Australia’s new weather demands a new politics
Events have not been kind to the likes of Abbott, Bolt and Plimer. The current heatwave – so severe that the Bureau of Meteorology has been forced to add a new colour to its temperature maps – is just the latest event in a decade of extraordinary weather: weather of the kind that scientists have long warned is a likely consequence of man-made global warming.
Tony Abbott says he’s currently on standby with his local fire brigade but as his opposition to effective action on climate change is likely to contribute to even more extreme events in the future, this looks like the most cynical kind of stunt politics.
Australia’s new weather demands a new politics; a politics capable of responding to an existential threat.
Heatwave: Australia’s new weather demands a new politics http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/08/australia-heatwave-weather
Climate change clashes with the myth of a land where progress is limited only by the rate at which resources can be extracted George Monbiot
guardian.co.uk, 8 January 2013 I wonder what Tony Abbott will say about the record heatwave now ravaging his country. The Australian opposition leader has repeatedly questioned the science and impacts of climate change. He has insisted that “the science is highly contentious, to say the least” and asked – demonstrating what looks like a wilful ignorance – “If man-made CO2 was quite the villain that many of these people say it is, why hasn’t there just been a steady increase starting in 1750, and moving in a linear way up the graph?”He has argued against Australian participation in serious attempts to cut emissions.
Climate change denial is almost a national pastime in Australia. People such as Andrew Bolt and Ian Plimer have made a career out of it. The Australian – owned by Rupert Murdoch – takes such extreme anti-science positions that it sometimes makes the Sunday Telegraph look like the voice of reason. Continue reading
Hotter world climate is the background to Australia’s unprecedented heat wave
‘
‘Clearly, the climate system is responding to the background warming trend. Everything that happens in the climate system now is taking place on a planet which is a degree hotter than it used to be.’’As the warming trend increases over coming years, record-breaking heat will become more and more common, Dr Jones said.
While temperatures vary on a local and regional scale, globally it has
now been 27 years since the world experienced a month that was colder
than average
Get used to record-breaking heat: bureau,
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/get-used-to-recordbreaking-heat-bureau-20130108-2cet5.html#ixzz2HXDV5Yj7
January 9, 2013 Ben Cubby Environment Editor Temperatures off the charts as Australia turns deep purple
US posts year of record high temperatures The heatwave that has scorched the nation since Christmas is a taste of things to come, with this week’s records set to tumble again and again in the coming years, climate scientists said.
The hottest average maximum temperature ever recorded across Australia – 40.33 degrees, set on Monday – may only stand for 24 hours and be eclipsed when all of Tuesday’s readings come in. Previously, thatrecord had stood since December 21, 1972.
‘The current heatwave – in terms of its duration, its intensity and its extent – is now unprecedented in our records,’’ the Bureau of Meteorology’s manager of climate monitoring and prediction, David Jones, said. Continue reading
Victoria’s Baillieu government is making the State’s climate problem worse
Environment Victoria chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy accused the Baillieu government of neglecting efforts to
reduce Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions – such as by dumping the
state’s emissions reduction target.
”It defies logic that our government could understand the risks
climate change poses to Victorians and then knowingly make the problem
worse.”….
Climate threat to state assets, The Age, January 7, 2013 Tom Arup
VITAL public infrastructure in Victoria including hospitals, schools
and police stations is under increased threat of damage as climate
change intensifies.
A consultancy report has warned that billions of dollars worth of
infrastructure covered by the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority is
exposed to the impacts of natural disasters such as bushfires and
floods.
The intensity and frequency of such disasters are forecast to increase
as the planet warms. Continue reading
Call to Adelaide University to stop endorsing nuclear energy as “zero emissions”
ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY IS WRONG IN 2013.
IT SHOULD CORRECT ITS ERRORS IN THE SAME MANNER OF INTEGRITY IT IS
SUPPOSED TO CORRECT ANY LEARNED PAPER.
Is Nuclear Power Zero Emissions and Carbon Neutral, Paul Langley’s
Nuclear History Blog, 3 Jan 2013,“………..MAY THE Vice C hancellor OF ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY MODIFY HIS ENDORSEMENT OF THE ZERO
EMISSION STATEMENT HIS INSTITUTION PUBLISHES. IT IS IN ERROR.
