I am extremely disappointed that the Govt seem to be taking a softline approach to the threat of climate change, but do see the political quandry for them.

We currently have a Govt that at least accepts that climate change is real and is trying to initiate at least some changes in the right direction.

To make a real difference, they must stay in Govt (and we the people must give them our full and vocal support). If they upset too many vested interests to radically they will be subject to a concentrated campaign against them (by the usual suspects) in order to shake public confidence and hopefully (for them) restore a more ‘understanding’ coalition Govt which will say much but do nothing. As they did their last 11 years in Govt, muzzling all in sundry so business as usual can continue.

It is really up to every single one of us, to do all we can to lower our personal emissions. Buy green energy, install solar, support the green industries. Only by voting with our feet (and $$$) will we achieve real change. We can’t rely Govts to do anything they consider politically detrimental. And by becoming as green as possible ourselves we demonstrate our concerns, and support for real renewable energy and the real reduction of carbon pollution.

Praise the Govt for the initialtives they are taking and denounce the Coalition for their dangerous stalling and denial.

Peterc, Rudd is no Arny Schwarzenegger and Penny Wong is nothing more and nothing less than a politician doing her job. That’s my point. So we’ll be followers rather than leaders on a world scene.

I understand that 100 million people around the world depend on coral reef ecologies for their main source of protein. But the problem is that the destruction of the reefs lies this side of the 2C guard rail. The further problem is that 450ppm let alone 550ppm will take us well beyond 2C as the feedbacks unfold. But the acidification of the ocean will cut in quite rapidly as the ppms go up.

So the reefs are a goner for sure and you have to ask why no-one apart from Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and a few other wandering souls seem to care. I don’t have the answer to that.

Meanwhile in Qld we’ve been hearing how Queensland will be the worst affected of the states. The economy will still grow by 300% by 2050, so I guess that’s OK. And our Premier has been going in to bat for us asking for increased protection for our export industries.

I wonder what her answer to Tony Jones would have been. Similarly anodyne and professional I expect.

In looking for that article online I did stumble on an this interesting interview with Gwynne Dyer about his latest book Climate Wars. Dyer was a defence analyst by trade and got interested when he found that defence planners were taking seriously all that business of people squabbling over water, of major population shifts because of major changes in weather patterns, glaciers melting, sea levels rising etc. He says:

“When you talk to the scientists they’re in a state of submerged panic,” Dyer says. “What’s happening, is the world is moving faster than their pessimistic models predicted.”

Something that Clive Hamilton reckons he’s noticed too.

A recent issue of New Scientist had lots of depressing articles including an interview with Gus Speth who has recently written a book The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. Gus reckons that

if we continue to do exactly what we are doing, with no growth in the human population or the world economy, the world in the latter part of this century will be unfit to live in.

So we need economists who have noticed that the planet isn’t getting any bigger and a new approach that puts human well-being and the well-being of the planet at the centre. Anyway Gus reckons it just isn’t going to happen. He said that in the middle of last month and I’d bet he hasn’t changed his mind in the last two weeks. My expectation is that we’ll patch up the financial system, make it a bit harder to perpetrate the dodgy strategies that brought the thing unstuck and blunder on till the next crisis.

BTW the local 7.30 Report had a segment about plans to gasify coal underground with interviews with capitalists with $billon signs in their eyes and having every expectation that their plans will be approved. No shortage of cash there.

If the government is not responsible, who the hell is?

Scientists are saying 25 per cent of the reef is already dead, and at 550ppm will be completely dead by 2030, possibly earlier. And the best our politicians can do is prattle on about a market based scheme to put a price on carbon, but compromise it in exactly the way their pre-eminant economic adviser (Garnaut) tells them they must not!

With the whole ideology and credibility of free markets now in tatters – due largely to corporate greed and government complacence – it is clear that a market based system won’t address climate change effectively. It didn’t for CFCs – they were just banned. And global warming is a whole lot worse than the ozone hole ever was. Sunscreen doesn’t help.

We need emergency bipartisan action – like carbon rationing. Cold turkey might just save us. But rearranging deckchairs and glib “no comment” and “on message” politicians won’t.

‘the Wong interview…didn’t pretend that there was not a problem with the Reef”

Yes but it was embarassing how many times TJ tried, bravely but not really successfully, to pin her to admit

If, indeed, Australia and the world go with the targets that Ross Garnaut is suggesting, the Great Barrier Reef will be destroyed.…all of those targets, except for the last (-25%) one, are so low that if the world were to adopt them, the carbon concentration in the atmosphere would be destructive to the Great Barrier Reef; would be destructive to the Murray Darling Basin, to the tune of, I think it’s 10 to 25 per cent reductions of inflows of water to the Murray Darling Basin;

In another segment there was a hopeful moment where an indication of China’s serious minded attitude was hinted at

‘ZHANG JUNSAI, CHINESE AMBASSADOR: We have to tackle this. I hope this climate change will not be overshadowed by… the importance to deal with this will not be overshadowed by the present financial crisis.

A greening China surely is a necessary but not sufficient condition for climate de-catastrophisation, we’ll see indications at the shanghai expo.The fact that China’s richest man ( he did his studies and solar industry startup experience here tho, and is an Oz citizen) made his pile on solar power has got to be a good sign: green big bucks big yuan are possible.
Can anyone put a figure to how much % the global CO2 load would be reduced if Australia found an alternative magic solar, Australian IP economic pudding to flogging fossil fuels for a living, a la “We don’t do that stuff any more”, ie just how big a global eco-criminal are we really?

Wong is a competent politician in that she is doing a job strictly within the parameters she’s been given and is not going to embarrass her boss by departing from the party line.

The positives are that Tony Jones had done his homework well and that Wong didn’t pretend that there was not a problem with the Reef or the parameters of global policy. Which means that she almost certainly knows that there is.

The situation of the reefs of the world and the sea in general is considerably worse than most people imagine, even scientists, according to a new book by Alanna Mitchell called Seasick. I hope do do a post on it when I get time. It’s an easy read but a truly shocking story by a journalist who took a lot of time and trouble in gathering the information.

I was appalled by Wong’s steadfast refusal on Lateline last night to comment on the impending loss of the Great Barrief Reef, or on CO2 PPM as defined by Garnaut.

She just would not respond to Jones’ repeated question about Garnuat’s 550ppm equating to the complete death of the reef, and Kakadu wetlands. She might as well have said “no comment”. Or sent along a parrot in her place.

As if the CPRS is going to bring emissions down any time soon . . .

I’m just wryly amused by his opportunism, or whatever it is that’s driving him at the moment.

The huge investment and time required (which defers real action on climate change and incurs more cost) will make it more expensive than genuine zero emission renewables.

At least the treasury report indicates the real opportunities in embracing green collar jobs.