Bartlett's Blog

For those interested in basic facts about temperature trends in Australia and globally over recent decades, there is a great post over at Lavartus Prodeo by Brian Banisch, who has been following the data and the various scientific reports on this issue for a long time. Very much worth having a read of for those who are just wanting some facts.

It seems more and more likely that the Copenhagen Summit will fall well short of what many people had hoped for. Some hope that the arrivals of some key players like  President Obama and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might still help bring about a positive outcome, but it is hard to see it happening. If the Copenhagen outcome does fall short, a crucial factor in what happens next ...

Last night I attended the public forum I wrote about here, featuring Pacific Island peoples speaknig about the impacts of climate change on their homelands, health and cultures. It was very well attended and the speakers were engaging and enlightening. I've published a piece about it over at Crikey at this link. If for some reaon you want to see my efforts at live-Tweeting the forum, ...

Oxfam Australia has just http://www.oxfam.org.au/media/article.php?id=599 released a report on the impacts of climate change in the Pacific.  It details impacts which are already occurring for some Islands in the Pacific region. The report’s release is timed in the lead up to the http://www.smh.com.au/environment/global-warming/pacific-islanders-cry-for-help-20090726-dxio.html upcoming meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, being held next week in Cairns. That Forum in turn is occurring in the lead up to the climate ...

Anyone in Brisbane who believes climate change presents a serious threat which needs much stronger action than has occurred to date should consider trying to get along to a rally happening tomorrow (Saturday).  It’s being held at 1pm in the city at Queens Park (corner of George & Elizabeth Sts. It’s billed as a National Climate Emergency Rally, and is one of a number of similar rallies being held ...

The federal government has announced its greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020 of a 5 to 15 per cent reduction on what emission levels were in 2000.  The full details are here.  There are lots of figures scattered, which can all feel like a bit of a blur after a while.  But the simple fact is that a 5 per cent reduction target is abysmally low – about the best that ...

I’ve got another speaking engagement coming up next week in Sydney. On Wednesday 26th November, at Customs House in Sydney I’ll be part of a panel at a forum discussing actions on climate change. It’s organised by the Centre for Policy Development.  It is one of their ‘Common Ground’ forums - a concept seeks to encourage public debates that explore areas of agreement to “shine a spotlight on areas ...

The Courier-Mail’s Environment Blog gave a mention to the event I’m speaking at this Saturday. As I wrote last week, it’s from 11am at Reddacliff Place at the top of Queen St Mall – one of a number of similar events being held around the country to promote the environmental benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets. Even the final report by Ross Garnaut has explicitly acknowledged the significant contribution livestock makes ...

Next week is National Vegetarian Week, so be prepared for a larger than usual number of examples of people seeking to inform you of the environmental, health and ethical arguments in favour of eating less meat. As I mentioned around the time of Earth Hour, going without meat for a week has far greater greenhouse benefits than turning your lights off (although every bit of positive behavioural change helps ...

Those who say they accept the general consensus about the threat of rapid and serious climate change but pretend we can prevent it without major and rapid changes to our lifestyle are the real climate change deniers. Even though I strongly disagree with those who genuinely believe that climate change is either not real or doesn’t pose a significant economic, social and environmental threat, I can cope with that ...

There is heaps around the blogs giving some detailed analysis of the government’s greenhouse green paper, (which doesn’t seem very green at all to me). I’ve put a bunch of links at the end of this post. Given the seriousness and urgency of the threat, I’d rather a focus purely on the policy assessments of whether what’s been put forward is likely to have enough of an impact in ...

A new report from the Climate Institute suggests there are big savings Australia can make in improving energy efficiency. While pricing carbon will no doubt help encourage improvements in this area, its another reminder that we need to drive concerted behavioural change, rather than just rely on market forces. The report suggests “there are major opportunities for energy savings in residential, commercial and manufacturing – possibly up to 73%, 70% ...

The huge crowds that attended each of the public forums held by Professor Ross Garnaut after the recent release of his draft report were quite astonishing, but also very reassuring. I went along to the Brisbane meeting last Friday. It was held in the main auditorium in City Hall. It seats over 1000 people and was pretty much full. Given how hard it is to get large numbers of people along ...

A strong sign of the high level of public interest in climate change and carbon trading is the fact that all the public forums held by Ross Garnaut this week following the release of his report have been full. I am hoping to get to the one in Brisbane tomorrow. There’s been ample commentary about the Garnaut Report and the wider issues in the blogosphere and the mainstream media. I ...

Carbon pricing will probably be the hottest ongoing political issue between now and the next election. How to apply it to fuel is already contentious. But I doubt we’ll see anything here remotely like what is being done by some political leaders in Taiwan:

The Worldwatch Institute is running a series to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of one the most politically influential moments in the public debate on climate change. NASA Scientist James Hansen testified before a US Senate Committee hearing on 28 June 1988 that "The Earth is warmer in 1988 than at any time in the history of instrumental measurements. There is only a 1 percent chance of an accidental ...

When Earth Hour was happening at the end of last month and millions of people turned their lights out for an hour on a Saturday night, I put out a media release suggesting that another easy personal action people could take which would have a much bigger impact was to cut back on eating meat and dairy products. It drew some predictable complaints from the livestock and farming lobby, as ...

Robert Merkel notes that Australia’s first carbon sequestration experiment was opened this week. The Otway Basin Project in south-west Victoria is trying to inject up to 100 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide 2km underground in a depleted gas reservoir. In Canada, TransAlta, a power company which is that nation’s largest CO2 emitter, has just announced a partnership with Alstom, a French company who is reportedly the world’s largest coal-power plant maker, ...

I’ve read a lot of fairly negative commentary about Earth Hour, the ‘lights off’ event which is occurring from 8pm tonight. I can understand the cynicism, but I’m always loath to publicly bag anything which might move attitudes and behaviours even a small way in a positive direction, as long as people don’t overstate its impact. It doesn’t do much in terms of reducing emissions in itself, but no one-off action ...

Further on the new studies published in the journal Science which I wrote about in my previous post. George Monbiot, who has written extensively on greenhouse emissions, expands further on some of this new scientific evidence in a piece in The Guardian. He also refers to the growing evidence regarding Peak Oil, which of course is also related. As he points out, all of the 'solutions' such as biofuels "are designed to ...