29/11/2018

Yes, Prime Minister, I'm Striking From School: Consider It A Climate Lesson

Fairfax - Veronica Hester*

I am Veronica, 15 years old, from Scott Morrison’s electorate. Despite our Prime Minister’s calls for students not to strike from school today (Friday), we’re choosing to no longer be powerless. We will be striking with thousands of other students, to show we will not stand for our government’s inaction on climate change.
Veronica Hester, a 15-year-old student from Sutherland Shire, who will be among young Australians striking from school on today.
Mr Morrison has condemned the strike, saying he does not support our schools being turned into parliaments. “More learning and less activism,” he said. If he and our politicians listened to the climate science we have been taught, and took action like those of us in school, we wouldn’t have to resort to strike action.
In school, we have seen the raw truth of climate change: videos of our dead and dying Great Barrier Reef, increasingly shocking statistics, forecasts of a worrying future.
Seeing this, we students do not shout at each other across the classroom. We sit in a shocked silence. Afterwards, we shout, with our signs and our demands. Because how can an educated person know all we know, and do nothing?
Mr Morrison and his government continue to overlook the danger of climate change, while not seeming to have a problem helping coal miners such as Adani dig up and burn more coal. It’s surreal to watch nothing significant happening on the parliamentary floor, when the solutions have been made so clear. We are one of the sunniest and windiest countries in the world, yet our government chooses to burn more coal.
When Mr Morrison refuses to implement a climate policy that keeps fossil fuels in the ground and transition to 100 per cent renewable energy, he isn’t representing us, our community, or the majority of Australians who want urgent climate action.
Tackling climate change isn’t just about looking out for our young people. We’ll all live with extreme heat and changing weather patterns, not to mention the sense of helplessness in losing our natural world.
By making a stand and organising our communities, we can push our politicians to represent us, not lumps of coal.
A 15-year-old Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, was alone and frustrated when she started striking from school to protest climate inaction in politics. Now she’s sparked a global movement.
I’m not old enough to vote, but the strike has taught me that I’m old enough to do something. All of us are.
Greta’s one request was that “we treat this climate crisis as a crisis”.
That is all we want – for a serious problem to be treated seriously by our politicians. We need the fire of climate change to be confronted, not left to engulf my generation.

*Veronica Hester is a school student from the Sutherland Shire.

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Australia's Summer Outlook: Soaring Temperatures And Bushfire Risk

The Guardian - Australian Associated Press

Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) forecast for the season warns an El Niño could bring dangerous, dry conditions
Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) summer outlook warns an El Niño could develop before the end of the year, bringing dry conditions and soaring temperatures. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP
Summer temperatures are forecast to soar above their usual average, while the chances of more bushfires and an El Niño developing are on the rise.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest outlook for summer warns that most of Australia has an 80% chance of higher-than-normal temperatures between December and February.
Meanwhile, the chance of an El Niño forming before the end of 2018 and bringing even more drier and warmer conditions to eastern Australia is now at 70%, roughly triple the normal risk.
“We’ve already seen extremely hot temperatures through parts of north and central Queensland in recent days and this should act as an important reminder of the kinds of conditions we can get during an Australian summer,” the bureau’s manager of long-range forecasting Dr Andrew Watkins said.
The forecast of a long, hot summer has increased the chances of Australia recording one of its warmest years on record and sparked fresh warnings about the heightened bushfire risk across southern Australia.
While parts of the drought-stricken eastern states have enjoyed some recent rain and there have been huge downpours along the NSW coast during this week’s storms, experts are warning it won’t be long before the hot summer temperatures dry out ground vegetation.
“Above-normal fire potential remains across large parts of southern Australia,” the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre said in its seasonal bushfire outlook, also released on Thursday.
As part of its summer outlook, the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a drier-than-average summer for large parts of Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
“Having said that, locally heavy rainfall events similar to what we have seen in NSW in the last two days are always a possibility during summer, no matter what the outlook is showing,” Watkins said.
NSW has recorded its eighth driest and fourth hottest April-November on record, with Queensland and Victoria having experienced similar conditions.
The dry, hot weather that stretched from autumn into spring is now driving expectations of an above-normal fire risk this summer for large parts of Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre report said several months of above-average rainfall is needed to improve the general dryness across the landscape.
“The dry landscape means that any warm windy conditions are likely to see elevated fire risk,” it said.
“Recent rainfall has not been significant enough to drastically change the vegetation [fuel] loads, with many southern and eastern areas already cured or carrying little grass growth.”

