Climate sceptics are the only extremists when it comes to climate change

Center for Biological Diversity did this and 349 other photos for 350.org global day of action on 24 Oct 09. Love it.

Getting sick of climate sceptics yet? I sure am. The 4corners program this week Malcom and the Malcontents was enough to drive you to despair. Here’s a few quotes:

Nick Minchin: “For 10 years the left internationally have been very successful in exploiting peoples’ innate fears about global warming and climate change to achieve their political ends.”

CORY BERNARDI: The earth is not actually warming, we have still rainfall falling. We have crops still growing. We can go outside and we won’t cook.

NICK MINCHIN: I frankly strongly object to you know, politicians and others trying to terrify 12 year old girls that their planet’s about to melt, you know. I mean really it is appalling some of that that sort of behaviour.

NICK MINCHIN: For the extreme left it provides the opportunity to do what they’ve always wanted to do, to sort of de-industrialise the western world. You know the collapse of communism was a disaster for the left, and the, and really they embraced environmentalism as their new religion.

Aargh!! Who votes for these morons!? Only hope is that the promotional blurb on the 4corners website is right and this issue ‘tears the Coalition apart’.

Meanwhile, South Australia and Victoria are experienced heatwaves unprecedented at this time of year – and it’s not even summer!

I’d like to post links to evidence of climate change happening now – but there’s so much of it that I’ll leave it to another post because I’ve run out of time tonight. Soon. Stay tuned.

 

Worrying move to deter grassroots climate activists

Judging by recent moves by the UK police it appears that grassroots climate activists  are getting the authorities worried.  An increasing use of the charge ‘conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass’ could see some activists sentenced to six months jails, a threat that is no doubt being used to deter climate activists from blockading coal-fired power stations and associated infrastructure. Check out the article by The Guardian and more detail on the UK’s Climate Camp.

No doubt an increasing number of courageous actions by grassroots climate activists in Australia, like the one where the walls of Woronora Dam were scaled at the recent climate camp in NSW, will get our police similarly worried. But will the fear of a jail sentence stop people from doing this? Not bloody likely. Not when the future of the planet is at stake.

 

Say no to bottled water on your next overseas holiday

Children scavenge in a plastic wasteland in the Philippines, by J. Tanodra, UNEP

I’ve just been in Vietnam for a little over three weeks and wanted to avoid buying bottled water as much as I could. Of course trips to some parts of the world, including south east Asia, almost always mean the obligatory purchase of  about 2 litres of bottled water per person per day because of the health risks of much of the developing world’s drinking water.

The last few times I’ve travelled overseas- to Bali, India, Thailand – I easily consumed about 2 litres of water a day. So I figured that a couple on a 3-week holiday in Vietnam would expect to generate more than 100 330ml water bottles as waste, or 42 one-litre bottles. Considering I avoid buying bottled water at home because of its environmental impacts, the amount I was consuming when I travelled overseas was bothering me.

 

New South Wales – the huntin’, shootin’ Safari State… ?

Recreational hunting has no place in contemporary Australia

The NSW Shooters Party has recently tabled a Private Members Bill before the Upper House of State Parliament that, if passed, will open up National Parks to recreational hunters, establish private game reserves and expand the list of animals that will have to dodge hunters’ bullets across the whole state.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW explains this in more detail and lets you know how members of the community can get involved.

Tied up in this murky business are the Shooters Party’s votes in the NSW Parliament – votes that the State Labor Government needs in order to guarantee it can get its legislation through Parliament. In addition to votes in the Parliament, what Labor promised the Shooters Party before the last State Election to shore up preferences is anybody’s guess.  If this Private Members Bill is anything to go by, it looks like giving recreational shooters access to protected natural areas and native animals was part of the deal.

The Chair of the NSW Game Council, Robert Borsak, gloats over a recent kill

Closely linked to the Shooters Party is the Game Council, the Chair of which likes to boast about his recent elephant hunt in Zimbabwe, where the tusks of the elephants killed go to the Zimbabwean government. Yes, that Zimbabwean Government, the one headed up by Robert Mugabe.

