 The Adani coal mine is the ‘Work Choices‘ of this generationSimon Black 5 November 2018, Australians know Adani doesn’t “stack up” environmentally or economically and it won’t stack up for the Morrison Government politically either. Independent Australia Simon Black reports. DESPITE BEING A MINE, not a policy, the seething rage we are seeing from the Australian population at the continued insistence at driving the Adani coal mine down our throats reminds me increasingly of the mood of late 2005. The Adani project is becoming a single thing that unifies people and embodies unfairness and contempt from politicians who insist they know better than their constituents and pander to big business at their expense, time and time again. Despite poll after poll after poll showing that the overwhelming majority of Australians do not want this destructive project, we are simply fobbed off and dismissed as not understanding how good it is going to be for us. And people are angry. Enraged. Furious. Adani has been caught polluting protected wetlands, possibly even doctoring reports, for which the Government aren’t so much slapping them with a piece of wet lettuce as they are waving the lettuce in a slightly menacing fashion, while furiously winking with one side of their face. They have been taken to court for polluting the Great Barrier Reef, they are being investigated for illegal drilling into groundwater at the mine site and their claims about job numbers have been rejected — by their own economist. Add that to a very long history of unsavoury behaviour and there is little wonder there is public outrage that this project is in danger of being forced upon Australians. News this week shows that Adani recognises this as well — and it’s trying to get the project moving before the election, in defiance of the will of the Australian people. It looks like they will do this by sneakily getting their foot in the door with a smaller and self-fundedversion to jump start this dangerous and irresponsible project. Something they have been forced to do because no financial institution both in Australia and overseas would touch it with a ten-foot pole. The multi-billion dollar multinational had resorted to begging the Federal Government for $1 billion on top of the royalty scheme it had already been granted, but that a massive public backlash left that dead in the water. Adani is going to put up its own money. In an Australian coal market that has, as another report that came out on the same day showed, peaked and is now in a state of ‘terminal long-term decline‘. And that’s the point. This is a last-ditch dash from a company who recognise all too well how publically toxic this project is. The Liberal Party were shown this in their humiliating defeat in the Wentworth by-election. Despite attempting to blame Malcolm Turnbull and dismissing Wentworth as an outlier, Dave Sharma couldn’t go anywhere without being hounded on climate change by Stop Adani forces. Annastacia Palaszczuk was reminded of that outrage as well when she tweeted in support of action on climate change — the issue that voters in Wentworth identified as their number one concern. Despite the issue swinging farther and farther away from her political opponents, it’s a no-brainer to know any tweet would be met with howls of outrage about Adani — which is exactly what happened. This pressure is only going to increase with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition this week releasing a tool to show exactly where local Labor representatives stand on the issue. This project is not only toxic, but it is also becoming a focal point for governments’ refusal to take action on climate change and ignoring the Australian people to pander to big coal companies. The Adani project cannot be allowed to go ahead. It is insanity incarnated and a nightmare for the region, the country, and the world. The mine will take unlimited groundwater and 12.5 billion litres of river water, while 57 per cent of Queensland is drought declared. The water plans from the company are grossly inadequate and the Federal and Queensland governments must stop them. The mine will fuel climate change and even the United Nations has urged us to reconsider. It all adds up to a putrid picture. The spills, the pollution, the water license, the history overseas, the fight against Indigenous land rights, the fake social accounts………https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-adani-coal-mine-is-the-work-choices-of-this-generation,12066 |
|
Western Australia set for a scorching summer
Perth cruises through dry, ‘benign’ November as BOM flags glimpse of hot summer to come, ABC 
News, By Irena Ceranic 30 Nov 18 As Queensland sweltered through heatwave conditions which fuelled catastrophic bushfires, and torrential rain flooded New South Wales, Perth cruised through a mild November, recording its driest in 61 years and coolest in a decade.
