The Carbon Club/Book: 'You bastards sacked me.' (excerpt): SMH

The Carbon Club

How did environmental issues become so politicised? The people purge early in the Abbott government – beginning in 2013 with the "night of the short knives" – gives some clues.

By Marian Wilkinson
August 29, 2020

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"What surprised the scientists most was not their hasty sacking but how quickly the government obliterated their work. “The website that we’d spent a lot of time building was taken down with absolutely no justification as far as I could see,” says Flannery, the one-time principal research scientist at the Australian Museum and internationally renowned scientific author. “It was giving basic information that was being used by many, many people – teachers and others – just to gain a better understanding of what climate science was actually about.”

Corruption

The Climate Commission had been set up in 2011 by Julia Gillard’s Labor government as an independent source of information for the public to understand climate change and its impacts on Australia. But the commission and its members had been pilloried as “alarmist” by sceptical columnists in the Murdoch media and by radio shock jocks from the beginning. Flannery was expecting the commission to be disbanded, but the decision to kill its website hurt."

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We Want Climate Action Now

"Not long before this, the Liberal Party’s donor cash cow, the Cormack Foundation, which Morgan chaired, had stumped up another $300,000 for the Institute of Public Affairs. The conservative think tank’s latest publication, Climate Change: The Facts 2014, was soon in the works with essays from Australia’s best known climate sceptics, News Corp’s Andrew Bolt and former James Cook University professor Bob Carter, along with their international cohorts by now so familiar here: MIT’s Professor Richard Lindzen, Dr Pat Michaels from the US Cato Institute – a think tank co-founded by American billionaire Charles Koch – and the former UK chancellor Nigel Lawson.

Climate Justice

At the same time as Morgan’s attack, Lawson’s UK think tank, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, welcomed Abbott’s old mentor, John Howard, to deliver its annual lecture in London. The former Liberal prime minister used the opportunity to enthusiastically back Abbott’s plan to dismantle Labor’s climate policies in a speech he called “One Religion is Enough”."

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"By the end of Abbott’s first year in office, the PM had made it clear he didn’t believe most climate scientists, even those who worked for his government. But while his climate scepticism could shape policy in Canberra, it would soon put him in conflict with the most powerful leader in the world, US president Barack Obama.

This is an edited extract from Marian Wilkinson’s The Carbon Club (Allen & Unwin, $33), out Monday."


Related:   MAJOR PARTIES LEAVE BACKDOOR OPEN FOR DIRTY DONATIONS

Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government, carbon emissions, corrupting donations, Institute of Public Affairs IPA, Koch brothers, Murdoch media, political party donations from corporations, Professor Flannery

MAJOR PARTIES LEAVE BACKDOOR OPEN FOR DIRTY DONATIONS

The Greens condemn the major parties for voting to create a backdoor for dirty donors to bypass state donations laws.

Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for Democracy, Senator Larissa Waters, said:

“Once again, we see the major parties going to every length to keep the dirty donations flowing to their coffers.

“These new laws allow donors to bypass state donations laws. If we leave this backdoor wide open, we will see big money flowing to state parties under the guise of ‘federal purposes’.

“Thanks to pressure from the Greens, Queensland Labor has banned the corrupting influence of donations from property developers. Yet both Labor and the Libs just voted for laws that will undermine those protections."

Labor sided with the government to oppose Greens amendments that would have lowered the disclosure threshold, capped donations at $1,000 each year, and stopped all donations from industries - such as mining, banking, and gambling - with a track record of trying to buy political outcomes.

“We had a chance today to stop corporations from buying their seats at the table; but the big parties remain all too willing to sell democracy to the highest bidder,” Senator Waters said.

“Corporate money should have no place in parliament. It’s time the government cleaned up legalised corruption and put public need ahead of party greed.”

 

03.09.2020

Carbon tariffs: an instrument for tackling climate change?: AXA

Carbon Tariffs: Another Name for Green Protectionism?

A Carbon Tariff model that might be acceptable to developing countries

Carbon tariffs are a tax on carbon-intensive imports, which recently triggered heated international debates. Certain industrialized countries have been advocating the adoption of carbon tariffs on products imported from developing countries, such as China. 