 

Ancient fish killed by dam in Queensland

Lungfish "pummelled to death" by water released from Qld's North Pine Dam

I have just been alerted to a mass kill of lungfish in a Queensland river south of North Pine Dam due to a planned water release from the dam.

The Queensland lungfish is an incredible creature, truly ancient and not found anywhere else on earth. It has lived alongside dinosaurs and is listed as vulnerable at the federal level.

This is an excerpt from an email I received today about this, which included the photo left.

According to Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group Secretary, David Kreutz who made the grim discovery yesterday, “the lungfish were up to 1.5 metres in length and were either already dead or very near to death and displayed absolutely horrific injuries.” Mr Kreutz said that although the incident was reported to authorities there had been no rescue or investigative effort mounted on the day the discovery was reported. 

 

Eyewitness account published of Peruvian Indian shootings

Wounded protestor beaten by police, photo by Marijke Deleu & Thomas Quirynen

The NGO Survival International, which supports tribal people worldwide, has just published an eyewitness account of the killings in Peru this month of indigenous landholders defending their land from oil companies. This report is essentially a photo-journal of the violence that occurred, taken by two Belgians working in Peru who rushed to the scene upon word of the violence unfolding.

While extremely disturbing, it is a valuable record of this state-sanctioned violence which resulted in not only the deaths of both indigenous protestors and police, but also heads rolling at the government level.

Unfortunately violence like this against tribal peoples protecting their land is  nothing new.

 

Should we be calling anything sustainable development?

Yesterday, I spoke at the 2009 NSW Sustainable Development conference. Here’s an excerpt:

How many State of the Environment Reports will it take before we start acting to ensure healthy ecosystems, fresh water, clean air and a safe climate are guaranteed for future generations? Why are we commissioning State of the Environment Reports if this isn’t what we want to do? From where I sit it appears that governments have an unhealthy obsession with monitoring environmental decline.

and

It’s time for all levels of government and responsible business leaders to tackle the growth and consumption issue head on. Getting sustainable development truly sustainable is the challenge of our lifetimes.

Let’s return to that statement in the 2006 NSW State of the Environment Report: “continued growth is not sustainable over an extended period.” When does the stop or slow button get pushed? Because there’s no doubt that one day it will have to and the sooner it does, the less severely it will need to be.

Download my full speech here

 

Save this patch of NSW’s coastline from development

In March I was invited to speak at a rally organised by the local community in the Illawarra region who have been battling to save a beautiful patch of public land with coastal frontage and beach access from overdevelopment. This is public land which the NSW Government is currently deciding whether to hand over to private developers in the form of a 52-year lease to build a tourist development on. Unbelievable.

Contact NSW Planning Minister Kristina Keneally’s office at office@keneally.minister.nsw.gov.au or (02) 9228 5811 if you’d like to register your support for keeping this land for families, surfers and all members of the community and of course the birds and the wildlife – and not for the profit of private developers.

 

It’s the animals, stupid

Koalas across Vic and SA were desperate to cool down

In this weekend’s The Weekend Australian, there’s a story by Nicolas Rothwell on the alarming decline of our native animals in northern Australia. Rothwell reports on findings by scientist John Woinarski and his team that have described as ‘catastrophic’ by Woinarski – a decline by 82 per cent in the total number of animals seen or recorded at all sites since 1996. With around 80 per cent of Australia’s animals found nowhere else on earth, this is a national emergency.

 

Activist honoured for fighting companies blowing up mountain after mountain for coal… yeah re

The 2009 recipients of the Goldman Prize are inspirational to all campaigners that have been doing the hard slog for months/years/decades for a better earth. Check out this year’s recipients here. One recipient that particularly struck a chord with me is Maria Gunnoe from the USA region of Appalachia who has fought the might of the coal mining industry for years. Fighting the coal industry in this area is no mean feat because coal mining is wiping out entire mountains and killing rivers. In fact, more than 470 Appalachian mountains have been destroyed. Not only does this method of coal mining destroy entire mountains and their associated ecosystems and communities, but they also destroy jobs, as the system to remove mountains is highly mechanised. Here’s what Gunnoe has been fighting:

This is not ok! This is not ok! This is not ok!