February 2017 Was Second Warmest February On Record

NASA

February 2017 was the second warmest February 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 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean February temperature from 1951-1980. The two top February temperature anomalies have occurred during the past two years.

The GISTEMP monthly temperature anomalies superimposed on a 1980-2015 mean seasonal cycle. — View larger image

February 2016 was the hottest on record, at 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the February mean temperature. February 2017's temperature was 0.20 degrees Celsius cooler than February 2016.

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.

Global map of the February 2017 LOTI (land-ocean temperature index) anomaly shows that North America and Siberia were again much warmer than the 1951-1980 base period, and that Europe was relatively warm. — View larger image

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.

Links

• January 2017 Was Third-Warmest January On Record
• Global Temperature Record Broken for Third Consecutive Year
• NASA, NOAA Data Show 2016 Warmest Year on Record Globally
• The Last Two Novembers are the Warmest Novembers on Record
• Last Three Octobers are the Warmest Octobers on Record
• NASA Analysis Finds August 2016 Another Record Month
• NASA Analysis Finds July 2016 is Warmest on Record
• 2016 Climate Trends Continue to Break Records
• Record Warmth in February
• 2015 Was the Hottest Year on Record
• NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal Record-Shattering Global Warm Temperatures in 2015

Coral Reefs' Only Hope Is Halting Global Warming, Study Says

InsideClimate News - Nicholas Kusnetz

Bleaching events have stressed coral worldwide, particularly the Great Barrier Reef, and research says their survival depends on quickly slowing climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced a series of damaging bleaching events since 2014. Credit: Getty Images

Two doses of bad news for the world's coral reefs came in the last week. First, Australia's government confirmed that the Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of a second consecutive year of mass bleaching. It's the first time the reef has experienced back-to-back events, and it seems to be weakening many of the corals.

Then on Wednesday, leading scientists published a new study about last year's bleaching—the worst to date—suggesting that when the seas are hot enough for long enough, nothing can protect coral reefs. Their only hope is that we rapidly slow climate change.

The research, published in the journal Nature, looked at data from three bleaching events along the 1,400 mile-long Australian reef system dating back to 1998. By looking at factors including water temperature, water quality and fishing protections, the authors determined that last year's bleaching was linked almost exclusively to ocean warming.

Conservationists have long hoped that protecting corals from other threats, such as pollution and overfishing, might help shield at least some of them from bleaching, too. While the new paper doesn't entirely deflate that hope—such protections likely help reefs recover—it shows that such work provides little if any relief from severe bleaching.

"At the level of heat stress that was seen during this event, it just didn't matter," said C. Mark Eakin, coordinator of the Coral Reef Watch program at NOAA and a co-author of the paper.

Ilsa B. Kuffner, a marine biologist with the United States Geological Survey who was not involved in the research, said the new paper supports a solid body of evidence suggesting that disease and bleaching are driving coral mortality, while other factors play a more important role in the recovery from those threats. "It's a distinction that, while it's subtle, is also very important when you talk about what's actually causing coral reef decline," she said.

The paper also found that a reef's history made little difference. Some studies have suggested that previous bleaching may make reefs more resilient if they are given time to recover, perhaps by killing off weaker corals or driving some adaptive response.

Warmer-than-average temperatures can cause coral to expel the symbiotic algae that live on its surface, turning the reef white. Such bleaching stresses coral and can make it more susceptible to disease and death.

The world's reefs are in the midst of what scientists consider to be a single, mass bleaching event dating back to 2014. Climate models project that most of the world's reefs could experience annual bleaching by 2050 without rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

While coral can survive even extreme bleaching, surveys conducted this month along the Great Barrier Reef are showing evidence that successive hits take a toll. Eakin said the level of heat stress—a measurement of how hot the waters are for how long—is lower than last year, and yet the bleaching appears to be just as widespread.

