th that has done hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars of damage. The storm has been labelled a "once in a century" event. What's not been mentioned is that the storm fits the predicted pattern of the impact of Climate Change on South East Australia.
Whilst the sceptics bellow their crap in the media and on the internet, the recent storm fits into a pattern of weather in Melbourne and Victoria that supports the growing impact of climate change on our region. The predicted impacts of climate change on South East Australia include changes to rain patterns and more extreme weather events.
Victoria is in the midst of a long term drought. This fits the predicted changes of more extended dry periods for Melbourne interspersed with major rain events. In addition to the lemon sized hail on Saturday was a major rain event which caused flash flooding across the city.
Only about 12 months ago Victoria was experiencing one of the worse heat waves and droughts on record culminating in Melbourne's hottest day ever of 46 degrees on Black Saturday 2009, a day when 173 people perished.
Even though neither event can be 100% attributed to climate change, they fit the pattern of freak "once a century" events happening more and more often in South East Australia as the global temperature rises. Interesting there has not been one mention of climate change in all of the mainstream coverage of the event as even a possible contributing factor to the storm even though one reads in the Herald Sun that experts say the storm is more typical of tropical weather patterns. eanwhile down in the Latrobe Valley we continue to burn brown coal as politicians of both major parties adopt a business as usual approach. If events like this become more common the "economic costs" of doing nothing start to be put in perspective.
Image from Bureau of Meteorology event summary - http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/services_policy/public/sevwx/vic/20100603_thunder.shtml
My comment on this event:
Incidence and intensity indicate global warming
Any one weather event cannot be attributed directly to climate change, but the change in the incidence and intensity of such extreme weather events is an indication of global warming.
This particular storm was one part of a major weather event through Northern and Central Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The Bureau of Meteorology described it as a 'An exceptional rain event' beginning on Feb 22 to march 8. The floods in Central Queensland were hailed as a 1 in 100 year event.
More records broken:
'The most remarkable aspect of this event was the area covered by the heavy rainfall and the total volume of rainfall that fell. Daily totals exceeded 100 mm over 1.7% of Australia on 1 March and 1.9% on 2 March. The latter is the largest area of 100 mm-plus daily totals on a single day in the Australian meteorological record, breaking the previous record of 1.7% set on 22 December 1956.
28 February was the wettest day on record for the Northern Territory with an NT-wide average of 29.23 mm, while 2 March set a new record for Queensland with a Statewide average of 31.74 mm1.'
On March 8, Yan Yean, with 86.2mm of rain, had its wettest March day on record since records began 130 years ago.
More Information:
National Climate Centre, 2010. A significant rainfall event for central and eastern Australia,
Bureau of Meteorology, Special Climate Statement 20 (PDF)
Severe Thunderstorms in Melbourne 6 March 2010, Event Summary
A new Greenpeace report uncovers the multimillion dollar funding and
intense lobbying against climate science and climate action by Koch
Industries, that eclipses the traditional funding for climate deniers
from ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies.
Just finished watching The Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification short documentary on Ocean Acidification produced by the US based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It explains the issue and connection with global warming and climate change - but a little too simply for my preference - but the videography and production is excellent. 21:35 long. The actress Sigourney Weaver does the narration in this doco. For something a bit more in depth see marine chemist Dr Andrew Dickson from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (56 min) presentation near the end of this article.
Round the world protests against coal mining, export and power generation are growing with actions in the Czech Republic, Scotland and Australia occurring on March 22.
Natasha Verco, an Australian nonviolent environment activist living in Sweden, and Noah Weiss, an American citizen who lives in Denmark, are facing numerous charges in trials which started on March 16 and 19. Verco, who has organised non-violent direct action with 
