China Central Television (CCTV) building in Beijing in a gloomy coal fired smog
An all too regular and deadly occurrence for Beijing locals.
[Photo: Reuters]
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China’s urban air pollution is serious, lethal and chronic.
It is a direct consequence of excessive dependent use of coal-fired power by industry, exponential growth in petrol/diesel vehicle use. In the capital Beijing’s case, Beijing’s geographic location at the northern tip of the North China Plain bounded by the Xishan and Yanshan mountain ranges, places it in natural valley head air trap.
Under frequent meterological conditions, ambient air around Beijing has nowhere to go, and so lingers and becomes trapped for many days at a time.
But introduce massive industrial and transport pollution with this natural and known lack of breeze, unable to fan away and dissipate local carbon monoxide pollution somewhere else, and so Beijing’s air becomes suffocatingly deadly smog.
So Beijing is not a place tolerant of industrialised pollution.
Beijing does not have to aspire to 1980s Los Angeles smog infamy, yet blind industrialism has slowly fueled a degradation of this ancient cultural city into a replica Los Angeles with all the ugly economic waste negativity.
In the past three days, this is just what has again besetted Beijing – trapped ambient air pumped with massive local Beijing industry and transport carbon monoxide, has grabbing again world attention and empathetic concern for Beijing locals trying to breathe.
As part of an emergency response to ease seriously dangerous air pollution the government of China has ordered government vehicles off Beijing roads.
<<Beijing hospitals have been inundated with patients complaining of heart and respiratory ailments and the website of the capital’s environmental monitoring centre crashed. Hyundai Motor’s venture in Beijing suspended production for a day to help ease the pollution, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Measurements of PM2.5, fine airborne particulates that pose the severest health risks, rose as high as 993 micrograms per cubic metre in Beijing on January 12, compared with World Health Organisation guidelines of no more than 25.
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‘Beijing’s Air Quality Index was as high as 500 at 6am on Monday.’
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Air Quality Index (AQI)
PM2.5
Health Advisory
Good (0-50)
None
Moderate (51-100)
Unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion.
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups
(101-150)
People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.
Unhealthy
(151-200)
People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion; everyone else should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.
Very Unhealthy (201-300)
People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should avoid all physical activity outdoors. Everyone else should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion.
Hazardous
(301-500)
Everyone should avoid all physical activity outdoors; people with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should remain indoors and keep activity levels low.
Long-term exposure to fine particulates raises the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer, according to the World Health Organisation (^WHO).
”Pollution levels this high are extreme even for Beijing,” the Beijing head of ^Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaign, Li Yan, said.
”Although the government has announced efforts to cut pollution, the problem is regional and to fix Beijing’s problem, we also have to fix industrial pollution in neighbouring regions like Hebei and Tianjin and even as far as Inner Mongolia.”
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Exposure to PM2.5 helped cause a combined 8,572 premature deaths in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi’an in 2012, and led to economic losses of $US1.08 billion ($1.02 billion), according to estimates in a study by Greenpeace and Peking University’s school of public health published on December 18.
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”The number of people coming into our emergency room suffering heart attacks has roughly doubled since Friday when the air pollution became really severe,” the deputy head of cardiology at Peking University People’s Hospital, Ding Rongjing, said.
China, which the ^World Bank estimates has 16 of the world’s 20 most-polluted cities, is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
On Sunday, Beijing began its emergency-response plan to the pollution, which included ordering government vehicles off the roads to cut usage by 30%, according to Xinhua, citing the director of the city’s environmental protection bureau’s air quality department, Yu Jianhua.
The plan also calls for construction sites to limit activity that creates large amounts of dust and asks industrial companies to reduce emissions.
Residents are advised to stay indoors and use public transport if they need to go out, while primary schools should reduce outdoor activities, Xinhua said.>>
[Ed: Problem is that Australia’s coal exports, while driving China’s prized economic boom, at the same time are poisoning urbanised Chinese with coal-fired carbon monoxide.
The progressive narrowness harks to Dickensian London:
“This is a London particular . . . A fog, miss.”]
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Australian Government Clean Energy Future..plan
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<<..Outlines the existing policies already underway to address climate change and cut carbon pollution and introduces several critical new initiatives.
The plan has four pillars: a carbon price; renewable energy; energy efficiency; and action on land. The plan also details how the Government is supporting Australian households, businesses and communities to transition to a ‘clean energy future‘.>>
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Foreword
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<<The Australian Government has been advised by scientists that the world’s climate is changing and that there will be adverse effects on our nation if the trend of rising temperatures continues.
As a hot and dry continent, Australia has more to lose from climate change than all other developed countries. There are significant risks to our environment and our economy.
The clear scientific consensus is that human activity which releases carbon pollution into the atmosphere, mainly the use of fossil fuels, is risking dangerous climate change. This is why the Government has adopted a plan for a clean energy future for Australia.
The plan will cut pollution and drive investment helping to ensure Australia’s prosperity in the low pollution world of the future.
We will do this by introducing a carbon price into Australia’s economy. This will put a price tag on every tonne of carbon pollution released into the atmosphere by the country’s biggest polluters – around 500 businesses will be required to pay for their pollution under the carbon pricing mechanism.
The carbon price will create a financial incentive to reduce carbon pollution that will flow through our economy.
Households will be looked after with tax cuts, higher family payments and increases in pensions and benefits, to meet the costs passed through by some businesses.
The carbon price will change Australia’s electricity generation by encouraging investment in renewable energy like wind and solar power and the use of cleaner fuels like natural gas.
Treasury modelling shows the economy will continue to grow strongly with a carbon price. Extensive analysis by economists and independent institutions such as the Productivity Commission has demonstrated that market mechanisms like a carbon price or an emissions trading system are the cheapest ways of reducing pollution.
The Government is committed to supporting jobs as the economy is transformed. That is why we will support jobs throughout manufacturing, including in the steel and food processing industries, and in coal mining.
Australia has boundless renewable energy resources. We need to do more to take advantage of these resources.
The Government’s Renewable Energy Target, combined with the carbon price, will deliver around $20 billion of investment in renewable energy by 2020 in today’s dollars. It will mean that the equivalent of 20% of Australia’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2020.
The Government will also drive this shift by creating a $10 billion commercially oriented Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in renewable energy and innovative technologies to cut pollution. The world is moving and economies which do not start cleaning up now will fall behind.
Australia has spent the last decade working out that putting a price on carbon pollution is the cheapest way to tackle climate change. The Government’s plan for a clean energy future has been negotiated by the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. The Committee has agreed to a comprehensive set of measures to help fight climate change.
The Government is separately investing in further measures to ease the economic transition to a carbon price, as well as taking additional steps to reduce carbon pollution… Carbon pricing and moving towards a clean energy future is a reform we need to keep our economy competitive, to protect our environment and to do the right thing for our children and future generations.>>
[Ed: Note: Due to this large file size, it may be quicker to click on the above link, then on your web browser select File, Save As… , then once downloaded, to access the saved PDF file]
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Meanwhile, Australia’s coal exports to China continue unabated – in 2011, 13.7 million tonnes of metallurgical coal.
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One of the many of Australia’s working open cut coal mines, this one in the Hunter Valley
[Source: ^http://www.kateausburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DSC052381.jpg
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Australia provides around 30% of the world coal trade, which still accounts for 40% of total world power generation.
In 2011, Australia was the world’s largest exporter of metallurgical coal and the second largest exporter of thermal coal. Australia is also the fourth largest producer, and has the fifth largest resources of black coal in the world.
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[Ed: This makes Australia the prime pusher of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet.]
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Australia’s accessible economic demonstrated resources are sufficient to sustain current black coal production rates for nearly 100 years.2 Brown coal accessible economic resources are estimated to be able to sustain current brown coal production for over 500 years.2
Coal is Australia’s largest energy export earner. In 2010–11, Australia exported 283 million tonnes (Mt) of metallurgical and thermal coal to world markets worth A$43.7 billion. Total coal (black, saleable) production in Australia in 2010–11 is estimated to have been 345 Mt. Over the medium term, total Australian metallurgical and thermal coal exports are forecast to increase by nearly 72 per cent: from 283 Mt in 2010–11 to 486 Mt, valued at $56.5 billion, in 2016–17.
The majority of Australia’s metallurgical and thermal coal exports were exported to the Asian region in 2011. This leading position has grown over many years of coal trade, based on the quality of Australian coal resources and the ability of Australian industry to meet and respond to the needs of its customers.
In 2011, Australia’s top four export markets for metallurgical coal were Japan (40.8 Mt), India (28.9 Mt), Republic of Korea (16.5 Mt) and China (13.7 Mt). Australia’s top four export markets for thermal coal were Japan (65.4 Mt), the Republic of Korea (29.5 Mt), China (19.9) and Taiwan (19.1 Mt).
Australian brown coal (lignite) production, mainly from the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, was 68.75 Mt in 2009–10. Brown coal is used domestically in electricity production. Coal, both black and brown, accounted for over 75 per cent of Australian electricity generation in 2009–10..
Hunter Valley Coal Train, loaded with black coal for export
Australia: committed to supporting jobs in coal mining, despite a domestic economy not allowed to fall behind, while climate change negotiations are for other government departments to distract the limelight.
So the Australian Government’s plan for coal exports is to nearly double capacity from 2008 to 2017, while at the same time..
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“adopting a plan for a clean energy future for Australia to cut pollution and drive investment helping to ensure Australia’s prosperity in the low pollution world of the future.”
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How is such a ‘plan’ not a right proper farce?