"They haven't bounced back yet, so when you hit them with another event a year later, you can see more bleaching at a lower level of heat stress," he said. "A lot of the corals that have survived last year really are not ready for another event."

The bleaching has also spread to areas of the reef that escaped last year's event, according to the recent surveys.

Successive bleaching also appears to be reshaping the makeup of the reef system. Reefs are composed of a rich diversity of coral species, with some particularly sensitive to bleaching and some that recover much more quickly than others. With consecutive years of bleaching, and after four events over 20 years, the new paper said the composition of the reef is changing in areas that have seen recurrent bleaching, perhaps irreversibly.

"The good news is you've got some tough corals that are surviving," Eakin said. "The bad news is, one of the most important things about coral reefs is their diversity, and you're cutting out some of that diversity."

The paper's authors believe that protecting reefs from pollution and overfishing will help them recover from bleaching. But the most important action, they said, lies elsewhere.

"Securing a future for coral reefs, including intensively managed ones such as the Great Barrier Reef," they wrote, "ultimately requires urgent and rapid action to reduce global warming."

Links

• As Coral Reefs Continue to Struggle in Warming Oceans, a Group Forms to Save Them
• As Coral Bleaching Goes Global, Scientists Fear Worst Is Yet to Come
• Arctic Sea Ice Melt, Driven by Global Warming, Accelerated by Nature
• Chief Environmental Justice Official at EPA Resigns, With Plea to Pruitt to Protect Vulnerable Communities
• Exxon Concealed Tillerson's 'Alias' Emails From NY Climate Fraud Probe, AG Claims
• Scientists Call Out Pruitt's False View of Climate Change
• Massive Permafrost Thaw Documented in Canada, Portends Huge Carbon Release
• Rate of Ocean Warming Has Nearly Doubled Over Two Decades, Study Says
• What Slashing the EPA's Budget by One-Quarter Would Really Mean
• Cook Inlet Gas Leak Remains Unmonitored as Danger to Marine Life Is Feared

More Than 900 Examples Of How Climate Change Affects Business

Forbes - Carmen Nobel*

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change.

Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in their mandatory Technology and Operations Management (TOM) course. The topic: How climate change affects business.
“Choose a company or non-profit organization whose operating model is likely to be significantly affected by climate change’s physical manifestations and/or related regulation, including threats and opportunities associated with mitigation and/or adaptation,” the assignment read. “Describe how the organization is likely to be affected, the steps the organization is taking to address those effects and describe and justify what additional steps you think the organization should consider implementing.”

Some 929 students took the Climate Change Challenge, analyzing organizations including Toyota, General Mills, Maker’s Mark, Amazon Web Services and Vail Ski Resort. Their responses, each 800 words or fewer, can be read on a public blog called Open Knowledge, which was designed to let HBS students discuss business issues with each other and to share their ideas with the rest of the world. (Because the posts are public, students have the option of whether to post under their own names or under a pseudonym.)
“We launched the challenge to expose students to the broad array of ways climate change is affecting organizations,” says Mike Toffel, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School and the head of the TOM course, who spearheaded the challenge. “It’s affecting the energy sector and agriculture, of course, but it’s also affecting supply chains and operations.”

The challenge was a pedagogical shift for HBS, which traditionally teaches management lessons via in-depth case studies about individual organizations. “Instead of presenting students with a case that distills a management scenario, this assignment required students to do research and cite reputable sources,” Toffel explains.
The new class format “allowed the students to appreciate the diversity of ways in which climate change affects companies and companies react to climate change,” says Assistant Professor Chiara Farronato, who was among several professors who taught the challenge. “For some, it's a nuance; for others, survival depends on their response to climate change. Climate change is multifaceted. It has many physical manifestations, regulatory standards, consumer preferences, and levels of uncertainty. One case study would have focused the discussion on one example, whose generalizability would have been limited given this diversity.”



