Adani Demands Names Of CSIRO Scientists Reviewing Groundwater Plans

ABC News - Josh Robertson

Stage 1 construction is underway, but Thursday's approval means the miner can now start significant work. (Twitter: Matthew Canavan)

Key points: Emails show Adani gave the federal environment department five days to provide the names of people from the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia involved in the review Adani says it wrote to the department to request "assurance that individuals involved in any review processes were independent" CSIRO's Sam Popovski says "our scientists just want to get on and do their best job ... without their social media being tracked"

Adani demanded the names of all federal agency scientists reviewing its contentious groundwater plans so it could check if they were "anti-coal" activists, emails obtained under freedom of information show.
The revelation has alarmed CSIRO staff representatives, who said it indicated Adani had "a deliberate strategy" to pressure scientists by searching for personal information it could use to try to "discredit their work".
Emails obtained under freedom of information by environmental group Lock The Gate show Adani gave the federal environment department five days to provide "a list of each person from the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia involved in the review".
"Adani simply wants to know who is involved in the review to provide it with peace of mind that it is being treated fairly and that the review will not be hijacked by activists with a political, as opposed to scientific, agenda," the company told the department on January 25.
A department spokeswoman said it "consulted with CSIRO and Geoscience Australia about Adani's request" but did not provide the names "as the advice on the plans was received from CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, rather than individuals within those agencies".
Days before the demand, in a January 21 newspaper article Adani had questioned the independence of a scientist leading a Queensland review into the company's bird conservation plan because he tweeted from a climate rally nine months earlier.
The ABC revealed in February that Adani last year hired a law firm, AJ & Co, that had drafted a commercial proposal called "Taking the Gloves Off", in which it vowed to act as the company's "trained attack dog".
It proposed a "war" strategy including that Adani "not settle for government department's dragging out decisions — use the legal system to pressure decision makers".

Infographic: Law firm AJ & Co's draft strategy document for Adani. (Supplied)

 
In a section called "Play the Man", it said: "social media is a tool to use against ... decision makers. Look for evidence of bias..."
AJ & Co subsequently threatened legal action against activists, moved to bankrupt an Indigenous opponent and applied for ABC journalists' expenses, phone records and emails under FOI.
But the firm has said it rejected the "Taking The Gloves Off" strategy internally.
In February, Adani told the ABC it "won't apologise for pursuing our legal rights" but "will not comment in detail on the legal firms we use, their marketing material and any matters where they may represent us or advice we may receive".
But last week Adani said in a statement it had "never seen, received or endorsed the AJ & Co pages published by the ABC".
Adani said it had written to the federal environment department in January to request "assurance that individuals involved in any review processes were independent".
This followed "concerning reports at the time that the state environmental regulator had commissioned a review which constituted individuals who had expressed anti-coal, anti-mining sentiments", it said.

'Adani seemed to be suggesting bias'
Sam Popovski, a former livestock scientist and now secretary of the CSIRO staff association, said it was "the first time it's come to our attention that names of scientists involved in a scientific process have been requested".

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A document titled "Adani Commercial Proposal — Taking the 'gloves' off" from legal firm AJ & Co.

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"We're very concerned on behalf of our scientists at the CSIRO that a big company would go into looking at the personal lives of our members, including trawling their social media, in order to potentially discredit their work," he said.
"It was clear that Adani seemed to be suggesting bias, or potential bias, way before any of the scientific evidence was actually presented to the department.
"We are concerned that that type of behaviour might be encouraged or used in the future by other commercial entities or parties seeking to achieve a commercial outcome.

"Our scientists just want to get on and do their best job they can and provide the most rigorous, independent scientific advice, without their social media being tracked, and without their personal lives and potentially their families' personal lives being assessed and interfered with."