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Coal stocks await loading for export in Newcastle. Photo: A record 114 million tonnes of coal was export from Newcastle in 2011
(Corey Davis: Getty Images)
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Newcastle Port Corporation CEO Gary Webb says record coal export figures are due to all stakeholders working together on the Hunter’s coal chain network.
There were record figures for December while the total coal export figure for 2011 was just over 114 million tonnes – up 11 per cent on the previous year.
The trade is worth nearly $13 billion. There were several extended maintenance outages on the coal chain network in 2011, but Mr Webb says they had no impact.
“Those known maintenances are factored in to the modelling that is done for the coal chain,” he said. “And it is just a credit to all the players, the miners, the load points, the above rail operators, ARTC, the terminals and ourselves to make it all fit together.”
Newcastle Port Corporation says there is no doubt coal export records will continue to be broken, as new infrastructure comes on line. Planning is currently underway for Port Waratah Coal Services T4 loader, while mining magnate Nathan Tinkler also wants to build a loader.
Mr Webb says further growth is inevitable. “These records will become regular things,” he said. “The framework provides for the right place for the next terminal. It provides for the certainty for long term contracts to be met and realised. And certainly we will continue to see export records continued to be met calendar year and financial year for the next few years.”
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[Source: ‘Record coal exports for Hunter’, ABC News, 20120106, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-06/record-coal-exports-for-hunter/3760768]
The Australian Government continues to encourage operation of Australia’s most polluting coal-fired power station. Worse is that corporate owner AGL pays no tax.
<<More than a decade after first trying to get control of Loy Yang Power Station, AGL has won the prize and is paying just $400 million less than the $3.5 billion enterprise value of the original deal.
Along the way, it has created competition policy history by challenging the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission in court. Yesterday, it finally forced the regulator to admit it had erred in its original rejection of the deal. Politically, its timing is perfect because it gets to collect $240.1m in cash to compensate for the cost of a carbon pricing scheme that Tony Abbott says he will scrap when he gets into government next year.
The $1.1bn carbon permits AGL boss Michael Fraser will collect will be worthless, but then he won’t be paying any tax.
The Loy Yang vehicle is virtually in the hands of its bankers now, which is one reason AGL wants to take full control before its 32 per cent equity stake turns into a millstone around Fraser’s neck.
Joint venture partner, Japanese utility TEPCO, is under government control since last year’s nuclear accident in Japan.
On balance, Fraser can say he has got a good deal, but against the history, this maybe not be quite as good as it first looks.
Certainly, it is not as good a deal as his bankers got when you consider Citibank and Deutsche will collect $8.3m in underwriting fees on a deal with zero risk, being sold at a massive 22 per cent discount on a stock that, for its defensive qualities, will fly out the door.
This must rank as the most expensive call centre in Australia.
Citi picks up another $900,000 for advisory work and just how much the real star of the show, competition lawyers Ashurst, picks up was not disclosed.
The ACCC had blocked the deal because it was worried Australia’s then biggest energy retailer, by controlling 30 per of Victorian coal, would set the scene for mass consolidation.
Barriers to entry created by the vertical integration were, of course, not as the ACCC first imagined, as the Federal Court told the ACCC in 2003 and the market has shown ever since.
The market is now dominated by three integrated suppliers — AGL, Origin and TRUenergy — with a plethora of smaller retail firms and generators headed by Tasmanian Hydro and Snowy Hydro.
While final ACCC clearance was a walk in the park, Fraser has timed his run well, because the next consolidation will be looked at more seriously. This is saying something, when you realise this deal was the result of some five months of negotiation.
Fraser says the deal works out cheaper than the NSW assets it missed out on 18 months ago and cements the company’s place in the Victorian and South Australian market. And he still has plenty of fire power to bid for the next round of NSW privatisations.
Just how the political windfall over the carbon pricing mechanism works remains to be seen. The Opposition Leader has said he will abolish it, but what will be left in its place is the key. Abbott could reduce the confusion by laying down the specifics of his plan.
The carbon tax is, of course, another impost for already stretched consumers, but utility prices will be the main item to increases in price. On government estimates, a $50 shirt will cost 65c more when the scheme starts on July 1, and most shirts are imported, anyway.
Myer has said its costs will rise by only $4.5m on a $1bn cost base. That explains why the retailers should be leading the charge telling consumers the impact won’t be as severe as some fear. Still, consumer sentiment is such that that will be a tough sell.
Big impact: The huge plume of smoke from the Victorian fires as seen from the NASA earth observatory 20070111.
[Source: Herald Sun]
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Grossly Under-resourced bushfire emergency management sees millions of tonnes of smoke polluting Australia.
2007 (even before the 2009 Bushfires):
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<<Victoria’s monster bushfires have generated the power of more than 100 atomic bombs and pumped out millions of tonnes of pollution, greenhouse gas and toxic clouds, scientists say.
The tens of million of tonnes of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by the 1 million ha blaze exceed the combined emissions of the state’s power stations, industry and cars by about 30 percent, according to figures compiled for the Herald Sun online by the CSIRO.
Victoria produced about 7.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the past month from burning coal, petrol and gas; while bushfires raging in the same time pumped out 10.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
CSIRO atmospheric scientist Mick Meyer said the emissions from Victorian fires were about 10 times normal.
The fires also generated 2.5 million tonnes of carbon monoxide; 300,000 tonnes of volatile organic compounds such as (Ed: acetaldehyde), benzene, formaldehyde and hydrocarbons; 85,000 tonnes of methane; 64,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides; and 59,000 tonnes of smoke, Dr Meyer’s calculations show.
..The (Ed: carbon monoxide), methane and nitrogen oxide emissions would add to global warming with the heat-absorbing gases creating an effect equal to 2.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
“The emissions from bushfires including savannah fires, wildfires and fuel reduction burns account for about 3 to 4 % of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions,” Dr Meyer said.
The energy produced by the blazes also dwarfs that produced by humans, according to data provided by the CSIRO and energy agencies.
The fires have burned enough fuel to provide the entire state’s electricity needs for two-and-a-half years, or 125,000 Gigawatt hours, equal to the energy of 112 one-megaton atomic bombs.
CSIRO Fire behaviour expert Justin Leonard said the emission estimates could also vary depending on whether the fires blazed through eucalypt or pine forests, grasslands or scrub, and the thickness of the fuel.
A new study by the Melbourne University, the CSIRO and the national Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre has begun to better gauge the amount of pollutants produced by bushfires.
Country Fire Authority spokesman Ken O’Brien said many people were unaware of the colossal power of an out-of-control bushfire.
“You only have to see a reasonably small fire to realise the amount of energy produced,” Mr O’Brien said.
“But one million hectares being burned is an awful release of power.”
Researchers say the most immediate pollution threat to Victorians came from tiny particles in smoke – with about 59,000 tonnes flung into the atmosphere by the fires.
While comprising just 0.25% of the emissions, the Environment Protection Authority reported last month that the air quality over Melbourne was the worst since records began thirty years ago.
NASA satellites also clearly showed massive plumes of smoke spread as far as New Zealand and Tasmania.
An EPA high smoke advisory for the Latrobe Valley and East Gippsland was still in place late this week as smoke levels there remained up to ten times normal levels.
EPA spokesman John Williamson said the community could expect poor visibility and high levels of air particles from bushfire smoke.
The state’s chief health officer Dr Robert Hall said excessive smoke could aggravate heart or lung conditions including asthma and also trigger respiratory problems in others.
“It is likely that everyone within the community may be affected and they should avoid prolonged or heavy physical activity and stay indoors whenever possible,” he said.
<<The deadly bushfires that have claimed hundreds of lives will also harm the environment as the carbon-rich eucalypt forests release their payload of CO2.
The deadly bush fires in Australia have released millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to more than a third of the country’s CO2 emissions for a whole year, according to scientists. According to Mark Adams of the University of Sydney. “Once you burn millions of hectares of eucalypt forest, then you are putting into the atmosphere very large amounts of carbon.”
Australia’s total emissions per year are around 330m tonnes of CO2. Adams’s previous research has shown that the bush fires in 2003 and 2006-07 had put up to 105 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because they burned up land carrying 50 to 80 tonnes of carbon per hectare.
This time, however, the forests being destroyed are even more carbon-rich, with more than 100 tonnes of above-ground carbon per hectare. The affected area is more than twice the size of London and takes in more than 20 towns north of Melbourne, so the CO2 emissions from this year’s disaster could be far larger than previous fires.
“The world’s forests are crucial to the long-term future of the planet as they lock away millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide,” said Robin Webster, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “More must be done to protect them – deforestation is having a devastating effect and as climate change takes hold, forest fires like those in Australia are likely to become more frequent.”
The carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires are not counted under the agreements made by countries in the Kyoto Protocol, though it is being considered for inclusion in the successor treaty that will be debated later this year in Copenhagen. The usual reasoning behind it was that, with any fires, new growth of vegetation would take up any extra CO2 that had been released. “That is true to a point, but if the long-term fire regime changes – we are now starting to have more fires – we may completely change the carbon balance of the forest,” said Adam.
He added: “All informed scientific opinion suggests that whatever new protocol is signed [at the UN summit] in Copenhagen or elsewhere will include forest carbon, simply because to not do so would be to ignore one of the biggest threats to the global atmospheric pool of carbon dioxide, the release of carbon in fires.”
Another out-of-control bushfire in Warrumbungle National Park (350km NW of Sydney)
This one a few days ago shown raging towards Australia’s Siding Spring Observatory in the Warrumbungle Ranges.
Photo: NSW Rural Fire Service, 20130113
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This latest bushfire episode has reported over 40,000 hectares of National Park burnt, which is how much CO2?