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Adani To Self-Fund $2b Carmichael Mine, Construction To Start Before Christmas

AFR - Mark Ludlow

Adani's greenlight for the Carmichael mine will energise environmental activists. Dan Peled/AAP
Indian energy giant Adani has finally pulled the trigger on its controversial $2 billion Carmichael mine and will fund the project itself, with construction planned to begin before Christmas.
After eight years of court challenges from environmental activists and delayed approvals, Adani Australia chief executive Lucas Dow on Thursday said the company had finally reached financial close on the project which could start exporting coal by the end of 2020.
The decision could prove a catalyst for opening up the frontier Galilee Basin in Central Queensland - with other big coal mines expected to follow including GVK/Hancock Coal's two mines and MacMines' recently approved $6.7 billion China Stone project. It will also be welcomed by pro-coal activists in the Morrison government, including federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan.
The project will also put pressure on federal Labor leader Bill Shorten and Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk - who both have been less than enthusiastic about the project - in the lead-up to next year's federal election.
Last month, Adani announced it would scale back the size and scope of the Carmichael mine - trimming it back from the 60 million tonne $16.5 billion mega-mine, to a more manageable 10 to 15 million tonnes a year, with the potential to be scaled up to 27 million tonnes a year.
Adani, which has already spent $3.3 billion in Australia, said the capital cost of the scaled-back project would come in at around $2 billion. They had been talking to international banks to finance the project, but Mr Dow said this was no longer needed.
He said the "sharpening" of the mine plan had kept operating costs to a minimum and the construction and the operation of the thermal coal mine will now begin.
"We've pulled the trigger and we've got finance and we're ready to go," Mr Dow said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review.
"It has been a long time coming and we're obviously very excited about announcing this so we can get on and this and deliver the jobs for the people who have stood alongside us all this time. I'm desperate to have these jobs come into the northern part of Queensland."
Mr Dow said the project, which now only needs final management plans signed off by state and federal governments, would be funded by parent company Adani Group's finances rather than externally by a bank.
"It's akin to Rio Tinto or BHP funding the project. It's come from group Treasury. They have got it secured," he said.
When asked whether Adani Group had to borrow money from international banks to help fund projects including the Carmichael mine, Mr Dow said he "didn't want to speculate".
"That's a matter for group treasury. The important part for us is Carmichael mine and railway is fully funded and we're in a position to be able to get on with it. We're very much masters of our own destiny."
Mr Dow, a former BHP executive, said any future scaling up of the mine and rail to 27 million tonnes would be funded by profits from the mine's initial production.
Environmental groups, anti-fossil fuel organisations and even some politicians have expressed scepticism about whether the Carmichael project would ever get off the ground, given deadlines have been delayed over the past few years.
Mr Dow said Tuesday's announcement should remove any doubt about the Carmichael project stacking up, saying it remains within the first quartile of the global cost curve.
Adani said the Carmichael project will deliver more than 1500 direct jobs on the mine and rail projects during the initial ramp-up and construction phase and will support thousands more indirect jobs. This is a long way from the 10,000 jobs that had been touted for the project in recent incarnations.
Adani announced in September it would abandon plans to build its own 388-kilometre standard gauge railway line to Abbot Point, but it will now instead build a 200-kilometre narrow gauge line which will join Aurizon's existing coal network - a decision that saved it $1.5 billion.
The Adani rail line to the Galilee Basin will also open up the option for other projects including GVK/Hancock and Clive Palmer's Waratah Coal project to get up and running.
It has applied to Aurizon for access to its regulated Central Queensland coal network. The new 200 kilometre rail link will have the capacity for both the planned 27 million tonnes or up to 40 million tonnes down the track if required, and depending on market conditions.
The Palaszczuk government announced suddenly during last year's election campaign it would not support a federal loan for the Adani mine from the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund, saying it did not deserve any taxpayer funding. The move was seen as a pitch to secure Green preferences in a string of Brisbane seats. In November, the Palaszczuk government was returned for a second term.
Mr Shorten used to be a strong advocate for the Adani project, based on the jobs the project would create throughout regional Queensland. But he has backed down in recent months, using the same lines as the Palaszczuk government about no taxpayer funding for the mine.