Key points:
- Perth’s spring rainfall totalled 78.4mm, compared to the average of 148.9mm
- The average temperature in Perth in November was a cooler-than-usual 25.3C
- The temperature in the city on Monday is forecast to soar to 36C
There were only two wet days in the month and between them, they delivered just 3.2 millimetres of rain to the Perth metro gauge — far less than the 23.2mm average — making it the driest November since 1957.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) spokesman Neil Bennett said the days were also cooler than usual, with an average of 25.3 degrees Celsius………
Get set for a summer scorcher
Perth had an unusually cool summer in 2017-18 and did not record a single day over 38C. But above-average temperatures are expected over much of WA this time around, according to the outlook for December to February from BOM.
“We don’t have a strong signal one way or the other for the rainfall, so that sort of suggests that we’re likely to see average rainfall for the next three months,” said Mr Bennett.
“Temperature-wise though, it does look as if the odds are favouring warmer-than-average temperatures.”
Perth will get a glimpse of what is to come on Monday, when the temperature is forecast to soar to 36C. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-30/perths-cool-benign-november-the-driest-in-more-than-six-decades/10571178
Schoolkids say -Climate change is the biggest threat to our futures, not striking from school
Climate change is the biggest threat to our futures, not striking from school https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/29/climate-change-is-the-biggest-threat-to-our-futures-not-striking-from-school Milou Albrecht, Harriet O’Shea Carre and Jean Hinchcliffe, 29 Nov 2018
We are walking out for a day to send the Australian government a message: you can no longer pretend we are not here. his month, hundreds of children are going on strike from school to demand urgent action on climate change. From rural Victoria to Townsville, we are walking out of school for a day or more to tell our politicians to listen to us and protect our futures.
We are Milou, Jean and Harriet and we are 14 years old.
Two of us – Milou and Harriet – live in rural Victoria. Throughout our lives, we’ve witnessed the impacts that drought, bushfires and extreme weather have on a community. We have been forced to evacuate when a bushfire came through our town. It was scary. But it is something that will happen more and more as climate change gets worse.
We feel frustrated and let down when we think about the climate crisis and our future. There is so much our politicians could be doing that they aren’t. It seems they are in denial. Our government is supposed to protect us, not destroy our chances of a safe future. Continue reading
With bushfires and floods, Australia now ranks in the top 10 world’s natural disaster counntries
Chart of the day: Bushfires, cyclones and floods put Australia in the world’s natural disaster top 10 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-30/natural-disaster-economic-impact-chart/10499688 By business reporter Stephen Letts The annual cycle of summer bushfires, cyclones and floods, all too evident this week, has pushed Australia into the global top 10 for economic damage caused by natural disasters.
The 2018 International Federation Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ World Disasters Reportfound Australia’s damage bill over the past decade came in at $37 billion (or $US27 billion).
That ranks us 10th in terms of the cost of natural disasters, but still a fair way behind the big three disaster zones: the US, China and Japan which together account for about two-thirds of the total financial cost the IFRC added up between 2008 and 2017.
Our Asia-Pacific region seems to be the most disaster-prone on the planet, being bit by around 40 per cent of the 335 disasters recorded worldwide in 2017 and suffered almost 60 per cent of disaster-related deaths.
The report notes that in a changing climate, small-scale weather disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense, and in many cases “exceed the coping capacities of households and of authorities”.
The IFRC’s definition of natural disasters includes storms, floods, earthquakes, volcanic activity and droughts, but not epidemics.
Research on Australia’s climate history
RETHINKING AUSTRALIA’S CLIMATE HISTORY https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news103762.html, 27 November 2018
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have found evidence of climate change that coincided with the first wave of European settlement of Australia, which effectively delivered a double-punch of drying and land clearance to the country.
The research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, suggests that eastern Australia, including Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, was much drier after 1890 than the Little Ice Age period that preceded it. Continue reading
Queensland Premier sceptical that Adani coal mine will ever eventuate
We will believe it when we see it’: Palaszczuk on the Adani coal mine , Brisbane Times,By Felicity Caldwell, 30 November 2018 Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has expressed scepticism about Adani’s announcement that construction on its Carmichael coal mine would begin.
Adani Australia mining chief executive Lucas Dow on Thursday announced the scaled-back project would be “100 per cent financed” from within the Adani conglomerate.
Ms Palaszczuk said the announcement was “very different to what we have been seeing” and she wanted more details. “There is no taxpayers’ money going into the building of that railway line, they have to have agreements with Aurizon, we haven’t seen any of that evidence as of yet,” she told the ABC on Friday morning.