<<The worst bushfires in NSW for more than a decade have ripped through the state’s north-west, taking 33 homes and destroying 40,000 hectares of land.
More than 80 Rural Fire Service volunteers supported by 18 aircraft spent most of Monday trying to contain the 100-kilometre wide front that burned through the Warrumbungle National Park near Coonabarabran.>>
Warrumbungle National Park and Australia’s Premier Observatory
(Source: Google Maps)
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<<About 100 people living in the area were forced to evacuate their homes and the RFS on Monday night said the blaze remained ”a large and dangerous bushfire” that was worse than the Black Christmas fires in 2001.
On Monday night there were 125 bushfires burning in NSW, 30 of which were uncontained.
The acting Premier, Andrew Stoner, described the bushfire season so far as ”a hell of a week” but while milder temperatures helped firefighters on Monday, winds and temperatures were expected to increase by Friday.
The Bureau of Meteorology said most of the state would be in the high 20s to mid-30s with Sydney temperatures rising from 30 degrees on Wednesday to 37 on Friday. Bourke is forecast to be in the high 30s for most of the week, peaking at 40 degrees on Saturday.
As Australia recovers from last week’s record-breaking temperatures, the head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, said it was clear heatwaves were occurring more frequently, and would increase further as the planet warms.
”It [last week’s heatwave] could be [a result of climate change], but I wouldn’t draw any conclusions on one single event,” Dr Pachauri said. ”I think you have to take the whole aggregation over a period of time and then come up with the conclusion, which is precisely what we have done.
”They [the findings] are very, very clear. Heatwaves are on the increase, extreme precipitation events are on the increase, and on that there is really no room for doubt any more.”
An RFS spokesman said the Warrumbungle National Park fire had been ”absolutely shocking”.
”At one point there was a smoke plume rising 14 kilometres in the air. The fire was so big and there was so much smoke, it was shocking,” he said.
”It’s still not under control. It’s still burning in the Bugaldie area. It’s been a big effort to get around it.
”The winds, the temperature, the low humidity, just shocking.”
A teacher at Coonabarabran’s high school, Peter Morrissey, nearly lost the family home in the Yerrinan Valley.
”We’re very lucky, but unfortunately that’s not the case for everyone,” he said. ”The home just next door has been burned to the ground, while others have remained untouched.”
Firefighters were able to establish containment lines on a fire about 20 kilometres east of Cooma, in the state’s south. The fire burned through more than 12,000 hectares of bush and grassland.
RFS volunteers have worked for a week now, fighting more than 100 fires across the state. ”They are an amazing bunch of men and women,” the spokesman said. ”They’re buggered but they’re not broken,” he said.>>
[Ed: “Shocking” belies a cultural, even inherited colonial mindset of submissive genuflection in the face of Act of God ‘natural disaster.’
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Such primitive defeatism encourages complacent status quo of those in charge to prevail and with impunity be able to rise above all criticism, just like in the presence of devine aristocracy]
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Tasman Peninsula Bushfire January 2013
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Ed: Australian uncontrolled Major Bushfires must be releasing more than 100 Hiroshima’s of Carbon Monoxide every year ~ yet culturally no-one raises a questioning eyelid of the slightest concern.
They want to stop labelling species as “common” like the “Common” Wombat. Many once ‘common’ wildlife species like the Koala, Thylacene, Platypus are either extinct or approaching extinction due to Humanity’s dismissive common treatment, disrespect and slaughter.
Many wildlife species with the word ‘common’ in their name: Common Brushtail Possum, Common Ringtail Possum, Common Wallaroo are mostly treated with common contempt as if vermin. Look at Lenah Meats of Launceston in Tasmania. Common Possum and Common wallaby are native wildlife but are being poached for butchering, fur and profit. Lenah claims it is a company with “a deep ethical position“…operating from “a climate change perspective“. ^http://www.lenah.com.au
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The intrinsic value of ‘Home Range’
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Many species of wildlife are territorial. It does not so much mean that they are aggressively territorial, as modern society has come to interpret the word ‘territorial’, but that the wildlife adopt a ‘Home Range‘. They live, feed, breed within that home range, because Nature has endowed sufficient food richness and sanctuary to enable them to survive in an ecologically sustainable population. Territorial wildlife that are forced outside their home range, generally die. Deforestation and large bushfires do this. The cumulative impact is regional extinction, particularly given that much wildlife habitat has long been reduced to remnant disparate islands barely large enough to sustain territorial wildlife populations.
Similarly, when people live in a place for a while, they become more acquainted, familar, fond and attached to the place. They get to know the local characteristics, habits, patterns, and idiosyncracies of a place that are particular to that place. Their knowledge about the place deepens to an insight and a local wisdom and this instils affection and a sense of belonging to the place and an empathy and custodial, if not parental, responsibility for its inhabitant creatures and their habitat. Personal attachment to a place is the when a place becomes valued as a home. One’s home is not just a roof over one’s head. It is the immediate surroundings, connections and amenity – the Human Home Range. The place becomes ‘special’.
A home and a home range hold personal value and over time, one’s daily life, lifestyle and home and home range become intertwined. This naturally engenders a need to preserve and protect the place almost in a territorial sense, because without it one’s own daily life and lifestyle values are impacted. After all humans are animals and have derived common primordal instincts and behaviours.
And so it is wholly understandable that when external harm impacts upon one’s home and home range, response is powerfully emotive and vocal because the sense of loss is personal and soulful.
This month’s tale about the killing of the local Wylie’s Baths Octopus may seem to outsiders to be a relatively ephemeral case in point. But what matters is the impact on people and their home and on wildlife and their home. Another example could equally apply to BP oil covered Pelicans along the Lousianna coast, firestorms and tempest that have ripped through human and ecological communities. It is about a place that has become special and this is revealed in the emotive way the tale is told and the feelings expressed by locals.
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Coogee’s historic Wylie’s Baths, Sydney’s seaside pool at Coogee since 1907
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<<It was an unusual whodunit: a much-loved octopus found dead at Coogee’s historic Wylie’s Baths. But it did not take long to find the likely perpetrator – an overzealous cleaner armed with chlorine.
”I’ve been swimming there for 11 years and I’ve never seen anything remotely like this,” said Coogee resident Matthew Martin who described the scene at the tidal bath as a ”dead sea”.
Wylies Baths Coogee.
”Not only was every marine fibre bleached white and dead, so was every marine creature that usually lives in the pool.”
The Wylie’s Baths Trust, which runs the site, has posted a mea culpa on its website about the death of its resident octopus ”apparently as a result of chlorine contamination”.>>
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<<As you may be aware, very regrettably our resident octopus recently died, apparently as a result of chlorine contamination in the pool. Chlorine has been used to clean the pool surrounds for many years. It is a necessary function of our duty of care to manage serious slip hazards caused by the build-up of marine growth.
The success or otherwise of the cleaning process is a complex issue, dependent upon many factors including frequency, volume, timing, tide, temperature and swell. It appears in this instance, we got it wrong.
Wylie’s Baths Trust and Management are engaging Randwick City Council and the EPA on the matter and will be reviewing our pool cleaning procedures as part of the investigation. We look forward to patrons ongoing support in our endeavours to maintain the pristine, safe and natural Wylie’s Baths environment we all hold so dear.>>
<<The notice said the ”success or otherwise of the cleaning process” – to routinely remove slip hazards posed by algae growing around the pool – was dependent on a range of factors including ”frequency, volume, timing, tide, temperature and swell”.
”It appears in this instance, we got it wrong,” it said.
But that was not enough for Randwick City Council, which said the pool must come up with another cleaning method to prevent slip hazards at the baths.
Although some Sydney councils use chlorine or another algicide to do this, all pools cleaned by Randwick – including the neighbouring ladies’ baths – are cleaned using a hot-water pressure system.
”We are committed to safe maintenance practices which do not harm our local marine life,” a council spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for the trust, Tony Cousins, said it had asked the Environmental Protection Authority to help it review its cleaning.
”If there’s a good option for us to use other than chlorine, we’ll be dead keen on using it, I can assure you,” Mr Cousins said.
But he said he did not think the incident had stirred lingering disquiet about management changes last year, which were part of an attempt to make the pool more financially sustainable.
Regular swimmer Fiona Giles said the mishap was ”arguably a direct result of the communication problems that persist” at the site.
Wylie’s had recently returned to cleaning the pool with chlorine after using grit and a bristle brush proved ineffective.
Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences director Peter Steinberg, a professor at the University of NSW, said the effect of chlorine on marine life was localised and short-term, but its use had ”diminished significantly in recent years”.
”It’s frowned upon by the agencies that worry about those kinds of things,” he said.
Work was ongoing to develop non-toxic wax coatings to control algae, he said, but other experiments using small grazing snails have been abandoned.
”It was difficult to corral the snails in the end,” he said.
A Coogee local, Reg Chappell, said management might have made an error cleaning the pool. But he and fellow regular swimmer Sam Camer said the marine life – which in the past has included bream and a Port Jackson shark – would return with the tide. Less conventional methods have been deployed in the past to clear Wylie’s of unwanted marine visitors: a persistent wobbegong was once hurled back into the sea by its tail.
”We threw him over the corner, but then he just came back in again,” Mr Camer said.>>
This month’s tale about the killing of the local Wylie’s Baths Octopus at Coogee compares with a previous tale just a few beaches up at Clovelly about the killing of a well known Blue Groper fish affectionately known by many locals simply as ‘Bluey‘.