IN 2006 SHORTLY AFTER ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY FOUND THAT NUCLEAR VETERANS
SUFFERED A FAR HIGHER CANCER RISK THAN NON VETERANS, BLAMING THIS
INCREASE NOT ON THE BOMB TESTS BUT ON PETROL FUMES IN THE DESERT (IN
ITS DRAFT REPORT) AND BY COMPLETE IGNORANCE OF ANY POSSIBLE CAUSE,
DISMISSING THE BOMBS COMPLETELY, THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT PROPOSED
THE BUILDING OF A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S NORTH.
CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE MOST AFFECTED BY THE BOMB FALLOUT Continue reading
The nuclear fuel cycle is a big emitter of greenhouse gases
ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY,
…………HAS COME ON BOARD AS PART OF THE PUSH TO ESTABLISH NUCLEAR
POWER IN AUSTRALIA….. DR JIM GREEN HAS WRITTEN EXTENSIVELY ON THE CARBON CONTRIBUTION OF
NUCLEAR POWER
Is Nuclear Power Zero Emissions and Carbon Neutral ?, Paul Langley’s
Nuclear History Blog, 3 Jan 2013, NO. OVER THE PAGES OF THIS BLOG I
HAVE EXPLAINED THE NATURE OF BOTH THE EMERGENCY (FUKUSHIMA) AND NORMAL
EMISSIONS OF RADIO NUCLIDES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS.
THE MINING, MILLING, TRANSPORT, VERY OPERATION, WASTE STORAGE AND
WASTE DISPOSAL OF SPENT FUEL ALL INVOLVE CARBON INTENSIVE SOURCES OF
POWER.
THE DIESEL SUBSIDY RECEIVED BY URANIUM SUPPLIES IS HUGE AND COSTLY,
AND DIESEL IS NOT CARBON NEUTRAL. THE TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF SPENT
FUEL IS NOT CARBON NEUTRAL.
RATHER THAN REDUCE EMISSIONS NUCLEAR POWER CREATES BOTH RADIO CHEMICAL
AND CARBON EMISSIONS.
NUCLEAR POWER HAS A CARBON FOOTPRINT THROUGHOUT THE FUEL CYCLE.
I WOULD URGE READERS TO CONTEMPLATE THE RELATIVE ADVANTAGES AND COSTS
OF NUCLEAR AS A RADIO CHEMICAL AND CARBON EMITTER OVER OTHER SOURCES
OF ENERGY WHICH EMIT NEITHER.
I QUESTION ANY STATEMENT BY ANY LEARNED INSTITUTION WHICH CLAIMS
NUCLEAR POWER IS CARBON NEUTRAL, FOR IT IS NOT. Continue reading
Why nuclear power is utterly incapable of tackling climate change
Despite the events in Fukushima, which many observers consider a
disaster, nuclear still gets a look in as a policy response to climate
change. Most of the commentary surrounding the release of the White
Paper focused on the favoritism or otherwise shown for nuclear power,
and public advocates like Barry Brook still poke their head up and
shout “NUCLEAR” from time to time. …… anyone seriously advocating
nuclear power as a policy response to global warming in Australia
doesn’t understand the problem……
the simple energy cost of production against the time it takes to generate that much electricity. Often called energy payback. The graphic below plots “energy return on investment” for various sources,
The Offshore Valuation: A valuation of the UK’s offshore renewable
energy resource. Published in the United Kingdom 2010 by the Public
Interest Research Centre. ISBN 978-0-9503648-8-9
http://www.offshorevaluation.org PE (2006)
If the answer is nuclear you don’t understand the question, evcricketenergy, 2 Jan 12
“…. Eligibility criteria are the must haves; if you are
selecting a new machine to generate electricity “does it generate
electricity” is the obvious one…
Merit criteria are what you use to split all of the options that pass.
Say you’re comparing a diesel or natural gas engine to power a remote
site, a merit criterion could be “is fuel available all year round?”
In this post I will focus on the eligibility criteria for powering
Australia while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with
electricity production. I will spend a long time arguing that, no,
nuclear should not be considered, because it is utterly incapable of
solving the problem. In later posts I will discuss the merit criteria,
where again nuclear falls down….. Continue reading
Dramatic fall in greenhouse gases, as Australians, especially Victorians. use less coal-fired power
Yallourn was operating at just 56 per cent last month even after it announced it was mothballing one of its four units.
