A global map of the September 2017 LOTI (land-ocean temperature index) anomaly, relative to the 1951-1980 September average. View larger image.
September 2017 was the fourth warmest September in 137 years of
modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global
temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
(GISS) in New York.
Last month was +0.80 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean September
temperature from 1951-1980. The warmest months of September according to
the analysis happened in 2016 and 2014 (+0.87 degrees Celsius) and 2015
(+0.82 degrees Celsius).
The GISTEMP monthly temperature anomalies superimposed on a 1980-2015 mean seasonal cycle. View larger image or PDF.
The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly
available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around
the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface
temperature, and Antarctic research stations.
The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because
previous observations didn't cover enough of the planet. Monthly
analyses are sometimes updated when additional data becomes available,
and the results are subject to change.
Hundreds of Victorian doctors and medical staff are pressuring their
super funds to quit investing in coal and oil for the sake of health, as
they did with tobacco five years ago.
The group, which includes
some of Australia's leading health experts, says there is overwhelming
evidence that climate change is already making people sick and causing
thousands of deaths.
Hundreds of medical staff in Victoria are pressuring their super
funds to divest from corporations that are based on fossil fuels. Photo: Jason South
They want the two largest health super funds, HESTA and First State,
to divest from fossil fuel-based companies, arguing the nest eggs of the
medical profession should not be built on industries that make people
sick.
Combined, the two default health super funds have about
$1.72 billion invested in these heavily fossil fuel-based companies,
according to Market Forces, an environmental investment advisory group.
They
point to fatal thunderstorm asthma attacks in Melbourne last year and
the 45-day Hazelwood mine fire as recent local examples.
More
than 650 health professionals nationwide have signed up to the cause so
far, including former Australian of the year Professor Fiona Stanley,
celebrated for her achievements in child health, and Dr Grant Blashki,
associate professor in global health at the University of Melbourne's
Nossal Institute.
The pro-divestment group, called Healthy Futures, have called on
HESTA and First State to abandon their investments in companies
including Caltex, Woodside Petroleum, Exxon and Origin.
Co-founder
Kate Lardner, a Melbourne-based surgical resident, said health workers
in the group did not want their retirement savings to
support carbon-intensive industries.
"As health professionals, we don't want to see our money invested in
fossil fuels that cause air pollution in places like the Latrobe Valley
and contribute to climate change that we're already seeing locally," Dr
Lardner said.
The Andrews government has commissioned a study into
the long-term health effects of the Hazelwood coal mine fire, which
blanketed the town of Morwell in smoke and ash for several weeks in
2014.
It also spent $15 million on a thunderstorm asthma warning
system after Melbourne's ambulances and hospitals were overwhelmed by
people suffering intense asthma attacks last spring.
Dr Lardner
said thunderstorm asthma could not be directly attributed to climate
change, but more frequent and violent storms could be.
The
Hazelwood Health Study has already produced evidence that Morwell
residents are at much greater risk of having a heart attack than other
Gippsland communities.
The two super funds said they had no plan to divest from the companies targeted by Healthy Futures.
Liza
McDonald, First State's Head of Responsible Investments, said the fund
preferred to engage with emissions-intensive industries on climate
change rather than cut them loose.
"However, if we do have
concerns about long-term sustainability issues with an individual
company, we would consider a range of options, which may include
divestment," Ms McDonald said.
HESTA said it would only divest from a company as a last resort.
In
a letter to the Doctors Reform Society, a medical think tank that has
joined the campaign, HESTA said that to divest would limit the ability
to encourage coal and oil-based corporations to reform.
"The aim
is to accelerate the move to a less carbon intensive future. Ownership
provides leverage which greatly increases the impact of our engagement,"
HESTA wrote.
The Guardian - John Quiggin* The Carmichael coal mine was once pitched as a choice between jobs and the environment. So where are the jobs?
‘The construction of the rail line connecting the mine site to the Abbot Point port (pictured) depends on getting a loan of around $900m from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.’ Photograph: Tom Jefferson/Greenpeace
The
dispute over the Adani Group’s proposed Carmichael mine and the
associated port at Abbot Point has long been cast as a choice between
jobs and the environment. Climate change is already well on the way to
destroying the Great Barrier Reef, among many other things, and the
development of the massive coal reserves of the Galilee Basin would make
it almost impossible to stabilise the global climate.