Clovelly’s much loved Blue Groper – a gentle giant
(Eastern Blue Groper – Achoerodus viridis)
[Source: ^http://regainingparadise.wordpress.com/category/clovellys-blue-groper/
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“In the old days (1940’s and 1950s) my friends and I used to be able to go to Rottnest (Perth’s holiday island) and spear a boat load of dhuies (best fish around). These days there’s nothing there – I don’t understand it.”
~ 85 year old veteran Western Australian spear fisherman Maurie Glazier quoted by niece Jo Buckee 20040908.
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2005
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<<Outraged beachgoers have accused divers of spearing one of Sydney’s friendly, much loved blue gropers at Clovelly Bay, a repeat of the “murder” of a similar fish which sparked a public outcry three years ago.
NSW Fisheries and Randwick Council (Sydney) are investigating claims that two men emerged from the water with a 1.5-metre spear and a mesh bag containing a female groper at about 9.30am on Sunday.
In 2002, the then premier, Bob Carr, expressed outrage at the killing of a groper at Clovelly which was initially thought to be Bluey – an inquisitive fish which was something of a local character.
Sam Zahedi, a member of Clovelly Surf Club, was among those who remonstrated with the divers involved in Sunday morning’s incident.
“I saw two men come out of Clovelly baths – both of them had diving suits on,” he said.
“One had a spear about five-and-a-half feet long and one had an underwater bag with a groper in it.” He said the fish had the distinctive yellow and grey-brown colouring of female gropers.
Kelly Stevens, a spokeswoman for NSW Fisheries, said: “We have had a report of this incident and we are investigating.”
A council beach inspector spoke to the men about spearfishing, although it is unclear whether the officer saw a groper.
Gropers are a cherished element of Sydney’s sea life and are famed for their tame behaviour. The coast between Bronte and Coogee is an aquatic reserve and killing gropers carries a fine of up to $11,000.
Among their fans is Mr Carr, who enjoys snorkelling at Clovelly and who described those responsible for the 2002 death as “mongrels”. It later emerged that Bluey was still alive and that the victim had been another groper.
Geoff James, president of Clovelly Surf Club, said that any attack on a groper would be deplored by local people: “All the members of Clovelly Surf Club and the Clovelly community abhor any such event or practice. The gropers are part of the unique nature of our little beach and community.”
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Gentle Giants
The blue groper has been the official fish of NSW since 1996.
Known to snorkellers and divers for their fearless, inquisitive nature, the fish can grow to 1.2 metres long and have distinctive large eyes.
Gropers are born female, with a grey-brown colouring. Some turn into bright blue males later in life.
They are natives of Australian waters and largely found between southern Queensland and Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria.>>
<<He’s probably Sydney’s favourite fish, popular with tourists and locals alike – even though nobody’s really sure if he’s still alive. Bluey – the eastern blue groper that was thrust into the public spotlight when it was “murdered” at Clovelly Bay in 2002 – is somewhat of a local character.
On January 22 that year, the Courier published an article titled ‘Appeal to find groper killer‘, after it emerged that a spear fisherman was seen holding a metre-long groper.
“Bystanders saw the young man emerge from the water with the groper still alive and watched as he bashed the fish with a diver’s knife,” the report read.
Locals were outraged and the then premier Bob Carr, a close friend of Bluey, described his killer as “a mongrel”.
A week later, in the Courier’s January 29 issue, it seemed the tide had changed for Bluey.
“Stop nailing that coffin,” journalist Andrew London wrote, as he explained of how two readers, both avid scuba divers, claimed the Clovelly fish was not the groper killed.
Fred Angles of Randwick said he had fed Bluey after the spearing incident and reckoned the fisherman killed one of the smaller female gropers in the area.
“Bluey is huge,” Mr Angles said in the report. “There is no way he could have paraded Bluey on his spear because he is so heavy.”
Phew! Bluey was still alive, and his legend would live on.
Then in November 2005, outraged beachgoers accused divers of spearing another groper at Clovelly, but this one was definitely a female, so it seemed Bluey was off the hook once again.
All gropers are born female, with a grey-brown colouring, and some turn into bright blue males as they age.
Greg Towner, a diving instructor for Deep Six Diving, said at least two blue gropers were seen regularly at Clovelly, and about four or five frequented the area further out to sea near Shark Point.
“They are pretty much everywhere along the Sydney coastline, but you can be reasonably sure that Bluey is still there [at Clovelly],” he said.
But Clovelly surf club captain Alan Kane said it more was likely that the fish which swimmers, snorkellers and scuba divers call Bluey is another blue groper.
“The name ‘Bluey’ seems to get passed down a fair bit,” he said. “Where the original Bluey is, I’m not too sure, but there’s a bit of a hand-me-down arrangement to whoever is the dominant blue groper at the time.”
Whether or not the true Bluey is still nibbling on the toes of swimmers at Clovelly is not that important, Mr Kane said.
“We love our Bluey,” he said, “and lots of people from all over the place come out to see him, so we think they love him, too.”>>
“I’ve been diving at Gordon’s Bay since 1965. I’m a big supporter of the aquatic reserve. It just gives people an opportunity to interact with wild animals and I believe that enhances their life. Because they also get a better appreciation of their environment. Nothing’s going to give me greater pleasure than my grandchildren are old enough to take them for a dive and introduce them to Bluey. And I think that would be just a wonderful thing.”
The legendary Clovelly Bay groper, famed for befriending many a Sydney snorkeller, may have returned. Or he’s spawned a family.
Intriguingly, the new Bluey on the block could also be a female that has changed sex and simply replaced him, a phenomenon characteristic of the eastern blue groper species.
Bluey was thrust into the spotlight in 2002, when he was “murdered” by an unknown spear fisherman. So loved was the fish, the then NSW premier Bob Carr called the killer ”a mongrel”, before announcing five new aquatic reserves near Sydney beaches to protect marine life.
”I have seen the groper,” the premier pronounced at the time. ”I have swum with him. I know the groper, he was a friend of mine.”
But then a year or so later, Clovelly swimmers sighted Bluey, sparking debate on whether rumours of his death had been greatly exaggerated. And this summer a large bright blue dominant male has been spotted.
A Coogee Pro Dive scuba master, Evan Batten, confirmed a Bluey lookalike was in the area, but said it was impossible to verify whether it was the original. Such sightings are so regular Mr Batten calls Bluey the ‘Elvis of the Sea‘.
”Bluey is definitely a legend, he was extremely large, 1.2 metres long and a very rich blue. But did he get killed? Was it really Bluey they speared? Maybe he escaped and now has come back?”
To John Rowe, the secretary of the Gordons Bay Scuba Diving Club, Bluey is ”the Phantom”, named after the comic-strip character who never dies. While he was a long-time fan of Bluey, Mr Rowe said no one knew when the legend began ”especially because when the dominant Bluey dies a dominant female becomes the new Bluey,” he said.
All eastern blue gropers start life as greenish-coloured females, though some will change sex and colour to become blue males.
Professor Steve Kennelly, the director of fisheries research at the Department of Primary Industries, doubts the original Bluey is still alive and suggested another fish may have simply replaced him. ”It’s safe to say a Bluey or Bluey’s relatives are back but it’s definitely not him or his son,” he said. ”I’d be very surprised if it was the original as he wouldn’t have lasted this long.”
Professor Kennelly said public outrage over Bluey’s death had helped promote a need to protect the species. It has been illegal to spear gropers since 1969 – they can only be fished with a rod and line. In 1998, the eastern blue groper was announced the official fish of NSW.
News of Bluey’s possible return excited Mr Carr.
”I snorkelled at Clovelly a few weeks ago and was happy to see a family of gropers enjoying the crystal clear water with me,” he said. ”Why anyone would spear them is still beyond my understanding.”>>
<<The NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) has fined a man for spearing four Blue Groper, which is the official fish of NSW, at Twofold Bay at Eden.
The 49-year-old man was caught as a result of a routine fisheries inspection by NSW DPI Fisheries Officers.
NSW DPI Director of Fisheries Compliance, Glenn Tritton, said there are strict rules for catching Blue Groper in NSW.
“It is very disappointing to see the illegal taking of our State emblem, especially when it has been protected from spear fishing for more than 40 years,” Mr Tritton said. “Anyone who undertakes any sort of fishing on our waterways needs to know the rules, ignorance is no excuse.
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“NSW DPI will not tolerate the spearing of Blue Groper and penalties can range up to a maximum of $11,000.”
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Mr Tritton said the 49-year-old man was found snorkelling, carrying a speargun, adjacent to a small inflatable boat on the southern side of Twofold Bay.
“Fisheries Officers approached the man and the small vessel and allegedly observed four Blue Groper in the boat that had wounds consistent with those made by a spear,” he said.
“When interviewed, the man admitted to spearing the four Blue Groper.”
The man was formally interviewed and was issued a $500 penalty notice on the day.
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Fishing Rules for Groper:
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A recreational fishing licence must be held for all methods of fishing in NSW
In NSW Groper can be only taken by using a rod and line or a handline
Groper cannot be speared and have been protected from spear fishing since 1969
Groper cannot be taken and/or sold by any method of commercial fishing
There is a bag limit of 2 Groper per day
There is a size limit of 30 cm (only 1 of which can be longer than 60 cm)
People must also comply with any additional restrictions which apply in marine parks and aquatic reserves.>>
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(Ed: It is about time the Blue Groper was respected properly as a legally protected species nationally under Australia’s EPBC Act, without having to wait for its numbers to further decline. Why should wildlife species be denied a right to ecological protection unless their numbers have become endangered? The rarity basis for wildlife protection is but base moral relativism, and exploitative convenience.)