According to Marco Springmann, a physicist turned economist, the main reason is that certain rich nations have implemented binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while poorer countries have so far resisted legal commitments. Additionally, because many of them simply do not set a price on carbon, they can produce cheaper carbon-intensive goods. Promoters of carbon tariffs thus think that taxing such goods at the border will make up for this difference in price and indirectly regulate the associated emissions.

However, almost a quarter of China’s CO2 emissions come from its

exports. So China and other nations view carbon tariffs as trade sanctions and protectionism. They even threatened to start a “trade war” if such schemes were to be put into place. They stress the role that carbon emissions have played in the industrialization of advanced economies and demand increased financial aid in order to reduce their emissions.

Carbon tariffs to finance clean development

To avoid this coming carbon war, Springmann proposes to recycle the tax revenues from carbon tariffs (claimed in the importing country) to the exporting country as investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. This coupled scheme addresses the concerns about competitiveness and reducing emissions in one part of the world and economic progress in the other. Since it acknowledges the demand for imports as an emissions-causing factor, it may therefore represent a consensus solution within a global climate policy. According to Springmann, a preliminary assessment has indicated that the revenue from this scheme would range between $8 and $50 billion per year, depending on the price of carbon. In comparison, at the climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009, it was agreed to create a “Fast Start Fund” to support climate adaptation and clean technology in developing countries. The pledged contribution is $30 billion over the next three years. Carbon tariffs would add significant revenue streams to this effort."

Go to original AXA article by Marco Springmann (3 years)


 Related: Young people’s burden: requirement of negative CO2 emissions: Hansen et al


carbon tariffs, carbon footprint, impose trade tariffs on carbon offenders, carbon trading, climate catastrophe, #economy,

'A shot in the arm:' Victoria backs clean energy in bid to fuel COVID-19 recovery: SMH

(Pics by this blog)

"Clean energy projects will receive a Victorian government funding boost in the hope of driving the state's battered economy out of the coronavirus downturn and avoiding a slump in wind and solar investment.

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio is preparing to brief 

300 investors on Wednesday about the launch of a formal process to test interest in building 600 megawatts of renewable energy capacity statewide, which she said would drive down prices and create new jobs at a critical time."

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"Climate advocates say the unprecedented upheaval of COVID-19 presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate the energy transition. Mr Thornton said there was now a "massive consensus" in Australia and around the world about the potential for renewable energy to play a leading role in the economic recovery from COVID-19."

By Nick Toscano and Miki Perkins

September 1, 2020

Go to the complete SMH article 

Related: 

Young people’s burden: requirement of negative CO2 emissions: Hansen et al

Young people’s burden: requirement of negative CO2 emissions: Hansen et al

Abstract. 

Melting ice sheets

Global temperature is a fundamental climate metric highly correlated with sea level, which implies that keeping shorelines near their present location requires keeping global temperature within or close to its preindustrial Holocene range. 

However, global temperature excluding short-term variability now exceeds +1◦C relative to the 1880–1920 mean and annual 2016 global temperature was almost +1.3◦C. 

We show that global temperature has risen well out of the Holocene range and Earth is now as warm as it was during the prior (Eemian) interglacial period, when sea level reached 6–9 m higher than today. 

Further, Earth is out of energy balance with present atmospheric composition, implying that more warming is in the pipeline, and we show that the growth rate of greenhouse gas climate forcing has accelerated markedly in the past decade.  

The rapidity of ice sheet and sea level response to global temperature is difficult to predict, but is dependent on the magnitude of warming. 

Targets for limiting global warming thus, at minimum, should aim to avoid leaving global temperature at Eemian or higher levels for centuries. 

Such targets now require “negative emissions”, i.e., extraction of CO2from the air. 

If phase down of fossil fuel emissions begins soon, improved agricultural and forestry practices,including reforestation and steps to improve soil fertility and increase its carbon content, may provide much of the necessary CO2 extraction. 

In that case, the magnitude and duration of global temperature excursion above the natural range of the current inter glacial (Holocene) could be limited and irreversible climate impacts could be minimized. 

In contrast, continued high fossil fuel emissions today place a burden on young people to undertake massive technological CO2 extraction if they are to limit climate change and its consequences. 

Proposed methods of extraction such as bio energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) or air capture of CO2 have minimal estimated costs of USD 89–535 trillion this century and also have large risks and uncertain feasibility.    

Continued high fossil fuel emissions unarguably sentences young people to either a massive, implausible cleanup or growing deleterious climate impacts or both.

