The Politics of Climate Change

b y Who are you voting for? What are the candidates/parties positions on issues such as climate change? What do YOU know about these issues? What are your sources of information? Do you consider these sources reliable and unbiased? I asked myself these questions and challenged my own beliefs in an attempt to find reason in some of the controversial decisions made by political leaders here in Australia and overseas. In doing so I reinforced my initial beliefs but awakened to a concerning reality. I also realised how misguided we can become by simply exposing ourselves to politics and the media, who play the role of persuasion and influence, whether theyre right or wrong, or actually believe in what they represent. It is so important that we think for ourselves on what the real issues are with reference to unbiased, factual, reliable sources of information, rather than accepting the words of our political leaders or media presenters without question. D a v i d W o l f s o n

Natural Gas Extraction With growing pressures to find alternatives to fossil fuels, leaders from powerful countries around the world including Australia are turning to Natural gas extraction as a clean energy alternative to reduce carbon emissions. However, scientists have done studies on natural gas and natural gas extraction, and have all come to the same conclusion - Methane

gas has a global warming potential that is far greater than that of carbon dioxide. Gas mines have been proven to leak, releasing methane and harmful chemicals into aquafers and the atmosphere, causing groundwater contamination, major threats to animal habitat, and extreme health risks to surrounding communities to the extent that they become uninhabitable. So why is this happening? In the 50s, Hill and Knowlton, the PR firm for Big Tobacco, helped design the strategy to dispel the evidence that smoking caused lung cancer. Mis-information and bogus science would call into doubt the legitimate science. In 2009, anga Americas National Gas Alliance hired Hill and Knowlton as their PR firm. Just like the tobacco industry had memos locked away showing the harmful effects of tobacco, the gas industry has memos showing that the cement casings surrounding the gas pipes are prone to leaks. Graphs put together by the mining industry show that 5% fail immediately, and over time the chance of failure increases to 50% after 30 years. Another document states that industry will drill more wells in the next decade than have been drilled in the last 100 years. It also shows that of the 1.8 million wells in the world today, 35% have failed. These documents were leaked and published. Gas well failures are being recorded here in Australia and the same strategies are being used to influence land owners and communities where mining companies want to drill. Our government and the mining industry know the damage natural gas extraction is having and its threat to climate change, but they choose to ignore it as they are more concerned with getting more gas out of the ground and supporting economic growth. But which part of the economy does mining support? Eighty-three percent of the coal industry is foreign-owned so profits go overseas. There are deals being done to ensure that foreign workers get employed in WA and Qld. Local workers that are flown in and out of mining towns get such big wages that local businesses, manufacturing industries, and community-building services such as teaching, nursing and policing cant compete and struggle to find workers.

For years politicians have used a common strategy to dodge the issue of climate change, which is this:

An ordinary person who doesnt know what to think, doesnt need to think that climate change is not real or coal seam gas is not as destructive as scientists have proved it to be. They just need to think that theres disagreement about these questions, because as long as theres disagreement, theres an argument for staving off environmental regulation. However, just because some politician, shock jock, or industry-funded organization, expresses disagreement, or minimizes the seriousness of the problem, does not mean that their positions are reasonable. Scientific evidence has just about exhausted any credibility this strategy has when applied to climate change, with 97% of scientists agreeing that climate-warming trends over the past century are due to human activities, with the mining industry being the leading contributor through fossil fuel and natural gas extraction (Methane gas).

The Liberal Party have been climate change skeptics. In the past, Tony Abbott has said climate change is crap, and Senator Minchin has claimed that the world is not warming but cooling, and climate change is part of a vast left-wing conspiracy to de-industrialise the world.