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<<The Blue Groper became the official fish of NSW following the death of “Bluey” at Clovelly in 2002, who was killed by an unknown spear fishermen. It is protected from spear fishing because it is so tame and inquisitive, so it is highly vulnerable to this method of fishing.
The Blue Groper presents in several different colours including blue, green, brown and red and changes sex from female to male during its life cycle. The largest specimens are males that are coloured the bright blue from which it takes its name.
Anyone witnessing illegal spearing of Groper is urged to contact their local fisheries office immediately.>>
Toxic Omelette killing all life in the Georges River The EPA in New South Wales (NSW) is accused of ignoring BHP’s coalmine’s toxic contamination of Georges River for over a decade
[Source: ‘Coalmine discharge fouls Australia’s Georges River’, by ‘Jim’, 20100803, Desdemona Despair .net, ^http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2010/08/coalmine-discharge-fouls-australias.html]
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Ed: The Political Climate Change Fad has negated funding of the Environment Protection Authority from critical Pollution Control.
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The Upper Georges RiverNear the Dharawal National Park, NSW
[Source: ‘Coalmine discharge fouls Georges River’, ^http://off.oatleypark.com/?p=904]
What is the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in New South Wales (NSW) doing?
It took an arbitrary bushwalk by a few bushwalkers of the local Macarthur Bushwalkers Club to by chance discover pollution of a remote section of the Georges River down from a coal mine in the Illawarra Region of NSW.
Although they dutifully reported the pollution incident to the NSW EPA, nothing was done, and that was over ten years ago, yet the mine has continued polluting the Georges River.
Labor and Liberal successive NSW Governments have known for more than a decade about this major toxic plume in the Georges River from a coalmine owned by BHP Billiton discharing into the upstream tributary Brennans Creek, but have never pressed the company to stop polluting. Why?
Metals such as zinc, copper, nickel and aluminium, as well as elevated levels of arsenic, are much higher than healthy guidelines, and the contamination has seriously damaged the ecosystem of the river for 15 kilometres downstream from the mine, documents obtained by the Herald show. Environment groups have begun a civil court case against BHP Billiton, which operates the West Cliff coalmine near Campbelltown via a subsidiary company.
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Ed: This is Australia in 2012, not 1912!
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The O’Farrell Government‘s Environment Minister, Robyn Parker, said yesterday:
”The EPA needs to lift their game,” Parker said. ”We’ve put them there, and given them increased powers and increased responsibility, and I need to see some action from them.”
Yet on the same day, Parker has hypocritically announced savage staff cuts to the Environment Department. Internal documents circulated among employees said the Department had committed to cutting costs in kangaroo harvesting programs [Ed: poaching wildlife?] , reducing wilderness and wild river assessments, deregulating wildlife licensing where appropriate, scaling back soil and salinity research and ”reducing effort in our biodiversity programs” i.e. ‘frontline services’.
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Ed: The O’Farrell Government’s Environment Minister, Robyn Parker, has just announced axeing 350 jobs in Environment and Heritage including in the EPA as well as culling many programmes in national parks and animal management, all to save $101 million by 2016. Notably in the O’Farrell Budget 2012-13, the sum of $150,000,000 has been “appropriated to the Treasurer for the recurrent services of the Advance to the Treasurer.” [Clause 18, p16, Budget Paper Appropriation Bill 2012, >Read Bill]
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Jul 2012: Miner BHP Billiton sued for river pollution by its West Cliff Colliery near Appin
Listed Australian Mining Conglomerate, BHP Billiton at its BHP Billiton’s Illawarra Coal subsidiary ‘Endeavour Coal‘, received a court summons yesterday, but did not respond directly to questions. Instead, it publicised a brief PR legal statement stating: ”The company complies with environmental regulations and is reviewing the details of this matter.”
A string of correspondence between the company and the EPA goes back as far as 2002, and shows that the regulator had been aware of discharges from the mine and some of its environmental impacts for most of that time.
The discharges from the mine flow into Brennans Creek, a tributary of the Georges River, and contain pollution from coal washing, water that has been pumped out of the mine tunnels, and stormwater runoff.
But the matter became public only because bushwalkers noticed the pollution and arranged for independent tests by Ian Wright, an environmental scientist at the University of Western Sydney.
About two years ago Dr Wright took a group of students and some rudimentary laboratory equipment to the river and has since returned many times to check and recheck the results.
”I thought ‘it can’t be as bad as it looks’. But I was wrong about that. You could just see the change in the water,” Dr Wright said. ”It was grey coloured. There was a lot of turbidity and coal ash.”
”I thought ‘it can’t be as bad as it looks”
… UWS Environmental Scientist, Dr Ian Wright.
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The scientific results showed startling differences from some of the pristine waterways nearby, on the edge of the Dharawal National Park. The aquatic invertebrates – mainly small insects – that form the basis of the food chain were either very scarce or missing altogether.
”It’s knocking around the food chain and the biology in the Georges River,” Dr Wright said.
”Upstream, we’ve got the full complement of invertebrates that you would expect to find. Downstream, there are groups missing and others at very low abundance. The invertebrate data is consistent with a very polluted or degraded waterway.”
The court case is brought by the National Parks Association of NSW and the Macarthur Bushwalkers Club.
Ed: Natural Justice defended not by the EPA, but by the Macarthur Bushwalkers Club (commercial income zero) versus BHP Billiton (commercial income US$37.5 Billion)
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‘Contaminated water from a coalmine [BHP Billiton’s Endeavour Coal] is flowing into the Georges River, south of Sydney, at levels that are toxic to aquatic life, an independent water quality report has shown.
A plume of saline water stretched along the river for 15 kilometres from the discharge point of an underground mine operated by Endeavour Coal, a subsidiary of BHP Billiton’s Illawarra Coal.
Discharges from Endeavour Coal’s West Cliff Colliery near Appin are ”causing serious water pollution that is very likely to be damaging in-stream ecosystems,” says the report, which was completed on a voluntary basis by researchers from the University of Western Sydney.
But the environmental protection licence for the mine’s wastewater discharge does not limit the amount of saline water that can be flushed into the river.
”I can’t believe that we have put out something called an environment protection licence without any provision to protect the environment,” one of the authors, Dr Ian Wright, a freshwater ecologist at UWS, said. ”Salt at these levels is huge in the context of a river … If you sprayed it on your tomatoes they would wilt.”
The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water said it was evaluating salt discharge levels that had already been measured by BHP Billiton at the site.
”There is currently no limit for salinity,” a spokesman for the department said. ”However, salinity discharges to Brennans Creek are currently regulated by a staged pollution reduction program under the current environment protection licence.”
When tested last month, the water discharged from the mine was five times more saline than the safe level recommended by the Australian and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council, a standard used by governments to determine water quality for aquatic life. It was nearly 10 times more saline than water in surrounding creeks.
The researchers tested upstream and downstream from the discharge pipe and also the water flowing directly from it.
They concluded that the environmental protection licence ”provides little effective protection to the Georges River” and said it was likely to damage the river’s ecosystems, meaning small invertebrates, fish and related denizens of the local food chain.
The colliery forms part of the company’s proposal to extend a series of coalmines around the township of Appin, so as to be able to extract $2 billion worth of coal a year for 30 years..
‘Thousands of hectares of pristine wilderness near Appin, fought over by mining and environment interests for decades, will be saved and opened to the public as a national park if the NSW Coalition wins government in March.
But the announcement, to be made today by Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell, sets up a potential conflict with BHP Billiton, which still holds the right to mine the billions of dollars worth of coal in the area.
The park, based on the Dharawal State Conservation Area, would add about 6200ha of bushland to the public estate, and provide one of the final pieces to the jigsaw of protected wilderness areas around Sydney.
It is one of the last remaining areas of intact natural bushland near the city, and sits between the Royal National Park and the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Mr O’Farrell said “no deal has been done” with the mining company, which revised plans to mine under the conservation area in October but retains the right to apply again over the 30-year life of its lease.
Mr O’Farrell, who hiked in the area yesterday with environment groups, acknowledged the Coalition would need to enter into discussions about potential compensation.
“We will be having sensible discussion with the relevant stakeholder to get the best outcome for the community,” he said.
“It’s an area that has significant Aboriginal history, it has significant environmental history. It’s accessible, which means … people could go and visit and have access to our great natural environment.”
A peak environment body, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, and the National Parks Association welcomed the plan.
“We see the Dharawal National Park proposal as an important step towards better conservation in Sydney’s drinking water catchment and beyond,” the council’s director Pepe Clarke said.
Head of the Total Environment Centre Jeff Angel said: “We look forward to more enlightened environment policies from the Coalition and note the new park should be gazetted without a depth restriction in order to protect it from mining.”
A BHP Billiton subsidiary, Illawarra Coal, had planned to dig up $60 billion worth of coal over the next 30 years, much of it from under Dharawal.
The area became the centre of a bitter campaign over reconciling coal mining and clean drinking water catchments. It contains 632 Aboriginal sites, as well as 226 upland swamps filtering water into the Georges River through 46 streams. More than 200 native animal and plant species are found there, including the vulnerable powerful owl, yellow-bellied glider and eastern pygmy possum.
The mining plan was revised in October, after the NSW Planning Assessment Commission released a scathing report into the proposed mine, which was expected to crack the surface of the conservation area and drain some of its water-filtering swamps.
In a landmark review, the commission cited the threat to water catchments and concluded that society would be better off if the coal was left in the ground.
A new plan excluding coal mining under Dharawal and other vulnerable areas is being considered by the Government.