The blog posts cover a wide swath of industries that grapple with climate change.
“Many of the students wrote about the industries and companies they were most familiar with, which led to a remarkable diversity of posts,” says Assistant Professor Ariel Dora Stern. “Students discussed the business implications of climate change in contexts ranging from fast fashion to cloud computing and from banking and financial services to leadership issues facing coastal municipalities. I believe we all came away with a deeper understanding of the ubiquity of climate change as a challenge for business leaders of the future.”
For example:

• Nikhil Dewan looks at how water scarcity affects a beverage giant in Is Coca Cola Staying Ahead of Climate Change? The blog post discusses the company’s 2007 pledge to replenish all the water is uses by 2020, and then takes a critical eye toward next steps. “Coke’s Replenish projects are not always to the aquifer from which the water was originally sourced,” he writes. “The strongest critics question the act of ‘balancing’ when depletion of a certain community aquifer is mitigated by replenishing water in another community aquifer that may be hundreds or thousands of miles away. I personally believe that Coke must double down on efforts to ensure that replenishment actually benefits the communities that were impacted by its operations.”
• Having lived through Hurricane Sandy, another student considers climate-change-related insurance claims in Insuring the End of the World: Allstate at the Intersection of the Causes and Effects of Climate Change. “In this rapidly shifting landscape, it is imperative for P&C insurers like Allstate to continue to adapt, not just to the newly arisen risks from climate change, but also to the opportunities to serve their clients better,” writes the student under the name “TOM.”
• And “SWSC” digs into the environmental impact of the apparel industry in The Nike Model: Garbage In, Sneakers Out. “With 666 factories in 43 countries and 1,000 retail locations across continents, Nike’s widespread operations and supply chains require significant amounts of water and energy to produce, package, and ship its merchandise to points of sale across the globe,” the student explains, going on to discuss what the company is doing to shrink its environmental footprint—and improve its reputation.

Other posts focus on entrepreneurial ventures borne of the need to fight climate change. “For many companies, climate change poses a threat to their current operating model,” says Assistant Professor Kris Ferreira. “However, there are also a few examples of companies or startups for which climate change actually poses opportunities.”
For instance, a post entitled Climate Change ... Understanding the Meat of the Problem looks at Impossible Foods, a food-tech company looking to create a veggie burger that tastes like a hamburger. “Livestock is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all transportation exhausts combined,” writes David Mravca, and the company is banking on people who care about that. “Impossible Foods is taking advantage of the effects of climate change to successfully obtain funding (approx. $180M), to build its brand, bring on staff, develop a great product, and market its product to the public,” Mravca writes, “… and it’s getting an advantage because of all the climate change articles being published and paid for by other groups.”

Lessons Learned
To prepare for the class discussion on the Climate Change Challenge, students were told to read a few of each other’s blog posts, along with the note Climate Change in 2017: Implications for Business, written by Rebecca M. Henderson, Sophus A. Reinert, Polina Dekhtyar and Amram Migdal.
The professors who taught the Climate Change Challenge focused on the business implications of climate change and presented the issue as an established scientific reality. “We wasted no time debating whether climate change is real: in the scientific community, there really is no such debate anymore. The note we assigned beforehand presented a summary of the science and its projections, and we focused our assignment and class discussion on what organizations are saying and doing about it,” Toffel says.
Each instructor picked five or six student posts to discuss in class. “I deliberately called on students with very diverse opinions to see if they could be swayed or constructively argumentative,” says Senior Lecturer Christina Wing. “In many cases, the blogs in conjunction with the classroom discussion open students’ eyes to potential alternatives to issues and a new way of thinking. In the end, the majority of my students were very open-minded."
The broad lesson of the challenge is that climate change matters to the world of business, and virtually no industry is immune to the change.
“I think our students developed an appreciation for the breadth of consequences of climate change across industries and the sheer scope of this problem,” says Assistant Professor Joel Goh. “Unlike a traditional case discussion, where we go really deep into analyzing the operations of an individual company, here they had to grapple with how this single phenomenon is impacting organizations across industries that we don’t even usually think of as being related. The sense I got was that many students coming into class already understood, cerebrally, that climate change is a big problem, but the class session and discussion made this problem real for them, showing them that it isn’t just an issue for policymakers and scientists, but that it has tangible implications for the companies and industries that they themselves will work or invest in.”
The assignment also provided practical experience in summarizing and proposing solutions for a business problem—in 800 words or fewer.
“Today, all managers must write two-page memos,” says Shane Greenstein, the Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration. “A blog post is a version of that. This assignment provided great practice at being short, punchy, engaging and to the point.”