“And, of course, we will believe it when we see it.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the success of Adani’s project would depend on whether the company met its milestones. “We’ve got a lot of companies that come and say we’ve got finance to begin things and it doesn’t happen,” she said. “I will believe it when it starts happening.”
Adani was previously seeking a $1 billion taxpayer loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to finance a 388-kilometre rail line needed to move its coal to port for export.
In September, Adani announced it would save $1.5 billion by scaling down the rail line. It will now build a shorter narrow gauge line to connect with Aurizon’s existing rail plans……….
Greens Senator Larissa Waters said there was still time to stop Adani’s Galilee Basin mine.
Greens MP Michael Berkman said Labor had issued the environmental approval and mining leases and set up a royalties deal. “We are so far beyond the point of being able to accept Labor’s ‘we’ll believe it when we see it’ kind of approach,” he said……….https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/we-will-believe-it-when-we-see-it-palaszczuk-on-the-adani-coal-mine-20181130-p50jcb.html
Yes, Prime Minister, I’m striking from school: consider it a climate lesson
Canberra Times, By Veronica Hester 29 November 2018 I am Veronica, 15 years old, from Scott Morrison’s electorate. Despite our Prime Minister’s calls for students not to strike from school on Friday, we’re choosing to no longer be powerless. We will be striking with thousands of other students, to show we will not stand for our government’s inaction on climate change………Seeing this, we students do not shout at each other across the classroom. We sit in a shocked silence. Afterwards, we shout, with our signs and our demands. Because how can an educated person know all we know, and do nothing?
Mr Morrison and his government continue to overlook the danger of climate change, while not seeming to have a problem helping coal miners such as Adani dig up and burn more coal. It’s surreal to watch nothing significant happening on the parliamentary floor, when the solutions have been made so clear. We are one of the sunniest and windiest countries in the world, yet our government chooses to burn more coal.
When Mr Morrison refuses to implement a climate policy that keeps fossil fuels in the ground and transition to 100 per cent renewable energy, he isn’t representing us, our community, or the majority of Australians who want urgent climate action.
Tackling climate change isn’t just about looking out for our young people. We’ll all live with extreme heat and changing weather patterns, not to mention the sense of helplessness in losing our natural world.
By making a stand and organising our communities, we can push our politicians to represent us, not lumps of coal…….That is all we want – for a serious problem to be treated seriously by our politicians. We need the fire of climate change to be confronted, not left to engulf my generation.
Veronica Hester is a school student from the Sutherland Shire. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/yes-prime-minister-i-m-striking-from-school-consider-it-a-climate-lesson-20181127-p50iqd.html
Queensland experiencing fires of unprecedented fury, similar to California’s wildfires
Qld fires compared to deadly US blazes The Queensland fires have been compared to the infernos that recently decimated California. News com.au, Staff reporters, Australian Associated Press, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 Almost 10,000 Queenslanders are being forced to flee to shelter as wildfires fanned by catastrophic conditions bear down on their communities. Firefighters in Queensland are battling almost 140 wildfires, with the worst in central Queensland in destructive conditions that have been compared to those that fanned the infernos that recently decimated California. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered and 37 schools closed amid a new blaze near Rockhampton and monster one farther south that’s already razed at least four homes and scorched tens of thousands of hectares of bush and farmland. A large fire sparked shortly before 3pm on Wednesday has since raced towards Gracemere, prompting authorities to order a mandatory complete evacuation of the 8000 people in the area. Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart told people not to panic but make for the Rockhampton showgrounds around 14km away, where an evacuation centre has been set up. ……..Firefighters have been fighting since Saturday the monster fire near Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek, Eungella and Dalrymple Heights, where people were ordered to evacuate before fires cut road. Most people got out by road but some had to be ferried over Baffle Creek. ……….Deputy Police Commissioner Bob Gee had bluntly warned people that the conditions were so dangerous people could die if they stayed put. “People will burn to death. Their normal approaches probably won’t work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop. It is no different to a Category 5 cyclone coming through your door.” Brian Smith, Regional Manager for the Rural Fire Services Central Region, said experts were comparing the conditions in Deepwater to the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent deadly California fires. Interstate crews arrived on Tuesday to help fight the inferno in Deepwater that’s destroyed homes and burnt through at tens of thousands of hectares of bush and farmland since Saturday. Crews from South Australia are expected to arrive on Wednesday, with more from around Australia to arrive later this week. https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/qld-may-lose-lives-in-firestorm-govt/news-story/df1dcf91c83f868bef7ba12caba27c40
|
Australia’s school students not impressed with PM Scott Morrison’s criticism of their climate change activism
Students hit back at PM after ‘less activism in schools’ climate change comment, SBS, 28 Nov 18 Hundreds of students are planning to leave school this Friday to protest government inaction on climate change. There’s a storm brewing between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and school students planning a national strike on climate change inaction this Friday.
