After a record year in 2019 of drought, record temperatures, and record bush-fire damages, Australian government climate policy is still operates much as if it is the year 1970. Perhaps 1950 even, in the case of the Liberal - National Party coalition. Australia is still into expanding coal and gas exports like it is all the rage. Money still trumps science.
Dr Ye Tao, at "The Rowland Institute" at Harvard, is explicit about what we need to do in order to escape our near-term extinction. We need to reverse the temperature rise caused by our rapid production of greenhouse gases, and also negate the hidden part of its temperature rise that is currently masked by all of our transient aerosol pollution. The challenge and its difficulty is made clear in this you-tube presentation.
If the global reduction of fossil fuel burning goes down as fast as needs to, lack of demand for them should soon drop their selling price below their production cost floor. Everyone knows the target of 50% reduction by 2030, as required for even a two thirds chance of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C. Many nations targets are being set by this.
Climate for Change news-letter reported the following news items in recognition and encouragement of those many already ahead of the rushing crowd. Don't be the last institution or the last laggard nation left holding stranded assets!
"The Conversation" has some detailed articles with strong criticisms of the recent Australian Governments Climate and Energy road map, and budget. I find these articles to be rather lame in their criticism. They do not scream out "climate emergency", which ought to be considered a rational response by now.
Again the enormous subsidies to Coal and Gas mining in Australia are mentioned.
Human states and cities have been trying grow bigger than their neighbours, since the discovery of metal technologies - the copper and bronze ages, for 5000 years. Domination by weaponized warriors became possible. Metal technology brought with it, mining, smelting and money, requiring states to exploit more energy, resources, and the sacrifice of forests.
States and Corporations co-evolved as a "Metallurgical complex" It became necessary for states to compete or be dominated. Since then we have been perfecting the technologies of exploitation, and war. Civilization for the next 5 millennium has tried to organize around four tyrannies: Military domination, Economic capitalism, Ideology and Linear thinking.
We are not good at fixing the problems that our Megamachine causes. Mining corporations and wealth accumulation systems now dominate the globe. States are struggling to manage the end of growth. Our world is becoming crippled by our many accumulating problems, while our institutions keep trying to maintain their roles in causing them.
The Megamachine is run using people, and people can change their views and choices, which is what is happening now.
This is an introduction to the online zoom session presentation, of the #StopAdani film "People vs Adani: The fight of our times".
Specially for Parramatta and Western Sydney, or where-ever your internet access point is.
Date: Sunday 25th October, 2:30 pm - ParraCAN Event Registration Link
The Adani Coal Mine is still being stalled, while various economic and political forces still want to start turning the Galilee Basin of Queensland into yet another quarry of Australia. This did not develop in a cultural vacuum. Who and what is behind it? What are the economic and political forces pushing it. What culture, life values and future for all of us are still at stake?
Many people are still absorbing the flurry of Australian Government climate, energy and "Big Gas" announcements. They make up a confusing and contradictory "wish list". Some of them relate to important ideas. Too much of the whole package relates to the wishful thinking of our mining industry biased government, manifest in statements which say that climate mitigation cannot be allowed to impact our "economy". Still telling the big economy lie.
This is ludicrous, because climate change is already impacting our economy. Too much of our economy is seriously tied up with green house gas emissions, including "Big Gas". We are not defining what is really important for our economy. Failure of sufficient action now dooms the economy later on. Damage and withdrawal of many parts of our economy cannot be avoided. What is missing are plans to have a climate safe economy. And this is entirely possible now.
We are the great Australian gas swindled. That is you and me, whether we have seen through it or not. The gas industry is still getting away with it. Their game pieces are all lined up. The gas lies have been building up thick and fast over the decade, backed by billions of dollars of conviction money from the banks. Dollars buy conviction. Mostly convinced are our conventional standard politicians in Australia, who allow the lies to be repeated wholesale. They also don't want to be seen opposing "progress". The mainstream media are professionally devoted to not joining the dots.
The lies start from the fossil fuel gas corporations, are echoed in every possible way by our domesticated Australian governments and their tame environment and planning departments. Gas industry lies have corralled the main political parties. The whole and entire aim is to produce profits from high exported gas prices, for the benefit of tax-dodging foreign corporations like Santos. For political brains, we have gas industry zombies. We have an overwhelming supply of self-important suckers for a government. We are the great Australia gas swindled because we keep electing them to high office.