On the other hand, we are promised an economic bonanza with 10,000
jobs and billions of dollars in royalties and taxes. For hard-pressed
cities like Townsville and Rockhampton and for governments with a
chronic shortage of funds, this seems too good to turn down.
It’s becoming increasingly evident, however, that the choice is a
false one. In all probability, neither the jobs nor the revenue will
ever materialise. Rather, the whole project will turn into a sink, into
which public money is poured for no return.
In June this year, when Adani announced the establishment of a
regional headquarters in Townsville, expected to employ 500 people, the
commencement of pre-construction works in the September quarter, and the
reiteration of the 10,000 jobs claim. To address the task of filling
all those positions, Adani created a “jobs portal”.
By September, nothing had happened. The Townsville headquarters was
staffed mainly by about 80 workers transferred from Brisbane. The start
of pre-construction was re-announced, this time for October. The jobs
portal had advertised less than a dozen Adani jobs (at the time of
publishing, there are seven jobs on offer). The contractor supposed to begin work on the site was similarly invisible.
Then came the revelations from the Guardian, and then Four Corners,
on Adani’s environmental and financial practices, revealing that the
chain of companies through which the project is controlled stretches
back through the Cayman Islands to an even more opaque tax haven in the
British Virgin Islands.
As
usual, Adani’s response was to play the jobs card, announcing that the
fly-in, fly-out (Fifo) workforce for the mine would be divided between
the two leading claimants, Townsville and Rockhampton. The response was
predictably enthusiastic, with the Queensland
premier. Annastacia Palaszczuk, describing it as “great news for those
regional communities that have been struggling”. The euphoria
surrounding the announcement obscured the fact that the promised job
bonanza had been scaled back, with the mine now expected to employ about
2,000 workers and the regional headquarters only 150.
Even bigger news was buried, or ignored altogether. In return for
their selection as the Fifo hubs, the Townsville and Rockhampton
councils agreed to pay $18.5m each over the next two years to build an airstrip at the mine site.
The use of local government money to build infrastructure for
Adani epitomises the entire project. The construction of the rail line
connecting the mine site to the port depends on getting a loan of around
$900m from the commonwealth government’s Northern Australia
Infrastructure Facility. Publicly owned export-import banks in Australia
and elsewhere are also being pushed to fund the project.
Adani upped the pressure to fund the project last week, announcing that it would break ground on the rail line “within days”.
With construction already underway, what government would dare to pull
the plug? However, a closer reading suggests that the ground breaking
will be of the kind seen on an episode of Utopia, in which assorted
dignitaries use ceremonial shovels to “mark the official start” of the
project (which already had its first “official start” back in June).
This was confirmed by the announcement that the official start, planned
for Friday, had been postponed indefinitely because of a forecast of
rain.
Fact v fiction: Adani's Carmichael coal mine – video explainer
Even with generous public support, it seems unlikely that the Carmichael mine can be made economically viable.
Why then, does Gautam Adani, the ultimate owner of the Adani Group,
continue to push the project? It could be simply the hubris of a wealthy
and powerful man, unaccustomed to defeat.
More likely, however, is that the manoeuvres around this project are part of a more complex strategy. As analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
has shown, Adani needs to refinance its Abbot Point coal terminal by by
November 2018. In the absence of Galilee Basin coal, the export volumes
through the port won’t be sufficient to service the debt.
So, it’s in Adani’s interest to keep the Carmichael project alive as
long as possible. On the other hand, any Adani money invested in the
project, beyond the large sum that has already been spent, is likely to
be lost.
Fortunately for Adani, it seems, both national and local governments
appear willing to use public money to finance the supporting
infrastructure (air and rail links) needed before the mine itself can
begin operations. The result is that if the mine does not go ahead,
Adani’s losses will be minimised. The Australian public will be the
proud owners of a railway to nowhere, with an airstrip at the end.
*John Quiggin is an economist at the University of Queensland
