Done and Dusted!

Well, that's another Christmas and New Year under my much bigger belt and now, while there is a lull in our  summer visitations, I'll try to finish my first blog post for 2013.

I do so love hosting extended family for the holidays. We live in happy chaos for weeks and weeks, with lively children and great big family meals outside under the brolly.

The plentiful spring rain seems to have given our beloved mulberry tree a new lease on life but we do have to fight the birds for our share of  its fruit. The birds scoff at the plastic hawk I hung in the tree to scare them away. I read somewhere that birds can see infra red rays which are invisible to us and the lifeless, raylessness of my hawk is probably a dead give away. However, there are still mulberries in the direct vicinty of the hanging hawk...so perhaps he saved us a few for the picking. The hot 41 deg C day blanched all mulberries on the north side of the tree. It worries me that increased extreme weather events will diminish our harvest of berries, nectarines, apples, citrus and veggies. I can see there will be a need for shade cloths in the future.

Have been doing some renovating at our house and have desperately tried to source sustainable furniture. Can't find any affordable old furniture to fit the space and most shop assistants stare at me blankly when I ask them about the materials used in the making of the furniture. Managers assure me that all Harvey Norman wood is sourced from plantation timber but when I ask them if native forests have been destroyed to create those plantations, blank stares return.

Knowing what we all do about deforestation, overpopulation, pollution, over-consumption, waste and resulting climate change, extinction rates and human misery, why is it that companies are still permitted to source unsustainable, unethical materials? Why is it still legal? It is no longer legal to shoot endangered species ( though around here they fish for endangered tuna in its thousands) or overfish the oceans so why is the world allowing unsustainable, unethical practices in nearly all other areas?

I weep when I think of the destruction we are causing. I weep when I discover that so few seem to know or care.
Humanity is proving itself incapable of collectively making the right choices for the earth and consequently the governments of the world must unite to deal with the environmental emergency. They must legislate. They must enact laws making all unsustainable and unethical practices illegal. It's the only way to go. It's the only way we will save ourselves and all other life forms.

During the Christmas rush this year, despite what we know about climate change and what we know about pollution and waste, I noticed nearly everyone and many young people carrying plastic shopping bags, drinking from non biodegradable coffee cups, cans and single use plastic drink bottles and that nearly all the takeaway and supermarket food was in non-biodegradable, single use, plastic packaging. Those unconscious, uncaring, bad consumer choices by the vast majority of people in the Western world not only effect their own health but also yours and mine because of the devastating effect they have on the earth and all its creatures.

One of my biggest frustrations is the lack of choices available to us. I have reduced my waste and packaging but it has taken a lot of hard work, researching and sourcing products that are sustainable and fair trade and if it has been hard for me, how much harder must it be for those who are not as aware or who are busy and pressured to make bad choices? I too have made some poor choices because of the lack of sustainable options. The best I have achieved is a 75% decrease in single use plastic food containers and packaging...and I must say it feels fantastic to make the right choices. I feel really good about myself!

I have managed to reduce by avoiding plastic bags and drink containers and by always choosing food in glass over plastic but how does one avoid plastic with, say yogurt or cream or cheese or milk? One can avoid cans by buying fresh or dried but even then they are in plastic bags. I think we must all reduce as much as possible and reuse again and again. If we all reduced our usage by 75% the world would be 75%  better off.

But most importantly, we need the right people in government to save us from ourselves and to legislate against unsustainable practices. That's why we need the Greens.

That's why I always vote Green...always... and that's why I will always be a GREENS member. Happy sustainable holidays everyone!

So Many Dead Babies

There have been some very disturbing  photos of children who have become collateral damage in the conflict between Israel and Palestine; very, very confronting photos of babies who could be anybody's children, anywhere in the world but they happen, by some mischance of fate, to have lived in a place where adults could not work things out and so they dropped bombs on each other. How does this solve anything?

When did some bright spark suddenly say...'We can't work it out so let's kill each other instead and if babies get in the way, then we'll kill them too. What a grand idea!'.