Emails show that 10 days before Adani asked for names, Geoscience Australia's acting director of groundwater advice and data raised concerns that the company had "actively searched/viewed" his and a colleague's Linked In profiles.
He reported to a manager that one of his former academic supervisors was an expert witness in a Queensland Land Court challenge against Adani, raising "potential for perceived conflict of interest".
"Thought I would share this reminder in case a query/challenge comes from left field. I'm perhaps being paranoid," he said.
The manager replied: "I have no concerns, however I will flag it with the executive here simply so that they are aware."
Emails also highlight concerns at CSIRO's senior ranks around relaying its findings of flaws in Adani's draft plans to federal Environment Minister Melissa Price, who later issued approvals in controversial circumstances.
"This could blow sky high," CSIRO's land and water director Jane Coram told colleagues ahead of a March 28 ministerial briefing.

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Explainer: What we know about Adani's Carmichael coal mine

Here's what we know — and still don't know — about Adani's Carmichael coal mine project in central Queensland.

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Under the terms of the review of Adani's groundwater plans, it was not to be provided with information directly from CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.
But on January 7, the federal environment department agreed to Adani's request that it provide the names of five CSIRO and Geoscience Australia staff involved in a video conference about groundwater with the department and the company late last year.
Mr Popovski said there did not appear to be "any reason for those names to have been released".
"The information that both the department and Adani actually need is the comprehensive scientific analysis," he said.
"If a scientific review is being conducted by CSIRO, there are usually multiple people involved and that science is rigorously reviewed before it is then provided to the department.

"So in our view, there are very limited circumstances, if any, for names to be released to a commercial entity.

"CSIRO's brand relies on its integrity and independence, and anything that commercial organisations or the government of the day do to threaten that brand and that trust that it's established with the Australian community can only be detrimental to the future."
However, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said he could understand why Adani demanded the names of the scientists.
"I mean they were made to jump through more environmental hoops than perhaps any previous project in the nation and no doubt they wanted to determine that, I suppose, those arguing against their proposals were not some sort of quasi anti-development groups and individuals," he said.

'More than a little disturbing'

Scientists say they are concerned that their social media profiles have been viewed by AJ & Co. (ABC News)

Lock the Gate campaigner Ellie Smith said: "We saw in the case of the independent review of the black-throated finch that scientists' names were brought through the mud through the media."

"So I can imagine that there was a lot of pressure on those individuals within Geoscience Australia and CSIRO."
Kirsten Lovejoy, a former Greens candidate and long-time policy adviser in the Queensland Environment Department, said she discovered her profile was viewed by an AJ & Co lawyer in March.
"It was more than a little disturbing ... they were looking for details about me personally," she said.
"People who work for various organisations, including the public service, have to adhere to processes and codes that make sure that they operate with integrity.
"To see undue pressure placed on those organisations is particularly outrageous."

Links

• Adani justified in demanding names of CSIRO scientists, deputy PM says
• Legal watchdog considers probe into Adani's 'attack dog' lawyers
• 'We're ready to start work': Adani mine passes final environmental approval
• Five anti-Adani protesters arrested after gluing themselves to the road
• Queensland Minister tells activist she's 'devastated' about Adani mine
• Adani has its environmental approvals, so what happens now?
• Adani has the green light. Will it put its money where its mouth is?
• 'We're ready to start work': Adani mine passes final environmental approval
• Will Adani be the 'ice-breaker' for six more proposed Galilee mines?
• Drone footage shows Adani doing illegal work at mine site, environmental group claims
• Why would a billionaire persist with Adani when it will probably lose money?
• Adani one step away from construction after bird protection plan approved
• Coal bosses asked to dig deep for regions in return for royalty freeze
• 'Letting the perfect get in the way of the good': Climate groups reflect on election
• Bob Brown didn't lose the election for Labor — Shorten did
• Adani could have Carmichael mine approved in three weeks
• 'Forgotten' north Queenslanders say they're simply standing up for themselves
• Chinese miner packs up office, abandons plans for mega mining lease next to Adani
• 'We need some certainty': Fed-up Palaszczuk escalates Adani process
• 'We want to see Adani given a fair go': Mayor says mine must go ahead after election
• Labor in damage control in Queensland with just one seat between Brisbane River and Cape York

How Germany Closed Its Coal Industry Without Sacking A Single Miner

Sydney Morning Herald - Nick O'Malley

Hans Mohlek stood at the gates of the Prosper-Haniel coal mine in the Ruhr Valley in the west of Germany on a warm summer afternoon earlier this month, looked up and wept quietly.
The mine closed last December and Mohlek was among the last workers to leave. But what moved him so much on a recent visit with a handful of journalists was not just end of mining at Prosper-Haniel, but the end of a way of life that it represented.
Mohlek understood, he said, that the industry was no longer sustainable, but he missed the camaraderie of the mines.