Emissions sink as consumers turn off coal, SMH, Peter Hannam, December 17, 2012 Carbon economy editor Weak demand for electricity across eastern mainland states has sparked a “dramatic fall” in greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s power stations, the latest review of data by consultants Pitt & Sherry has found.
While demand for base-load electricity from black coal-fired power stations has been in retreat for about three years, the decline has extended in recent months to two of Victoria’s emissions-intensive brown coal-fired plants, Hazelwood and Yallourn. Changes in demand of electricity on this scale are unprecedented in the entire 120-year history of the electricity supply industry in Australia Continue reading
Queensland coast could get WEEKLY king tides, with climate change sea level rise
Climate change tipped to bring more king tides ABC News Dec 14, 2012 A Queensland academic says extreme weather events, like this week’s king tides, could become more common as a result of climate change.
The biggest tides of the year are expected to peak this morning, reaching 5.7 metres at Port Alma, 4.7 metres at Yeppoon and 4.6 metres at Gladstone.
Professor Rodger Tomlinson, from the coastal research unit at Griffith University, says king tides could occur weekly in the future. “Some research has been done by our colleagues in the CSIRO sort of indicating that these kind of events that we now see twice a year, under the sea level rise projections for 2,100, we might be … seeing those sort of weekly,” he said.
“It’s that kind of increase in the frequency of those events under sea level rise.”
Authorities say they are not expecting any properties along the central Capricorn Coast to be badly affected by inundation during this morning’s high tide……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-14/climate-change-tipped-to-bring-more-king-tides/4427970
Methane from Coal Seam Gas has a big impact on global warming
CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change, ABC News 10 Dec 12 by Wendy Carlisle for Background Briefing An expert in public policy says the debate over whether coal seam gas is cleaner than coal depends on the timeframe used to measure emissions.
According to a scientific paper by US academic Nathan Hultman, coal seam gas is 56 per cent cleaner than coal over a 100-year time frame, but when compared to coal over 20 years it is less than 20 per cent cleaner. Professor Hultman, 
from the school of public policy at the University of Maryland, says using the “most extreme assumptions”, coal seam gas is actually dirtier than coal over a 20-year time frame.
He told Radio National’s Background Briefing the choice of timescale was a “value judgment” and “depended on when you thought the real problem of climate change was going to bite”.
“The reason you would be worried about methane in particular over a 20-year time horizon is if you are thinking we are on the verge of a kind of tipping point in climate change right now,” he said.
“If you really think right now we are very close to melting the ice caps or pushing the climate from a moderately steady state into a kind of bad outcome where you’ve got runaway climate change.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global warming impact of greenhouse gases can be measured across three different times frames: 20 years, 100 years or 500 years.
Each is valid and chosen by atmospheric scientists depending on what scientific point they wish to highlight.
Coal seam gas is mostly methane – a powerful greenhouse gas that has a relatively short life span.
This means that over a 20-year time frame, coal seam gas has a much higher global warming impact than if it is measured over 100 years……. . http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/background-briefing-coal-seam-gas/4416808
“Fugitive emissions” – not measured – greenhouse gases from coal seam gas
the sources, and perhaps also the volumes, of fugitive methane releases may differ from those associated with conventional gas production, and that consequently different approaches to the measurement of fugitive emissions may be required.”
CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change, ABC News 10 Dec 12 by Wendy Carlisle for Background Briefing “……..Fugitive emissions Professor Hultman’s paper was cited by the oil and gas lobby group APPEA in their submission to the Federal Government’s review into the way in which fugitive emissions from coal seam gas are measured.
APPEA has consistently said coal seam gas is 70 per cent cleaner than coal.
But in September the Government released a report which found that the absence of published information about fugitive emissions – greenhouse gases that leak into the atmosphere during the extraction process – was a matter of “public policy concern”. Continue reading
Exceptional sea level rise on the Perth coastline.
Perth’s sea levels on the rise, Dec 05, 2012 WA Today In 2011, Sea levels on the Perth coastline are rising at three times the global average, the latest State of Australian Cities report shows.
In a statistic that federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese described as “disturbing” and “extraordinary”, readings since 1993 have indicated sea levels are rising by between nine and 10 millimetres per year. The global average is around three millimetres per year…….