All environment activists , last chance to add your opposition to the Narrabri Gas Project - please lodge a written submission with the IPC by 5pm, Monday 10 August.
Online assistance can be found at https://www.lockthegate.org.au/csg_around_narrabri. There are plenty of details and comment published, including most recent fossil fool bulletins, 21st and 28th July 2020.
Transcripts of the recent public hearings are available. There is plenty of evidence that this project is a money extraction operation for the proponents, including our Australia coal and gas oligarchy, with their "limited-liability". It is a high risk project for everyone else. Our civilization has a regressive fixation on "old energy", supported by corporations and governments. We have run out of easy fossil fuel resources. The proponents are into cooking their books, and the global climate. Now even the banks that lend out the money must be starting to feel the fossil fuelled heat.
The Independent Planning Commission is scheduled to hear public submissions on the Narrabri Gas Project. Speaker registration has already closed, and they have been numerous, and these will take all week, from five days from July 20 to July 24th, 2020. Written submissions are still being accepted, for about a week afterwards. It is good that the NSW state government has appointed a few commissioners, that seem well qualified for this task. Five days is a long time for a strenuous public hearing of all views, in front of the public. It will be video-streamed. It will seem like a long deliberative trial, only there is no random selected jury. All sorts of persons will have a lot to say, with some repetition, especially the public, and public organisations on behalf of nature. Below are links to watch or send a submission.
To the most hostile and fearful politicians of Australia,
The targeting of Mr Moselmane by police raids, for having expressed China appreciation sentiments, has been timed perfectly just before peak pre-poll voting period for the tight Eden-Monaro by-election. The media mud is likely to stick a while longer after failure of the spooks to disprove innocence, whilst the perpetrators will never be accused of lack of national security vigilance
Thank you to the insurance companies Liberty Mutual and HDI/Talanx. News by email was read today, 12th June 2020, that "Liberty Mutual" has categorically ruled out further insurance of Adani's coal project in Queensland. HDI/Talanx sent "Market Forces" at letter stating that they had "terminated the insurance cover for this project" and "have even excluded the Carmichael project from insurance coverage for significant suppliers." Thank you to many activists that supplied the ongoing social pressure who are still campaigning hard.
Now all we need is the Gas and Coal coalitions of conniving politicians in the Australian Federal Government, and State governments to be denied reserve bank and global finance and bonds for funding for their reckless promotions of new coal and gas projects in Australia. They are meeting and plotting with their culpable lobbyists everyday in the halls and desktops of money and power. The economic downtown has been deemed the perfect time for emergency powers and corporate ambush of democracy. Coalitions of conniving political units powered by fossil fuelled wealth are still plotting systemic ecosystems destruction. We need a loud and commensurate opposition, not a bunch of willing political collaborators.
Growth of large scale coal mining, and all fossil fuel powered economic development, is incompatible with global heating mitigation, as greenhouse gas emissions need to be falling rapidly now. No more to "OLD ENERGY".
Queensland now has "human rights" legislation. It remains to be seen how this legislation stands up in court against the huge money weight of vested interests.
Thank you to these young Queenslanders who are taking on Clive Palmers coal company
In a landmark case, 25 young people aged 13 to 30 are mounting a legal challenge to the massive, Clive Palmer-owned Galilee Basin coal project. This will be the first time human rights arguments are used in a climate change case in Australia.
Palmer’s proposed Waratah Coal mine in the Galilee Basin will dwarf Adani’s operation, extracting four times as much coal per year.
Like heroin addicts, our politicians cannot smell their own climate bullshit.
The road to climate hell is paved with good intentions that use bad ideas, and we are nearly there now. Fossil fuel companies tell us that burning methane gas is step towards climate mitigation, also known as a bridge, or label it a transition fuel. There is no climate science research that supports such an assertion. It remains such an easy lie. Australian politicians love oversimplified lies. These are politically useful myths and misleading signs on the road to hell.
Even energy minister Angus Taylor can smugly say his lines. "Australian exports of gas help our neighbours reduce their carbon emissions". But how much help is that? More Australian water and land is to be sacrificed to toxic fracking gas fields so that its overseas neighbours (customers) will be able burn more gas to reduce their carbon emissions for us? It doesn't even make sense. What a big fat smug lies we get to tell ourselves. As if a country ranked as a fossil fuel addict can talk about its good climate intentions.