*Carmen Nobel is the senior editor of Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

Links

• Women Mayors From Across The World Step Up Fight Against Climate Change
• The First Climate Model Turns 50, And Predicted Global Warming Almost Perfectly
• Fearing White House Purge Of Climate Science, Scientists Frantically Copying Data
• Perspectives From Inside The Climate Change-Human Health Conference That Rose From The Dead

Climate Change Needs To Be Tackled For Better Health, Medical Groups Urge

NBC News - Maggie Fox

Heatstroke. Asthma. Zika. Climate change is helping illness and disease spread and become more common, according to a new consortium of medical groups.

A Contra Costa County worker uses a blower to kill off mosquito larvae found in a retention pond in Bay Point, California, in 2015. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images, file

It's not just extreme heat and flooding, but more intense storms — including blizzards — and a steady warming trend that lets disease-carrying mosquitoes thrive, the new Medical Society Consortium on Climate Health said.
The best answer? Cleaner energy, the consortium said, including agreements to cut carbon dioxide emissions and develop of solar and wind power.
"We believe the most important action we can take to protect our health is to accelerate the inevitable transition to clean renewable energy," the group of 11 medical societies, which includes pediatricians, gynecologists and infectious disease specialists, said in a statement.
To that end, the consortium is launching a coordinated public relations push of their agenda, including efforts to recruit hometown doctors to tell stories of climate-linked illness and injury.
"Doctors in every part of our country see that climate change is making Americans sicker," said Dr. Mona Sarfaty, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University and the head of the new consortium.
 "Physicians are on the front lines and see the impacts in exam rooms. What's worse is that the harms are felt most by children, the elderly, Americans with low-income or chronic illnesses, and people in communities of color," Sarfaty added in a statement.
It's hardly a new idea that climate change can affect human health. The Obama White House issued a report saying rising temperatures were making allergies worse and causing more heat-related deaths. The World Health Organization has issued several warnings, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a program dedicated to climate and health
But health experts are worried that the new administration of Donald Trump is not just less worried about the problem, but might be downright hostile to efforts to slow the human impact on climate change.
There was more than a little suspicion that the cancellation of a CDC-sponsored meeting on climate change last month was a response to fears about what the new boss might think.
The new group wants to press forward from a medical perspective.
"The reality of human-caused climate change is no longer a matter of debate," they say in a report released with the launch Wednesday.
"These harms include heat-related illness, worsening chronic illnesses, injuries and deaths from dangerous weather events, infectious diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks, illnesses from contaminated food and water, and mental health problems," the report adds.
"Unless we take concerted action, these harms to our health are going to get much worse. The sooner we take action, the more harm we can prevent, and the more we can protect the health of all Americans."
The full group:

• American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, Immunology (AAAAI)
• American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• American College of Physicians (ACP)
• American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM)
• American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG)
• American Geriatrics Society
• American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA)
• Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)
• National Medical Association (NMA)
• Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM).

"Here's the message from America's doctors on climate change: it's not only happening in the Arctic Circle; it's happening here. It's not only a problem for us in 2100; it's a problem now. And it's not only hurting polar bears; it's hurting us," said Sarfaty.