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perths-sea-levels-on-the-rise-20121204-2asue.html#ixzz2EEy5FBXH
Doha Climate Talks – Australia, Qatar, and developed world – out of touch with reality
Doha Dispatches: Mind the gap… and the science REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 3 December 2012 DOHA: The first slogan to greet arrivals at Doha Airport in Qatar are as optimistic as those that greeted delegates to the climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009: “Welcome to 12 days that could have an everlasting effect,” it pronounces.
Not real catchy, and possibly a direct translation from Arabic. But worthy all the same. Sadly, judging by the lack of ambition, and the lack of progress of these talks, it’s not a likely outcome.
The second thing that attracted my attention on arrival were two payment booths at the exit of the parking lot. Barely big enough for one person to sit inside, they were each equipped with their own 1kW air conditioning system with a large hose attached, like a deep-sea diver with an oxygen supply.
They probably need it. Doha is a city that thrives because of its fossil fuel riches and it has built a western city of stunning shapes and proportions only because it is air conditioned. It has even promised to air condition the World Cup, which it aims to host in 2022 and will have to do exactly that if the competition is to run in the northern summer, where temperatures average 36°C from June to August and have peaked at 53°C, and could hit goodness-knows-what in a decade’s time. (Even the sea-water reached 37°C in 2008).
Qatar is one of a handful of Gulf states that deprives Australia of a most unwanted moniker – the highest emitting state in the world per capita. Australia gets the gong for the category of developed nations, but even it can’t compete with Qatar. Humankind would need more than two planets if the world lived like Australians do. If they lived like the Qataris – the massive buildings, the labyrinth of four lane highways that seem always often clogged, what must be the highest per capita penetration of Toyota Land Cruisers, and its need to desalinate its water – then we would need around five planets. Continue reading
Climate Change becoming irreversible as Arctic permafrost thaws
Where even the earth is melting, SMH, November 28, 2012 Ben Cubby ENVIRONMENT EDITOR THE world is on the cusp of a “tipping point” into dangerous climate change, according to new data gathered by scientists measuring methane leaking from the Arctic permafrost and a report presented to the United Nations on Tuesday.
“The permafrost carbon feedback is irreversible on human time scales,” says the report, Policy Implications of Warming Permafrost. “Overall, these observations indicate that large-scale thawing of permafrost may already have started.”
While countries the size of Australia tally up their greenhouse emissions in hundreds of millions of tonnes, the Arctic’s stores are measured in tens of billions. Human-induced emissions now appear to have warmed the Arctic enough to
unlock this vast carbon bank, with stark implications for international efforts to hold global warming to a safe level. Ancient
forests locked under ice tens of thousands of years ago are beginning to melt and rot, releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the air. Continue reading
Exposing Australian Liberal Party’s absurd climate change policies
Turnbull calls out Abbott’s carbon hypocrisy (again) , REneweconomy,. By Giles Parkinson on 20 November 2012 Malcolm Turnbull has once again publicly outed the federal Opposition’s absurd climate change policies – playing word games over Tony Abbott’s “blood pledge” to repeal the carbon tax, and highlighting that the Coalition’s policy position is only a short-term one, at best.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Opposition will find it nearly impossible to deliver on Abbott’s pledge to repeal the carbon price. And for months, as we pointed out in July, it has only been described as a pledge to repeal the carbon tax, not the carbon price. It’s a subtle but critically important distinction, and one that Turnbull was keen to highlight on ABC TV’s Q&A program last night…….
there is nothing to celebrate in a carbon price that is too low to inspire investment from a scheme that is too weak to meet environmental targets. This was underscored this week by a petition of 100 leading companies – including Shell, Unilever, EDF Energy, Statoil, Swiss Re, and Skanska – who complained that the carbon price was not sufficiently robust to drive the investments required in abatement technologies. And there is nothing to complain about in a renewable energy target delivering more renewable energy that planned. It’s more than just a box-ticking exercise.
It turns out that 50,000 Australians are not wrong about climate chnage
A disproportionate amount of media airtime given to climate sceptics may lead some people to overestimate the prevalence of that view
powerful interests promoted the voices of climate sceptics.
Climate change deniers are rarer than we think http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/climate-change-deniers-are-rarer-than-we-think-46206 By Sunanda Creagh 13 November 2012 The Conversation Australians grossly overestimate the proportion of people who deny that climate change is happening, a CSIRO study has found.
The study, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, surveyed over 5000 Australians over two years. Continue reading
1 This month
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