Abundant gas could be great for any number of things, but it is not going to solve the climate change problem - Haewon McJeon, for Scientific American
In recent virtual meetings of local activist groups, I heard cautions against publishing anything that compares, or contrasts the new viral epidemic, and economic shutdown responses to it, with our ever present global heating emergency. We are not even supposed to mention the latter, but are asked to spend more time building our resilience and social support networks. We are supposed to wait until things are back to normal. I know I am going to be very bad at heeding both admonitions. This was very effective reverse psychology. I throw my caution to the wind.
There some dangers in continuing to harp on our dangers of our very real growing long emergency, during this initial time of immediate danger, shutdown and global panic. It must be really annoying for some, to be told, that this sort of gradual economic shutdown is a great and good start towards a big decline in global GDP and linked greenhouse gas emissions. Panic buying shouts belief. This is the only real possible and necessary response to our long emergency. And we have only a short number years left in which to accomplish this in a permanent way. The faster this gets done, the better off future climate conditions will be for all of us. Talk of getting back to where we were with economic growth as normal is crazy money talk. We see fossil fuel extraction industry desperadoes that are still trying to "go for broke" in expanding production as part of our genocidal madness.
"Scheme" is the right word. The coal scheme for Indian billionaire Adani is another instance of Australian state and federal governments coal favouritism, letting Adani get away with dodging tricky legal hurdles. Adani gets the sorts of favours from government ministers that tend to be associated with corruption.
In the larger scheme of favour exchange, Clive Palmer admits his $83 million dollar spend on advertising in Queensland and elsewhere, give enough preferences to get the LNP coalition into government. Now the Federal government LNP owes Clive a really big time favour, and Clive wants the Galilee coal projects to go ahead, because his own coal mining lease project is next in the Galilee Basin pipeline. This appears to be a clear case of rank corruption, stinky dead ten days cat on your front doorstep variety, obvious, of the highest magnitude and involving the highest levels of Australian government.
Also everyone on the deal is protected by a massive SEP of public media blindness field - It must be another Somebody Else's Problem, with no federal ICAC and apparently no charges or laws broken. Wait, there was a law broken. Why wasn't the environment water trigger legislation invoked? And so the ACF is taking the federal government to court, based on Australia law.
Adani's water scheme, labelled the North Galilee Water Scheme (NGWS), is a pipeline allowed to take water, 12.5 billion litres yearly, from the Suttor River for its coal mine to wash coal and suppress dust. This is supposed to be during periods of high flows. To store most of that for the rest of the year, it will fill a dam capacity up to 10 billion litres. The Suttor is part of the river system that feeds into the Lake Dalyrymple, behind the Burdekin Dam. The water flows down the Suttor are highly variable and seasonal. Some years will have a season of extreme rainful with floods. The rest of the time, and with years in drought its flows will be down to almost nothing.
Our "too many coal politicians" government of Australia can only carry on as if all is well on the climate front. They wear a black hole of wilful climate ignorance. They are walking voids of climate know-nothing, surrounded by a refractive blackness of coal. With such magical cloaks of climate invisibility, global heating cannot be seen when looking outside. Like Scott Morrison, they prefer to gaze in rapt worship of black lumps of coal, than look at any other part of the world around them. Nothing can be said to them about a climate emergency, without it disappearing down a memory hole.
The climate invisibility cloak isn't actually made of coal, but made from oodles of slush money going overseas, that comes from selling coal.
Greens MP Adam Bandt has introduced the Climate Emergency Declaration bill into federal parliament.
Who in the ranks of the government dare to publicly acknowledge the extent of our climate systems emergency?
Which of our government representatives, will take a peek out from underneath their blankets of fears, threats and silence, vote against their governments conformity to vested interests, and support this bill?
There are but a few Liberal MPs that have signed on to the Parliamentary Friends of Climate Action Group, and publicly said that our government needs to do more. Sadly there seems to be no more than about six of them.
Our green house gases, and global temperature are still rising. Ian Macindoe describes likely consequences by 2040 and later on by 2100. Rapid change is ahead, and not for the better.
The crusty old Australian constitution has Section 44, which is used to ensure that members of parliament do not have divided loyalty away from the good of Australia, towards a foreign power. At the time it was drawn up, international mining corporations with billion dollar budgets did not exist.
Corporate multinational budgets are bigger than the governments of many smaller nations. The purchase of Australia ministerial decisions by foreign corporations is an ongoing process that is allowed to proceed unchallenged and unchecked, and seems to be a major cause of failures and reversals of Australian climate policy for decades.