24 March 2008

Fossil Fools Day

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Take action to stop the Fossil Fools in industry and
government from messing with our climate!

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FOSSIL FOOLS DAY

Tuesday 1 April 2008
Meet: 12noon @ Union Court, ANU, or
12.30pm @ Garema Place, Civic

Bring yourself, your friends, banners, signs, jester or clown clothes (if you have them), a sense of fun and a commitment to saving the planet. Walk or ride with us to one of Canberra’s own Fossil Fools – and find out who will win the 2008 Fossil Fools Awards!

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“All of our members are big enough and ugly enough to represent themselves”
– John Daley, CEO of the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network

The Parliament of Australia is situated in the middle of Canberra and is constantly under siege by an army of lobbyists who seek to influence government policy on behalf of whoever provides their paycheck.

Amongst this legion of lobbyists there are a few who stand above the rest, who represent the common interests of the largest corporations in the world and who speak for Exxon-Mobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, Woodside, Halliburton, BHP, Alcoa, Xstrata, Rio Tinto and others.

Encamped within their offices these lobbyists have direct access to the highest levels of Government and the public service – something to be expected of representatives of such wealth and power.

Their mission is simple: to defeat any proposed law or policy that would require their employers to stop drilling oil, stop exporting coal, use less energy, pay for their pollution or clean up the mess they have made of our climate.

A few years ago they denied that climate change was happening; now they deny that any serious action is required to stop it.

In public, amongst other titles, they call themselves the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, the Australian Coal Association, the Australian Institute of Petroleum and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. In private, as revealed by an advisor to the former government, they call themselves the Greenhouse Mafia.

Their job is to ensure “business as usual”.

Ross Garnaut, who has been appointed by the government to investigate how Australia should respond to climate change, has estimated what would happen in a “business as usual” scenario. He predicts in his interim report (using CSIRO information):

– the irreversible melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet

– the “rising risk of collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet”

– the “southward spread of dengue transmission zone as far as Brisbane”

– the bleaching of “almost all of the Great Barrier Reef”

– the loss “to sea level rise” of “80% of Kakadu’s freshwater wetlands”

– “up to a 200% increase in temperature related mortality among people aged over 65 years in capital cities”

– “changes to India’s annual monsoon [that] could lead to severe droughts and intense flooding in parts of India”

– “1,200-1,400 more heat related deaths a year in major population centres”

– “significant species extinction in internationally significant environments in north Queensland and Western Australia”

– The “relocation” of Coastal settlements and infrastructure “due to anticipated extreme sea level rise”

– “the flooding of residences of tens of millions of people in the low lying areas of South, Southeast, Northeast Asia and the South Pacific” …and more.

Garnaut also notes that under the “business as usual” scenario “that global average temperatures could rise by up to 6ºC, and perhaps more if positive feedback effects amplify the warming effect of greenhouse gases”. He states that this is a conservative estimate with recent data suggesting that “the climate system may be responding more quickly than climate models indicate”.

In the face of such shocking predictions – all the more shocking for the solid science underlying them – the Greenhouse Mafia continues to oppose any policy that would make the fossil fuel industry reduce its emissions.

They have argued that the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act should not even consider climate change as a factor in considering whether to approve or reject a coal mine, oil rig or aluminium smelter.

They have said that “it is fanciful to fix on a rigid target” for reducing emissions, but base their proposals around stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at 575ppm carbon dioxide equivalent – which would almost certainly cause massive and irreversible global warming.

They have argued for an Emissions Trading Scheme… as long as they get free permits for all their current emissions, plus “compensation” for any further permits they might need, plus a cap on the price of permits so that it won’t cause them to change their behaviour, plus exemptions for the energy, transport and mineral industry and other major sources of emissions, plus only “light” regulation.

In effect they want the legal right to emit greenhouse gases with impunity – and to be paid extra for wrecking the climate.

If, despite their wishes, anything is done to curb emissions they also make it quite clear that they don’t want to pay for it and, absurdly, that this responsibility should rest primarily with poor countries.