Activists climb into the Garzweiler lignite mine in Germany on June 22 as part of a protest against coal mining. Credit: DPA

While Australia continues to open new coal mines, Germany is in the midst of closing down its entire coal sector. The last of the country’s black coal mines was decommissioned last year, the victim of the economic reality that nations like Australia could dig the stuff up cheaper than the Germans could.
Now Germany is beginning the process of ending its brown coal industry and shutting down the energy plants that it feeds so it can meet its agreements under the Paris climate accord.

Some see Germany’s audacious decommissioning of the industry as a model from which Australian has much to learn. Others believe that Australia is simply politically and culturally ill-equipped to do so.
The sheer scale of the German undertaking is hard to even contemplate from the Australian perspective, where coal is still king and where significant political decisions are met with particularly stern punishment.

Miners hold the last lump of coal during a closing ceremony of the last German coal mine Prosper-Haniel in Bottrop, Germany on December 21, 2018. Credit: AP

Germany’s industrial sector has been a force so great that it has shaped the modern world. Germany followed Great Britain into the industrial revolution, but with coal mining and steel manufacturing in its Ruhr Valley it soon caught up. 

The Ruhr’s heavy industry fuelled German militarism, helping spur it to two terrible world wars and then from the mid-1940s it was the engine that helped a shattered nation recover. It then formed the heart of the European Coal and Steel Community, which evolved into the European Union.

By then Germany was so determined to become a force for good that a distinct form of capitalism - known as Rhenish capitalism - evolved in the mines and steelworks of the Ruhr Valley, says social historian Professor Stefan Berger. Rhenish capitalism was - is - marked by an aversion to conflict. Unions work closely with management and major business decisions are not made without significant community consultation.At the height of the industry, in 1957, Germany produced 150 million tonnes of black coal and employed 607,000 miners. The nation became an exporter of plant and equipment as well as chemicals and vehicles.
In the decades that followed though Germany had to sink its mines deeper and deeper to reach the black coal, and the government was forced to subsidise the industry to keep it viable. Under an agreement between business, unions and the federal government the mines were consolidated under a single owner, RAG, and long-term plans were put in place to close the industry.
Operating under a slogan that, loosely translated, declares that no one would be left behind in the pits, it was determined that not a single miner would be forced out of work. Instead pits were closed progressively across the region. Workers who wanted to stay on were transferred from mine to mine, while others were offered retraining, or if they were over 50, generous voluntary payouts.
To maintain the communities from which the miners came, new transport infrastructure and universities were built, waterways rehabilitated and mine sites and coking plants were converted into parks, exhibition areas and museums.
The last mine was closed last year and today RAG’s headquarters at what was once Europe’s largest coking plant is part of a complex that is a world heritage site. RAG still employs 5000 staff across the region.
Some work in offices dedicated to managing pensions and compensation, many more are engineers, working to rehabilitate the landscape and maintain the pumps that keep the region’s poisoned groundwater below ground, part of RAG’s €220 million ($355 million) annual “eternity fund”. According to one RAG executive, the company expects that more energy will be expended on the pumps than was extracted from the mines in the first place.
With the black coal industry closed, German policymakers turned to the nation’s brown coal, the softer, wetter, dirtier material still burnt to create 37 per cent of the nation’s energy - 41 gigawatts of power. In January this year, the government announced that it would close the brown coal industry by 2038 in order to meet its emissions targets under the Paris agreement.
Observing the lessons learnt from the closure of the black coal industry, the transition would be phased and orderly, supported by government and marked by cooperation between unions and industry. It would be a “just transition” that will in the coming 20 years cost 20,000 jobs.

