Act over climate change

Are we now experiencing the devastating effects of human-assisted climate change through the fires that are devastating communities across Australia?

If so, what should we do? Before proceeding, I should state my credentials. I am not a climate change guru but just a normal, retired working man. However, since 1991 I have listened to the overwhelming scientific research and through Doctor Google noted the development of historical changes to the Earth’s climate.

These moved at a glacial pace compared to the speed of the past 100 years.

So, what can we do?

I do not have the answers but I can make suggestions and hopefully stir people to get involved.

Leadership at the federal level is critical, as we must join with other leading countries in setting and producing feasible targets. Will this happen? On the home front, a body of people could be established to advise the government.

This grouping could include scientists, economists, grassroots activists and, importantly, young people.

I must stress that by the time a 16-year-old reaches 40, it will be 2044 — almost at the tipping point for the climate.

This is not a concern for me as I am in my late 80s but for my great-grandchildren it is something I cannot imagine.

As for climate deniers being involved, no way, as the science is in and the public are restless.

I must emphasise that advice to government must be enacted.

In dealing with fires we could increase our air capability and our mobility on the ground.

Maybe we could halve the money being spent on submarines for use against an unidentified enemy and which may still be in production as we near the tipping point.

Or, how about a fire strike force on standby all year?

Not cheap, but out-of control fires are not cheap to deal with either.

Water? How much water has been used so far since the first fire last spring? How do we prepare ourselves for the future use of water when fighting fires?

More importantly, where does this water come from? A network of pipelines carrying only sea water stored for firefighting only may not sound feasible but this is possible. Fresh water is fast becoming a scarce commodity so should not be used for firefighting.

What about you, me and our fellow citizens? What can we do? Plenty.

We should ask ourselves the following questions: Are we ready to give up our reliance on petrol/diesel-powered vehicles? Are we ready to use cheap and reliable public transport that means giving up the convenience provided by the car?

Watch people driving to work — one person in one car seems to be the norm. Probably the most inefficient method of transport invented by mankind.

The use of horses, bicycles, scooters, public transport and Shanks’ pony (walking) are more cost effective than the car. The downside is that we have to move more slowly — a real difficulty for many people, as the need for speed (not the drug) seems to be part of our DNA.

Electric cars may be the answer to part of this problem and our congratulations should go to the Greater Shepparton City Council on the purchase of two electric cars.

This will probably lead to our whole fleet being electric.

I would like people to respond with their thoughts, and if there is a good response maybe the News will provide space for a weekly column on our climate and our future.

A lot of questions, and the answers are not easy but need to be urgently addressed.

Letter in The Shepparton News from Bill Brown - “Act over climate change.”

‘I don't know how we come back from this': Australia's big dry sucks life from once-proud towns

Australia is experiencing one of its most severe droughts on record, resulting in desperate water shortages across large parts of New South Wales and southern Queensland. Dams in some parts of western NSW have all but dried up, with rainfall levels through the winter in the lowest 10% of historical records in some areas.

Sheep kick up the dust in a bare paddock on a
property along the Brewarrina-Coolabah road in Central NSW. 

The crisis in the far west of the state became unavoidable after the mass fish kills along the lower Darling River last summer, but now much bigger towns closer to the coast, including Dubbo, are also running out of water.

Residents of three distinct areas talked to Guardian Australia about the state of their towns under extreme stress from water shortages, expressing anxiety about their future but also determination to keep communities alive.

Read the story from The Guardian by Anne Davies, Ben Smee and Lorena Allam - “‘I don't know how we come back from this': Australia's big dry sucks life from once-proud towns.”

Too Hot for Work?

With temperatures breaking records every summer, we’re already living through climate change’s fallout. But some communities are experiencing more effects than others, especially when it comes to working conditions: Dirty air strafes our lungs on our daily commutes, power plants pump smog into downwind neighborhoods, and farm laborers are getting roasted alive.

Construction workers on day in downtown Los Angeles
 with record-breaking temperatures, July 6, 2018.