That said, our political leaders have changed their strategy this election to plain old ignorance and political diversion, made easier by the issue of asylum seekers and Australias debt crisis. In the Liberals 50-page Plan, theres a measly one-and-a-half pages of environmental policy. Not only does the plan fall miles short of a realistic approach to climate change, it doesnt even mention climate change or renewable energy initiatives. The last policy of the environmental plan states: We will streamline the environmental approval process for all users resulting in less duplication across federal and State jurisdictions and delivering a real boost to the nations productivity. This is not a strategy to Deliver a cleaner and more sustainable environment, as the chapter is titled, but a furtive strategy to remove so-called green tape, basically allowing developers and mining companies to skim past environmental and other regulatory bodies in order to speed up development, production and investment. The damage already caused by coal seam gas projects demonstrates that existing environmental controls have been ineffective, but Mr. Abbott would emasculate them further. So what are the Labour Party doing about climate change? Kevin Rudd has made an announcement to scrap the carbon tax by July 2014, bringing the transition to a floating emissions trading scheme (ETS) forward by 12 months. Labour claims that it will cut at least 150 million tonnes of pollution by 2020 and see at least 20 per cent of energy come from a renewable source. Are the major parties proposed climate change strategies good enough? Science says no. With government climate change policies in place, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology state that Australias average temperatures are still projected to rise by 1.0 to 5.0C by 2070. This is not good enough when you consider the scientific projection that 40 - 70% of species will face extinction when temps rise above 4 degrees celsius.

The Answer 100% Renewable Energy. A complete shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy has been the answer for far too long. A study has proven that the entire world can be powered through clean renewable energy, with supply matching demand through a combination of Wind Farms, Concentrated Solar power, Geothermal power, Hydro-electric power and Tidal and Wave power. With a move away from fossil fuels on the horizon, there needs to be a major push for renewables. This means action by every citizen to stand up to the mining industry and our government and say NO! its not okay to usher in a new era of environmental destruction through natural gas extraction, for your financial benefit and at the expense of Australian communities. Finally, The Australian Greens believe that: Human induced climate change poses the greatest threat to our world, and urgent and sustained local, national and global action is required in this critical decade to 2020 to ensure a safe climate. We need to plan for a future that does not rely on fossil fuels for export or electricity generation.

They have outlined their aims in a 17 point document. Important points include:
- Net zero or net negative Australian greenhouse gas emissions within a generation. - 100% stationary electricity in Australia from renewable sources as soon as possible by

increasing the renewable energy target (RET) and in addition measures such as feed-in tariffs and regulations to support a range of prospective new renewable energy technologies.
- A leading role for Australia in negotiation of a multilateral emission abatement treaty

which shares the burden equitably.

- Research, development and commercialisation of sustainable alternative fuels. - A leading role for Australia in negotiation of a multilateral emission abatement treaty

which shares the burden equitably.

- No new coal-fired power stations or coal mines, and no expansions to any existing power

stations or mines, plus the development of programs to assist coal dependent communities to make the transition to other more sustainable sources of economic prosperity. These are just some of the important aims that The Greens are fighting for. So we have to ask ourselves, are we going to be the generation that puts a stop to the onset of climate change through a push for renewable energy? Or are we going to be the ones who push it too far, and provoke catastrophic tipping points threaten to destroy our planet.

A Snapshot of Climate Change Some Facts

- Global sea level rose about 17 centimeters in the last century. The rate in the last decade,

however, is nearly double that of the last century.

- Most of the earths warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years since

1981, and the 10 warmest occurring in the past 12 years. In the 2012-13 summer, Australia registered:
- the warmest SeptemberMarch on record - the hottest summer on record, the hottest month on record - the hottest day on record. - Greenland lost 150 - 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year between 2002 - 2006, while

Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers of ice between 2002 and 2005.
- Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world including in the Alps,

Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.

- Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has

increased by about 30 percent.