An offshore wind farm operated by RWE. The rapid shift to renewables has shaken up the country's energy market. Credit: Bloomberg

One of the men who has led this transition is Michael Mersmann, director of global affairs with German mining union IG BCE. Mersmann is well travelled, charismatic and blunt.
Asked if he thinks that Australia could manage such a transition when and if the time comes he says “No”.
"One of the biggest problems Australia has is there is no existing relationship between employers, trade unions and states," he said.
"In your country you are rather heading towards a conflict, not a consensus. What we are trying to do here is have softer negotiations and find a solution at an earlier point."
But when you explore the notion in Australia, you discover there is another stumbling block. There is simply no acceptance in Australia that coal has a limited future.
Tony Maher, the CFMMEU's mining boss, has worked closely with Mersmann over the years and admires what Germany has achieved with transition. Indeed he notes that his German colleagues are often appalled by the state of industrial relations in other Western nations. “They see it as a problem in the English-speaking world, this culture of ‘sack them and forget them’.”
But he points out that much of Australia’s coal is destined for markets in Asia, which are not bound to the same emissions reductions agreements as Germany. Coal, he says, has a long future in Australia.
Nonetheless, Maher acknowledges that in a generation or so - sometime after 2040 - Australia’s thermal coal industry might begin to wind down. He does not believe there is anything to be gained by scaring the communities that depend on the industry now, but when the time comes, he says, Australia should take note of Germany’s transition process.
Maher does not believe that the current government - or one like it - would be able to do so, though, because it has no culture of working with industry and unions.
He believes Australian unions would have more luck building a just transition program directly with employers in the energy sector and proving that it works. Such a model might even be deployed across other industry sectors as needed.
When the Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age approached the Minerals Council of Australia - the mining industry’s peak body - the council referred us to Coal21. Coal21 is funded by a voluntary levy on coal production and dedicated to commercialising so-called “clean coal” technology with a view to ensuring that the industry can survive in a low-carbon economy.
Coal21’s chief executive is Mark McCallum, who also serves as an executive in charge of energy and climate at the Minerals Council of Australia and was formerly head of government relations with Shell.
He says that with clean coal technology carbon generated by burning coal can be harnessed for uses as varied as hardening concrete to help extract oil from oil fields more effectively, safely keeping it out of the atmosphere.
Dr Martin Rice, acting chief executive of the Climate Council, which provides independent climate and energy advice in Australia, scoffs at the very notion of “clean coal”, likening it to “dry water”. “It is a fossil, you can’t burn it cleanly,” he says.
Coal21’s upbeat assessment of the future of coal is at odds with the view of the industry in Germany too, where executives of both NAG and the giant brown coal miner RWE both told the Sun-Herald and Sunday Age that the industry has no future.
One sunny afternoon earlier this month Guido Steffen, a spokesman for the brown coal mining giant RWE, stood before a vast open pit at Hambach mine, not far from Cologne in western Germany. To this day RWE produces 35 million tonnes and over Steffen’s shoulder vast earth-moving equipment scraped up the ore.
Steffen said it had shocked the company when earlier this year the government’s expert coal commission recommended phasing out the industry by 2038 at the latest. The company, he said, had expected operations to continue into the 2050s.
“It will mean major cuts to our assets and our crew, they will be hard cuts,” he said. “But there is a consensus, there is a direction [about climate change] and now governments and politicians should transform those recommendations into law, into contracts.
“We have to do a lot for climate protection, and if society says we want to phase out coal, then we can’t work against it.”
It is hard to imagine Australian miners sharing that view.

Links

• Pacific leadership on climate change is necessary and inevitable
• Chinese expert warns Australia against investing in new coal mines
• Australia Leads The G20 Nations' Pack In Aid For Coal-Fired Power
• 'No Faith In Coal': Religious Leaders Urge Scott Morrison To Take Climate Action
• Adani Mine Approval Shows Climate Change Debate Reaches New Level Of Lunacy
• Norway's $US1 Trillion Sovereign Wealth Fund To Dump Billions In Coal Investments
• Scientists Warn Ancient Desert Springs May Dry Up Under Adani Plan
• Al Gore Slams Adani, Tells Queensland 'Good Luck' In Selling Coal To India
• Explaining Adani: Why Would A Billionaire Persist With A Mine That Will Probably Lose Money?
• Australia Plans Coalfield The Size Of Britain In Climate Change U-Turn
• Coal Catastrophe: Why Scott Morrison Can't Give In To Queensland Triumphalism
• 'Coal To Blame' For Last Year's Record Emissions From Energy
• Remember Morrison's Black-Rock Stunt? Well, Look Who's Scared Now

What Did You Do In The Climate Wars Daddy?