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Climate Change Threatens Our Children's Health As Well As Their Future

Fairfax - Fiona Stanley* | George Crisp*

The fight for the future of children is everywhere we look right now. From teachers rallying to get kids off Nauru, to young students striking for action on climate change.
As Australians we care for the future of our kids, yet there is one key issue that threatens this as much as anything - climate change.
Children are inherently vulnerable to the health effects of climate change for a number of reasons. These include physiological, developmental and behavioural factors.
Students are planning to go on strike to demand serious climate action. Credit: Eddie Jim
Children are more mentally impacted by extreme weather related disasters, with Australian research demonstrating higher rates of behavioural and emotional disturbance, anxiety and PTSD than in adults. As a group they are more vulnerable to physical injuries such as burns from fires and drowning and hypothermia from floods. These extreme events also compromise health services and the access to them, meaning delayed assessment and treatment.
Globally climate change is worsening or aggravating some of the leading causes of child mortality, including malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea. In 2004 The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that around 140,000 deaths each year were attributable to climate change, a number projected to nearly double by 2030.
These effects even begin before birth, with evidence that exposure to heatwaves and air pollution during pregnancy can result in babies being born too small, which influences health throughout life. Extreme heat also influences air pollution and allergen levels, with children being more susceptible to asthma, allergies and respiratory conditions.
It’s a fundamental mammalian role to protect our offspring and provide a safe and nurturing environment for them. From early pregnancy, through childhood, to adulthood and independence, mammals prioritise care and safety for their children above all else.
Anyone who has watched nature documentaries or seen behaviour in the wild, of mother orangutans, elephants or bears with their young will be very aware of the depth of that familiar and special attention.
It is why it is so difficult to come to terms with the fact we are in a predicament where we are knowingly risking the future health and security of our children. Our health is already being impacted by climate change in numerous ways and most concerning, it is our children who bear the brunt of these impacts.
How could we have allowed this happen? Surely if we were aware of this, even if it were just a possibility, we would do everything in our power to stop it - as parents, as doctors, as human beings?
In spite of having been well aware of this situation for over three decades our governments and institutions in Australia have not yet implemented a sufficient evidence based response. The scientific principles underlying climate change are well established and with each passing year the impacts are becoming more evident and more troubling.
As doctors we recognise our role and responsibility to speak out and act when there are health risks in our communities. It is what we have always done when confronted with major public health issues such as HIV, Ebola or tobacco use. Therefore, we are now standing up in light of a child health crisis.
We are launching a new campaign called ‘No Time For Games’ in response to the IPCC advice that deep emissions cuts are needed by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C. We’re doing this as doctors because a rise in temperature by this much will dramatically increase the nature of extreme weather and therefore, danger the health of our children.
We ask our medical colleagues to join us by pledging support for urgent action towards climate change and therefore, the future health of children.
And we call upon all governments and institutions to recognise it is also their responsibility to take necessary action required to protect our country’s health. This starts by developing a national strategy on climate change and health and immediately reducing our country’s reliance on fossil fuels.
With the future of our children at stake, we must stand up and act before it’s too late.

*Professor Fiona Stanley is a doctor, epidemiologist, founder of the Telethon Kids Institute and former Australian of the Year.
*Dr George Crisp is a Perth GP and former WA Chair of Doctors for the Environment Australia.

