Endless economic growth and sustainability not compatible

C

an Australians be sustainable and enjoy endless economic growth? It’s not likely.

Professor Mark
Diesendorf.

In a recent article on The Conversation, Steve Hatfield-Dodds argued that sustainability was possible in Australia without sacrificing economic growth.

He also argued the necessary policy changes would not require fundamental changes to Australians' values. This research was based on a detailed paper in Nature and modelling undertaken for CSIRO’s recent National Outlook Report.

Contrary to this pro-growth outlook, I will argue that sustainability would be almost impossible to achieve in practice without ending growth in population and consumption per person.

Read the thoughts of Associate Professor Mark Diesendorf, of the University of New South Wales, published on The Conversation - “We can achieve sustainability – but not without limiting growth.”

Prof Diesendorf is known to some in the Goulburn Valley as he spoke at a Slap Tomorrow energy forum in Mooroopna last year.

Mark Diesendorf told GV audience a year ago, now the argument is global

M

ark Diesendorf visited told a Goulburn Valley audience a year ago that

Emily Rochon of Greenpeace -
totally renewable by 2050.

Australia was well placed to immediately switch to 100 per cent renewable energy.

The associate professor from the University of New South Wales told about 200 people that a mixture of power sources made renewable energy entirely possible.

And now Greenpeace says the world can be 100 percent renewable by 2050, and 85 percent renewable in just 15 years.

A ClimateProgress story says: “The 2015 Energy [R]evolution report, the latest in a series that has offered the most accurate projections of any major analysis, worldwide, says that for the first time, the path to 100 percent renewable is cost-neutral. In addition, no new technological advancements are needed, the report says.”

“It’s basically political will,” Emily Rochon, a global energy strategist at Greenpeace, told ThinkProgress. “The primary premise of the Energy [R]evolution scenario is we have all of the solutions already on the table to get there.”

Read the story - “This Report Says The World Can Go 100 Percent Renewable By 2050”.

From Mooroopna to the Age - Mark Diesendorf's message is consistent

M

ark Diesendorf was one of the four speakers Slap Tomorrow brought to Mooroopna to discuss energy and here he writes in the Melbourne Age.

Mark Diesendorf -
he believes the
era of coal is over.

He says: “The writing is on the wall for coal-fired power in Australia. Despite federal government attempts to stop the growth of renewable energy, all they can do is delay the inevitable transition.

“Tasmania already has almost 100 per cent renewable electricity, based on hydro supplemented by wind. The ACT is on track to reach its target of 90 per cent net renewable electricity by 2020, based on solar and wind.

“South Australia, with no freshwater hydro-electric potential, is the leading mainland state in the transition to renewable energy. Last year 33 per cent of its annual electricity consumption was generated by the wind and 6 per cent from rooftop solar. Furthermore, its electricity system has already operated reliably and stably for hours when the contribution of variable renewable energy reached two-thirds of demand. Recently wind power and gas coped admirably when the coal-fired Northern power station went unexpectedly offline.”

Read his comment piece - “Say goodbye to coal power in Australia”.

From Mooroopna to The Conversation - Mark Diesendorf

S

lap Tomorrow brought Mark Diesendorf to Mooroopna last year and he explained to about 200 people how Australia could immediately switch to renewable energy.

Mark Diesendorf.

And now the Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, University of New South Wales writes on The Conversation about: “Accidents, waste and weapons: nuclear power isn’t worth the risks”.

He writes: “The case for expanding nuclear energy is based on myths about its status, greenhouse gas emissions, proliferation, accidents, wastes and economics.”

Eagerness for action and participation at Slap Energy forum

There appeared to be an “Eagerness for action and participation,” according to one audience member at Friday’s Slap Energy Forum at Mooroopna’s Westside auditorium.

Slap Tomorrow president, John Pettigrew.

The Melbourne audience member, one of more than 200 people at the forum said, “It’s wonderful and offers much hope”.

“I was so pleased that time was given to really explore things, especially through audience questions,” she said.

Friday night’s event was organized by the Shepparton-based group, Slap Tomorrow and was dedicated to reviewing and considering future energy options for this region.

The speakers were Dr Mark Deisendorf, of the University NSW, Dr Gordon Rodgers, Director of Applied Horticultural Research and David Coote a bioenergy lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

They told the audience that renewable energy was no longer a utopian dream, but a realistic option for the Goulburn Valley.

All said the necessary infrastructure was readily available “off the shelf” and had already been implemented successfully in many parts of the world.

Thinker, comedian and advisor to the Melbourne Sustainability Society Institute, Rod Quantock oversaw proceedings and opened with a whiteboard presentation that enabled him to illustrate his unpredictable comic style, but convey a powerful message about the damage our present life-style is causing to the earth.