The Guardian - First Dog On The Moon

In the not too distant future, when climate alarmists
and identity politics have destroyed civilisation ... 

Cartoon by First Dog on the Moon
LARGE IMAGE

Links

• How Do You Hug A Climate Scientist? Follow These Simple Rules And Don't Make It Weird 
• Adani: It All Looks Dodgy As Hell And None Of It Has Been Explained Properly
• As We Struggle To Save The Planet From Climate Collapse, Let's Dance (Dramatic Glockenspiel)
• The Billionaire's Guide To Surviving Global Warming – With Ian The Climate Denialist Potato
• 'Last Year I Gave The Kids Briquettes And Everyone Yelled At Me!' Christmas With Ian 
• The Children Are Rioting In The Streets! They Are Deadly Serious And Perhaps Our Last Hope
• This Is A Call To Arms On Climate Change. And By Arms I Mean Flippers!

Defence Chief Sounds Warning On Surge Of Climate Change Refugees

SBS - AAP

The ADF warns there may be a rise in climate change refugees from the Pacific region, which could spark the need for more patrols off the north coast.

Defence chief Angus Campbell. AAP

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says Australia is focused on tackling climate change in the region, pointing to the signing of the Boe Declaration at the recent Pacific Islands Forum.
The declaration recognises climate change as the greatest risk to life and security in the Pacific.

Ground staff prepare Royal Australian Air Force C-130J Hercules aircraft. Defence bosses have warned of the rise of climate refugees.

"We are very focused on our engagement on climate in the region," she told ABC's Radio National on Monday.The government is also helping pay for projects in the Pacific through a multibillion-dollar fund.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the government is committed to tackling climate change. AAP

"Which will stream climate adaptation and resilience through its investment in energy, in transport, in communications and in water, reflects the priority we place on these issues," Senator Payne said.
The minister recently met Fiji's attorney-general and finance minister to look at financing infrastructure projects for the island nation.


David Attenborough appearing as a witness during the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee meeting in London. UK Parliament

Links

• Defence Lacks 'Overarching Strategy' To Deal With Climate Change Conflict, Internal Notes Warn
• Climate Change Threatens Half Of US Bases Worldwide, Pentagon Report Finds
• Defence Warns Of Climate Change Peril For Food, Energy And Peace
• 'Disaster Alley': Cyclone Debbie Shows How Climate Change Will Test Australia's Military
• The Age Of Consequences
• The White House Doubts Climate Change. Here's Why The Pentagon Does Not
• President Trump, Military Split On Climate Change
• U.S. Defence Experts And Military Officers Sound Alarm About Climate Change
• Climate Change 'Significant And Direct' Threat To U.S. Military: Reports
• The Elephant in Paris – Guns and Greenhouse Gases
• Australians rate climate change a bigger threat than terrorism
• Australia on track to become one of the 'world's worst' climate damagers

Defence Lacks 'Overarching Strategy' To Deal With Climate Change Conflict, Internal Notes Warn

ABC News - Mark Willacy

The ADF has already identified climate change as a challenge to Australia's future security. (RAAF/AAP: LAC Benjamin Evans)

Key points: A briefing note warns there is no "overarching strategy" to address climate change risks The Indo-Pacific region is projected to experience prolonged droughts and increased flooding from rising sea-levels Defence admits that their operations could be impacted by ocean acidification and extreme weather