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'We'll Be Voting Soon': Students Take On PM Over Climate Change

Fairfax - Chloe Livadeas

More than 200 Canberra children skipped class and another 100 parents and supporters rallied in the rain on Wednesday morning in front of Parliament House to call for government action on climate change.
The strike was part of a nationwide protest on global warming this week. Thousands of students from more than 200 schools in towns and cities were expected to skip class to put pressure on politicians.
The strike was organised by the School Strike 4 Action, a Victoria-based student activist group that's spread across Australia. The movement was inspired by a 15-year-old Swedish school girl Greta Thunberg who skipped school to camp outside Sweden’s parliament last month.
Canberra students protesting outside Parliament House on Wednesday asking for climate change action. Credit: Karleen Minney
During question time in Parliament on Monday Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned the children who were planning to miss class and said there should be less activism in schools.
Clara McArthur, 17, of Canberra College, called Mr Morrison's comments “ridiculous”, and said the students were using what they learned in school in their protest.
Canberra students will be protesting outside Parliament House on Wednesday. Credit: Karleen Minney
“We’re taught about how amazing this planet is and how important it is that we look after the environment, but he won’t let us do anything about it.
"Me and my friends here are turning 18 soon, we are able to vote in the next election and if he won’t listen to us that is ridiculous.”
Miss McArthur said every teacher and guardian she had spoken with had been incredibly supportive of the strike. “I’ve only heard praise,” she said.
Zaki Sullivan, 10, said he was striking because he believes Australia must take action on climate change now before more species became extinct and the number of natural disasters increased.
"I don’t want to live in that world,” he said.
Zaki said nature and environment had always been a large part of his life.
"I love being out in nature. I love camping, swimming and bush walking like all Australian kids. I want to live in the world that I know now and it needs to be there for future generations too," he said.
His brother Ayo, 8, said, "I’m going on strike to make politicians think about the decisions they’re making and how they impact me. I can’t vote yet but I still have my right to a future and a world that is fit to live in."
Both boys, who attend Chapman Primary, said they wanted a commitment from the government to use 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050.
An ACT Education Directorate spokesperson said it valued student voices in education and would not stop or penalise any student attending a rally, as long as they were supervised by carers in "their actions as global citizens".
Iolo Cornthwaite, 11, also from Chapman Primary, said, “I’d like the [government] to listen to the 99 climate scientists that have told them for a few years that they need to stop doing coal and change to 100 per cent renewable energy.
Clara McArthur, 17: I'll be voting soon, he should listen. Credit: Karleen Minney
Iolo said he became engaged with the issue of global warming when he heard that temperatures were predicted to ruse by 1.5 degrees “because even one degree can damage our world for the rest of our lives”.
His sister, Nia Cornthwaite, 10, was also striking.
“I do really love school but this is important. There’ll be no school to go to in the future if the government doesn’t listen,” she said.
Nia said she wanted Australia to stop investing in coal mines such as Adani and that it should stop damaging the Great Barrier Reef.
“If we destroy it we’ll never be able to recreate it. We can’t bring it back,” she said.
ACT Minister for Climate Change Shane Rattenbury said, “Young people don’t want to just stand by and watch this climate emergency roll out.
“As future leaders, they’re making their voices heard - and the message is clear.”
The federal government must deliver a clean, renewable future for all Australians, he said.

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Australia Not On Track To Hit Paris Emissions Goals, As UN Warns Global Efforts Must Increase