Effects
- Diminished food and water supplies - Loss of biodiversity and animal extinction. As global average temperature exceeds 4C

above pre-industrial levels, model projections suggest extinctions of 40 - 70% of species around the globe.
- Spread of disease through the migration of disease carrying insects caused by warming

climate. The Deadly Dozen is a group of 12 diseases that have been identified as those most likely to spread due to global warming. It includes Avian Flu, Cholera, Plague, Ebola and Tuberculosis.
- Increased probability of extreme weather events and natural disasters. - Increased chronic health threats caused by vehicular fumes, ground-level ozone, airborne

industrial pollution, stagnant hot air, and water contamination.

- Freeing up of tectonic masses as a result of diminishing glaciers can lead to massive

earthquakes and volcanic activity which are capable of creating tsunamis.

- Migration, conflict and wars Heavily populated areas becoming uninhabitable and

dwindling resources in struggling countries will lead to the displacing of millions and conflict over precious resources.

Tipping points Permafrost Methane Time Bomb A vast expanse of permafrost in Siberia and Alaska has started to thaw for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago. It is caused by the recent 3+C rise in local temperature over the past 40 years more than four times the global average. Peat bogs cover an area almost a quarter of the earths land surface, to a depth of 25m.Those in Siberia are the world's largest. This has the potential to release vast quantities of methane trapped by ice below the surface billions of tonnes of methane, equivalent to the burning of a centurys worth of fossil fuel.

The Clathrate Smoking Gun Clathrates are ice-like structures found in the cold northern bogs and the bottom of seas. They hold the highest concentration of methane on planet earth. The possibility of violent methane degassing (or "burping") has been called the clathrate gun hypothesis. Clathrate destabilisation is at risk if the oceans bottom waters warm up to 8C.

Collapse of the Greenland Glaciers The latest US Navy survey of the disintegration of glacial ice mass suggests there will be no sea ice left in the Arctic summer by 2016. This has been unprecedented within the entire record of human species. The Greenland, Alaskan and West Antarctic ice sheets together hold about 25% of the fresh water on the planet. If they disintegrate, the sea level could rise nearly 20 meters, possibly in one decade. This would swamp most cities and ports, as well as much of the best agricultural land.

Carbon Sink Reversal Since Kyoto most of the industrially popular solutions to climate change, especially in Europe, entail Carbon Offsets, which involve purchasing trees that will absorb C02, or committing to low-emission enterprises in developing countries. The Kyoto Treaty was founded on the assumption that C02 stimulated trees to grow. This economically and environmentally friendly premise is now uncertain, if not false. When trees come under stress as temps rise, they release C02 during photosynthesis. This is happening in some areas now. This complicates the entire Kyoto campaign, as forests will no longer act as C02 sinks but rather will be CO2 emitters. There will be less and less benefit in planting trees and we will have to find other solutions.

Amazon Forest in Critical Danger Scientists have found that the Amazon is rapidly approaching a tipping point that would lead to its total destruction. An experiment took place to test how a part of the forest would cope without rain over 3 years. The trees managed the first year without difficulty. The roots sunk deeper in the second year to find water. By the third year they were dying, crashing down to expose the forest floor to the sun. By the end of the third year, the trees had released more than two-thirds of their C02. The permanence of the El Nino climate from the Pacific is altering the precipitation in Amazonia and threatening periods of drought. The immense forest of the Amazon contains 90 billion tons of carbon, enough to increase the rate of global warming by 50 per cent.

References
http://www.ucsusa.org http://climate.nasa.gov/ http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/ http://www.alp.org.au/ http://www.liberal.org.au/ http://www.greens.org.au/ http://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au http://www.cana.net.au http://coalseamgasnews.org http://www.planetextinction.com http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com http://www.businessspectator.com.au http://www.greenpeace.org/australia http://www.lockthegate.org.au Documentaries GasLand - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8 GasLand Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzx7UXzK_z4 Chasing Ice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIZTMVNBjc4 Extreme Ice Survey - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKY36E_rlNo The End of The Line - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bedirwk95Oc Gas Leak! by Four Corners - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayhPNCUoQ7I Books Rich Land, Wasteland: How Coal is Killing Australia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Lg7Yxw-AU