Australia's military has warned of a possible influx of climate refugees and an increased potential for conflict because of the effects of climate change.
Internal Australian Defence Force (ADF) briefing notes from last year, obtained by the ABC under Freedom of Information, also predict the military may be forced to increase patrols in Australia's northern waters to deal with "sea-borne migration" sparked by rising sea levels in the Indo-Pacific.
One document warns that climate change could "exacerbate the potential for conflict" and contribute to "state fragility and the undermining of economic development in our immediate region".
Former Defence Force chief Chris Barrie said Australia would be seen as the "land of opportunity" for many people affected by climate change.
"I once suggested to government we might be talking 100 million people," said Admiral Barrie, who is now a member of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change.
"One-hundred million people when we're only 40 million people — you can get the enormity of this problem. Frankly, it would be beyond our resources."
The Defence Force admits in the documents it "does not currently have an overarching strategy or policy to specifically address the risks posed by climate change beyond the 2016 Defence White Paper".

Climate change 'may directly impact' Defence operations
The ADF has refused to release documents relating to the impact of sea level rises and flooding on defence training areas, telling the ABC that it is not in the national interest.
"Release of this information could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the ability of the Defence Force to remain an effective force as well as potentially providing an avenue through which foreign incursions could significantly impact our critical infrastructure," it said.

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Climate change and the ADF

Australia's Defence Department has spelled out clearly to a Senate inquiry that climate change will create "concurrency pressures" for the Defence Force as a rise in disaster relief operations continues.

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But one briefing note warns that the Indo-Pacific region is projected to experience challenges such as prolonged droughts and increased flooding from increased sea levels.
"Sea level rise, ocean acidification, increase in extreme temperatures and a forecast increase in intensity of bushfires and extreme weather events may directly impact Defence capabilities, personnel and equipment," it read.
The ADF has already identified climate change as a challenge to Australia's future security.
Its 2016 Defence White Paper predicted that Australia may be called on to conduct more humanitarian and disaster relief operations.
The internal notes obtained under freedom of information go further in warning about climate change risks.
"Further, an increase in illegal foreign fishing or sea-borne migration to Australia because of climate change effects may increase demands for Australian Defence Force patrols in Australia's north waters," the briefing note said.
Admiral Barrie said Australia was "wide open" for climate refugees, using Bangladesh as an example — its border with India is already being heavily patrolled by the Indian military.
"Bangladesh — a very populated country — runs out of fresh water and also has problems with sea level rise. Where will all the Bangladeshis go?" he said.

'Impacts are unavoidable'
The briefing documents include a report assessing the impact of sea level rises and flooding on "selected defence training areas and ranges".
The report, by global infrastructure consultancy Aecom, says the "warming of the climate system is unequivocal…atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years".

Ex-ADF chief Chris Barrie says Australia will be seen as the "land of opportunity" for many people affected by climate change. (AAP: Alan Porritt)

It states that the warming of Australia's mean air temperature could "reach 0.6 degrees Celsius to 5.1C depending on the emission scenarios".
The report cites such impacts as increased flooding, coastal erosion, bushfires and heatwaves.
"Even with considerable reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, the inertia of the global climatic system means that many of these impacts are unavoidable."
Last year defence chiefs told the Senate's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee that rising sea levels and coastal erosion could damage military bases "in the short to medium term".
The committee's report warned that "climate change may also eventually contribute to greater irregular migration pressure in vulnerable countries to Australia's north, potentially becoming a substantial security threat to Australia".
A United States Department of Defence report released this year warned that more than two-thirds of the US military's "operationally critical installations" were under threat by climate change, with flooding being the biggest single risk.
Admiral Barrie said Defence had been considering the threat to their bases.
"I know what Defence has been doing is looking at some of its bases and things from an infrastructure development perspective and saying given sea level rise, given potential vulnerabilities our bases might have, doesn't it make sense to start thinking about moving some of those around," he said.
"I guess that's the bit that's been redacted [in the FOI documents] because no decisions have been made.
"I mean you don't have to look far beyond a map of sea level rise to realise just how serious this problem is."