That these Fossil Fools are still allowed to have any say in Australia’s response to climate change is insanity. It’s time for their backroom dealings to be exposed, their abysmal policies subjected to public scrutiny and for their mask of respectability to slip. It’s time that when they call the Government that the politicians know not to pick up the phone.

This April 1 join the campaign to stop climate change, and turn up the heat on those fooling with our climate – come out on Fossil Fools Day!

For more information call Leigh on 0421 283 825 or email activistupdates@gmail.com.

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Thumper, the Manhattan Declaration is a joke and it was organised by the Heartland Institute which is a well-known front for fossil fuel lobbying:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute

Sourcewatch reports that a total of 19 scientists actually turned up to the event – the rest of the people there were lobbyists, economists, etc. Principals at the event included such notable skeptics as Fred Singer and Myron Ebell… who aren’t climatologists!

It amazes me that anyone with obvious intelligence will take the spurious ramblings of these guys over the PEER-REVIEWED STUDIES (which means they are open to challenge from anyone) of thousands of scientists from the best universities and scientific organisations the world over. CSIRO has produced a ton of work to support climate change theory – they are just full of it?

You won’t tell your baker how to bake bread, your mechanic how to fix your car, or your accountant how to do your taxes, but every skeptic on the planet seems to think he knows more than the collective minds of the world’s great scientific organisations… go figure!?!?

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy3:42 pm 01 Apr 08

I had the misfortune of walking through the city earlier today and chanced to see this event. What a bunch of complete idiots. There were about a dozen hippie looking uni student type people chanting a ripped off tune, holding poorly made signs, and then a couple of sadly lacking speeches that could hardly be heard due to the quality of the PA system being used.

If you want to support the environmental cause, I’d suggest aligning with one of the major players, rather than buying into half baked crapola like this. It was, frankly, embarrassing.

activistupdates said :

Seems like some people have the giggles.

One thing they don’t have is a serious explanation for why they reject the findings of the vast majority of the world’s scientists on this topic.

What? Can’t it fit within one sentence?

I believe that Creationism has this one covered my friend.

activistupdates4:46 pm 25 Mar 08

Well Thumper, that’s some common ground we can build on. 🙂

But, Toad… poor toad… *sigh*

barking toad4:41 pm 25 Mar 08

I suspect that’s the cleverest thing you’ve ever done activista 🙂

It’s gorebully wet atm

activistupdates4:01 pm 25 Mar 08

That’s better. Thank you Thumper – now at least I know where you are coming from.

Anyway, I agree with you and Ruff that we’re probably not going to resolve this on a bulletin board.

I would like to say that in future that we could revisit this debate and see who was right and who was playing the good citizen of Dachau, but I fear that by then it really won’t matter.

That’s me, signing off.

http://www.ipcc.ch/

“The one thing constant about climate is that it will change”
Now, give me a sentence that explains your point of view.

“When climate is changing 100 times faster than shown in the geological record, maybe the influence of 7 billion industrialised human beings has something to do with it”.

skaboy, there are not “thousands and thousands” of dissenting scientists at all. There are less than 100 – the same names crop up every time – and most of them are current or ex- fossil fuel lobbyists.

Anyway, this is all a waste of time. Everyone has entrenched views, and posting on a bloody message board isn’t going to change a thing.

activistupdates2:48 pm 25 Mar 08

I’m still waiting for a serious explanation of why you reject the science on climate change.

activistupdates2:42 pm 25 Mar 08

“The one thing constant about climate is that it will change”

That’s a very bad reason as it shows you haven’t acquainted yourself with even the basics of the the science of climate change.

“Now, give me a sentence that explains your point of view”

My view would take a little bit more than a sentence, so I’ve given you the link to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s last report. Have a read.

And no, I was not including Al Gore. Al Gore is not a scientist, though he does keep himself informed of the work of scientists, which is more than can be said for some.

Toad, Thumper, you’re acting like hippies, come back to earth for a minute.

barking toad2:35 pm 25 Mar 08

Vast majority of the world’s scientists?

Hahahahahaha – does that include Al Gore?

