Former EnergyAustralia exec says electricity retailers are unethical

The former head of EnergyAustralia’s retail arm says the energy industry has reached a tipping point and company behaviour is at an all-time low as the industry tries to rebuild the perception of electricity retailers.

Adrian Merrick previously led EnergyAustralia's retail
 arm and now believes many retailers in the industry are
 working against the customer.

“Major retailers have spent 15 years defending their indefensible behaviour and now they’re trying to have ethical energy retailing in Australia,” said Adrian Merrick, who is now the chief executive of electricity retailer Energy Locals.

“It’s pretty bad at the moment.”

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Cole Latimer - “Former EnergyAustralia exec says electricity retailers are unethical.”

Greenland’s Coastal Ice Passed a Climate Tipping Point 20 Years Ago, Study Says

Ice caps and glaciers along the coast of Greenland passed a tipping point in 1997, when a layer of snow that once absorbed summer meltwater became fully saturated. Since then, the coastal ice fields—separate from the main Greenland Ice Sheet—have been melting three times faster than they had been, according to a new study published Friday in the journal Nature Communications.

The coast of Greenland passed
 a tipping point in 1997

"The melting ice caps are an alarm signal for the ice sheet. It means long-term ice mass loss is inevitable. It will increase and accelerate if nothing changes," said lead author Brice Noël, a scientist at the  University of Utrecht Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research. "It's very unlikely the ice caps will recover. It's a climate tipping point—the time at which a change or an effect cannot be stopped.”

Read the Inside Climate News story - “Greenland’s Coastal Ice Passed a Climate Tipping Point 20 Years Ago, Study Says.”

'Increases are of sluggish growth, but ruin is rapid': Seneca

Everyone is happy about the COP21 agreement in Paris and that there seem to be a certain willingness to avoid to go over the 2°C limit and the probable "tipping point" that will follow. But make no mistake: the task is enormously difficult. Look at these data from "The Global Carbon Project".

The blue lines are the pathways needed to have a fair chance to remain within the 2°C limit. We have to get to zero from here to 2070, but hoping in a technological miracle that, later on, will make it possible to pump away from the atmosphere some of the CO2 emitted earlier on. Otherwise, we must throttle emissions even faster.

Read the story on Cassandra’s Legacy – “Creative collapsing: a way to avoid the climate disaster.”

Indonesian fires shape as climate change tipping point

T

wenty four hours after answering a Facebook message, Quentin Johnson, 56, retired fire-fighter, found himself at Sydney airport bound for Singapore.

At his destination the smoke haze was so thick he could barely see two streets. The pollution standards index (PSI) was 340: anything over 300 is considered hazardous to humans. He flew south, to the Indonesian island of Kalimantan, into the what has been described as one of the world’s worst climate disasters, into the source of the smoke haze, where the PSI was a record-high 2,300.

There he could only see 10m in front of him.

Read the TripleJ story - “Indonesian fires: is this a tipping point for climate change?”

UK leads the way in solar energy expansion

T

he United Kingdom leads European solar energy expansion to help renewables overtake output of nuclear power as industry leaders hail ‘tipping point’ for the technology.

The Guardian says a record amount of solar power was added to the world’s grids in 2014, pushing total cumulative capacity to 100 times the level it was in 2000.

It reports that, “Around 40GW of solar power was installed last year, meaning there is now a total of 178GW to meet world electricity demand, prompting renewable energy associations to claim that a tipping point has been reached that will allow rapid acceleration of the technology.”

Read the story - “Record boost in new solar power continues massive industry growth”.

Passing a 'tipping point' and turning to wide-eyed solutions

Those who understand the mechanics of earth’s climate have declared that humanity’s survival was inextricably linked to keeping carbon dioxide levels below 350 parts per million (ppm).

Once beyond that mark, the positive feedbacks became such that humans had passed what is colloquially known as the “tipping point” – that moment when mitigation opportunities had vanished and all that remained was adaptation using hitherto untried and untested processes such as carbon capture and sequestration and wide-eyed geo-engineering schemes.

The hoped for 350ppm ideal is now little more than a dream for CBS news reports that CO2 levels are now above 400ppm.

Writing in a story headed: “First time in 800 000 years: April’s CO2 levels above 400ppm”, CBS said the level was above the 400ppm level for the entire month.

IMF chief warns of 'merciless' climate change



IMF chief, Christine Lagarde.

Should the climate change doubters listen to anyone, then you would imagine the leader of the International Monetary Fund would have their ear.

Christine Lagarde has told an audience in London that the world is “perilously close” to a climate change “tipping point”.

The IMF chief said urgent co-operation was needed between countries, cities and businesses to avoid reaching or delaying arrival of this tipping point.

The website RTCC  (Responding to Climate Change) has reported on Ms Largarde’s concerns in a story headed: “IMF chief Largarde warns of “merciless” climate change”.

Considerations are not solutions, but they do create an awareness

Many of the topics already considered by those who gather Beneath the Wisteria are pushing the world today and irreversible tipping point.

Reporting in a story headed: “Earth may be near tipping point, scientists warn”, the Los Angeles times said: A group of scientists warns that population growth, climate change and environmental damage are pushing Earth toward calamitous and irreversible changes.

However, considering something does not resolve it, something Beneath the Wisteria supporters are acutely aware of, but it does create a sense of awareness; an awareness that may infiltrate society.

Charts point to "true tipping point"

Solar energy enthusiasts will be delighted to read this report in “Think Progress” that explains how solar photo-voltaics have hit a tipping point.

The story – “Three ChartsThat Illustrate Why Solar Has Hit A True Tipping Point” – is told in a new report from global consulting firm McKinsey.