Links

• Here's How Climate Change Might Kill You
• White House Says Climate Change is Ruining Health (2014)
• Trump Administration Reviews Fuel Efficiency Rules
• Is Global Warming Making us Sick?
• Earth Sets Record Temperature for Third Year Running

Battery-Makers On Turnbull's Tesla Chat: 'Give Australian Companies A Fair Go'

The Guardian - Melissa Davey

Industry wants more support from federal government now prime minister has 'taken interest in the tweets of an American billionaire'

The Energy Storage Council has urged governments not to exclude local providers after Elon Musk offered to fix South Australia's energy supply issues. 'This isn't just a ploy from Musk. He's right, this really can be done.' Photograph: Alamy

Malcolm Turnbull should encourage Australia's battery energy storage industry now he has "taken interest in the tweets of an American billionaire", Zen Energy chairman Ross Garnaut says.
Garnaut was referring to Elon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of electric car giant Tesla, who tweeted that Tesla could solve the power shortage issue causing price spikes and blackouts in South Australia within 100 days by installing 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage.
Turnbull subsequently tweeted that he had phoned Musk and enjoyed a "great, in-depth" conversation.
But Australian companies had been working on large battery projects for years, Garnaut said, including one by Zen Energy in the upper gulf of South Australia which it had discussed with the market.
The core of the project would be to supply baseload renewable power to large energy users, initially in South Australia and then more broadly, Garnaut said.
"In this Trump era, we have a world where nothing is real until an American billionaire tweets about it," Garnaut said.
"What we're working on is having it ready for summer, the time of greatest stress on the grid and that's when you really need to bring all your grid to stability.
"Zen Energy has funded it all so far, and there has been a lot of technical work and economic modelling done to see what is required in the market. We have a lot of close relations with energy providers and communities as part of the development work. When it comes to investment in the large equipment, we have the support of external investors."
Zen would manage the battery and its interaction with the grid, but the owners of the battery would be external investors, Garnaut said. The battery would absorb electricity when it was cheap and abundant on the wholesale power market, and make it available when scarce.
"The other value of the large battery is to grid stabilisations services," he said. "We are focusing on providing 100Mwh of battery storage of energy, so it will make a substantial contribution and will be ready by summer."
On Tuesday the South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, is due to release his energy plan, which is expected to address the blackouts and his vision for renewable energy. He did not return calls from Guardian Australia requesting comment on Monday.
The chief executive of the Energy Storage Council, John Grimes, said there were a number of Australian companies that were more price-competitive than Tesla and which, in a consortium, could also deliver the project to stabilise South Australia's energy grid in 100 days.
"This isn't just a ploy from Musk," Grimes said. "He's right, this really can be done."
He said there were a number of reasons the potential of battery storage hadn't captured broader public attention before. Although Turnbull has a solar system and battery storage on his own Sydney property, Grimes said that "politically we have been in a backward-looking, unhelpful debate talking about so-called clean coal technology and running down state renewable energy targets".
"The second thing is rapidly changing economics," Grimes said. "If you thought about doing this even three years ago the price would have been something like four times higher than what you can do it for today.
"Really cheap battery technology, cheap solar and really smart energy technology systems, or smart computers, that will run this network are about to change everything. A massive transition is about to occur."
Within less than 10 years, the technology would be such that people could take control of their own energy requirements and enter into "Uber-style" energy sharing arrangements, he said.
"We are not advocating people getting off the grid altogether, but the tech will allow us to trade electricity between ourselves so when I have excess solar power at 2pm I can offload it, for example, to a supermarket that needs two freezers running.
"This revolution in energy begins in 2017 and it will be all done and dusted within 10 years."
He urged the federal government to show strong support for the battery sector as Australia risked losing some of the country's best researchers. While Turnbull had been entertaining clean coal, the battery sector had advanced rapidly and come up to "bite him on the bum", Grimes said.
"We are slugging our guts out to build the business in this sector, but a tweet from Elon Musk grabs the government's attention," Grimes said. "I'm not saying Tesla should be excluded, but don't fast-track a discussion with an overseas company when you have capability right here, right now, in Australia. Let there be a transparent bid process. And let's give Australian companies a fair go."
The co-founder of Lyon solar, David Green, said not only had battery prices fallen substantially, but their functionality had increased significantly.
Lyon is developing an advanced combination solar and battery storage plant in South Australia known as the Kingfisher project, which is connected to a grid with operational mining activities. Lyon expects it to be operating commercially and delivering 100Mwh of solar PV with up t0 40Mwh of battery storage by the end of the year.
"The amazing thing is batteries are a technology with a range of functions," he said. "They can function like a generator, they can act faster than any other generation facility to stabilise voltage, and they can provide power to isolated areas.
"In Australia at present there are some issues that can be barriers to a commercial role for them, and some of those are institutional and some are cultural."
One barrier was the way regulators defined batteries under market rules, which differed depending on whether they were used as part of transmission networks or as generators. And Australian markets were not as familiar with the operation of batteries, he said.
Lyon had well-advanced battery projects in every state, Green said. The company is working with US-based energy giant AES Energy Storage to develop 200-250 megawatts of large-scale battery storage using AES Energy's technology.
"All of our projects we have raised capital for, and it is the private sector who should be funding these projects," Green said.
"The principal role for government should be to get market settings right so projects like this can be commercialised. The government needs to help to create an environment where batteries can capture maximum revenue so they become commercial in their own right so that governments aren't needing to provide subsidies."
The power the projects generated would be directed into the electricity grid for retailers to buy and sell on.
"We will either sell the power directly into the market and take the risk on what pricing we get out of wholesale, or we will enter into a contract with a retailer who will buy a certain amount of power at a certain price and they put that into their portfolio of other contracts and on-sell that," he said.
Contract negotiations were under way between energy providers and Lyon, and an announcement would be made within weeks, Green said.
The chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, Kane Thornton, said Australia was about to find out how close to being truly commercial battery energy storage technology was.
"Sometimes it takes rockstar tech entrepreneurs having a Twitter conversation to create the excitement around technology breakthroughs," Thornton said. "There's nothing new in what Tesla are proposing. But I don't think anyone should complain about Musk getting the attention of the prime minister about it. These are exciting times times ahead."