The question and answer session allowed many to question the speakers, including GV community Energy’s CEO, Geoff Lodge, who joined the panel to introduce local knowledge and experience into the session.

Slap Tomorrow chairman, Mr John Pettigrew, said the key messages from the night were:

Why not create local jobs and maintain economic activity here in the Goulburn Valley, rather than support jobs in Gippsland and have profits flow not just out of our region, but in many cases overseas?

How we could replace base-load power with a mix of renewable options, including large and small scale solar, bio-energy, gasification and fermentation.

Renewable options are getting cheaper and in many cases have a capital return inside seven years.

The fact that the Goulburn Valley has the resources available to feed these renewable options, sunlight and a rich variety of waste lines.
Mr Pettigrew said it is plainly obvious that the Goulburn Valley has the personal and technical resources to readily adapt to a renewable energy industry.

Slap Tomorrow’s next event on Wednesday, December 17, will see the artist responsible for the “Four Horsemen of the 21^st Century Apocalypse”, Penny Byrne discuss reasons for the Shepparton Art Museum owned four-piece sculpture with the University of Melbourne’s, Prof Kate Auty.

 

Great news on wind power for Canberra

Mark Diesendorf illustrates conclusively that renewable energy can power life in Australia.

The University of New South Wales Dr Diesendorf is known for promoting and encouraging the use of renewable energy, particularly in industry, and has worked with and researched thoroughly the idea of integrating wind power into electricity grids.

He would be delighted to read the story in The Canberra Times of March 12 this year headed: “Wind energy to power 80,000 Canberra homes”.

Dr Diesnedorf, who late last year published the book: “Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change” is an enthusiast of any energy that is not reliant on fossil fuels.

The ACT Government plans for see nearly a quarter of the city’s energy needs answered from renewable sources by 2020.

Swanpool Environmental Film Festival on again in June

Back again in June this year will be the Swanpool Environment Film Festival.

The success of last year’s inaugural event encouraged organizer’s to stage a similar event this year.

Preparations are now well underway for the Swanpool Environmental Film Festival 2014 following the success of at year’s inaugural event.

Professor Kate Auty as our MC for the day and will also deliver an opening address. 
Until recently, Prof Auty was the Victorian Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainability until her recent resignation three months before her five year term was completed.

Prof Auty became disenchanted with the State Government over its refusal to talk about Climate Change and only address it as ‘climate variability’, with the inference being that we are only on an upswing and it could go down again.

The two other two guest speakers are Dr. Mark Diesendorf from the Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW, and Prof. Peter Kanowski from ANU.

Mark’s interests include the interdisciplinary fields of sustainable energy, sustainable urban transport, theory of sustainability, ecological economics, and practical processes by which government, business and other organisations can achieve ecologically sustainable and socially just development.

He has recently written a book on renewable energy and how it can be a replacement for fossil fuels.  His book will be available on the day.

Peter Kanowski has recently been working in Indonesia for the Centre for International Forestry and is now returning to ANU.

Mark Deisendorf.

His research interests include forest and environmental governance, work on bushfire policy, forest practices, indigenous Australians and forestry, market-based mechanisms such as forest certification, plantation policy, and the state of environment reporting.

The films will be chosen to match the subjects.  Again we will have three sessions, but for the first session this year we are planning to screen a selection of shorter films which will be of local interest.

Catering will be provided by the S&DCDA catering team and they have already chosen an impressive menu.  Tickets for the event will be $20 which includes full catering.  The tickets will be presold on line from mid-May with some being available at the ticket box prior to the event.  All entry is by ticket only so purchase early.

Check out how and when you can purchase tickets at the festival website. 

Nice blokes and good ideas seem to go together, naturally

Mark Diesendorf is patently an intelligent fellow who understands many things about mitigating climate change, but beyond that, and probably even more important, he is simply a nice bloke.

Professor John Wiseman from
the Melbourne Sustainable
 Society Institute (MSSI).

Interestingly, most of those who care about preserving life as we know on our planet and have a sweeping interest in all things human, and rather than the mechanical preserve of the contemporary world seem to be gentle and kind.

Melbournians, probably more than 100 of them, had the chance on Tuesday night to bask in the scholarly comfort afforded by Mark Diesendorf.

Mark, who teaches environmental studies at the University of New South Wales and in December last year published “Sustainable Energy Solutions For Climate Change”, talked at his work, all of which is detailed in his book.

The New South Wales energy expert spoke at an event organized by the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) and was welcomed and introduced by the institute’s deputy director, Professor John Wiseman.

Dr Diesendorf began by explained sustainable energy and argued in support of good reasons as to why we should push for the adoption of sustainable energy.

Pointing to the many good reasons for pushing for the use of sustainable energy, Mark said it, along with other technologies and behavioural change, would play a major role in the mitigation of climate change.

Mark’s lecture was recorded and can be heard here on this MSSI link.

