Melbourne kicks off the global climate rally with 30,000 people
Melbourne rally for climate change action attracts 30,000 people The Age September 21, 2014 – Clay Lucas City Editor, The Age Organisers of an international climate rally say the Melbourne leg of the global demonstration has seen 30,000 protesters converge on Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
Australia’s People’s Climate March is one of around 2500 rallies taking place around the globe ahead of a United Nations summit on climate change in New York next week….
…Greens leader Christine Milne said Australia must send a strong message to Mr Abbott that the time for a “conversation” was over.
“We won’t stand for it, that’s what we have to convey to Tony Abbott and leaders around the world,” she said. “The reign of fossil fuels is over, what we have to do is end the reign of the fossil fools who keep it going.”……. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-rally-for-climate-change-action-attracts-30000-people-20140921-10jxwl.html#ixzz3E65gcdDR
Global Petition: More Nuclear Power is NOT the Answer to the Climate Crisis
More Nuclear Power is NOT the Answer to the Climate Crisis Petition published by Tom Hayden on Sep 04, 2014
2691 Signatures  |
Fukushima alone demonstrates the risks of nuclear meltdowns even in a society based on science and advanced technology. The one hundreds plants in our country are terrorist targets.
There are no solutions in sight to nuclear waste disposal. The timelines for bringing new nuclear plants online exceed the UN’s call for rapid decarbonization. The estimated costs are staggering.
Petition:
We urge you to develop an analytic model that includes the decommissioning of current nuclear plants as part of a transition to a future based on conservation, efficiency and renewable energy. http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/more-nuclear-power-is-not-the-answer-to-the-climate-crisis.html
Fukushima Radiation level in groundwater now 25,000 times higher than when year began
Japan Times: Fukushima plant plagued by problems as radioactive material bleeds into Pacific — Radiation level in groundwater now 25,000 times higher than when year began http://enenews.com/japan-times-fukushima-plant-plagued-problems-radioactive-material-bleeds-pacific-record-radiation-level-groundwater-25000-times-higher-when-year-began?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
Japan Times, Sept 19, 2014: Tainted water problems still plague Fukushima, despite some positive signs — More than three years since [3/11] the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is still bleeding tons of toxic radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean… Continue reading
Japanese town uses regulations to protect groundwater from nuclear waste
Tochigi town passes water-protection ordinance to block nuclear waste plans THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, 21 Sept 14 A town in Tochigi Prefecture has found a novel way to block the construction of a final disposal site for radioactive waste from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis by passing an ordinance that will protect its natural resources.
The ordinance, passed unanimously by the Shioya town assembly on Sept. 19, will protect an area that includes local springs, as well as mountain forest that was designated by the Environment Ministry as a candidate for the final disposal facility.
The ministry plans to use the site to store designated waste which contains more than 8,000 becquerels of radioactivity per kilogram.
Under the ordinance, the town government aims to protect the quality and quantity of water in springs, including the Shojinzawa Yusui, recognized by the ministry as one of the best 100 natural waters in Japan……..A group opposed to the construction of the disposal site had gathered more than 60,000 signatures inside and outside the prefecture as of Sept. 19, more than five times the town’s population……. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201409200104
Rally for renewable energy Friday Sept 26
National Rally For Renewables This Friday http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4505 21 Sept 14,
Thousands of solar supporters across the nation will be sending another very clear “hands off” message to the government this Friday regarding the future of the Renewable Energy Target.
The Rally for Renewables on Friday, September 26 at noon will be held in major centres across Australia;with events occurring at key Cabinet ministers electorate offices in each state.
Coordinated by Solar Citizens, the event is also being supported by the Clean Energy Council (CEC), Australian Solar Council, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Australian Wind Alliance.
With a decision on the Renewable Energy Target expected soon, it’s crunch time. The heat has already been well and truly turned up on the government and the rally is expected to further bump up the temperature.
“Cabinet ministers are MPs too – and it’s time they understand the depth of feeling in their local communities,” says part of a statement from Solar Citizens. “Before they make their decision on the Target they need to know that solar workers, business owners, solar owners and supporters everywhere want the Renewable Energy Target kept in full, with no cuts.”
Cuts to the Target would translate to the loss of thousands of jobs, and at least another 18,000 jobs won’t be created in the next 6 years. Solar Citizens says it will be more difficult for households to go solar and take control of their power bills, with installation costs to skyrocket by 30-50% if the Target is slashed.
While maintaining the Renewable Energy Target in its current form has been supported by PUP, Labor and the Greens; it’s believed there are other ways the government could affect solar subsidies without necessarily needing the blessing or cooperation of other parties; making the rally and the message it will send even more important.
“This is our chance to ensure a strong future for solar and renewables. By coming together on September 26, we can show our politicians the real impact on jobs, small and large businesses and families that any cuts to the Target will have in local communities across Australia,” says Solar Citizens.
Further information on the National Rally For Renewables can be viewed here.
US Secretary of State Kerry calls on world leaders to tackle climate change
Kerry compares climate change to fight against Ebola and Isis as thousands march around world Guardian 22 Sept 14 “……….On a day of 2,700 simultaneous climate events from Melbourne to Manhattan, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, reinforced the calls from the streets for action by calling on world leaders to take the threat of climate change as seriously as Isis or Ebola.
Organisers had called the day of protests in order to put pressure on world leaders gathering in New York for a UN summit on climate change on Tuesday. It will be the leaders’ first such meeting in five years.