In the United States, heat-related death and illness poses one of the most immediate and widespread risks linked to global-warming trends. In July alone last year, according to Public Citizen, “An average of 1.1 million agriculture and construction workers labored in extreme conditions each day.” A study on hospitalizations in Los Angeles from 2005 to 2010 found that heat-related emergency-room visits grew by about 8 percent with each percentage increase in residents working in construction, and by 11 percent for every comparable rise in the farming, forestry, and related outdoor sectors.

Read the story by Michelle Chen from The Nation - “Too Hot for Work?”

The top solar postcodes in Victoria and NSW

Rooftop solar has been growing rapidly in Australia and while Melbourne's commuter belt is experiencing strong take-up, in NSW the greatest growth is occurring outside Sydney.

The level of rooftop solar in Australia is rising rapidly.

Australian aerial imagery company Nearmap has utilised the latest Clean Energy Regulator data to show the top five postcodes for rooftop solar energy growth in NSW and Victoria as of March.

"From the ground, it can be difficult to see the progress our country is making to reduce energy costs and our carbon footprint, but when you look at it from the air, you can observe in incredible detail the renewable energy uptake occurring across our country," Nearmap executive Shane Preston said.

"We’ve been capturing aerial images of Australia for the last 10 years, and have recently seen a dramatic change in the rooftop landscape, with many more solar panels on Aussie homes.”

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Age - “The top solar postcodes in Victoria and NSW.”

Stick to your knitting, a gentle and crafty way to change the world

It’s not obvious that someone knitting in front of their television could be trying to save the world. But they could be. “Craftivism” – the use of craft for activism – is experiencing a surge. Craftivist Sarah Corbett has recently published a book on the topic, How to be a Craftivist, which will sit in the craftivist library alongside other recent titles such as Protest Knits, Really Cross Stitch, and Crafting the Resistance. Sure, craft is quiet, and repetitive, and it’s often done inside and alone, but it’s proving to be an effective means of campaigning for change.

Knitting nannas celebrate 100 consecutive weeks
of protesting against CSG mining in NSW.

Craftivism has already played a memorable role in protesting US President Trump at Women’s Marches around the world. In reference to the uncouth comment Trump made about “grabbing” women “by the pussy”, protesters handmade and wore “pussy hats” (pink and shaped like cat’s ears). They made a strong visual statement – a sea of pink-clad crowns – to show Trump the collective force of those women he degraded.

Read the comment by Erin Stewart in The Age - “Stick to your knitting, a gentle and crafty way to change the world.”

Growth pains and gridlock come to Hobart, and building more roads is not the best way out

Hobart is a city with growing pains. As Australia’s second-oldest city, it might be likened to an octogenarian suddenly experiencing a teenage “growth spurt”. Growth is occurring both in visitor numbers and new residents.

The morning traffic builds up on the Tasman
Highway at Montagu Bay. Congestion has
become a hot issue for Hobart residents.

The March 3 state election has drawn attention to several growth-related issues, including housing affordability, rental vacancies and traffic congestion. These issues are not new for many Australian cities, or indeed for cities globally. But in Hobart they are almost as surprising as the city’s midwinter 2017 nude swim.

Read the piece on The Conversation - “Growth pains and gridlock come to Hobart, and building more roads is not the best way out.”

Think twice before going 'off the grid'

Australia is currently experiencing soaring power costs that are dramatically intersecting with the increasing availability of affordable and efficient renewable energy, such as solar panels and battery storage units.

The Solar Settlement, a sustainable housing community project in Freiburg, Germany. 

So why wouldn’t it seem attractive, even liberating, to take your home and yourself “off the grid”?

You could draw your electricity from your roof via an inexhaustible sun, while saving dollars and escaping gouging corporate providers. At the same time, you’d be doing your bit for the environment.

Perhaps, as a step further, you could take a small community of like-minded people with you.

Certainly, Australians are embracing solar.

Read the Pursuit piece by Gary Tippett from the University of Melbourne “Think twice before going 'off the grid'.”

A group of prominent scientists says we have three years to save the planet from irreversible destruction

Leanna Garfield.

A planet devastated by climate change may seem like a distant future. But Earth is already experiencing effects today.

