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“An Inconvenient Truth” A film on global warming, featuring former US Vice President Al Gore, that tells it like it is. This film is essential viewing. If you have not seen it, we recommend that you get it out on DVD/Blue ray/download NOW!
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CLIMATE CHANGE AWARENESS
“Australia is especially vulnerable (to global warming). Your whole country is bordered by the ocean, sea levels are rising, half your country is desert, that desertification is going to continue (if global warming is not addressed).”
- World renowned scientist, ecologist David Suzuki. |
“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” - Betty Reese
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Fatalism on climate change is not just futile, it's also incompetent. The hour is late, but it is still absolutely within our power to stop this catastrophe, simply by shifting our economies from oil and coal to other sources of power. And doing so will bring the world together like never before, in a deep commitment and cooperation to protect our planetary home. It's a beautiful possibility, and the kind of future Avaaz was born to create. Facing this challenge will take heart, and hope, and also all the smarts we have. Here's the plan:
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The following information is from Avaaz - Some time ago, a scientist went on his biannual tour of the Russian arctic ocean, checking for toxic plumes of methane gas bubbling up from the ocean. He'd previously seen hundreds of these plumes, about a meter wide each, emitting gas 50 times more damaging to our climate than carbon dioxide. This time, as he came across the first plume, he couldn't believe it. It was a KILOMETER wide. A vast column of gas entering our atmosphere. He sailed on and found another a kilometer wide, and another, and another. Hundreds of them.
This could be what the experts warned us about. As the earth warms, it creates many "tipping points" that accelerate the warming out of control. Warming thaws the Arctic sea ice, destroying the giant white 'mirror' that reflects heat back into space, which massively heats up the ocean, and melts more ice, and so on. We spin out of control. In 2014 everything was off the charts -- it was the hottest year in recorded history. We CAN stop this, if we act very fast, and all together. And out of this extinction nightmare, we can pull one of the most inspiring futures for our children and grandchildren. A clean, green future in balance with the earth that gave birth to us. We have 10 months left until the Paris Summit, the meeting that world leaders have decided will determine the fate of our efforts to fight climate change. It might seem like a long time -- it's not. We have 10 months to get our leaders to that meeting, give them a plan, and hold them accountable. It's us vs. the oil companies, and fatalism. At the last major climate summit in Copenhagen 2009, we played a pivotal role in German and Japanese 'climate' elections, in shifting Brazilian policy, and in helping win a major global deal on financing, with rich countries promising $100 billion per year to poor countries to help them address climate change. Back then, Avaaz was 3 million people. After Copenhagen, we reflected that we needed to be a lot bigger to meet the challenge posed by climate change. Now, we're 40 million, and rising fast.
Climate change is the ultimate global collective action problem, requiring cooperation from every government in the world. And Avaaz is the ultimate collective action solution, with millions of us united in common vision across every nation. This is our time, to build a world for our children whose beauty matches our dreams. Let's get started. With hope and appreciation for this amazing community, Ricken and the entire Avaaz team |
2014 was the hottest year on record (Bloomberg) here
"Vast methane plumes escaping from the seafloor" discovered in Siberian Arctic Sea (Daily Kos) here.
Five Reasons We Need a New Global Agreement on Climate Change by 2015 (Switchboard NRDC) here.
10 Signs the stars are aligning for a climate deal in Paris (The Guardian) here.
The Arctic Ice “Death Spiral” (Slate) here.
"Vast methane plumes escaping from the seafloor" discovered in Siberian Arctic Sea (Daily Kos) here.
Five Reasons We Need a New Global Agreement on Climate Change by 2015 (Switchboard NRDC) here.
10 Signs the stars are aligning for a climate deal in Paris (The Guardian) here.
The Arctic Ice “Death Spiral” (Slate) here.