How completely rediculous is this? In 2012, when the people of the earth should be uniting to deal with human induced climate change, the greatest threat ever to their existence, there are still countries who cannot share and get along. Instead, they bomb each others babies!

No country should support any side that declares war on any other country because war always kills people, including children. Human death in war is just as much murder as someone shooting people on any busy street anywhere in the world. It is not geographic. It does not cease to be murder simply because it has been perpetrated by a soldier in Palestine or Israel or Syria or Iraq or the Sudan.

However, Palestine must have it's own State and Gaza must be renegotiated and supported by the United Nations...NOW! SO STOP KILLING BABIES PEOPLE! Go to the naughty corner right now and do not come back until you agree to stop fighting! 

HAVE A LOOK AT THIS MAP OF ISRAEL AND TELL ME HOW IT MAKES ANY SENSE AT ALL. THE PALESTINIANS NEED A STATE OF THEIR OWN AND ISRAEL IS ACCRUING MORE AND MORE LAND. THERE WILL NEVER BE PEACE UNTIL THIS IS RESOLVED.

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/lgcolor/palestinianlinks.htm

Coalition 'Fear Through Misinformation' workshops!

I hope you can read these published letters to the editor as they will explain the letter at the end of this post.

And this is my response followed by our Liberal Member Dan Tehan's response!

And there it is! I'm sure the Coalition runs  ' Fear Through Misinformation' workshops for all its MPs. With brain deadening regularity we have heard the same old routine about the evils of the so called carbon 'tax'.

Again, I urge small businesses not to listen to them.

Firstly, Mr.Tehan omits to say that the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee was not unanimous in supporting the application of the carbon price to heavy on-road vehicles. It is yet to be passed in parliament and may not be passed at all.

Even if it is passed, the plan is that carbon pricing for transport fuels will not have an effect at the petrol pump or at service stations. Any extra cost will be handled either through the existing fuel tax system or the new carbon pricing mechanism and after July 1st 2014, small businesses earning under $2 million per year can apply for tax exemptions. Also, there will be a number of grants available to help small businesses become more sustainable.

 Look it up  http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/transport-fuels/  or talk to someone on the Small Business Support Line 1800777275

 Secondly, it's not a 'tax'  but a system of  permits and in 2015 Australian companies will be able to buy and sell permits from the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. That's why it's called a ''price' and not a 'tax'. You cannot sell a 'tax'. The Coalition uses the word 'tax' for its  negative impact. It's not a tax.

Giving pollution a value, initially $23 a tonne and now linked with the fluctuating Euro price, motivates the change to  solar, wind and geothermal. Australia's emissions have reduced considerably since its introduction.

Thirdly, the Greens are most emphatically not a part of the Labor Party. Labor is in a minority government and sometimes, if a vote is close, Greens or Independent MPs will caste the determining vote. It's called 'the balance of power'. All parties were invited to join the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee but the Coalition declined.

Attention all Coalition MPs! Stop acting like petulant children, accept defeat and admit that the price on greenhouse gases is essential to the fight against climate change.

Four-Degrees Briefing for the World Bank: The Risks of a Future Without Climate Policy

ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2012) — Humankind's emissions of greenhouse gases are breaking new records every year. Hence we're on a path towards 4-degree global warming probably as soon as by the end of this century. This would mean a world of risks beyond the experience of our civilization -- including heat waves, especially in the tropics, a sea-level rise affecting hundreds of millions of people, and regional yield failures impacting global food security. These are some of the results of a report for the World Bank, conducted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Climate Analytics in Berlin. The poorest in the world are those that will be hit hardest, making development without climate policy almost impossible, the researchers conclude.