Globally, the mean rate of sea level rise increased 50% in the last two decades. In 2017, temperatures have already reached their highest levels in history in some areas, from California to Vietnam. And the past three years were the hottest on record. 

In a new open letter, six prominent scientists and diplomats, including former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and physicist Stefan Rahmstorf, wrote that the world has approximately three years before the worst effects of climate change take hold. Published June 28, the letter urges governments, businesses, scientists, and citizens to address the world's greenhouse-gas emissions now.

Read the Business Insider story by Leanna Garfield - “A group of prominent scientists says we have three years to save the planet from irreversible destruction.”

Parts of Central Australia driest on record, according to Bureau of Meteorology

Parts of Central Australia are experiencing their driest period on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Many parts of the southern Northern Territory
have not had any rain since February.

It was a wet Christmas and a very wet New Year for many properties throughout the district, with up to 100 millimetres falling in some areas.

But since then, it has been quite a different story.

Greg Browning, regional climate services manager for the Bureau of Metrology, said after the rainy summer, the tap basically turned off.

"Since February, pretty much all the southern third of the Territory has received single figure rainfall totals, but they did start the year quite well," he said.

Read Katrina Beavan’s ABC News story - “Parts of Central Australia driest on record, according to Bureau of Meteorology.”

Farming anguish as drought-hit southern Tasmania prays for rain, while north welcomes rainfall

It's a tale of two very different seasons.

Tasmanian farmer Charlie Archer has watched
the dry soil blowing away in the winds.

While Tasmania's north and north-east farming districts are experiencing almost unprecedented rainfall and lush spring pastures, in the state's south and east coast regions, it's one of the worst years for drought on record.

That has growers and graziers in affected areas very worried, with many describing the situation as "desperate" and "on a knife-edge”.

With a record dry winter, a dry frosty start to spring, little rain on the outlook and a long, hot, bushfire-prone summer forecast, farmers are struggling to grow crops and sustain livestock.

Read the ABC News story by Peta Carlyon - “Farming anguish as drought-hit southern Tasmania prays for rain, while north welcomes rainfall.”

Barack Obama on food and climate change: ‘We can still act and it won’t be too late

During the course of my presidency, I made climate change a top priority, because I believe that, for all the challenges that we face, this is the one that will define the contours of this century more dramatically perhaps than the others. No nation, whether it’s large or small, rich or poor, will be immune from the impacts of climate change. We are already experiencing it in America, where some cities are seeing floods on sunny days, where wildfire seasons are longer and more dangerous, where in our arctic state, Alaska, we’re seeing rapidly eroding shorelines, and glaciers receding at a pace unseen in modern times.

Barack Obama - The former president
addresses the greatest challenges facing
 the world, and what we can do about them

Over my eight years in office, we dramatically increased our generation of clean energy, we acted to curtail our use of dirty energy, and we invested in energy efficiency across the board. At the 2015 climate change summit in Paris, we helped lead the world to the first significant global agreement for a low-carbon future.

Read The Guardian story - “Barack Obama on food and climate change: ‘We can still act and it won’t be too late.”

Climate change pushing floods, cyclones to new extremes, with worse to come

 With Australia experiencing the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie and record-breaking rains and severe flooding in south-east Queensland and along the north coast of New South Wales, here’s a look at how global warming has, and will, push floods and cyclones to new extremes.

A scene to become more common
 as climate change worsens.

Warm air can be more humid than cold air, that is, it can hold more water vapour in absolute terms. And atmospheric water vapour content increases seven per cent for each 1-degree-Celsius increase in global average temperature, establishing the conditions for more intense rainfall events. 

Flash floods are likely to sweep across the Australian landscape with increasing intensity, particularly in urban or residential areas. Peak rainfall is predicted to soar with rising surface temperatures as Australia experiences ever greater extremes of heat.  

The frequency of major flood events (defined as events which caused extensive flooding within 50 kilometres of the coast, or inundation that extended 20 kilometres along the coast) along Australia's eastern seaboard has doubled in last 150 years, with climate change one of the possible factors, senior Bureau of Meteorology researchers say. 

Read the Climate Code Red story - “Climate change pushing floods, cyclones to new extremes, with worse to come.”