Hundreds of students are vowing to put the books away and converge on MP offices and parliaments around the country in the Big School Walk Out for Climate Action.
On Monday, Mr Morrison implored children to stay in class rather than protesting things that “can be dealt with outside of school”.
What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools,” he said.
But students aren’t happy with the response.
Melbourne student Jagveer Singh, who will take part in the protest, said Mr Morrison’s broadside made him “want to go on strike even more”. [We want to] demonstrate that we’re not happy with the federal government for not listening to us and demand that we get a safe climate,” he said.
“It’s our future. We are the ones that will be facing the consequences of the decisions that are made today, and that is why we need to have a say.
“The time that they’re using to debate this issue is time that’s being wasted … We need to act on this.” …….https://www.sbs.com.au/news/students-hit-back-at-pm-after-less-activism-in-schools-climate-change-comment
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison furiously against the Big School Walkout for Climate Action.
theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/26/scott-morrison-tells-students-striking-over-climate-change-to-be-less-activist
Prime minister is labelled ‘out of touch’ after he says let the politicians not schoolchildren deal with the issue
Scott Morrison has been labelled “out of touch” for angrily condemning a national student strike to protest government inaction on climate change.
The prime minister implored children to stay in class rather than protesting things that “can be dealt with outside of school”.
“Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members’ kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments,” Morrison told parliament on Monday.
“What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools.”
Morrison furiously reacted to Greens MP Adam Bandt during question time about the protest, dubbed the Big School Walkout for Climate Action.
Hundreds of Australian school students are vowing to put the books away and converge on MP offices and parliaments around the country this Friday.
Morrison began his answer to Bandt’s question by saying climate change is a “very real and serious issue” that demands attention.
He said the government was acting on climate change through initiatives such as the emissions reduction fund and the renewable energy target.
“We are committed to all of these things, but I will tell you what we are also committed to – kids should go to school,” Morrison said.
Bandt said he had met with some of the students involved and backed their actions.
“The PM is unbelievably out of touch with young people, not only in Australia but around the world,” he said.
“These students want a leader to protect their future, but they got a hectoring, ungenerous and condescending rebuke from someone even worse than Tony Abbott.”
Australian Youth Climate Coalition spokesperson Laura Sykes said Morrison had shown “irrational outrage” to students who care about their education.
“It was shocking see our prime minister condemning students as young as eight, who are sacrificing a day of schooling to stand up for a safe climate future,” Sykes told AAP.
“When young people try to have a voice in politics, Scott Morrison is shutting them down, yet he’s happy to listen to the coal lobby and big corporations who continue to profit from making climate change worse.”
Events are planned in all capital cities, along with about 20 regional areas.
Friday November 30 – Australian students Strike For Climate Action
Students in each state capital and across 20 regional Australian centres will walk out of their classrooms this week to tell politicians that more of the same climate inaction is not good enough.
Here are some of the lessons they hope to teach.