A 'base-load believer' in just 13 minutes

by Robert McLean

Mark Diesendorf took about 13 minutes to convince me that renewable energy was the key to powering the world.

Much reading and listening had left me hugely suspicious that renewable energy would be unable to produce the base load power that modern society needed.



Dr Mark Diesendorf.

In just one 13 minute interview recently on Radio National, Dr Diesendorf illustrated beyond doubt that renewable energy had the necessary capabilities and capacity to answer the demands of our industrial society.

Dr Diesendorf, from the University of New South Wales’ Institute of Environmental Studies, only late last year published the book: “Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change”.

Beyond that, Professor Diesendorf will be the keynote speaker at an “Energy Forum” in Shepparton, Victoria, on Friday, September 26, this year staged by Slap Tomorrow.

Writing in his book, Dr Diesendorf said: “With smart design, a predominantly renewable electricity system can be just as reliable as one based on fossil fuels”.

Pointing to the complications associated with our use of fossil fuels, he wrote: “They are the major cause of global climate change; a major cause of air pollution with widespread severe impacts on human health; a significant cause of water pollution and land degradation; have very limited reserves (especially oil and good quality coal); are only relatively cheap because their environmental, health, social and some economic costs are excluded from their prices; are controlled by huge corporations and create relatively few jobs per unit of energy generated.

“Of the fossil fuels used on a large-scale, coal is the most damaging in terms of environmental and health impacts.

“Also, coal mining is one of the most dangerous occupations, even in industrialized countries,” he wrote.

Dr Diesendorf has encouraged people to think about the long-term, rather than falling into the trap of considering policies and ideas in a relation to the next electoral cycle.

“In practice,” he said, “scenarios may involve a mixture of forecasting and back-casting.”

“But without credible visions of a sustainable future and strategies to achieve them, it will be impossible to avoid devastating, irreversible changes to earth’s climate,” he wrote.

The efforts of Beneath the Wisteria and its sister organization, Slap Tomorrow, might sometimes seem nebulous and mostly a little like associating only with like-minded people, but Dr Diesendorf underlines the importance of their work.

He says: “Individual actions are necessary and valuable, but not sufficient to meet the challenge of climate change. To gain effective climate change policies from government, and business, pressure from a climate action movement is needed.”

“The first and key responsibility is, as citizens, to exercise our democratic rights collectively to demand that our governments take rapid and effective action by implementing appropriate laws, regulations and standards, pricing and funding policies, education and information, industry polices, institutional change and population polices,” he wrote.

Diesendorf has a message that all should listen and respond positively to, but they won’t.

Research clearly shows that unless a message rests comfortably with the recipient’s personal values, it simply becomes just another part of society’s “noise” that quickly leaks into the mental waste bin.

Sadly we can’t afford to let such critical messages as that told by Diesndorf in “Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change” to simply “leak” away and so it rests with those of us concerned about the less than encouraging impacts of climate change to keep the message alive and tell it, repeatedly, until the people and our government begin to respond positively.  

Slap Tomorrow stages a trio of forums about health in a changing climate

Slap Tomorrow staged a trio of forums in Shepparton yesterday (March 27) at which the focus was on Community Health in Tomorrow’s Climate.

The trio of seminars was less than successful (if you measure success in terms of numbers attending), but overwhelmingly productive in terms of the information provided by the speakers, contacts made and lessons learned.

The convenor of the Climate and Health Alliance, Fiona Armstrong, and RMIT PhD scholar, Alianne Rance, talked to about 20 people at Shepparton’s Rural Health Academic Centre.

Fiona and Alianne were joined by the joint Victorian State coordinators of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Philippa Wright and Cameron Wheatley, for a rather special forum at Shepparton’s McGuire College.

Each of the visitors talked about how they became a climate change advocate and then the 30 or so students broke into three groups in which they listened to and discussed what they thought about climate change and how it would impact on their lives.

Dr Mark Diesendorf.

At seven that evening the four speakers, along with the moderator for the night, Victoria’s Environmental and Sustainability Commissioner, Professor Kate Auty, took about 40 people on a journey that helped them understand how climate change and community health would interact.

Slap Tomorrow, a group that has arisen from the monthly meetings of Shepparton’s Beneath the Wisteria, is now quite formal recently becoming incorporated and affiliated for insurance purposes with the Dhurringile Land Care Group.

Slap Tomorrow has a further forum arranged for Friday, September 26, that will look primarily at energy and for that event has organized Dr Mark Diesendorf from the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales as the keynote speaker.

Dr Diesendorf, who recently published “Sustainable Energy for Climate Change”,  interests include the interdisciplinary fields of sustainable energy, sustainable urban transport, theory of sustainability, ecological economics, and practical processes by which government, business and other organisations can achieve ecologically sustainable and socially just development.