The following article was placed on Great Mystery Publishing during the conservative Liberal, John Howard Administration of the Australian Government. During the following Labor administration, the Australian Government’s position and action on global warming was very different. They acknowledged the extreme importance of tackling the climate change issue and put many plans into action to help deal with this significant world issue. They set up a number of climate change specific government bodies and think-tanks. When the current, ultra-conservative Liberal Australian Government came to power, they immediately disbanded all Climate Change specific bodies, government and government-subsidized. The current Liberal Government of Australia has, on more than one occasion, denounced Climate Change as a threat to our world, and are in the process of implementing (and subsidizing) enormous coal projects that will not only substantially increase the world's greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, but will also help to destroy one of the world's natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef. It is important to reflect on how our vote and chosen government can mean the difference between helping to save our world or assisting in its destruction.
David Suzuki on Global Warming
Excerpt from National Press Conference —ABC 2006
Excerpt from National Press Conference —ABC 2006
CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS ARTICLES
Sweden hopes to be totally green by 2020
Global Warming-Related Extinctions Have Begun Report on Climate Change Released in Paris Climate Change Already Affecting Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating Climate Change Has Animals Heading for the Hills Australia suffers worst drought in 1,000 years NASA looks at plan to blot out Sun?!! The Denial Industry US Senator most vocal global warming skeptic, dismissed UN meeting on climate change a “brainwashing” session! |
“When the Kyoto Protocol was brokered, Australia was the only country in the industrialized world, given a target of an 8% increase above 1990’s levels. All the other industrial countries were given a target of 5 or 6% below.
Australia’s Minister for the Environment is saying, “Yes—Global warming is serious and we are going to meet the target.” Something weird is happening. You have got a government that has not done anything about reducing greenhouse emissions and yet the Minister for the Environment is saying Australia is going to meet the Kyoto target. I don’t believe for a minute that Australia is going to meet the target because I don’t see the action on it. The Minister for the Environment is also saying something that is simply not true. Either he is lying to the Australian public, or if he doesn’t know it is not true, than he is ignorant and he had ought to educate himself. Thirty-one out of the thirty-four countries that have signed the Kyoto Agreement will meet the set target. Yet the Minister of the Environment says most the countries who signed, are not going to meet their target. The idea that underlay the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol was this. The developed world had created the problem. It was our industrial growth and use of fossil fuels that had built up more carbon dioxide than the biosphere could reabsorb. We had created the problem, and in 1997 we were still the major contributor so it was agreed, everyone in the industrialized world would cap their emissions and would try and reduce to the target, and once we had capped our emissions and had begun to bring them down to that very shallow target set by 2010, we would then bring the whole world together, and decide where we would go from there - including China, India, Brazil. All the countries would come to negotiate. Symbolically it is a very, very crucial thing for Australia to ratify and meet the target because otherwise we don’t have any credibility with the developing world. And if China continues the way it is going, I guarantee it will take the rest of us down with them.” ************************************************************************************** (It is interesting to note that Australia is the ONLY industrialized country given a greenhouse emissions target above 1990’s levels, yet the Government refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol. How can we ask China and India to reduce their greenhouse emissions if the Australian Government does nothing to meet global emission targets. Environmental scientists believe that if China and India continue to increase their greenhouse gas emissions, it will push the world over the “global warming” edge. — we cannot afford to let this happen.) The former Australian Government had refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. An agreement brokered by industrialized countries, aimed at reducing the emission of gases which cause global warming. The former Federal Government stated they refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol because developing countries such as China were not included in the original agreement. In response, China used the excuse that it would not sign because the US and Australia would not sign. |
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For every tonne of coal used, three tonnes of carbon dioxide is discharged into the atmosphere; coal produces thirty percent more carbon dioxide than oil and twice as much as natural gas.
