Polar regions feel the heat of climate change

Both the Arctic and Antarctic are experiencing noticeable changes in climate attributed to human induced climate change and global warming. The Arctic Sea Ice extent is still shrinking according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. While the collapse in early April of an ice bridge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula has raised the growing impact of global warming on polar regions.

Newcastle Coal Port closed down by Climate Protestors

Climate protestors have closed down the Port of Newcastle for the day, with a peaceful blockade of coal loading facilities. The Port of Newcastle is the world's largest coal port, transferring coal mined in the Hunter valley for export. Hundreds of protestors gathered at Horseshoe Beach with many launching kayaks, canoes and small boats to blockade the harbour. Newcastle Port Corporation cancelled all ships coming into the harbour for the day due to safety concerns.

UN report: Forests rapidly vanishing

World Forests are disappearing rapidly according to the 2009 State of the World's Forests report by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The report notes that expansion of large-scale monocultures of oil palm, soy and other crops for agrofuel production has been a key factor in the failure to halt deforestation.

2009 State of the World’s Forests report | FOEI | Global Forest Coalition

Two leading environmental organisations, Friends of the Earth International and the Global Forest Coalition, have called on world governments to take immediate action to halt deforestation and forest degradation.

The report has also been criticised by these organisations on biofuels, illegal logging, and massive replacement of forests by large-scale tree plantations in many countries.

"Plantations are not forests", said Isaac Rojas, coordinator of the Forest and Biodiversity Program of Friends of the Earth International. "All over the world, plantations destroy the lands and livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples, as well as biodiversity and water resources. They also store far less carbon than natural forests."

"As they provide very little employment for rural people, tree plantations are also a major cause of rural depopulation and a further shifting agricultural frontier, thus causing the destruction of forests elsewhere," said Simone Lovera, managing coordinator of the Global Forest Coalition.

"By actively promoting monoculture tree plantations, FAO itself is partly responsible for this global trend of replacing biologically diverse forests with straight rows of usually non-native trees," she added.

The report says that the current economic crisis has affected forests in a number of ways:

"The collapse of the housing sector has reduced the demand for a wide array of wood and wood products, leading to mill closures and unemployment. New investments are slowing as a result, affecting all wood industries."

"The demand for environmental services has also changed as a result of reduced ability and willingness to pay for such services. Carbon prices have remained highly volatile. Future climate change arrangements may face challenges as countries give priority to tackling the economic crisis."

"Potential negative impacts on forest resources could include reduced investment in sustainable forest management and a rise in illegal logging as the decline in the formal economic sector opens opportunities for expansion of the informal sector. Land dependence, which had been easing, could increase, raising the risk of agricultural expansion into forests, deforestation and reversal of previous forest gains. However, there could also be positive impacts – reduced wood demand could lessen pressure on forests, while conversion of forest for large-scale cultivation of commercial crops such as oil-palm, soybeans and rubber could slow as their prices fall."

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Corrupted by corporate funding and lobbying in political process

I agree that some businesses are making money out of climate change, through financial derivatives and dodgy carbon offset programs. This is an issue to do with greed and lack of regulation of markets by Government.

Climate change is not the scam, rather it is the political process that has allowed business to run rampant over civil society, to make a few people rich at the expense of the many. And we have allowed our politicians to be corrupted by this process through corporate funding and lobbying in the political process.

Just take a look at the Amazon that has suffered two extreme "1 in 100 year" drought events in the space of five years. If drought events continue, the era of intact Amazon forests buffering the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide may have passed,” a team led by Simon Lewis of Leeds University in the UK writes in a Feb 2011 issue of Science.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/02/record_droughts_raise_alarm_ov.html

UN report: Forests rapidly vanishing

World Forests are disappearing rapidly according to the 2009 State of the World's Forests report by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The report notes that expansion of large-scale monocultures of oil palm, soy and other crops for agrofuel production has been a key factor in the failure to halt deforestation.

2009 State of the World’s Forests report | FOEI | Global Forest Coalition

Oil spill causes environmental disaster on Queensland beaches

On Tuesday March 10 the container ship, The Pacific Adventurer, lost overboard thirty-one containers holding the volatile explosive ammonium nitrate, spilling three tonnes of the chemical on deck, with the hull and two fuel tanks being punctured in the heavy seas. The ship had run straight into 9 metre swells churned up by Category 5 Cyclone Hamish off the coast of Queensland. The subsequent oil spill has contaminated pristine beaches in a large area of south east Queensland, with Moreton and Bribie Island and southern parts of the Sunshine Coast being declared disaster zones by the Premier, Anna Bligh.

Scientists confirm Rising Sea Levels may exceed one metre this century

Scientists meeting in Copenhagen have said that sea level rise this century may exceed a metre (3ft 3in), far beyond the estimates of the International Panel on Climate Change released two years ago which projected a sea level rise of 18 - 59 centimeters (7 - 23in) to 2100.


Photo: Lizette Kabré. Climate congress, Copenhagen 2009, 10-12 March. Professor Stefan Rahmstorf, Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Marine Scientists report: Ocean Acidification Accelerating; Severe Damages Imminent

Marine Scientists who met in Monaco in October 2008 have released a strong statement on January 30 about ocean acidification accelerating due to increasing carbon emissions caused by human induced climate change. The Declaration calls on Governments to take urgent action to reduce carbon emissions.