Links

• Elon Musk: I can fix South Australia power network in 100 days or it's free
• Elon Musk and Malcolm Turnbull talk battery solutions for energy problems
• Turnbull under pressure as gas supply takes centre stage in power crisis
• 'Clean' coal won't be commercially viable before 2030, energy analysis says
• Turnbull says own rooftop solar not inconsistent with 'clean-coal' message
• Malcolm Turnbull was told gas plant shut down before South Australia blackout
• Tony Abbott rebuffed after attacking Turnbull government on renewable energy target
• Australia should invest in coal power to reduce emissions, minister says
• Fossil fuel divestment is worth $7tn globally yet Australia still clings to coal
• Australian unions call for 'just transition' from coal-generated electricity

Ian Chappell Stands By Adani Mine Letter Despite Being Called 'Elitist' By Coalition MP

The Guardian - Joshua Robertson

Adani ‘categorically’ rejects letter signed by 91 prominent Australians, saying it comes from ‘a very small group of misled people’

Ian Chappell is one of a group of prominent Australians urging Adani to abandon a giant coalmine project near the Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images

Cricket great Ian Chappell has stood by his opposition to the Adani mine proposal as part of a group of prominent Australians branded “elitist wankers” by a federal government MP and “a very small group of misled people” by the Indian miner.
Chappell said it was “worthwhile” if joining his brother Greg in an open letter calling on the Indian miner to abandon its coal plan thrust the issue into the public spotlight in its cricket-loving homeland.
He said that, as when previously speaking out about Australia’s hardline refugee policies, “you realise as a former Australian captain that there are times when you have a louder voice than a lot of other people [and] there are times to use that louder voice”.
“If it has helped in that regard, to get some publicity in India and give people in India another view on it – and not the view that everyone in Australia is falling head over heels in love with this project – and if it’s got that message across, it makes that worthwhile,” Chappell told Guardian Australia.
The Chappell brothers’ involvement ensured the letter was reported in Indian media, including the English–language Hindustan Times and the Times of India.