Links

• Defence Chief Sounds Climate Warning
• Climate Change Threatens Half Of US Bases Worldwide, Pentagon Report Finds
• Defence Warns Of Climate Change Peril For Food, Energy And Peace
• 'Disaster Alley': Cyclone Debbie Shows How Climate Change Will Test Australia's Military
• The Age Of Consequences
• The White House Doubts Climate Change. Here's Why The Pentagon Does Not
• President Trump, Military Split On Climate Change
• U.S. Defence Experts And Military Officers Sound Alarm About Climate Change
• Climate Change 'Significant And Direct' Threat To U.S. Military: Reports
• The Elephant in Paris – Guns and Greenhouse Gases

Defence Chief Sounds Climate Warning

AFR - Angus Grigg

Australia’s Defence Force chief, Angus Campbell, has used a private speech to warn that China could take advantage of climate change to occupy abandoned islands in the Pacific.

While not naming China, General Campbell said if smaller islands were abandoned from rising sea levels it could open up the potential for territorial expansion.  Alex Ellinghausen

In previously unreported remarks General Campbell said the changing climate could inject new tension into an already contested region, suggesting the Morrison government is under pressure to show more leadership on the issue.
"They [Pacific Island nations] are calling for the rest of the world to take more ambitious and decisive action," he told an invitation-only forum, according to one person with knowledge of the event. "They want us to do more."
The speech in mid-June by the nation’s most senior soldier could leave the government open to criticism its lukewarm approach to combatting climate change is becoming a national security issue.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described the Pacific as “our patch” and made it his top foreign policy priority but he has been cautious about using Australia’s “step up” in the region for greater cooperation on climate change.This is despite Pacific leaders talking repeatedly of its importance amid rising sea levels and increasingly frequent natural disasters.
At the same time, China has sought to extend its influence into the Pacific through state-backed loans, greater spending on infrastructure and a larger naval presence.
While not naming China, General Campbell said the potential for territorial expansion could be opened up if smaller islands were abandoned as a result of rising sea levels.
"If other states see the opportunity to occupy uninhabited spaces then it could introduce new tension into our region," he said at the forum on climate change and national security.

Chinese dredging vessels building islands in the South China Sea. Reuters

China has shown itself willing to use land reclamation in disputed areas of the South China Sea to raise the level of islands previously submerged at high tide.

Relationship-changing issue
Its island building program, which began in December 2013, has seen Beijing build seven man-made islands and rapidly militarise them, despite earlier assurances to the contrary.
"If the predictions are correct it [climate change] will have serious ramifications for global security and serious ramifications for the ADF," General Campbell said, referring to the Australian Defence Force.
"The issue of climate change will influence our long-standing relationship with our Pacific Island neighbours.”
The Defence Department declined to elaborate on the remarks or provide further context.
"The comments were delivered extemporaneously and a transcript is not available," a spokesperson said.
General Campbell’s speech was delivered to 40 mid-level managers working on national security issues across the public service and its agencies.
The forum was organised by the Institute for Regional Security and held at Bowral’s Gibraltar Hotel, in the NSW Southern Highlands.
In promoting the closed conference it said climate change was “one of the many threats the national security community, and indeed the whole of government, will need to address in coming years”.
In his speech, General Campbell said Defence has been preparing for the impact of climate change “for years”.
He said Australians were living in the most “natural disaster-prone region in the world” and a further rise in global temperatures would likely put more pressure on the Defence Force's ability to respond.
Those who know the Defence Force chief said he was often provocative in closed-door sessions in an effort to make people think more broadly and creatively about issues.

Pacific priority

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Australia must listen to the Pacific. AP

The Pacific is a foreign policy priority for Mr Morrison, but rather than focus on climate change his trip last month to the Solomon Islands was based around economic development, infrastructure, labour mobility and security challenges.
Former Solomons prime minister Rick Houenipwela said it was “disappointing” climate change was not raised as “it’s a very, very important issue for us".
“In my constituency, two large communities that were on two islands five years ago are now no longer,” he said.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who arrived in the Solomons shortly after Mr Morrison, said any country that wants to “step up” in the Pacific needed to take climate concerns seriously.
“If you want to be engaged here, the first thing you’ve got to do is come on a listening mission," he said.
“If that’s their number one concern, and it seriously is right across the Pacific, then maybe, just maybe, you should take them seriously.”
After his surprise election victory in May, Pacific leaders urged Mr Morrison to act on climate change.
The Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, said Australia had been lagging on the issue and needed to show more leadership.
“Climate change is the single most dangerous challenge facing planet Earth,” he told The Guardian.
Frank Bainimarama, the Prime Minister of Fiji, also urged Mr Morrison to act on climate change, which he called “the most urgent crisis facing not only the Pacific, but the world”.

