Category: Climate Change (Page 3 of 4)

No, it’s not today, but today is a great day to spread the word on this global movement that will culminate in millions of people the world over gathering to wake up the world on action to prevent dangerous climate change.

As you would probably be aware, today is World Environment Day. And the way time flies these day due to the busyness of our lives, the International Day of Climate Action on 24 October will soon be upon us.

An organisation called 350 have put this campaign together. The name has been given as a result of, as the 350 website states,

“NASA’s James Hansen and a team of other scientists recently published a series of papers showing that we need to cut the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from its current 387 parts per million to 350 or less if we wish to “maintain a planet similar to that on which civilization developed.””

The folks at 350 have put together a cool clip that seeks to explain the science of climate change along with how to deal with it, in today’s universal language of visual media. Check it out:

As the science becomes clearer, the sceptics are getting more desperate. The recent Washington conference of climate sceptics seemed like just another rehash of the same old tired, worn out arguments that our own journalists like Andrew Bolt can’t let go of. The message that action is needed more than ever needs to be screamed from the mountain tops. And thankfully, it is people like those at 350 who are doing it.

The website for the International Day of Climate Action has plenty of information on how to organise to get together on the day and make your own show of solidarity with others on the planet in calling for urgent action.

For those of you with a Christian faith interest in the importance of dealing with climate change, can I direct you to this article I wrote a few years ago on why care for the earth is such a crucial aspect of following Jesus.

Great to see The Australian giving air to a thoughtful and considered response to Ian Plimer’s recently released book, Heaven and Earth. Plimer, a noted climate change sceptic, tries to make the assertion that human emissions of CO2 have not changed the climate. As usual though, his arguments are the same old, tired, worn out arguments that have been refuted again and again by the vast majority of climate scientists.

I really wonder what people such as Plimer are trying to achieve with their assertions. I can only think that there is a another agenda at play. Like Andrew Bolt, Plimer implies, as Ashley says, that “the work of literally thousands of oceanographers, solar physicists, biologists, atmospheric scientists, geologists, and snow and ice researchers during the past 100 years is fundamentally flawed.”

A colleague of mine, Brett Parris, has laid out some useful references, in addition to Ashley’s, that debunk, yet again, the points that Plimer makes. Here they are:

Kurt Lambeck president of the Australian Academy of Science and professor of Geophysics at ANU:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/bst_20090427_0752.mp3

Read Prof Barry Brook’s blog review:
http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/04/23/ian-plimer-heaven-and-earth/

Read Ian Enting from Melbourne Uni’s point refutation:
http://bravenewclimate.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/plimer1a1.pdf

Read Tim Lambert’s debunking at Deltoid:
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/04/the_science_is_missing_from_ia.php

In debunking the sceptics, it is crucial that we listen with respect to them as they lay out their claims. As St Peter says, let us respond with gentleness and respect to the allegations of people we disagree with.

GetUp have been able to get their brilliant new ad about Kevin Rudd’s climate cave-in on TV. Watch it here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq44eagwGDQ]

There was also a very good article in today’s Age about the importance of people power in the climate movement. I wrote about this in a post back in November. Throughout history real change has come through the movement of concerned people who had had enough and took a courageous non-violent stand.

In case we think that saving the planet is going to cost the earth, that electric cars are a waste of time, and that the most efficient power stations are big ones. This article is not from some lefty, tree-hugging magazine, but from none other than The Guardian.

It puts paid to many of the myths being propagated about how to tackle the great moral issue of our time. Alot of great stuff is happening throughout Europe, and in many, many cities across the US. But alas, Australia still lags behind on many fronts.

Wouldn’t it be great if these technologies caught on in Australia to the extent that we actually became a world leader in this area. We are a privileged country and we have the resources to show the way in renewable energies.

This article is drawn from Chris Goodall’s new book, Ten Technologies to Save the Planet.

This was the week that I lost faith that the Rudd Government might really be different. With their pathetically inept announcement of emissions reduction targets that have confirmed the death of the Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu wetlands, this Government can now be compared to the lost years of the Howard Administration. In my view, that is not something to be proud of.

These emissions reduction targets show a frightening lack of leadership. My first thought was that the announcement comes across as nothing but a political decision, designed to please everyone and offend no one. However I am encouraged by the tidal wave of response from environmental groups and various media across the country who are deeply offended at the Government’s cowardice.

The world needs more than this. The problem with pleasing people, again the polluting industries, is that you might get people onside for a time, but in the end nothing actually improves.

The only conclusion one can draw from this announcement is that the same lobby groups that John Howard was enslaved to, now have Kevin Rudd firmly in their grip. It would be interesting to hear some inside reports about this, in the same way that Guy Pearse, a Liberal, heroically tried to bring down John Howard.

This Saturday 6 December is the Global Day of Action on Climate Change. Friends of the Earth have created the clip below to get people talking and commenting on YouTube about the climate:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7mETr1SqXk]

Have a look at the clip and then leave a comment. With the UN climate talks in Poznan going on, the more people who raise their voices about this, the better.