Kerry, in remarks to foreign ministers of the 20 biggest economies, said climate change should be at the top of the agenda despite competition from more immediate challenges.
“While we are confronting [Isis], and we are confronting terrorism and we are confronting Ebola, this also has an immediacy that people have come to understand,” he said. “There is a long list of important issues before all of us, but the grave threat that climate change poses warrants a prominent position on that list.”
Organisers claimed 570,000 people protested in 161 countries, from a handful of protesters in Aleppo, Syria, to the mega-march by 310,000 through New York City– three times as many as the 100,000 people organisers had expected, and easily overtaking the 80,000 who demonstrated for climate action in Copenhagen in 2009.
In Manhattan, the noisy, hopeful cavalcade of protesters – led by Hurricane Sandy survivors carrying placards of sunflowers and Native Americans in traditional headdresses – took over the streets of Midtown, juggling, singing, blowing synagogue shofars and conch shells, whistling and beating drums, with biodiesel-powered floats chugging along.
Leonardo di Caprio marched with Mark Ruffalo; the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, marched with the former US vice-president Al Gore. At least three Democratic members of the Senate also joined.
“People are now much more aware in all our countries of how important this topic is,” said the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, who joined the march in Manhattan.
Upper West Side mothers pushed expensive strollers alongside protesters carrying signs reading “angry pacifists”.
“I think it will make a difference,” said Tashina Red Hawk, aged 10, who wore intricately beaded traditional Sioux Indian dress, and who lives on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. “But it would still be good to do all kinds of other stuff.”
She went on: “If you don’t take care of the land, it won’t take care of you.”
In London, organisers said 40,000 took to the sunlit streets and marched to the Houses of Parliament. The protest was peaceful, although loud jeers rose up as the crowd passed both Downing Street and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
In Melbourne, protesters paraded a giant puppet of the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott.
The People’s Climate March came two days before the US president, Barack Obama, and about 120 other world leaders gather for the UN meeting on climate change.
The challenge for those leaders is clear: left unchecked, the world is on course for a 4.5C temperature rise. “For us that means annihilation,” said Tony deBrum, the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands………..
In Paris, organisers said 25,000 people attended – heavy with the knowledge that history would be made on climate, one way or another, in the city in a year’s time. ………… http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/21/-sp-climate-change-protest-melbourne-london-new-york-protest
Global carbon emissions continue to soar – latest report
Global carbon report: emissions will hit new heights in 2014, The Conversation, Pep Canadell Executive director, Global Carbon Project at CSIRO Michael Raupach Director of the Climate Change Institute at Australian National University, 22 September 2014,
As heads of state gather in New York for tomorrow’s United Nations climate summit, a new report on the state of the world’s carbon budget tells them that greenhouse emissions hit a new record last year, and are still growing.
The Global Carbon Project has released its annual report card on the global and national trends in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
It shows that global emissions from burning fossil fuels and cement production reached a new record of 36 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2013, and are predicted to grow by a further 2.5% in 2014, bringing the total CO2 emissions from all sources to more than 40 billion tonnes. This is about 65% more fossil-fuel emission than in 1990, when international negotiations to reduce emissions to address climate change began……..
Australia
Emissions from fossil fuels declined in 2013, largely driven by a 5% decline of emissions in the electricity sector over the previous year (as shown by the Australian National Greenhouse Gas Accounts). Fossil fuel emissions per person remain high at 14.6 tonnes of CO2………
Is it too late to tame the climate?
Our estimates (see here and here) show that, at current emissions levels, average global warming will hit 2C in about 30 years.
Despite this apparently imminent event, economic models can still come up with scenarios in which global warming is kept within 2C by 2100, while both population and per capita wealth continue to grow. Are these models playing tricks on us?…
Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls for Truth and Justice Commission on wrongs done to Australia’s Aborigines
Desmond Tutu: ‘Lay bare the horrors of the past’ https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox?compose=1489a3cc2fa6322e September 21, 2014 Stephanie Wood South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has supported calls for a truth and justice commission to expose “the horrors of the past” suffered by Aboriginal Australians.
In a statement released for World Peace Day on Sunday, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town said it should be followed by a “national healing process for all Australians”.
Aboriginal elders Djiniyini Gondarra, senior Dhurili clan leader of the Yolngu peoples of north-east Arnhem Land, and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, a former Anglican nun based in Utopia in Central Australia, wrote to the archbishop this month to express their concerns about the slow movement towards indigenous self-determination.
“I pray for the rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia to determine their own destiny,” the archbishop said. “It is a severe indictment on Australia that many of its indigenous peoples still feel that their culture and dignity are being eroded and that they continue to be treated as second-class citizens.
“Community councils have been closed down and management of many aspects of the peoples’ lives has been transferred to non-indigenous institutions. The exclusion of local Aboriginal perspectives from decision-making is directly eroding customs, laws, languages and land-use aspirations.
“The imposition of legislation generally known as the Northern Territory intervention in 2007 virtually stripped them of their voice.”
“The archbishop has been one of my heroes and it is an answer to my prayer that the archbishop has responded and taken it seriously,” Ms Kunoth-Monks said.
“Forty-two years after becoming a signatory to the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Australian government policy has still not seriously looked at human rights whereas the first people are concerned.”
Mrs Kunoth-Monks said some form of truth commission should be considered. “I certainly am calling for a national journey for that truth and justice, bringing in the history of all the horrors and the assaults that are continuing under the government’s policies,” she said.
“The wounds are still open and raw.”
1 This month
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