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"The planetary machinery tends to be jumpy, this is to respond disproportionately to disruptions that come with the manmade greenhouse effect," PIK's director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber points out. "If we venture far beyond the 2-degree guardrail, towards 4 degrees, we risk crossing tipping points in the Earth system." This could be the case with coral reefs which face collapse under unabated global warming, or with the Greenland ice sheet. To melt the ice sheet would take thousands of years, yet this might be an irreversible process that could start soon. "The only way to avoid this is to break with the fossil-fuel-age patterns of production and consumption," says Schellnhuber.
Climate impacts: Heat waves, sea-level rise, yield failures
Already today impacts of climate change are observed. The Russian heat wave in 2010, according to preliminary estimates, produced a death toll of several thousand, annual crop failure of about 25%, and economic losses of about US$15 billion. Extreme events like this at 4 degrees global warming would become "the new normal" in some parts of the world, according to the report. In the tropics, the coolest months at the end of the century are likely to be substantially warmer than the warmest months today.
Sea level, under this scenario, would rise by 50 to 100 centimeters within this century, and more so in coming centuries. The rate of rise varies from one region to the other, depending on sea currents and other factors. Projections suggest that sea-level rise will be strongest in countries like the Philippines, Mexico, and India.
Within economic sectors, too, tipping effects with rapidly increasing damages can occur, for instance in agriculture. Already, observations showed that important cereals are sensitive to temperature increases passing certain thresholds, resulting in large-scale yield failure. Changes in the water cycle can aggravate this, when droughts occur or flooding affects farmed land.
World Bank President Kim: "A 4-degree warmer world can, and must be, avoided"
"The report draws from the current state of science and delivers new analysis of heat waves and regional sea-level rise, so of course there remain some uncertainties," says William Hare, co-founder of Climate Analytics in Berlin and guest scientist at PIK. "We work with that by defining risk as potential damage multiplied with the probability -- a rather improbable event can be a great risk if its impacts are huge."
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim who was nominated early this year by US President Barack Obama and assumed his new position in July, has personally been briefed on the 4-degrees report by Schellnhuber some weeks ago in Washington D.C.. "A 4-degree warmer world can, and must be, avoided -- we need to hold warming below 2 degrees," President Kim now said in a statement. "Lack of action on climate change threatens to make the world our children inherit a completely different world than we are living in today. Climate change is one of the biggest single challenges facing development, and we need to assume the moral responsibility to take action on behalf of future generations, especially the poorest."

Wild Weather on Green Action Day: July 2011

Some good news for a change!

On July 10^th 2011, a huge swell rolled in from the Antarctic. Waves were washing over London Bridge  and the gale threatened to blow onlookers off their ledges. As I struggled against the wind, pulling cords and doing up zips with numb, icy fingers, I thought of those who had been shipwrecked in such weather along our coast.

On that day, when I felt vulnerable and powerless in the face of wild weather and a ferocious sea, our country finally took its first steps to reduce its impact on climate change through the introduction of a price on greenhouse gases or as it has come to be incorrectly called, the ‘carbon tax’.

Since then, according to the NOAA’s National Climatic Data Centre, September 2012 has been the warmest month in recorded history and the Earth has experienced 330 consecutive months of above average temperatures. Polar ice is shrinking, forests fires are increasing, species are disappearing and the ocean is heating up and acidifying.

But the news isn’t all bad. Today the Australian Energy Market Operator announced that the price on carbon is working. Since its introduction, there has been a decline in emissions with the greatest reduction in South Australia (which has a strong solar/wind energy sector) of 16.1% and in Vic it was reduced by 8.7%.

As coal and gas fired power continues to decline and renewable energy increases, our future will look ever brighter and July 10^th 2011 will go down in the history of Australia as a great day indeed.


