October 16, 2009 – 1:08 am
I’ve heard it said before that the facts around climate change have the capacity to make people go straight from being concerned to being despondent – skipping over the rather useful stage that usually sits in between, where people do all they can to try to ensure the thing they are concerned about doesn’t come [...]
August 9, 2009 – 10:50 pm
In some ways, the many people who feel environmental issues should get far greater political and media attention should enjoy this coming week in federal Parliament. Climate change, including the debate on legislative measures specifically aimed at ensuring a reduction in greenhouse emissions, is likely to be front and centre this week. (Of course, climate [...]
On Tuesday night, July 28, around 300 people filled the Brisbane Room in Brisbane’s City Hall to hear speakers from the front line of climate change – residents of the Torres Strait and Pacific Island nations Tuvalu, Micronesia and Kiribati. It’s very rare for me to attend a forum with seven speakers all addressing the [...]
I don’t dispute that there are some interesting twists and turns in the utegate/fake email saga. But it always infuriates me that politicians and political commentators will devote endless hours to such things, thus excluding any real examination being given to issues, policies and legislation that directly effect peoples’ lives.
There has been some small attention [...]
This comment by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is a clear and simple example of why the views of the major parties and most environment groups are so far apart on how best to respond to the threat of climate change.
Commenting on the National Climate Emergency Rallies held around Australia over the weekend, Senator Wong [...]
I’ve often felt calls to ‘stop all coal exports’ were far too unrealistic. But it is just as unrealistic to think we can even begin to make the necessary cuts in greenhouse emissions while governments continue to invest large amounts of money into “maximising coal exports”. So it’s no surprise that climate change campaigners like [...]
Any brief glimmer of satisfaction at the Queensland government announcing the environmentally and economically sensible decision to scrap the state’s eight cents a litre petrol subsidy was immediately countered by the statement that the planned sale of Queensland Rail’s coal assets “will maximise the amount of coal that Queensland can export to the world.”
If only [...]
March 24, 2009 – 12:03 am
Three short quotes that speak volumes – from a great piece in the New York Times on Dr Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize winning physicist and new Energy Secretary in the USA.
The quotes give an insight into the world of a scientist coming up against the (un)reality of bureaucracy, politics and the media.
……
Dr. Chu said [...]
March 15, 2009 – 10:42 pm
This story from the New York Times about the search for alternative energy sources suggests two things to me:
– firstly that, unlike Australia’s stimulus package, President Obama’s – regardless of how well it works at helping restore the economy – at least makes a decent effort at using the stimulus to [...]
March 14, 2009 – 10:38 pm
Last week, the Senate established two Inquiries into greenhouse issues. One, to be conducted by the Senate’s Economics Committee, will look at the exposure drafts of the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation. It is due to report by 14 April when the Senate is out of session. The other inquiry will be conducted by [...]