Climate Change contributes to Catastrophic Australian Bushfires

Scorching temperatures setting new meteorological records and wild winds up to 100 km per hour have caused hellish bushfires across the state of Victoria in south east Australia on Saturday February 7. The bushfires have caused more than 181 deaths with the death toll continuing to rise as more bodies are discovered. The final death toll may approach 300. Climate change has been identified as a contributing factor in increasing bushfire severity and intensity. The bushfire disaster eclipses the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 toll when 75 people died in New South Wales and Victoria.

Coral Reefs and Ocean Biodiversity threatened by Climate Change

Australian marine scientists have issued a warning on the increasing acidity of the world's oceans and its impact on coral reefs, and through the food web, the productivity and biodiversity of oceans. There has been an unprecedented decline in coral growth since 1990 caused by a combination of rising sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification. At the current rate of decline, coral will be unable to grow by 2050, scientists warn.

Greenpeace steps up pressure on NSW and Federal Governments on Climate Change

Greenpeace has announced the Esperanza will be visiting the East Coast of Australia over the next six weeks highlighting the need for a transition away from coal to clean renewable energy as contained in a new report called Blueprint for an energy [r]evolution

In related news: The Minister for Climate Change has announced new Greenhouse Gas Emission reporting requirements; and scientists have proclaimed that ocean warming has proceeded faster than expected and that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is in danger of collapse over a period of 20 years possibly raising sea levels 4 to 6 metres, unless measures are taken to limit fossil fuel use and its contribution to global warming. Upcoming event: Camp for Climate Action, Newcastle July 10-15

The voyage will highlight the Greenpeace report - Blueprint for an energy [r]evolution, released on June 16, 2008. The report details how coal-fired electricity can be completely phased out in Australia by 2030 by harnessing the country’s renewable energy resources - just a matter of political will by Federal and State Governments.

The report states that the Federal Government must:

* Legislate a target to reduce emissions by more than 40% by 2020
* Establish a moratorium on new coal-fired power stations and commit to a phase-out of coal-fired power by 2030
* Legislate a national target for renewable energy (electricity) of 40% by 2020
* Set a national energy efficiency target of a 2% reduction per year in Australia’s primary energy use
* Fund environmentally sustainable transport planning that reduces Australia’s emissions
* Support workers and communities affected by the move away from coal and develop a highly trained “green” workforce through investment in training programs and apprenticeships.


The Federal Government's Climate change adviser Ross Garnaut is due to release his full report to the Government this Friday that will detail a broad emissions trading scheme covering all sectors of the economy, including transport, for the Government to consider implementing.

Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, in a doorstop interview last week said that "We will release a Green Paper after Professor Garnaut’s draft report and that will outline government thinking on this issue [inclusion of fuel] and other issues. Can I make it very clear, unlike the opposition we understand that these are difficult decisions which have consequences, and what the opposition is not telling people, is if you exclude one or another sector of the economy, the rest of the economy has to do more work to reduce emissions."

Federal Government Introduces Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting

From the 1st July 2008 businesses emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases will be required to monitor and measure the emissions ahead of reporting them to the Government by October next year.

"The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System will be an important part of our efforts to tackle climate change as we move to establish an emissions trading scheme,” Senator Wong said. “This new system will play an important role by more precisely quantifying the greenhouse gases Australia produces. It will also, for the first time, provide robust and comparable information to the public on the greenhouse and energy profiles of Australia’s large corporations.”

Corporations that emit 125 kilotonnes or more of greenhouse gases each year, or produce or consume 500 terajoules or more of energy, will be required to collect data to meet annual reporting requirements. Corporations controlling facilities that emit more than 25 kilotonnes of greenhouse gases, or use or produce 100 terajoules or more of energy, will also need to collect data.

Businesses will have until 31 August 2009 to apply to register under the scheme, and until 31 October 2009 to submit their first annual greenhouse and energy report.

Rising Seas Warming Faster threatening Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse

New research published in the prestigous scientific journal Nature, shows ocean warming and thermal expansion trends for the past five decades are 50% larger than earlier previously estimated.

The Greenland Ice sheet is in danger of collapse with the Arctic sea ice rapidly diminishing. In Antarctica there is a danger that rising sea levels are destabilising the West Antarctic Ice Sheet which could collapse within 20 years according to Dr Bradley Opdyke, a paleoceanographer from the Australia National University (ANU).

The views of Opdyke were endorsed by Professor Malcolm McCulloch, also from the ANU, who said that the ice sheet collapse is a key threat. "Satellite images have revealed there's already melt-water beneath some of the ice sheets" he says. "If the WAIS collapses, sea levels will rise between four and six metres."

McCulloch was reported by the ABC that the collapse of the WAIS can be averted if the world community becomes "open minded" in its search for alternatives to fossil fuels.

Sources:

* Greenpeace June 28, 2008 - Greenpeace Esperanza begins Energy [R]evolution tour
* Minister for Climate Change and Water 2008 Media Releases
* ABC, June 19, 2008 - Ocean review finds warming on the rise
* ABC, June 25, 2008 - Rising seas threaten west Antarctic
* Greenpeace Report and summary: Blueprint for an energy [r]evolution