‘If we really want a better planet Earth’ Continue reading
New Climate Council report links climate change with worsening droughts
 Deluge and Drought: Climate Council issues grim warning on looming water security crisis, ABC, 14 Nov 18
The Climate Council has released a new report linking climate change with worsening droughts, including the current one, extreme weather events such as bushfires and floods, and identifying water security as a source of grave concern. The report, Deluge and Drought: Australia’s Water Security in a Changing Climate, stated that if the effects of climate change were left unchecked the results for the agriculture sector and beyond will be devastating. According to the report, the Murray-Darling Basin — known as “Australia’s food bowl” —has seen a 41 per cent reduction in “streamflows” since the mid-1990s, while water systems in Western Australia’s southwest have declined by about 50 per cent. Additionally, the report said Australia’s south-east had seen a 15 per cent reduction in rainfall in late autumn and early winter, and a 25 per cent decline in rainfall in April and May over the past 20 to 30 years. These grim figures were all related, the publicly-funded council found, to rainfall patterns thrown badly out of whack by climate change. “Most of our [rainfall] comes from the ocean, so we are exposed to big-scale changes, and the tropics are expanding,” Professor Will Steffen, one of the report’s seven co-authors, said. “That is the ultimate explanation for why these fronts in the Southern Ocean are now being pushed a bit further south, and so that means that we are getting less rainfall across the southern part of Australia……… Council urges immediate action The report warned that “continuing on our current trajectory of high emissions has enormous and growing risks”. “Dealing decisively and effectively with climate change cannot be put off any longer,” the report said. “Solutions are available. “We need to accelerate the transition to clean, affordable and reliable renewables and storage technologies and ramp up other climate solutions in the water, transport, agriculture and other sectors.” https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-11-13/climate-change-report-and-drought-policy/10493812 |
|
Air conditioning – if supplied by fossil fuels – increases global warming
This article highlights Sir Richard Branson (a nuclear power proponent) and correctly reminds us of the carbon footprint if air-conditioning, if fuelled by fossil power. Important to Australia, and also to India. Why didn’t Ft mention this?
BUT – the logical alternative is renewable energy – either by use of a total 
renewable energy electrical system, or just a solar air-conditioner.
FT 12th Oct 2018 Air Conditioning A competition to find a breakthrough in air-conditioning technology has been launched with the backing of Sir Richard Branson and the Indian government, in an effort to avert the climate impact of the huge expected growth in the use of cooling systems.
The prize is intended to encourage inventors to find new ideas for indoor cooling that can be economically competitive against current technologies, while reducing energy consumption and the use of refrigerants such as hydrofluorocarbons that contribute to global warming.
There are about 1.2bn air-conditioning units installed worldwide today, and that number is forecast to rise to 4.5bn by 2050 as incomes rise and living standards improve in hot countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
If today’s technology is used for those units, they would by themselves emit enough greenhouse gases to raise global temperatures by 0.5C, according to Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy think-tank. The International Energy Agency has also sounded the alarm over air-conditioning, describing it as one of the most critical blind spots in international energy policy.
https://www.ft.com/content/1e056bde-e5ef-11e8-8a85-04b8afea6ea3
The Adani coal mine doesn’t stack up environmentally, economically, or politically
Kerryn Phelps confirmed as new independent MP: makes climate change action her first priority
 Kerryn Phelps zeroes in on climate change and Peter Dutton’s eligibilityOfficially declared Wentworth byelection winner, MP wants to stop Adani and will seek urgent briefing on minister, Guardian, Paul Karp and Anne Davies, Mon 5 Nov 2018 The newly minted independent MP for Wentworth, Kerryn Phelps, has pledged to tackle climate change policy as her first priority after she was formally declared the winner of the once blue ribbon Liberal seat in Sydney’s east. Phelps said she would move to reinstate the Climate Change Authority to provide a scientific voice in the debate, put forward reforms to vehicle emissions standards and look at ways to use the crossbench clout to stop the Adani coalmine. “We can stop fiddling around with talking about new coalmines because no one wants to fund them,” she said. “Government policy needs to establish a foundation for business to invest in renewables for our future and to protect our environment. That is something the Australian people are saying they want.” Phelps also said she will seek an urgent briefing on the constitutional eligibility of Liberal MPs Peter Dutton and Chris Crewther, adding that she had received legal advice that she did not have any section 44 issues that might affect her own eligibility to sit………https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/05/kerryn-phelps-seeks-urgent-briefing-on-peter-duttons-eligibility
|
1 This month
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
.
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