Premier Barry O’Farrell and his Environment Minister Robyn Parker opening Dharawal National Park.
The Human Pathogen is now at 7 Billion. By 2050, due to be 10 billion if fertility in all countries converges to ‘Replacement Level’[Source: ^United Nations (May 2011), >Read PDF]
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“The high projection variant, whose fertility is just half a child above that in the medium variant, produces a world population of 10.6 billion in 2050 and 15.8 billion in 2100.”
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Australia’s Prime Minister Gillard’s Labor-Greens Coalition is facilitating an open drawbridge working to irresponsibly encourage free-flow illegal immigration.
But Australia’s real big picture on overpopulation is through Sydney and Melbourne International Airports, where Labor’s 200,000 annual immigration intake policy adds 5.6 million tonnes of CO2 per annum to Australia’s global contribution.
THE CALCULATION:
The average Australian on a per capita basis is said to emit about 28 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, based on the accredited Garnaut Review.
Labor-Greens Coalition current national immigration policy of 190,000 per year, plus allowing for The Greens Party’s encouraged 7,000 boat illegals p.a. at the current rate (2883 arrivals for 2012 to May) , plus allowing for visa overstays, so say Australia’s net immigration is 200,000 per year.
This translates to Labor-Greens Coalition immigration policy adds 5.6 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 emissions per year (200,000 x 28 tonnes each).
“In the twelve months to June 2009, Australia’s emissions were an estimated 544 Mt CO2-e (million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent).”
So roughly, the Labor-Greens Coalition Immigration Policy systemically adds 1% of CO2 emissions per year (CALC: 5.6Mt/544Mt).
Labor-Greens Coalition’s long-winded and over-promising Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency hyping: “The Australian Government is strongly committed to reducing Australia’s carbon pollution… The plan to move to a Clean Energy Future will cut pollution by at least 5% compared with 2000 levels by 2020”
But Labor-Greens Coalition’s blind immigration policy adds 5.6Mt (1%) per year to 2020, which becomes a total of 20% by 2020. So Labor-Greens Coalition’s hype of 5% reduction is counteracted by 20% more from immigration. So by 2020, Australia will have an extra 15% CO2 emissions! And that doesn’t factor in all the breeding over the next 20 years.
CONCLUSION: The Carbon Tax and CO2 reduction efforts and costs are wasteful and futile, while immigration remains as it is.
On Climate Change, the Australian Labor Party has been hoodwinked into extreme groupthink, akin to naive teenagers being lured to join the Church of Scientology under clever false pretenses.
In Australia, jobs are being lost, pollution continues and no-one is benefiting from Labor’s idealistic and unpragmatic Climate Change policy, all the while the Australian Labor Party maximises export of its greenhouse gas emitting coal to China, Japan, India and Europe. It’s like trying to export coal and pretend it is exempt from the Climate Change KPIs.
Labor is politically playing at crusading feudalism – taxing local peasants to fund costly mis-adventures abroad.
Gillard yesterday gifted $1, 000, 000,000 of struggling Australian taxpayers to Afghanistan. This woman is dangerous with Australia’s national overdraft account!
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‘Labor’s Carbon Tax is tokenistic, futile and domestically corrosive, so long as Australia exports coal’.
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Pollution is a human manifestation without debate.
Globally it has worsened since the environmental alarm about it in the 1960s.
But since ‘pollution’ has been hijacked and re-branded by the Climate Change lobby, the clear and simple pollution message has been complicated, distorted, expanded, and re-theorised.
What was a simple visual problem to many, is now politicised with doubt.
The Climate Change dogma has undermined what was just a very clear, simple and unequivocal environmental problem of human pollution.
‘Pollution’ remains still the big problem, whether the political fad is to label it ‘climate change’ or not.
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Pollution is still caused by heavy industry, road transport and by high per-capita consumption. Combined they contribute to wildlife extinctions – but try finding a PhD funded by NPWS on this? Where is our Pollution Policy? Where is our Population Policy?
Unless there’s economic growth, we’re not making progress
Unless the trucks rumble along the roads, we’re not making progress
Unless the engines of industry are turning, we’re not making progress
Unless the factories and mills belch out smoke, we’re not making progress
Unless our armies are on the move, we’re not making progress
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In truth, until we respect the planet, we won’t progress.
Every year after summer and upon the onset of winter, the outdoor pool at Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre, situated in Central Blue Mountains, is drained. Its contents including the chlorine (likely sodium hypochlorite) is emptied. The adjacent old plumbing between the pool and the dam, as well as repeated conductivity tests by the editor over multiple years under the Sydney Catchment Authority Streamwatch Programme point to the drainage being into the adjacent dam and into the Kedumba River; not into the sewer..
Reports of extreme water conductivity (off the scale… 500+ micro Siemens/cm) in the dam immediately following the draining the pool scale were sent to the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) , but nothing was ever done about it by the SCA.
This means every year, thousands of litres of chlorinated pool water flushes over Katoomba Falls and along the Kedumba River through the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
It is therefore no surprise then that the Kedumba River looks clean – Blue Mountains Council ensures it is sterile of macro-invertebrates and river life.
Katoomba Sports & Aquatic Centre
Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
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The Outdoor Pool of the Aquatic Centre…drained every winter
(Photo by Editor 20110516, free in public domain)
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The Aquatic Centre was constructed conveniently adjacent to the Catalina Dam
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Catalina Dam, which in the late 1940s was glorified as a ‘lake’ by developer Horace Gates
(designed with a flotation levelling system interconnected to adjacent Katoomba Falls Creek)
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Upper Kedumba Creek downstream of Catalina Dam
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Upper Kedumba Creek downstream of Catalina Dam – close up
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Katoomba Falls Creek naturally flows over Katoomba Falls
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Katoomba Falls flows down the Blue Mountains escarpment into the Kedumba River
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The Kedumba River flows through the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
The New South Wales Liberal Party has safely held the State electoral seat of Terrigal on the New South Wales Central Coast under its local party politician Chris Hartcher since 1988. In the March 2011 NSW election, Hartcher increased his margin by 15.9%, enough to run riot with a Liberal wish list.
Bulbararing Bay (Avoca Beach)
New South Wales, Australian east coast.
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‘HMAS Adelaide’ scuttled off Avoca Beach today
[Source: No Ship Group, Wednesday 13th April 2011]
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‘On the Liberal wish list has been dumping HMAS Adelaide in the clean waters off Avoca Beach (Bulbararing Bay) , which lies within the Terrigal electorate.
Today the NSW Liberal Party leader Barry O’Farrell, fresh in power, has fast tracked the scuttling of a scrap Navy warship off the coast of North Avoca Beach.
The Royal Australian Navy has conveniently saved money by sinking its scrap warship, HMAS Adelaide, off Avoca Beach. It is no different an environmental blight than all the sunk warships still polluting the Pacific after World War II. Obviously Navy culture harks to 20th Century habits and until local resident action group, No Ship Action Group, took legal action the Navy irresponsibly was happy to conveniently leave all the toxic polychlorinated biphenyls aboard for the scuttling.
‘On March 27 the State Government arranged a party to dump this “clean” warship in our bay without proper community consultation or an Environmental Impact Statement. A community had to raise $70 000 to obtain the truth and they have now been ordered to remove additional toxic materials at a cost of over a million dollars. They have already admitted that much of this toxic material will remain on the vessel and our request for transparent scrutiny of the completed work has been denied.’
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So the cost of the scuttling has been estimated to cost Australian taxpayers up to $8.5 million! What does the Navy care? Costs don’t seem to matter to the Navy, let alone environmental costs or community costs.
What does Chris Hartcher care about the impacts of dumping a scrap metal wreck to the values of local traditional owners, or to local marine life, to migrating humpback whales, to public health, to surf patterns,to sand drift or to beach erosion? None of them has enough votes, which is all that counts in party politics. Co-incidental that senior members of the Central Coast Artificial Reef Project, driving this scuttling project are ex-Navy divers.
Humpback whale off Avoca Beach
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The No Ship Action Group has highlighted comparable problems from the Adelaide’s sister ship, ex-HMAS Canberra, which was scuttled 2.3km off Ocean Grove, Victoria, in 2009.
Instead, the now promoted ‘Minister for the Central Coast’ Chris Hartcher said the wreck would generate millions of dollars in tourism and follow-on revenue for the coast’s economy.
“This will deliver significant recreational, tourism and economic benefits to the region, as well as educational and scientific research opportunities,” he said.
Shame on the Navy, (as if it hasn’t enoughshame already) for dumping its unwanted scrap on Australia’s coastline. Shame on MP Chris Hartcher and on Premier Barry O’Farrell. Dumping toxic ships in the ocean is an ‘archaic, reckless and wasteful act‘.
The so-called artificial reef will benefit selfish exploitist divers like the very vocal Terrigal Dive Centre.
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‘HMAS Adelaide – The Only Thing Sinking on the Coast is Labor’s Resolve’
Tuesday, 09 June 2009
Shadow Minister for the Central Coast, Chris Hartcher, today called on Minister for the Central Coast, John Della Bosca and Member for Robertson, Belinda Neal, to get their act together and deliver the comparatively small amount of funding needed to bring the HMAS Adelaide to the Central Coast.
“This is a major project for the Central Coast. It has the potential to generate jobsand serious tourist dollars. I just can’t understand why the Labor Party have lost interest.
“This is one of the biggest issues facing local members, State and Federal but we’ve had nothing but eerie silence from Labor Members.
“Grant McBride mumbled some sorry excuse about bureaucracy but the reality is that he has the ear of the Premier. He’s right there in Nathan Rees’ party room. All he has to do is stick up his hand or pick up the phone.