Forty-nine percent of greenhouse gases released into our planet’s atmosphere are the result of burning fossil fuels to meet our energy demands, therefore it is important that we all cut our energy consumption. A person from a developed nation consumes about 80 times as much energy as an individual in a developing country (Source:Australian Council for Overseas Aid). `Australia's population of 16 million people has the same impact on world resources and energy as 1280 million Africans.' (Source:`One World or...None') On a world-wide scale we need to plant an area approximately the size of Australia to absorb the carbon dioxide currently being discharged into our atmosphere each year. (1992 figures) One wind turbine, placed in a suitable area, produces enough electricity to meet the energy requirements of forty to fifty homes. Since 1987, a `wind farm' erected near Tehachapi by the Southern California Edison Company has been supplying power to the whole of Antelope Valley including the towns of Lancaster, Tehachapi, Palmdale and Mojave, with the surplus being channelled to Los Angeles. The use of highly visible, brightly coloured blades has solved the problem of birds being killed through flying into wind turbines. Scientists estimate that in two and a half hours the Earth's surface receives enough energy from the sun to meet the Earth's power needs for a whole year, and with the recent development of a solar collector which can deliver energy at a fraction of the cost of diesel-generated power, the way has been laid open for solar energy to become the front runner in the energy stakes. Polar Bears Dying Due To Global Warming
Times Article December 18 2005
Scientists have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf.
Researchers have found bears are having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. They are being forced into long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther apart. Although polar bears are strong swimmers, they are adapted for swimming close to shore. Their sea journeys leave them vulnerable to exhaustion, hypothermia or being swamped by waves. According to the new research four bear carcasses were found floating in one month in a single patch of sea off the north coast of Alaska, where average summer temperatures have increased by 2-3C degrees since 1950’s. The scientists believe such drownings are becoming widespread across the Arctic. In Hudson Bay, Canada, the site of the most southerly polar bears, a study by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Canadian Wildlife Service to be published in 2006 will show the population fell 22% from 1,194 in 1987 to 935 in 2004. New evidence from field researchers working for the World Wildlife Fund in Yakutia on the northeast coast of Russia, has also shown the region’s first evidence of cannibalism among bears competing for food supplies. In September 2004, when the ice cap had retreated a record 160 miles north of Alaska, 51 bears were spotted, of which 20% were seen in the open sea, swimming as far as 60 miles off shore. In their search for food, polar bears are also having to roam further south, rummaging in the dustbins of Canadian homes. Scientific Study Predicts
Quarter Of Earth’s Species Will Be Lost By 2050 If Global Warming Is Not Abated Results of this scientific study, detailed in the journal Conservation Biology, reveal projections related to 25 biodiversity “hotspots” including Southwest Australia, Brazil, Tropical Andes, Cape Floristic region of South Africa, and Argentina. These areas make up only 1.4 percent of Earth’s land, however, these “hotspots” contain 44 percent of our planet’s plant species and 35 percent of Earth’s vertebrate species. One scientific model, forecasting a possible doubling of current carbon dioxide levels would result in a potential loss of 56,000 plant and 3,700 animal species by 2050 in these hotspots.
"This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet." said Jay Malcolm, University of Toronto. "These species lose their last options if we allow climate change to continue unchecked," said Lara Hansen, chief climate scientist WWF. "We must avoid dangerous climate change—and that means we have got to reduce carbon dioxide emissions." Quarter of species gone by 2050, study predicts article here. |
