How climate change is affecting life in the Italian Alps.

Photographer James Whitlow Delano has focused on environmental issues for much of his career. This interest was sparked early on in his life, he says: “I’ve always been strongly affected by the environment … since I was a young child living beside a nuclear research lab in California.”

From left, Fondazione Montagna Sicura (FMS) glaciologists
Paolo Perret, Simone Gottardelli and supervisor Fabrizio
Troilo measure movement in the moraine of the
receding and thinning lower reaches of the Brenva Glacier
with a satnav (satellite navigation) device, accurate to a
tenth of a millimeter, which they call the "bomba" (bomb). 

Delano has worked around the world but now lives in Japan, where he works on, among other subjects, climate change. The work is so important to him that in 2015, he founded the Everyday Climate Change Instagram feed that presents the work of photographers documenting climate change around the world.

In some of his most recent work, Delano traveled to the Valle d’Aosta mountains and valleys of the Italian Alps to see the impact of climate change there. What he found was an area — a cultural crossroads since before the time of the Romans — that has been losing its glaciers at an alarming rate over the past three decades.

Read the story from The Washington Post - “How climate change is affecting life in the Italian Alps.”

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority board director accused of potential conflict of interest

A board director for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has been accused of a potential conflict of interest over public funding directed to companies working on crown-of-thorns starfish culling.

 Margie McKenzie said she had left the room during
any Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority discussions
 about crown-of-thorns starfish.

Margie McKenzie sits on the board of the authority and also owns a company called Gempearl with her husband, Col McKenzie.

More than $20m in taxpayer funds was spent by the reef authority on killing crown-of-thorns starfish, which preys on coral.

According to reports by the ABC, the money was directed to two not-for-profit companies that then subcontracted the culling work to Gempearl.

Col McKenzie is also linked to the two companies that subcontracted the work – the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, on which he serves as a board member, and the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, as its executive director and company secretary.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority board director accused of potential conflict of interest.”

Attitude shift is noticeable, Shepparton hears

Sarah Barker ‘‘waved’’ goodbye with the ‘‘falconwing’’ door of her Tesla Model X, pulled away from the kerb this week and silently left Shepparton.

The arrival, and departure, of the MinterEllison law firm special counsel was symbolic.

Minter Ellison special counsel came to Shepparton on
Monday in a Tesla Model X, similar to this, and "waved"
farewell with just the kerb side door before leaving.

Ms Barker came to Shepparton at the invitation of Slap Tomorrow, a Shepparton-based group eager to help people across the district to better understand the society-wide difficulties arising from climate change.

Her arrival in the Tesla encapsulated her message that as consumers we have the power to change the market by choosing environment-sensitive products, such as electric cars.

Ms Barker talked about risk being the prime driver for individuals, companies and corporations whose only interest was profit, and as such how climate change — as an environmental issue — carried no weight.

However, she pointed out such dismissive attitudes were changing with many of the world’s biggest investment groups stepping away from those companies not making allowances for climate change within their structure.

Ms Barker talked with more than 30 people at the Shepparton campus of La Trobe University for about 45 minutes and then spent nearly that long answering questions.

Her visit highlighted many things, among them the fact that Shepparton does not have a Tesla fast-charge facility and so she had to travel via Euroa, which has such a charging station.

The dilemma Ms Barker faced is not unique as only last week Melbourne-based urban designer Bruce Echberg, who has a residence in Nathalia and is heavily involved with the landscaping at the city’s new Shepparton Art Museum, also had to travel via Euroa to charge his Tesla.

Story by Robert McLean in today’s Shepparton News - “Attitude shift is noticeable.”

NSW EPA critical of conflicts of interest, complexity of native forestry bill

A draft bill to revamp regulations for native forestry in NSW was slammed as "overly complex" and inequitable, and it failed to address "an inherent conflict of interest" in the oversight of state-owned Forestry Corp.

Logging in state forests may be back in the spotlight. 

Documents obtained by Fairfax Media show the NSW Environment Protection Authority found the government's draft native forestry bill unfairly favoured Forestry Corp by remove licensing requirements for the corporation while maintaining them for landholders or industry seeking private native forestry. 

It would also leave the corporation with powers unmatched for a state agency, including its protection from third-party challenges such as from environmental groups. 

"The inherent conflict of interest for a corporation in having a concurrency role for negotiating, revoking or changing the terms of their licence ... and the removal of third party legal rights, exists nowhere else in NSW legislation or regulation," the EPA's leaked assessment made last December shows.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald - “NSW EPA critical of conflicts of interest, complexity of native forestry bill.”

Reality from the Sunshine Coast

James Lawrence Powell.

A Sunshine Coast (Queensland) friend who has a keen interest in the welfare of humanity, Fiona Anderson, felt this story demolishes the foundations of climate change skeptics.

A story headed: “Why climate deniers have no scientific credibility: Only one of 9,136 peer reviewed authors rejects global warming” was published on the DeSmogBlog.

A guest post from author and geochemist James Lawrence Powell concludes by saying that global warming denial is a house of cards.