“John Della Bosca is a Minister in the NSW Government – he helps hold the purse-strings. He could write the cheque today if he wanted to.
“And Belinda Neal has the ear of the Prime Minister – the man who stood by her through the Iguanagate scandal. Why won’t she just pick up the phone and ask for another favour?
“Coast residents shouldn’t be fooled – each and every Labor Member on the Central Coast is a mere phone call away from the money required to sink the Adelaide.
“But as usual, the Labor Party is full of excuses.
“It was a bureaucratic bungle, it was a mistake or they can’t find the funding.
“It’s all a bit ridiculous.
“Federal Labor and State Labor are under the same roof – why can’t they just get it together and cough up the cash?
“The State Labor Government has failed the Central Coast.
“The Federal Labor Government has failed the Central Coast.
“My message to each and every Labor MP on the Coast is a simple one; stand up against your own party’s incompetence and give us our artificial reef.
“The only thing sinking on the Central Coast at the moment is the Labor Members’ resolve.”
The golden sands of Avoca Beach turned to a sea of red Saturday morning when around 600 people turned up for a rally protesting the sinking of the ex-HMAS Adelaide.
Organisers had asked people to wear red as a sign of their opposition to the sinking of the ship 1.7km off Avoca Beach.
The concern that had been growing since residents discovered in January the ship would be scuttled off Avoca and not Terrigal culminated in Saturday’s rally where protesters danced and waved their hands to songs by Midnight Oil, the rock band formerly fronted by Peter Garrett, the environment minister who will sign off on the sea dumping, and cheered guest speakers who all spoke passionately about their environmental and lifestyle concerns.
Organised by the No Ship Action group, the rally was addressed by Dr Ian Charlton, a GP in the area and keen surfer, Quentin Riley, a long time Avoca Beach resident, Ben Smith an oceanographer and commercial pilot, Scott Forty, a doctor and dive enthusiast, Gary Whittaker, a builder, and Avoca Beach residents Kylie Hobin, Neil Robinson and Susan O’Connor.
“We all love Avoca Beach,’’ Mr Riley said.
“We are here to tell the truth about this situation. “We’re not just worried, we’re frightened, very frightened about the repercussions of the sinking of this ship.’’
Speakers spoke of the lack of consultation, the lack of an environmental impact statement (EIS), the lack of communication with the authorities organising the sinking, and the fear the ship will contain toxic materials including PCBs.
“If there has been an EIS, we would have been consulted 18 months ago,’’ Mr Riley said.
“We would have asked our questions then and we would have got answers. Around 4000 people never got the chance to comment or question the project.’’
Mr Smith, an Avoca Beach resident and commercial pilot, said he had grave concerns about the future of the beach and described the sinking as a ‘wanton act of vandalism’.
He said no other ship had been scuttled so close to shore.
“Stand up and be counted,’’ he said.
“This is our home and we don’t want that dam boat.’’
Mr Forty, a dive enthusiast, said most dive wrecks were located where they had met an unfortunate end, not placed in a pristine environment so close to shore.
“For a dive experience this is too good to be true, just a six minute boat ride from Terrigal and in only 30 metres of water,’’ he said.
“It will be like a Queensland theme park. “It should be scuttled further out and it would be a more interesting dive.
“Put it our further and it’s only a 20 minute ride, please rethink the site.’’
The two-hour rally finished up with the protesters lining up on the beach to spell out NO SHIP.
Lands Minister Tony Kelly said on Friday the scuttling was on schedule and would take place on March 27.
He said independent tests found no traces of PCBs on the vessel.
“I hope this now puts to bed unfounded claims being spread through the local community,’’ Mr Kelly said.
“All potential impacts have been considered including marine life, flora, fauna, water quality, swell conditions and sediment movement in the bay.
“The community can feel assured by these painstaking preparations and investigations.’’
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.Common questions (from the HMAS Adelaide Reef website, before the scuttling):
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1. Where is the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE now?
The Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE is at the Sydney ports Corporation Berth No. 2 at Glebe Island on White Bay. It is undergoing final preparation for scuttling and its future as a dive site.
2. How is the site being designed for diving?
The Land & Property Management Authority (LPMA) has engaged the services of a team of designers who have been responsible for the design of every other military wreck around Australia. Assisting this team is a reference group which consists of representatives from local dive clubs, professional divers (such as the Navy, Police and Army divers), industry regulators such as Workcover and rescue personnel.
3. Who approves the environmental standard of preparation of the ship?
The ship will be prepared to the stringent environmental standards required by the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC). They are responsible for approving the scuttling of the ship under the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981. You can also read our Environmental Fact Sheet about the Ex-HMAS Adelaide.
4. When and where will the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE be sunk?
The scuttling of the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 13 April, so long as weather conditions are favourable. The vessel’s final resting place will be approximately 1.4km south of the Skillion at Terrigal and 1.8km off Avoca Beach in around 32m of water.
5. What will happen at this time?
On 11 April the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE will be towed to the Central Coast. It will be escorted by police and other authorities and will have an exclusion zone in place. It will be anchored off Avoca Beach whilst final preparations are made such as cutting dive access holes above the water line. On the day of scuttling an exclusion zone of around 1000m will remain in place until after the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE in scuttled and all safety checks have been completed.
6. What constitutes a successful scuttling?
The intention is for the Ex-HMAS Adelaide to be sunk in an upright position at the designated location and orientation, approximately ESE. Should the vessel not scuttle exactly as planned, this will not adversely affect its operation as a dive site and artificial reef. Some divers even suggest that it might be more interesting as a dive site if it is not perfectly upright.
For the scuttling process, an exclusion zone will be in place for the safety of spectators, and a spotter helicopter will check that there are no passing whales, dolphins etc.
7. Why are the weather conditions so important?
When the ship is towed out to be scuttled it will have no power or ability to move independently. It will also have many pre-cut panels in the hull above the water line which will become dive access holes once the panels are removed after arriving at the scuttling site. Calm weather conditions, little wind and low swell are required to safely take the ship out to sea and scuttle it.
In the event that weather conditions are not suitable to commence the tow from Sydney, towing will be postponed until Saturday 16 April, with the scuttling to take place on Monday 18 April, subject to favourable weather conditions.
Once the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE is anchored off Avoca and planned scuttling is not possible due to unfavourable weather conditions, the scuttling will take place at the first available opportunity when weather conditions are suitable.
8. Where will the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE be finally located?
The Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE will be located approximately 1.4km south of the Skillion at Terrigal and 1.8km off Avoca Beach in around 32m of water.
9. How many moorings will there be?
There will be six moorings placed around the ship. Two of these will be exclusively licensed to commercial operators, another two will be available for any commercial operator to book on a casual basis. The final two moorings will be available to recreational divers.
10. How will the dive site be managed?
A Crown reserve (the HMAS Adelaide Reserve) has been declared over the final resting place of the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE. An agent will be engaged to market the opportunity to the dive and tourism industries, issue permits to dive the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE and take bookings for moorings.
11. Will I have to pay to dive the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE?
Yes. The ongoing management and maintenance of the dive site to ensure it remains a world class dive attraction will cost money. As such it is expected that a per dive fee will be collected to recover the cost of these activities. Pricing is yet to be determined.
12. How will I buy a ticket to dive?
A ticket to dive the Ex-HMAS ADELAIDE will be able to be purchased from the LPMA’s commercial agent. Before being issued with a permit all divers will be required to provide evidence that they have the necessary dive qualifications and agree to abide by a Code of Conduct whilst on the dive site.”
Central Coast Artificial Reef Project Committee
The CCARP committee is comprised of members of Brisbane Water Aqualung Club, Terrigal Underwater Group, Terrigal Diving School.
CCARP was originally created with the aim of lobbying the Commonwealth and NSW governments for acquisition of the decommissioned destroyer HMAS Brisbane. For a number of years the Australian Federal Government has had a policy of ceding to the states its warships as they become surplus to requirements and are decommissioned.
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…’Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live’.
[Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 20110412, ‘Scuttling of warship will be a disaster’, by Garry Trompf, Arcadia, Letters to the Editor, http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/ , viewed 20110412.]
‘I am deeply concerned about the scuttling of HMAS Adelaide at Avoca (”Ombudsman sinks last bid to stop scuttling of frigate”, April 11, smh.com.au).
If the break-up of Adelaide’s sister ship, HMAS Canberra, is anything to go by, there will debris all over the beaches around Avoca within the next 18 months.
The navy’s destroyers which have previously been scuttled are all intact, but they are not constructed like frigates. The frigate HMAS Canberra has broken up after just 16 months. A New Zealand frigate lasted just six weeks before breaking into three and spreading debris all over nearby beaches.
The disintegration of HMAS Adelaide will also involve the dispersal of 23,000 square metres of lead paint and other dangerous contaminants in an area where migratory humpback whales (including calves) take shelter and where many families and children enjoy the beaches. It is a recipe for disaster.
Under the plan of management for the ex-HMAS Canberra, the dive site will be closed as a commercial site if the ship falls over or breaks up.
These issues are not mentioned in the review of environmental factors for the scuttling of HMAS Adelaide.
The NSW Ombudsman’s office has rightly asked for explanations on a range of issues. It has to be decided whether the state government has been complying with the orders of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The Premier should defer the sinking until the Ombudsman’s questions are answered.
I believe a reconsideration of the matter will reveal the utter lack of wisdom in allowing the vessel to be dumped in such environmentally sensitive waters.’