What YOU can do to help slow GLOBAL WARMING
1. Reduce your energy usage. (This is also a great way to save money!)
* Replace your regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. These bulbs may cost more than regular ones but last many times longer, and since their wattage is significantly lower, contribute much less to the cost of your regular electricity bill. And contribute much less to our planet’s power bill (ie global warming!). * Don’t leave appliances on standby. Switch appliances off at the wall when not in use, and unplug chargers for mobiles, iPod, laptops and PDA’s - these chargers drain electricity while they are plugged in, even when they are not switched on. * When replacing electrical appliances, choose energy efficient models. * Use air-conditioners and heaters sparingly. If you are cold, try putting on an extra layer of clothes. In hotter climates, consider purchasing home cooling systems that rely on drawing cool air in through the windows and out through vents in the ceiling or roof. Also plant native trees which can shade your house during the hottest hours of the day. Window tinting can also very effective in reducing the amount of heat entering your house or office. Ceiling fans use less electricity than ordinary fans and much less then air conditioners. Another way to stay cool is place a damp wash cloth on the back of your neck, head, and/or feet. * Use a clothes line, rather than a clothes dryer, to dry your clothes. * Reuse and recycle. Purchase recycled products such as paper towels, tissues and toilet paper. (Unfortunately I have found these recycled products extremely hard to come by in local shopping centres. We might need to inform managers and owners of various supermarkets that we want these types of products before they will stock them?) * Bring your own bags to the grocery store instead of relying on plastic bags. According to US figures—one hundred billion petroleum-based plastic bags are made each year and only 1 percent are recycled. Paper bags take use four times the energy to make and only 20 percent are recycled. * Remove your name from the list of as many mail-order catalogues as possible. “These companies send out 17 billion a year, and almost none use post-consumer, recycled paper.” * Whenever possible, wash clothes in cold, rather than hot water, and wash dishes by hand. * Use roll-ons, trigger and pump packs rather than spray cans. The propellant in spray cans contribute to global warming. 2. Reduce car emissions * Walk or bike it, instead of drive * Take public transport rather than drive * Carpool * When replacing your car, opt for a more fuel efficient model. * Have your car converted to use non-greenhouse gas producing fuel. \ *Or buy a car that relies on energy that produces, little or no greenhouse gases. They DO exist. * When replacing your hot water system, choose a solar system. * Homeowners have the option of converting their house, relying solely on renewable energy technologies then connecting to the power grid—no more power bills, and you can even make money from the energy you do not use by selling it back to the power companies. * Some governments and power companies give you the option of purchasing energy from renewable sources. For example in Queensland, Australia, Energex, has a renewable energy scheme - “Earth’s Choice”. It does cost a little more, but what price is our planet worth?! 3. Employ an ally in our battle against global warming—TREES * Protect remaining rainforests especially in the Amazon, Indonesia and Tasmania. * Plant native trees wherever you can (legally). * Support reforestation programs 4. Educate * Watch “An Inconvenient Truth” * Set up a screening of “An Inconvenient Truth” for students, employees, friends and family, or buy this DVD and give it as a gift. * Inform others and get them involved. By encouraging just one other person to change a single aspect of their lifestyle, to help slow global warming, you are making a real difference— and chances are, that person will let others know, and there you have it - a positive “butterfly effect”. * Inform your government representatives, organizations, and opposition parties of your concerns regarding global warming. Possible topics to include in your email, phone call or letter - - The need for immediate constructive action to deal with global warming - Further develop and employ renewable energy resources - solar, geothermal, wind and wave technologies - not nuclear. (For while there is NO safe way of disposing of this highly hazardous waste generated by the nuclear industry, it is NOT an option. Burying nuclear waste has proven to be highly unsuccessful e.g. in Yucca Mountain, US, and plans to eventually shoot this dangerous waste into space is totally insane—does humankind want to pollute space since we are running out of places on earth to destroy?). - Encourage the development and use of vehicles that rely on non-greenhouse gas producing fuels and energy sources. - Improve public transport - making it cheaper or free, and more accessible to a greater proportion of the population. - As an enrolled voter, you are prepared to support your concerns with a vote - for or against. 5. Cut down other greenhouse gases * Methane is another gas which contributes to global warming. By reducing, or cutting out, your reliance on animal-derived products, you can help to slow global warming. “Large scale animal production results in the extensive clearing of forests, loss of habitat and food resources for native species, land degradation, and the expulsion of huge quantities of methane - a significant contributor to global warming.” |
Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” - John Wooden
“A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” - St Basil
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Tackling the Greenhouse Problem
Excerpt from “The Source of Life” published in 1992, explaining global warming, climate change or the “greenhouse effect”. `The air is precious...for all things share the same breath.' - Chief Sealth (Seattle) of the Duwamish Tribe 1854
`O pardon me thou bleeding piece of Earth that I am meek and gentle with these butchers.' - Shakespeare The Earth's atmosphere is a very finely balanced system which is designed to protect and sustain life. Unfortunately humankind's destructive activities are causing an imbalance in the function of this gaseous life-support mechanism.
