Climate Change in Australia (Part 1)

Not a very similar environment. Landlocked, all hills.

War history: despite never declaring war on them, the USA dropped more than two million tonnes of bomb(e)s on them. That gave Laos the dubious honour of having the highest bomb-to-person ratio in the world. Tough to extend your farm when doing so may still lead to you losing a leg, or your life.

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Yes. I spent a few months in Laos some years back. Been to Vietnam and Cambodia too. Laos has no coast, true.

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Pity most of the production it is already contracted to overseas interests.

Come the revolution Comrade, and we will change that !

Would you rather have a wind turbine in your backyard or have them fracking in your vege patch?

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Brilliant! declare economic war on our biggest trading partner, that should end well.

Fracking, althoughI could use the $14,000 p.a. in subsidies paid for by the suckers.

Province of Ontario finally released their “climate plan” which went from a pretty damn effective cap and trade system to the rubbish we have here with ‘reverse auctions’.

Basically they’re going to do nothing.

What I don’t understand is that carbon pricing comes straight out of the conservative playbook - using market forces to find solutions to the problem.

There’s your problem.
Because the problem is that they don’t think there is a problem.

Stop Adani protesters gather in cities, take aim at Scott Morrison’s activism comments

By Kevin Nguyen

Student activists who felt condescended by the Prime Minister have vowed to remove the Liberal Party from power — and keep it out — as long as it maintains its current climate policies.

Key points:

  • A national survey showed a majority of respondents supported student protests on climate change
  • Rallies took place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns
  • Junior activists said the Prime Minister’s comments compelled them to march

Thousands of protesters gathered in capital cities on the east coast today in a coordinated march against Indian energy giant Adani’s Carmichael mine and rail project.

At the end of last month, Adani announced the scaled-back $2 billion controversial coal mine in the Galilee Basin would go ahead and would be 100 per cent self-financed, with work starting before Christmas.

While the attendees at the rally were diverse, it was school-aged students who were leading the crowds.

“It’s awful to see our leader feels like we shouldn’t have opinions and we shouldn’t care and they shouldn’t listen to us,” 14-year-old Jean Hinchliffe said in response to Mr Morrison’s calls last week for “less activism in schools”.

"It’s just atrocious. As students we are very informed and very educated and that’s why we’re taking action.

“We’re fighting for our own futures.”

young girl speaking to audience with TV cameras filming her|700x467 PHOTO: Jean Hinchliffe, 14, addresses the crowd at Sydney’s Town Hall Square. (ABC News: Kevin Nguyen)

Jean was the organiser of the Big School Walk Out in Sydney, which saw thousands of students leave classrooms and march through the streets.

She spoke to more than 1,000 people at Sydney’s Town Hall Square on Saturday and said it was unlikely to be her last time marching against the Coalition.

Should kids be part of political protests?

Should kids be part of political protests?
The PM wants “less activism” in schools, but experts say it’s all part of a “civics education”.

A national ReachTell poll conducted after the student strikes showed 62.7 per cent of the 2,345 surveyed agree school students have a right to “demand that the Morrison Government act urgently” on climate change.

The number increased to 80 per cent among Labor voters, whose party were a target of fury at today’s protests for their perceived silence on the Carmichael mine.

PM’s comments galvanised students

Like Jean, many young students who appeared at the rallies today were part of the thousands of Australian students who defied Scott Morrison’s call to stay in school.

While school-aged students will not be eligible to vote in next year’s federal and state elections, they are becoming the face of the Stop Adani and climate strike movements determined to make it a persistent election issue.

<img src=’/uploads/default/original/3X/6/0/60ce7dcd32f200e75e560c42249a9cd59b925e8c.jpeg’ alt=‘A school girl hold a sign which reads: I’ve seen smarter cabinets at Ikea".|700x467’> PHOTO: Student signs from last week’s protest went viral following national media attention. (ABC Radio Sydney: Harriet Tatham)

Daisy Jeffrey, 16, from Conservatorium High School in Sydney, said she was interested in a future in politics and Mr Morrison’s comments had galvanised her, and dozens of her peers, to take to the streets.