Chappell, who has written for Indian newspapers for 30 years and was asked by one to write a column about the Adani issue to be published on Saturday, said it was a view the Indian public “definitely wouldn’t have got” otherwise.
He said he “wasn’t convinced that the letter would ever get to Adani” but was glad it had. Adani “categorically” rejected the letter, signed by 91 prominent Australians and delivered to its Ahmedabad headquarters on Thursday, saying it comes from “a very small group of misled people”.
Federal government MP George Christensen ridiculed its signatories as “elitist wankers”, while Queensland opposition treasury spokesman Scott Emerson called on the Chappell brothers to “get on board” with Adani.
Chappell said while he was conscious of not putting his name to “just every cause that comes up”, his views on Adani were the culmination of years of taking an interest in climate change, in part due to the influence of his wife, Barbara-Ann.
“I’ve got a wife who is one, intelligent, two, she’s got a scientific mind, and three, a very strong social conscience,” he said.
“She’s been on about climate change for 20 years, probably before most others, so I’m hearing about it regularly and obviously can make up my own mind.
“I mean, you don’t need to be Einstein when you see the frequency and the ferocity of some of the weather events that we’ve been having, what’s what’s happened to the Great Barrier Reef, and when I’m hearing what I’m hearing from Barbara-Ann and then you put that together, you’ve got to come to the conclusion that things have to change.”
Chappell said he was happy to sign the letter when approached by Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoff Cousins, particularly since it called on Adani to divert its Australian investments away from coal to renewable projects rather than demanding it “just stop” altogether.
“They could well have spent millions of dollars in investigating the project, so it’s very hard to turn around and say just pour that down the drain,” Chappell said.
“I know very little, I certainly don’t have a scientific mind [but] it made sense to me years ago that if you’re one of the first uptakers in renewable energy, if you get in early, there’s got to be a lot of jobs there.
“Everyone talks about the number of jobs that [the mine is] going to bring to that area of Queensland, but what about the people who work on the barrier reef in tourism and so on? Their jobs could well go down the mine.”
Adani in a statement noted the letter was delivered by Cousins, the chairman of the ACF, “whose legal challenge against the planned Carmichael coalmine has been dismissed by the Australian courts”.
“We categorically reject such motivated letters of representation by a very small group of 76 misled people,” it said.
Adani said its mining proposal, which would ship up to 60m tonnes of coal a year for 60 years, was “cleared after rigorous assessments and strict conditions over a period of seven years”.
“The planned mine is supported fully by people of regional Queensland and their elected representatives who in turn represent millions of Australians,” the company said.
“The planned mine will help in providing energy security to millions of Indians who are without electricity while creating thousands of jobs and economic benefits for the state of Queensland in particular, and Australia in general. It is a project which will create enormous social and economic value for both the countries of Australia and India.”
It followed what Cousins said had been a “productive meeting” with senior Adani management, to whom his group explained “the growing opposition to the proposed coalmine in Queensland and agreed to a continued dialogue with the company”.
“We reiterated that we welcome Adani’s investment in solar in Australia but are steadfast in our opposition to their coalmine.”
A new ReachTel poll has found 73% of Australians agree that “the best thing for Australia would be for Adani to invest in large-scale solar power stations, rather than a new coalmine”.
The poll, commissioned by the Australian Marine Conservation Society, surveyed 2,134 Australian residents on Tuesday.
They were also asked whether the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and regional mayors currently on a trade mission to India should be “seeking investment in clean energy solutions like new solar power stations or in coalmines”.
It found 72.1% preferred solar while 14.6% preferred coal.

