Need for a ‘call to arms’ - climate action needed.

A prominent Shepparton business leader and government adviser says it is time for district community leaders to step up and deliver solutions to meet the challenge of climate change.

David McKenzie is chair of the Goulburn Regional Partnership, one of a number of statewide bodies that advise the Victorian Regional Development Minister.

David McKenzie calls for action to address climate change.

He is also a director of Goulburn-Murray Water, a co-chair of the water policy think tank Goulburn Murray Irrigation District Water Leadership forum and managing director of property consultancy Opteon Goulburn North East.

Mr McKenzie said a hotter, drier future would present significant disruption over time to agriculture, irrigation and communities in this region.

‘‘That will have a ripple effect through our social fabric and the way towns organise themselves — not just farmers,’’ he said.

‘‘But there’s no call to arms. I am still surprised that leadership organisations and key institutions in the area are not actually anticipating this and showing leadership and asking what can we do to prepare ourselves for this.’’

Mr McKenzie said local leaders needed to take responsibility now, without waiting for governments to act.

‘‘If we wait for national leadership on this, we’re going to be waiting a long time,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s about personal accountability and responsibility.’’

Mr McKenzie said anyone with a local business that generated emissions should act now to reduce them.

He said for him, climate change was not about opinion.

‘‘I hate to use the word belief or believer when it comes to climate change,’’ he said.

‘‘That implies some sort of mystical magic. It’s like ‘do I believe in gravity?’.

‘‘I am a complete accepter of what climate scientists are telling us. It doesn’t worry me whether it’s man-made or a natural part of the cycle — there are a lot of things we could and should be doing as a society to organise ourselves, that we are not doing.

‘‘Part of that is adjusting our human activity to produce less emissions — I mean, why wouldn’t you?’’

Mr McKenzie pointed to a Climate-Ready Victoria report produced by the Victorian Government based on CSIRO figures that predict the climate of Shepparton in 2050 will be more like that of Griffith in the northern Riverina. He said a hotter climate would mean fewer frost hours.

‘‘That has significant implications,’’ he said. ‘‘Most of the fruit grown here needs a certain amount of frost hours to fruit for the next season. So we will need to shift to different crops.’’

Mr McKenzie said research and development, readily accessible information and guidance about how to adapt for individuals, business and agriculture was essential.

‘‘People are not coming together to confront this problem, which is a worry,’’ he said.

‘‘But I don’t think it’s necessarily too late for us to thoughtfully prepare for it.’’ 

● The News will publish more climate change views of community leaders in a subsequent edition.

Story by John Lewis from The Shepparton News - “Need for a ‘call to arms’ - climate action needed.”

Somini Sengupta: Hot Cities on a Hotter Planet

Somini Sengupta.

At a time when the majority of the world’s population is urban, climate change presents grave new risks for the world’s cities and forces city folks to figure out how to survive.

Somini Sengupta, international climate reporter for The New York Times, considers the scale of the problem and the different ways urban populations around the world are rapidly recalibrating to address and counter climate change.

Read the news about this Melbourne Design Week event - “Somini Sengupta: Hot Cities on a Hotter Planet.”

Stephen Hawking's Final Warnings Urged World to Halt Climate Change

Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds on Earth, died peacefully at his home in Cambridge on Wednesday at the age of 76.

Stephen Hawking - final warnings were for
the world to halt climate change

As well as being a renowned physicist whose groundbreaking theories helped us understand the complexities of space, time and the universe, the British professor also taught us about our home planet.

In his last years, Hawking used his platform to warn that human activity is causing irreversible planetary damage and that we must take action to halt climate change.

Read the EcoWatch story by Lorraine Chow - “Stephen Hawking's Final Warnings Urged World to Halt Climate Change.”

Climate scientists warn time is running out to prevent global environmental collapse

Time is running out to prevent a global environmental collapse — that's the stark warning 15,364 of the world's leading climate scientists have sent out.

Scientists from 180 countries, many in the developing world, put their names to the journal article published today in Bioscience, which also predicted temperature rises and unpredictable weather patterns that would cause widespread misery.

But the paper also noted it was not too late for governments to do something about it.

The number is believed to be the largest group of scientists to have ever put their names to a research paper focused on climate change.

Read the ABC News story - “Climate scientists warn time is running out to prevent global environmental collapse.”

ARENA dips into wave energy

ARENA CEO,
Ivor Frischknecht.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing $181,000 funding to support Bombora Wave Power (Bombora) to complete a detailed cost of energy study for its Wave Energy Convertor (WEC).

Bombora’s WEC design uses a responsive rolling membrane fitted to a long concrete arm resting on the sea floor. The membrane pressurises air, which is passed through a turbine to generate electricity.

ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said harnessing energy from the ocean required determination, ingenuity and time.

Read the ARENA release - “New study to uncover wave energy costs.”

Small species really tell the climate change story

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cientists often point to the large-scale effects of climate change as evidence of the phenomenon. Antartica is melting, cities are flooding and temperatures in some parts of the world may top 170ºF, climate scientists say.

But a look at seemingly subtle changes in the world around us can be just as illuminating. New research, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, shows how climate change has affected more than 1,500 insect species collected from a single rooftop in Denmark over 18 years. As temperatures warmed, insects with an affinity for warm climates became more prevalent on the rooftop while some insect species with an affinity for cold climates disappeared, fleeing northward.

Read the Time story - “What 1,500 Bug Species on a Rooftop Tell Us About Climate Change.”

New wind patterns cause longer flights worsening climate change

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onger flights would burn more fuel and contribute more to climate change, a study suggests

Flights over the Pacific Ocean have gotten longer due to climate change-related changes in wind patterns, a shift that could be mirrored in other regions across the globe, according to new research.

Air travel currently accounts for more than 3% of the carbon emissions driving human-caused climate change, and the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggests a feedback loop where longer flight times lead to greater carbon emissions and vice versa. If flight lengths continue to grow as climate change intensifies, so will the industry’s carbon emissions.

Read the Time story - “How Climate Change Could Make Your Flights Longer”.

Our changing climate - quick or contemplative, whatever you prefer

Considering climate change takes time, but Australia’s Climate Council has reduced what is complex to a few easily, and quickly, digested headlines.

Naturally, if you are endowed with more time than most, you can download a read the full summary.

The latest story from this crowd-funded science information body headed: “IPCC Report: more certain than ever the climate change is underway” gives us the latest news – in headline form, or contemplative detail.

Big business profits from troubles arising from 'business as usual'

“Business as usual” is the root cause of climate change and already the world’s corporations have figured out how to profit from this slow motion shipwreck-like event.

Climate change itself has produced its own niche industry and now the “big hitters” have linked their growth to earth’s climatic difficulties.

 

In the story headed: “The Big Business of Global Warming” Time magazine tells us that corporations are betting on climate change — and primed for a big payday when things really heat up.