“It wasn’t disheartening, it made us more angry and more determined to go out on the streets,” Daisy said.

In addition to Sydney, rallies were held in Brisbane, Melbourne and Cairns.

In Melbourne, hundreds of people sat down in the middle of the busy Flinders Street intersection, blocking traffic in a bid to draw attention to their cause.

young girl holding a sign that read hands off aboriginal land|340x227

Mother Elizabeth Campbell said she was inspired by the children’s call-to-arms on an issue that will impact them the most.

“We need a planet to live on, the kids are leading the way and I wanted to support them,” she said.

An Adani Mining spokesperson said the company welcomed the democratic expression.

“All we ask is that people’s opinions are based on facts and that they don’t put lives at risk through irresponsible, illegal and unsafe protest behaviour,” the spokesperson said.

“We recognise there are varied opinions about the Carmichael project and encourage everyone to voice them safely and respectfully.”

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Yeah. The difference between understanding a closed system and understanding making endless cash.

Largest ever group of global investors call for more action to meet Paris targets

The group of 414 institutional investors with $31 trillion under management say governments must take serious steps to cut emissions

Gareth Hutchins

Coal smokestack

The largest ever group of institutional investors has called on governments around the world to urgently increase their efforts to meet the Paris climate change agreement goals.

The 414 global investors - which represent US$31 trillion of assets-under-management - say they are deeply concerned about the “ambition gap” that exists between governments’ commitments and what is needed to limit the global temperature increase to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels.

They say that gap is increasing the physical risks from climate change and hampering investors’ ability to properly allocate trillions of dollars needed to support the much-needed transition to a low carbon economy.

They have signed a “Global Investor Statement” to be handed to world leaders this week at the COP24 - the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poland.

The signatories include some of the world’s largest pension funds, asset managers and insurance companies, including Australian investors BT Financial Group, Australian Super, Cbus, HESTA, IFM Investors, Local Government Super, and VicSuper.

It is the single largest intervention from investors on climate change, surpassing even the one issued in Paris.

The investor statement includes recommendations for governments on the specific steps the investors believe are needed to support a low carbon transition.

Among specific policies, they request governments “phase out thermal coal power”, “put a meaningful price on carbon” and “phase out fossil fuel subsidies.”

The three major areas for government action are:

The intervention comes as findings of a recent UN report show that nations must triple their efforts to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Chris Newton, the executive director of responsible investment, IFM Investors, which has $81bn in assets under management, says the long-term nature of the problem of climate change has met with a “zombie-like response” from policymakers.

“This is a recipe for disaster as the impacts of climate change can be sudden, severe and catastrophic,” he said.

“We need our infrastructure assets to continue to provide essential services to communities and economies around the world. We have a duty to our investors to act for the long term when others are clearly sidestepping the challenge”.

The global investment manager Schroders, a signatory to the statement, warned recently that current global policies implied long-run temperature rises of around 4°C, with $23 trillion of associated global economic losses over the next 80 years – representing permanent economic damage three or four times the scale of the impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis.

The investors are also calling for the phase out of coal power worldwide.

They have welcomed growing support for the global “Powering Past Coal Alliance,” which was launched by the UK and Canada, and which now has 28 national government signatories, alongside other sub-national and corporate supporters.

Australia is not a signatory to the alliance, but the Australian Capital Territory government is

I presume these companies have removed fossil fuels from their portfolios.

Probably. Divestment has been going on for ages, and at an ever increasing clip over the past decade.

Who would people rather believe? People who manage $31 trillion or a bloke who got the sack for running a crap ad campaign?

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Check out this Wunderkind, … talk about from the mouths of babes!!

You fkn tell 'em kiddo …

Shouldn’t she be in school and learning about mining rather than giving speeches at the United Nations?

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Yes. That should be the coal of all young people.

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