The `greenhouse effect' is a natural process in which certain gases in the atmosphere help the Earth retain some of the sun's heat, preventing the planet from becoming too cold to support life. However, this necessary process is fast becoming a serious problem due to the increasing volumes of heat retentive gases being released into our atmosphere as a consequence of our assault on the environment. Carbon dioxide, methane, hydrocarbons, and nitrous oxides from industrial fertilisers all help to contribute to global warming. This process is being aggravated by the clearing of forests which would in their normal operation of photosynthesis store the carbon dioxide gas as solid carbon, thus helping to alleviate the atmospheric overload of this greenhouse gas. Since the change from cottage industries to large scale manufacturing the world's carbon dioxide levels have risen by twenty-five percent or five thousand million tonnes. This gas is discharged into the atmosphere by such activities as the burning of wood and trees - the most catastrophic examples being the destruction of the Amazonian jungle ( and now, the destruction of Indonesian rainforests), modern industrial practices and the use of fossil fuels to meet our (ever-growing) energy requirements. Another gas contributing significantly to global warming is methane. In the last hundred years the concentration of methane in our atmosphere has risen by 160%, much of this increase being accredited to large scale animal production for food and clothing. One cow produces 400 litres of methane each day. Bovines add 80 million tonnes of methane to the greenhouse effect each year. Global warming does not simply mean there will be an increase in average temperatures. Higher averages will also mean higher extremes, and temperature increases will not be evenly distributed. The most severe warming effects will be felt towards the polar ice caps. If the average global temperature increases by four degrees Celsius, the winter temperature at the poles would be elevated by as much as twelve degrees, melting ice caps and causing ocean water levels to rise. The subsequent change in habitats due to climatic alterations will place a formidable pressure on wildlife, threatening many creatures such as the polar bear with extinction. (Unfortunately, this prediction seems to be already coming to pass.) The warming of our planet will also mean an increase in precipitation with an estimated ten percent more rainfall, but this will not be evenly spread over the globe. Many areas which already suffer from poor rainfall will become even drier. Many trees and plants are expected to die from the onslaught of pests and diseases brought on by the humidity and heat, while others will expire because the soil has insufficient nutrients to support the plant's accelerated growth brought on by high atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and increased rainfall. Even though temperatures are already on the rise, we have not yet experienced the worst effects of the greenhouse problem because of the ocean's immense capacity to absorb heat. As the oceans become warmer through absorption of the excessive heat burden, the ocean will expand causing sea levels to rise. Sea levels have already risen ten centimetres and it has been calculated that in forty years levels will rise by at least another metre. Some scientists have even estimated that sea levels could rise by an much as five metres, putting the British Houses of Parliament and most major cities of the world (together with substantial portions of the world's continents) underwater. Although some see the later estimation as an exaggeration, recent data retrieved from satellites has revealed that global warming is occurring at a much faster rate than was first thought with the ocean's temperature having risen over a period of just one year by ·4° Celsius. As the oceans swell and the high-tide level continues to rise, beaches will be eroded and those who have built houses close to the shoreline will be seriously affected. More significantly, low lying islands will disappear and their inhabitants will have to be relocated, and with agricultural, industrial and residential development barring the way for landward migration of shoreline ecosystems, much of the tidal wetlands will be lost. Without salt water marshes and mangrove swamps important fish spawning grounds will disappear, and with the disappearance of these valuable regions, crabs, water birds, fish and a host of other precious organisms which depend on these areas for their survival will perish. In addition to these severe problems associated with the greenhouse effect, scientists have also predicted that the escalation in global temperatures will mean an increase in the frequency and severity of such problems as droughts, storms, typhoons, cyclones and floods. (We have already seen many examples of this including Hurricane Katrina in the US and Australia’s persistent drought). The adverse conditions which result from our disturbance of the natural balance of Gaia's life-support mechanisms point to the necessity of an immediate, world-wide commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and reveals how important it is, that each and every one of us adopt a lifestyle which is in harmony with the ecological balance of planet Earth. |
“Strangers of distant lands, friends of old, you have been summoned here to answer the threat...
Earth stands on the brink of destruction.
None can escape it. You will unite, or you will fall.
Each race is bound to that fate…”
- Elrond - Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
Earth stands on the brink of destruction.
None can escape it. You will unite, or you will fall.
Each race is bound to that fate…”
- Elrond - Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
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