Links

• Defence Lacks 'Overarching Strategy' To Deal With Climate Change Conflict, Internal Notes Warn
• Climate Change Threatens Half Of US Bases Worldwide, Pentagon Report Finds
• Defence Warns Of Climate Change Peril For Food, Energy And Peace
• 'Disaster Alley': Cyclone Debbie Shows How Climate Change Will Test Australia's Military
• The Age Of Consequences
• The White House Doubts Climate Change. Here's Why The Pentagon Does Not
• President Trump, Military Split On Climate Change
• U.S. Defence Experts And Military Officers Sound Alarm About Climate Change
• Climate Change 'Significant And Direct' Threat To U.S. Military: Reports
• The Elephant in Paris – Guns and Greenhouse Gases

US Philanthropists Vow To Raise Millions For Climate Activists

The Guardian - Matthew Taylor

Fund donates £500,000 to grassroots Extinction Rebellion and other groups, with promise of more to come 

Striking school students marching along Whitehall from Parliament Square in June. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

A group of wealthy US philanthropists and investors have donated almost half a million pounds to support the grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion and school strike groups – with the promise of tens of millions more in the months ahead.
Trevor Neilson, an investor and philanthropist who has worked with some of the world’s richest families, has teamed up with Rory Kennedy – daughter of Robert Kennedy – and Aileen Getty, whose family wealth comes from the oil industry, to launch the Climate Emergency Fund.
Neilson, who has worked with figures such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson, said the fund was inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion protesters in the UK in April.
Neilson said the three founders were using their contacts among the global mega-rich to get “a hundred times” more in the weeks and months ahead. “This might be the single best chance we have to stop the greatest emergency we have ever faced,” he told the Guardian.
The new fund has the author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, who set up 350.org, and David Wallace Wells, who wrote international best seller Uninhabitable Earth, on its advisory board.
The money will initially be used to support school strike and Extinction Rebellion groups in the US, but will also be available to help “seed” similar groups around the world.
It offers tiers of funding to support different-sized groups, from teenage activists wanting money for leaflets and megaphones, to funding for salaries and offices for established groups in big cities. It has already committed some of the fund to support Extinction Rebellion groups in New York and Los Angeles.
Neilson, who co-founded investment company IX investments, said although he had been a longtime backer of environmental projects, it was only when he was forced to flee his house in California last year during a wildfire that he realised that radical action was needed.
“Something about throwing my two-year-old and wife in the car and evacuating from the worst fire in the history of southern California brought the issue into a new type of focus,” he said.
He said the new fund would back non-violent legal action.“It will provide resources to grassroots activists who seek to disrupt in a non-violent way [and] to demand that governments declare a climate emergency and put in place policies to address this crisis.”
He said that most “of the world’s biggest philanthropists are still in a gradualist mindset”, adding: “We do not have time for gradualism.”
“History shows us that change comes from the people. It is grassroots movements throughout history that force governments to act when government is resistant.”
A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion welcomed the move, saying: “It’s a signal that we are coming to a tipping point. In the past, philanthropy has often been about personal interest, but now people are realising that we are all in this together and putting their money forward for our collective wellbeing.”

Links

• Climate Emergency Fund
• The Guardian view on the climate emergency: a dangerous paralysis
• UK citizens’ assembly on climate emergency announced
• 'I'm terrified': Extinction Rebellion activists on why they are protesting  
• The Guardian View On Extinction: Time To Rebel
• Humanity Is At A Crossroads, Greta Thunberg Tells Extinction Rebellion
• Extinction Rebellion And Attenborough Put Climate In Spotlight
• Extinction Rebellion: I’m An Academic Embracing Direct Action To Stop Climate Change 
• 'Our Little Brown Rat': First Climate Change-Caused Mammal Extinction
• Greta Thunberg Backs Climate General Strike To Force Leaders To Act