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Naval history of ‘frigate dumping‘ on communities
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The Royal Australian Navy has a history of dumping its friggin frigates on coastal communities. At 2 pm on Sunday, 4 October 2009, the Navy’s unwanted Guided Missile Frigate FFG02 HMAS Canberra was scuttled off the Victorian seaside town of Ocean Grove. Two years earlier, the Federal Government had committed $7 million of taxpayers money to prepare the ship for scuttling.
[Source: http://www.hmascanberra.com.au/sink-the-canberra.htm]
Just like the scuttling of ex-frigate HMAS Adelaide, the scuttling of ex-frigate HMAS Canberra was all so that local divers could have somewhere fun to play.
Seems a bunch of ex-Navy divers have come up with a novel way for the Navy to rid itself of old stock, while dive schools reap the promise of dive tourism revenue. But at whose expense?
Problem is that Victorian Artificial Reef Society and local divers may not get that chance to play, since the HMAS Canberra has been reported breaking up and is now deemed unsafe to dive on, and may never be. What is certain is that the Navy has dumped on Australia’s coastline. (Read article extract below: ‘EXCLUSIVE: HMAS Canberra breaking up‘).
Can Australian taxpayers expect to get their $7 million recompensed from the Nay from its botched HMAS Canberra scuttling? What chance is the $8.5 million from the HMAS Adelaide another botched scuttling? Couldn’t Australia’s Navy better spend the combined $15.5 million that it has scuttled, instead on meeting Australia’s important strategic Defence obligations?
In May 2007 the Navy was funded $52 million over four financial years for the continued surveillance of Australia’s northern approaches as part of Operation Resolute. $15.5 million represents about a third of that funding, which could have been better spent on more effective surveillance of Australia’s northern approaches.
‘PARKS Victoria has warned divers the ex-HMAS Canberra off the coast of Ocean Grove has begun to break up and could be dangerous, writes Carly Helweg.
. The Victorian Government’s website reports the helicopter hanger on the port side of the ex-HMAS Canberra, scuttled in October 2009, “has separated from the main super structure.”.
A statement issued on the Parks Victoria website said, “As a result the frames and plating on the port side are moving 30mm vertically and 150mm horizontally which may pose a hazard to divers in this area as the structure may move unexpectedly.”
“There are a large number of loose items in the lower deck and mid-ships areas of the vessel including lockers, cabinets, panelling and ducting.”
It warns, “It is strongly recommended that recreational divers stay away from these areas of the vessel to avoid the risk of personal injury.”.
A NSW environmentalist group has used HMAS Canberra as an example in protesting the scuttling of sister ship, HMAS Adelaide, off Avoca Beach on the Central Coast.
According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on February 9, the No Ship Action Group at Avoca spokeswoman, Michelle Meares, said the Canberra has already tipped from an angle of 3 degrees to an angle of 22 degrees.
It is claimed if the Canberra leans over a certain angle it will fall, making it unusable as a dive site.
“When it gets to 27 or 30 degrees, it will likely tip over and not be able to be used as a diving wreck,” Ms Meares said to the Herald.
The Herald also reported, “according to Parks Victoria source, fiberglass insulation, foam insulation from wall and ceiling cavities, panelling and other debris is floating in the bay or has washed onto the beach.”
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Further Reading:
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[1] No Ship Action Group, ^http://noship.com.au/
[2] HMAS Adelaide Artificial Reef website, ^http://www.hmasadelaide.com/
[3] Search the Internet on the subject of ‘artificial reefs impacts‘
[4] Now the Navy wants to sink another old ship at Jervis Bay…’Sinking the HMAS Manoora in Jervis Bay‘, 201108 “Shoalhaven City Council has confirmed it’s in principle support on a proposal for the sinking of the HMAS Manoora as a dive site in Jervis Bay at last night’s extraordinary Council meeting.”
For United Nations credibility, Cancun had to be better than the Copenhagen shemozzle. Remember when US President Obama’s last minute token promise failed because he hadn’t secured a US Congress mandate.
A memorandum of understanding between the ‘have’ nations and the ‘have not’ nations seems to be a follow-the leader approach to dealing with human-caused climate change – aka ‘pollution’ rebranded. Problem is the responsible leader, the United States is AWOL, delusional that its 20th Century economics can restore its capital prowess in our 21st Century society.
Assuming global warming is real and being caused by human carbon emissions, the overarching aim of the United Nations is to reduce carbon emissions and so minimise global warming and its consequential problems of sea-level rise, mass extinctions and associated climate catastrophes – droughts, floods, heatwaves, massive storms and exponential human misery.
Toward this ideal, COP16 has been the 16th annual Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) and the 6th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP). This year COP16 was hosted in Cancun, Mexico.
So what was the outcome of the conference this time around?
Well, according a summary by The Climate Institute the delegate at COP16 broadly accepted the ‘Cancun Agreement‘ on 14th December 2010. Three important areas of achievement should be noted:
Anchoring of national mitigation commitments: formal recognition and ‘anchoring’ of existing pollution targets and commitments from all major polluting countries, covering around 80 per cent of global emissions. This is the first time pollution commitments from US, China and all other major economies (both developed and developing) have been captured in a formal UN agreement.
New ‘Green Climate Fund’: agreement to establish a new fund to help mobilise US$100 billion a year by 2020 to support low pollution economic development; protecting tropical forests and helping the world’s most vulnerable people build resilience to change impacts. However, there was no decision on how to raise the public and private money for this fund.
Improved transparency: measures to improve transparency and verification of domestic efforts to reduce pollution, including a process for international review of countries’ actions by technical experts.
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According to Greenpeace, “the talks did not deliver a global climate deal but have placed the building blocks for that strong deal to be created.” There are acknowledgements of the gap between commitments on emissions cuts and scientific evidence, the establishment of a climate fund and an agreement on REDD [United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries].
However, we are still missing the actual commitments on lower emissions, a way to deliver that climate fund and some critical parts of the REDD agreement to make it a strong one. Now we must continue to demand our leaders redouble their efforts to drive change at home.
So in other words, nations are gradually coming around to the climate change problem, but still a bit slow working out what to do. They’re getting there.
There are positive signs of progress, and moreso than the token promises by the United States like at Copenhagen. For instance, there is at least now general agreement that greater pollution reduction effort is required. There are sources of financing by the World Bank to make this happen. There are now common accounting rules, and a legal framework.
Tangible promises have also been committed by Mexico, the host nation of this year’s conference, including a promise to reduce 51 million tons of CO₂ in 2012, securing a US$500 million loan with the World Bank to finance technological assistance and increase scientific knowledge in relation with current sources of emissions and carbon sinks. Mexico has also promised to ensure that in 2012, 26% of the electricity produced will come from renewable sources. Mexico will also receive US$15 million from the Norwegian government to reduce emissions through soil conservation and reforestation.
While the worst polluter and most conspicuous carbon consumer, the United States, has been AWOL and navel-gazing; this time China has promised to cut 45% of its greenhouse gases by 2020.
However, the conference has not been without its criticism. The editor of the Sydney Morning Herald makes the following observations:
“There are no binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and the world is not on course yet to avoid the worst climate change scenarios. Developed and developing countries still cannot agree to concerted action, developing countries arguing they should not have to bear an equal burden, because they have not had polluting industries as long, or on the same scale, as the developed world.
The US and China are still circling each other warily, and (President) Obama is now forced to negotiate any agreement through a Congress that, following the midterm elections, will contain significantly increased numbers of climate-change sceptics and Sinophobes.”
It’s all happening one year at a time. Next year’s conference will be in Durban, South Africa.
In between, some individual countries are already moving unilaterally. May be the United States could show some leadership next round; dare this mean Republican warmongers pulling back from high carbon- intensive imperial war games in Afghanistan and Korea!
The U.S.S. George Washington has left its home port and is sailing to the Korean Peninsula. (Please not again)
The Aircraft Carrier, with 75 fighter aircraft and 6000 Sailors and Marines will be participating in exercises in the region. What will be the carbon footprint of this ego? Meanwhile, North Korea said on Friday it would strike again at the South if a live-fire drill by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month’s shelling that killed four people. The North had said its November shelling was a response to South Korean “provocations” after an artillery battery on the island fired in what Seoul said was a routine drill.
China Central Television (CCTV) building in Beijing in a gloomy coal fired smog
An all too regular and deadly occurrence for Beijing locals.
[Photo: Reuters]
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One of the many of Australia’s working open cut coal mines, this one in the Hunter Valley
[Source: ^http://www.kateausburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DSC052381.jpg
Hunter Valley Coal Train, loaded with black coal for export
Australia: committed to supporting jobs in coal mining, despite a domestic economy not allowed to fall behind, while climate change negotiations are for other government departments to distract the limelight.
Coal stocks await loading for export in Newcastle.
Photo: A record 114 million tonnes of coal was export from Newcastle in 2011
(Corey Davis: Getty Images)
Australia’s 1980’s Loy Yang Coal Power Station
[Source: Photo by Simon O’Dwyer,
^http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/how-big-energy-won-the-climate-battle/2005/07/29/1122144020224.html]
Big impact: The huge plume of smoke from the Victorian fires
as seen from the NASA earth observatory 20070111.
[Source: Herald Sun]
A Boeing 737 (small black object at centre of image) flies by a massive smoke plume over Kinglake
Another out-of-control bushfire in Warrumbungle National Park (350km NW of Sydney)
This one a few days ago shown raging towards Australia’s Siding Spring Observatory in the Warrumbungle Ranges.
Photo: NSW Rural Fire Service, 20130113
Warrumbungle National Park and Australia’s Premier Observatory
(Source: Google Maps)
Tasman Peninsula Bushfire January 2013