A copy of the open letter shows 91 signatories, including former Australian environment minister Peter Garrett, Perth-based UK-born comedian and author Ben Elton and investment banker Mark Burrows.
It “respectfully” called on Adani’s billionaire chairman, Gautam Adani, to drop the mine plan for three reasons. It would drive global warming that threatened the Great Barrier Reef nearby, it loomed as a “public health disaster” according to the medical journal Lancet; and it “does not have wide public support in Australia”, the letter said.
ACF is appealing a federal court finding against its challenge to commonwealth approval of the Adani mine on the grounds it did not account for climate change impacts on the Great Barrier Reef through carbon emissions.
The court ruled the federal environment minister was entitled to find that if Adani did not go ahead, emissions would come from coal sourced elsewhere. The ACF argues this is “the drug dealer’s defence”.

Links

• Ian and Greg Chappell call on Adani to abandon Carmichael mine project
• Adani mine leases and national parks in doubt after native title court decision
• Adani coalmine activists gear up to fight: ‘This will dwarf the Franklin blockade’
• Adani coalmine 'covertly funded' by World Bank, says report
• Indigenous owners launch fresh legal challenge to Adani’s Carmichael mine
• Adani: Indian fishermen warn Australia against environmental impact ahead of coal mine talks

Turnbull Unveils Snowy Plan For Pumped Hydro, Costing Billions

The Conversation - Michelle Grattan

In its latest move on energy policy, the Turnbull government has unveiled a plan to boost generation from the Snowy Hydro scheme by 50%.

The Snowy Hydro scheme already provides back-up energy to NSW and Victoria. AAP

The government says the expansion, which it has labelled the Snowy Mountains Scheme 2.0, would add 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy to the National Electricity Market. This would be enough to power 500,000 homes.
Claiming the upgrading would be an "electricity game-changer", Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that in one hour it would be able to produce 20 times the 100 megawatt-hours expected from the battery proposed this week by the South Australian government, but would deliver it constantly for almost a week.
Turnbull flew to the Snowy early Thursday to formally announce the plan. The commonwealth is a minority shareholder in the Snowy Hydro, with a 13% stake. New South Wales and Victoria have 58% and 29% stakes respectively.
The government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), would examine several sites that could support large-scale pumped hydroelectric energy storage in the area, Turnbull said.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the cost would run into "billions of dollars". It is being suggested it would be around A$2 billion. Frydenberg avoided being tied down on when it would be completed.
He said three new tunnels were being looked at, stretching 27 kilometres for the pumped hydro-facility. It would not involve new dams, but connect existing reservoirs and recycle water.
The plan had the potential to ensure there would be the needed renewable energy supply for those on the east coast at times of peak demand, Frydenberg said.
Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute, cautioned that the plan would involve technical and economic issues, including whether it could make money, and to what extent it could contribute to solving the short-term power crisis.
"This isn't some sort of magic panacea," Wood told the ABC. Some hard-headed thinking was needed on what it would do and how it would work.
Turnbull said: "The unprecedented expansion will help make renewables reliable, filling in holes caused by intermittent supply and generator outages.
"It will enable greater energy efficiency and help stabilise electricity supply into the future," he said – adding that this would ultimately mean cheaper power prices.
He said successive governments at all levels had failed to put in place the needed storage to ensure reliable supply.
"We are making energy storage infrastructure a critical priority to ensure better integration of wind and solar into the energy market and more efficient use of conventional power."
Turnbull said an "all-of-the-above" approach, including hydro, solar, coal and gas, was critical to future energy supplies.
Snowy Hydro already provided back-up energy to NSW and Victoria and could extend to South Australia when expanded, he said. The expansion would have no impact on the supply of irrigation water to NSW, South Australia and Queensland.
The feasibility study for the expansion is expected to be completed before the end of this year, with construction starting soon after, he said.

Links

• Pumped hydro energy storage – making better use of wind
• Government losing the argument on energy, according to poll
• Turnbull to gas industry: give the local market more supply
• The government is right to fund energy storage: a 100% renewable grid is within reach