James Hansen et al  
Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 

Correspondence to:James Hansen (jeh1@columbia.edu) 
Received: 22 September 2016 – Discussion started: 4 October 2016 Revised: 29 May 2017 – Accepted: 8 June 2017 – Published: 18 July 2017



Go to research article  

 

Newcastle with a 0.7m sea rise by 2100, below the 2010 official government planning estimate of 0.9m.

Related: 

Port Macquarie after a 7m sea level rise. Insurance risks affect property values now.

Related: 'Retreat' Is Not An Option As A California Beach Town Plans For Rising Seas: NPR 

 

Sea level rise from ice sheets track worst-case climate change scenario: Phys.org

Credit: CC0 Public Domain 

Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica whose melting rates are rapidly increasing have raised the global sea level by 1.8cm since the 1990s, and are matching the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's worst-case climate warming scenarios.

According to a new study from the University of Leeds and the Danish Meteorological Institute, if these rates continue, the ice sheets are expected to raise sea levels by a further 17cm and expose an additional 16 million people to annual coastal flooding by the end of the century.

Since the ice sheets were first monitored by satellite in the 1990s, melting from Antarctica has pushed global sea levels up by 7.2mm, while Greenland has contributed 10.6mm. And the latest measurements show that the world's oceans are now rising by 4mm each year.

"Although we anticipated the ice sheets would lose increasing amounts of ice in response to the warming of the oceans and atmosphere, the rate at which they are melting has accelerated faster than we could have imagined," said Dr. Tom Slater, lead author of the study and climate researcher at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds.

"The melting is overtaking the climate models we use to guide us, and we are in danger of being unprepared for the risks posed by sea level rise."

Will predicted sea rise inundation affect property values in Newcastle, NSW?

• We are looking more and more unlikely to prevent global heating.

• Scientists are predicting the melting of the ice covering Greenland with a subsequent sea level rise of 7m. 

• This rise does not factor in sea rise from the melting of Antarctica and other ice.

"The Antarctic ice sheet, most of which is in East Antarctica, is Earth’s largest freshwater reservoir. If it all melts, it could lead to a 60-meter rise in global sea levels. Current predictions estimate global sea levels will rise one meter by 2100 and more than 15 meters by 2500." SciTechDaily

• Already many properties are likely to flood when a high tide is combined with high local rainfall. What were a hundred year rainfall events are now ten year events.

• The frequency of high rainfall events will increase with global heating and more and more severe hurricanes are predicted because of warmer seas.

• Low coastal areas will be subjected to severe storm surges.

• Would you buy a property likely to be inundated in twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years? Many wouldn't. Even the perception of possible inundation will greatly affect property values.

• When certain properties are in less demand their value falls.

• Would you buy a property with a value likely to fall?
 

Predicted flooding of Newcastle, NSW, with a conservative 1.4m sea rise

•  The view of Newcastle above shows areas likely to be inundated by a conservative 1.4m sea level rise.

• Property above a 10m rise will become highly sought after and will greatly rise in value.

 
 

Predicted flooding of Newcastle, NSW, with a 10m sea rise

•  The view of Newcastle above shows areas likely to be inundated by a 10m sea level rise.

• Property above a 10m rise will become highly sought after and will greatly rise in value.

Learn more about how sea rise inundation will affect Australian property.  

Original article by wewantclimateactionnowblogspot.com.au

Click here to go to Coastal Risk Australia site

Related: 'Retreat' Is Not An Option As A California Beach Town Plans For Rising Seas: NPR

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These appear to be the current planning guidelines for sea rise in NSW. Many scientists would say they are too conservative.

"Sea Level Rise Planning Benchmarks This Guideline adopts the NSW sea level rise planning benchmarks in the NSW Sea Level Rise Policy Statement (2009). The NSW sea level rise planning benchmarks are an increase above 1990 mean sea levels of 40cm by 2050 and 90cm by 2100. These benchmark figures were established by considering the most credible national and international projections of sea level rise for the NSW coast and take into consideration the uncertainty associated with sea level rise projections. These benchmark figures are to be used in NSW when planning for sea level rise.

NSW Coastal Planning guideline: adapting to Sea Level Rise August 2010 " 

 

Newcastle with a 0.7m sea rise by 2100, below the 2010 official government planning estimate of 0.9m.