Wild weather & a 'Great Green Action Day'

by Lisa Owen on Monday, July 11, 2011 at 10:22pm


David, Skye and I drove down the coast yesterday to see the huge swell which rolled in from the Antarctic. Waves were gushing over London Bridge and  the Bay of Matyrs and the gale nearly blew us off the ledge. As I stood in the gale and struggled against the wind to weather proof my raincoat by pulling cords and doing up zips with numb, icy fingers, I thought of the plight of those who were shipwrecked in such weather along our coast, in a time when sailing ships and horses were the only forms of transport in this huge country.
The weather was awesome in the truest sense of that word and I experienced first hand its beautiful and frightening power.
And so, this is how I will remember the day when Australia's price on carbon was announced. On the day I felt vulnerable and powerless in the face of wild weather and a ferocious sea, our country finally took the steps to do something about climate change. Hopefully most Australians have accepted that humans have become a shaping force on this planet's climate and they have also accepted that it is our responsibility to do what we can to make it right again.
Thank you to our Green parliamentarians for making these measures possible. I extend my love and gratitude to them all. The Greens are absolutely a force for good in Australian politics.
Now we have to make sure that the Liberal Party and Tony Abbott do not become Govt at the next election. To prevent such a catastrophe you, the grass roots people, must spread the word and talk to everyone you know about the price on carbon.
Tell them how positive it will be for you, your children and your grandchildren. Tell them that it will foster the development of clean renewable energy, create new business opportunities and over a million new jobs and finally it will encourage the closure of dirty coal fired power stations with assistance to coal workers to gain other forms of employment. Governments at all levels will work together to make this possible.
Talk to everyone you know and spread the word. You are more powerful and influential than you realise. If you dare to raise the topic with fellow workers, neighbours, friends, extended family and community group members, you will have a big impact. Your efforts will help save us from catastrophic climate change.

Happy Green Action Day

Irene Sendler was a 'people smuggler' in Poland.

Meet Irene Sendler 'people smuggler'.  She was born in Poland in 1910 and was a Catholic Social worker who worked in the Polish underground, the 'Zegota Resistence' organisation, in Warsaw during World War 2. She helped to smuggle 2,500 Jewish children out of Poland during this time.

Not all people smugglers are bad. Many of those who actually run the boats are poor, simple fishermen, often teenagers, whose fisheries have been fished out by foreign owned supertrawlers such as the Dutch supertrawler waiting to overfish Bass Strait at this very moment!

In many countries, ocean fisheries are being destroyed in an attempt to feed huge populations of people all around the world who demand seafood at the ready. They are also being destroyed by pollution, plastic, oil and gas drilling and climate change. The Fukishima nuclear reactor melt down in Japan has successfully wiped out whole fishing industries for many years to come...possibly forever.

Fisherman in small fishing villages throughout our region have lost their traditional food source and income, so now they must look elsehwere to use their 'leaky' boats. The real criminals are the 'mafia' style opportunists who pay the fishermen a pittance for their leaky boats and for their services.

But my point is this: without such people smugglers and leaky boats the probability is that many more people would have died because they would not have been able to escape death or incarceration in their country of origin.

Why is this so clear to some and not to others?

About death and other life experiences.

Tragic day for Australians. Tragic day for asylum seekers.

Today is a sad day in the history of Australia! Despite the fact that theGreens were prepared to work with the Government on a new regional approach, Labor and Liberal, or rather 'Laberal', voted together to reinstate a harsher version of John Howard’s Pacific Solution.

The Greens want to save the lives of refugees right now, not by punishing them but rather by providing safe alternatives to boarding leaky boats. Condemning refugees to indefinite detention on the island prisons and mental illness factories of Nauru and PNG’s Manus Island is inhumane, immoral and illegal.

This regression back to the draconian policies used by Howard is against theadvice of experts such as former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Julian BurnsideQC, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Australian of the year Patrick McGorry, refugee law academicsand the Refugee Council of Australia, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre,Amnesty International, Get Up!, Christian and human rights groups and others.

‘Laberal’s’ assumption that Howard’s off shore processing worked, is very wrong! The only thing that altered the number of people seeking asylum in Australia was a change in the situation affecting the country from which they were escaping.
Caring for refugees requires a regional humanitarian response based on legal protections for refugees, not a quick political fix.

The ALP should work with the Greens toward taking the pressure off refugees to board boats in the first place, rather than punishing them once they have. Refugee advocates approve the Green’s New Regional Plan of Action to provide safer pathways for people seeking asylum in Australia and if the government had any sense on this matter, it would too.