ABC - Nick Kilvert

(Australian Antarctic Division: Adrian Patel)
 Key points:
  • On current trends, Australia is unlikely to meet its Paris carbon emissions reduction target of 26-28 per cent, a UN report says
  • The report says global efforts need to be tripled to hold warming at 2C by 2030, and ramped up five-fold for warming to remain at 1.5C
  • The Federal Government insists Australia is on track to meet its Paris commitment
Australia is among a number of countries currently not on track to meet their unconditional Paris carbon emissions reduction targets by 2030, a United Nations (UN) report has warned.
The 2018 Emissions Gap Report released today by UN Environment shows that global emissions have hit a historic high and are showing "no signs of peaking".
Australia is listed as a G20 country that will not meet its 2030 target — alongside Canada, Argentina, EU28, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United States.
Under the Paris agreement, Australia's aim is to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels.
The Paris emissions reduction targets were set at the climate conference in 2015, and represent the first ever legally binding global climate deal.
The agreement holds 195 signatory countries to a global action plan to keep global warming "well below" 2 degrees Celsius.
In response to a damning IPCC report earlier this year on the state of the climate, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was on track to meet its targets "in a canter".
But today's report states Australia's emissions on current trend are projected to "remain at high levels rather than reducing in line with the 2030 target".
"There has been no improvement in Australia's climate policy since 2017 and emission levels for 2030 are projected to be well above the [Nationally Determined Contribution] target," it states.
(Supplied: UN Environment)
The forecast is consistent with the majority of thinking from the scientific community, according to the director of the ANU's Climate Change Institute, Professor Mark Howden, who was not involved with the latest report.
"Our greenhouse gas emissions nationally keep on going up, and of course to actually meet those targets at some stage they have to go down," said Professor Howden, who was a review editor on this year's IPCC report.
"I just don't see that the mix of policies that we've got at the moment are accelerating that reversal."
In a statement, Environment Minister Melissa Price said Australia would meet its Paris commitments.
"We have the right mix of scalable policies to meet our 2030 targets," Ms Price said.
"Policies like the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation have led to emissions reductions in the electricity sector, for instance."
The Prime Minister's office referred the ABC to the Environment Minister.

Efforts must triple to hold warming to 2C
In another dire warning for world leaders, the UN Environment report predicts that even if all G20 countries achieve their 2030 targets, global emissions will still be far too high to limit warming to 2C by 2100.
Under the 2030 target scenario, annual global emissions are predicted to increase from their current 53.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, to 56 gigatonnes over the next 12 years.
The UN report says Australia's emissions are projected to remain high through to 2030.
(Flickr: UniversityBlogSpot)
But to be on track to keep warming below 2C, UN Environment estimates that emissions need to be down to about 40 gigatonnes per annum by that time.
And to limit warming to 1.5C, global annual emissions would need to be reduced to 24 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per annum by 2030.
In a statement, UN Environment deputy director and assistant secretary-general Joyce Msuya said it was time for governments to act.
"If the IPCC report represented a global fire alarm, this report is the arson investigation," Ms Msuya said.
"The science is clear; for all the ambitious climate action we've seen, governments need to move faster and with greater urgency."
The report says emissions reduction efforts need to be tripled to keep the world on track to hold warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels, and increased five-fold to hold warming to 1.5C.
The consequences of going beyond those temperatures are unprecedented, according to Professor Peter Newman from Curtin University, who was not involved with the report.
"The last 10,000 years, when cities and agriculture have developed, have not been outside the 1C rise — it's been within that frame. So we're leaving that safe operating zone and we're going into a new area we've never been before," said Professor Newman, who was a contributing author on the 2018 IPCC report.
"Even though it doesn't sound like much — 1.5C — you're talking about the entire ocean warming up by that much.
"That's an awful lot of water to heat and that [energy] has got to go somewhere — it goes into storms and … more extreme weather events."
Australia's solar a standout among poor performers
Australia's uptake of solar is helping reduce our energy emissions.
(ABC Rural: Bridget Fitzgerald)
Per capita, Australia's emissions are decreasing alongside many countries around the world.
However, the steady rise in our population continues to push our overall emissions up.
Australia's energy sector accounts for the highest portion of greenhouse gas emissions.
But Professor Howden said this is also the sector where we are making good ground, despite the lack of a consistent energy policy.
"The broadscale expansion of solar PV and batteries and wind, which continues at pace, is actually pulling back on that [upward emissions] trajectory," he said.
"But that's happening in spite of the energy policies, rather than because of them."
Behind energy, Australia's next biggest emitting sectors are transport, agriculture and fugitive emissions from coal seam gas and other mining.
Combined with increased land clearing, it's these areas where there is the greatest room for emissions reduction, according to Professor Newman.
"We're not doing well on electric vehicles compared to the rest of the world, and we're not doing well on LNG — we've eased up on those guys that were going to be doing carbon sequestration and they have just been completely irresponsible," he said.
"And I would add land at this point; reforesting and deforesting — we're planting a lot but we're clearing a lot more, and that's third-world stuff.
"In Europe and America they're reforesting faster than they're deforesting. We were, and now we've slipped back."

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