350 at the Sydney Opera House, Australia

350 at the Sydney Opera House, Australia, originally uploaded by 350.org.

Ecology lessons from traditional cultures

While the term “racist” is a little too loosely thrown about, Ariel Salleh, a sociologist from the University of Sydney, makes the case for a far more radical sustainability discussion to the one that dominates the mass media right now.  Click the link to stream the audio from Radio National.

Is our sustainability science racist?

Heroes @ Westminster

more about “Heroes @ Westminster“, posted with vodpod

Coalition cosies up to big business

The opposition seems to think that we need an emissions trading scheme that keeps big business happy. Funny, I thought the idea of an emissions trading scheme was to SAVE THE PLANET.

MALCOLM Turnbull is likely to get business backing for his emissions trading amendments, which the Coalition is drafting in close consultation with industry groups and major companies.

The Coalition’s strategy to gain business endorsement is likely to shatter the green-industry alliance that had supported the Rudd government scheme, with key conservation organisations vowing to abandon their support for the ETS if the government accepts the business-backed amendments.

continued….

Climate Change & the Torres Strait

Economist  Ross Garnaut discusses the “unmeasurables” of climate change; like the cultural heritage and homes of thousands of Torres Strait Islanders.  If Tuvalu is beyond our horizon, surely we can help our fellow Australians in the Torres Strait.

Eddie Mabo occupies a large place in the history of relations between indigenous and other Australians. He played that role because he was a man of exceptional capacity and tenacity and also because he was part of the minority of indigenous Australians whose original home was in the islands of the Torres Strait.

The Torres Strait and the adjacent lands of Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and the people who live there, share many things, including exceptional vulnerability to climate change.

continued here.

The West Atlas oil spill continues

Flyover of West Atlas oil spill

Ups and downs

The good:

• World leaders agree that we should attempt to keep global warming limited to 2 degrees
  Celsius or less (even if their actions don’t fit their stated goals).  It’s a little odd though that the Australian govt. enthuses about a goal of 80% carbon reduction (for developed nations) by 2050 yet only plans to reduce by 60% itself.
• The Powershift youth conference is a huge success and harnesses the vitality and energy of young Australians.

The bad:

• Australian leaders push ahead with expanding uranium exports.
• The Queensland premier Anna Bligh shows her true colours and comes out fighting for coal.
• India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, appear disinterested in setting limits on carbon emissions.
• Our smug PM Rudd basks in the sun thanks to his decision to invest in a science fiction project (Carbon Capture & Storage), to create a perception that he’s doing something serious on climate change.  This was predicted and satirised by the political satire program “the Hollowmen” on the ABC as follows:

Powershift 2009

Earth to Senator Fielding – Are you for freaking real !?

There has been a dreadful sense of deja vu this last fortnight as Australia’s lone Family First senator (and local village idiot) jets back and forth the planet on a one man mission to uncover the truth about global warming.

It would be gut-achingly funny if it wasn’t so heart-breakingly serious.

Here are some recent quotes from our man Steve:

It is absolutely crazy for Australia to go it alone.

Sheesh! There is absolutely no risk that Australia, the world’s largest per capita polluter, will step forward alone!  Much of the developed world is already streets ahead and are tracking downwards with respect to emissions.

We need to see what the rest of the world are going to do, and then Australia can respond.

You selfish, petty, miserable man.  He is suggesting here that Australia, with one of the highest standards of living in the world, should wait for poorer countries to act first.  Progress is never made in this way.  The only way to convince others to join the party is to act quickly and boldly.

I’m not a climate change sceptic, I’m not a climate change extremist, what I am is very open minded.

A bit too open minded Steve.  Becoming fixated on the minority views of partisan bit-players rather the great weight of scientists internationally.  Your open-mindedness causes policy paralysis and endangers us all.  Like the open-minded parent of a child with suspected meningitis.  Sure, let’s not act until we’re %100 certain.

As an engineer, I have been trained to listen to both sides of the debate in order to make an informed decision about any issue. Any scientist worth their salt will tell you that in order to form a conclusive view about any topic, you need to properly explore all available possibilities.

C’mon mate. You’re sounding as if you’re the first one to tackle these questions.  Scientists have been looking at these things for decades Steve.  The problem is not that we haven’t debated all the issues, the problem is that THIS IS ALL WE HAVE DONE!

Has the Minister seen modelling which shows that solar radiation is highly correlated to global temperature changes?

Steve, there is no upward trend in solar radiation in the last few decades.  Moreover nights are getting warmer faster than days, and winters faster than summers.  This is not consistent with solar radiation causing global warming.  IT’S NOT THE SUN, DUDE ! IT’S US !

None of this means that I support the current Emissions Trading Scheme legislation before the Australian Parliament.  I tend to sympathise with the Greens on this issue.  I feel that it is more important that we take a target of 40% below 1990 by 2020 to Copenhagen, and we need to state that up front.

Oh Steve, what shall we do with you?

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown at a weekend climate rally