Hippies are funny

activistupdates2:12 pm 25 Mar 08

Seems like some people have the giggles.

One thing they don’t have is a serious explanation for why they reject the findings of the vast majority of the world’s scientists on this topic.

What? Can’t it fit within one sentence?

It was really hot last week: I think we’re all going to die.

barking toad1:58 pm 25 Mar 08

Indeed thumping one!

barking toad1:42 pm 25 Mar 08

Then again, maybe not – pedant away

barking toad1:41 pm 25 Mar 08

And before the pedants get out, it should have “too”

barking toad1:40 pm 25 Mar 08

Oh astro, you’ve been reading to many comics again.

Next you’ll be telling me that the north-west passage was navigable for the first time ever in 2007 because of gorebull warmening and that polar bears will be extinct.

Hippies are such fun.

toad, go out and get yourself a life.

no-one disputes that the climate, in geological age timeframes, changes. the change we are experiencing now – and will continue to experience in the coming century – is much faster than in previous events and is attributable, to some large degree, by your (and the rest of us) intervention through excess emission of ghg’s.

at least we know you won’t be oic weather – as much as you may imagine your deitic qualities – and the thermostat will be turned off as there’ll be no power to run the machine that answers to it, if people like you continue to disparage and disrupt genuine efforts at mitigating the consequences of emissions and reducing future emissions, so we don’t have 90% of the human species become extinct and the remainder living in new savannahs across what are now sub-polar regions.

barking toad1:04 pm 25 Mar 08

And shouldn’t these gay hippies be doing more important things while they run up their HECS debt?

Like knitting or something?

so, our economy, to keep us happy for a few years, is more critical than the longevity of life on the planet?

and in any case, garnaut seems to suggest the market for carbon trading will produce something like this figure of 20 billion domestically – so while the coal trading is not going to stop instantly, the nett result would seem to indicate a positive incentive for tackling climate change through an emissions trading scheme and investing in low-emission technologies.

as for mining oil – i suspect oil mining will continue, but with the lessening of reliance upon the results for energy, there will be much less pressure on oil supplies and should keep plastics, etc, manufacturers happy for some time to come. so hopefully, the jas, you’ll have a job for a while yet – so continue to contribute to the economy!

barking toad12:58 pm 25 Mar 08

Oh well, the ferrety one has sucked me in to this useless discussion.

The climate changes – duh! Has been warming and cooling on and off for millions of years.

Gay hippies turning off lights and posturing with smugness is the new black and I’m still waiting to hear who’s going to be “officer-in-charge of weather” and the make up of the committee that decides what the thermostat’s going to be set at.

No single person or action can change things however a little bit from everybody may.
I run my car where possible on biodiesel however the government and oil companies are making this more difficult. http://www.biofuelsforum.com/general_biodiesel_discussion/3967-death_commercial_biodiesel_australia.html by forcing companies to supply no more than 5% bio. This is ironic given that BP and other fuel companies are using 5% bio to treat their ULS fuel problems.

I love the way that everyone on here posts up links from sources that only support their own views, so now its my turn

http://climatesci.org/2007/06/15/on-the-fundamental-defect-in-the-ipcc%E2%80%99s-approach-to-global-warming-research-by-syun-ichi-akasofu/
http://www.marshall.org/pdf/materials/170.pdf
http://epw.senate.gov/hearing_statements.cfm?id=266543

I believe that global warming and climate change exists but I am yet to be convinced that we play a huge part in it. There are thousands upon thousands of scientists who have the same view as science is yet to prove that we are the main cause or that we can stop it.

And in regard to Coal, if we stop exporting coal our economy will fall hard and fast as it is our biggest export commodity and was worth approx $22bn in exports in the last financial year. Losing coal imports will result in a loss of approx 20% of our total exports and we have no other commodities to cover that loss. If you look past the end of your nose, stop being so short sighted and read a little into the issue, you will see how much our economy relies on coal exports to survive.

I’m not at all happy for our local changes to cost me an extra 10% to live when it effects global warming by 0.0000000000000001%.

I’m pretty sure that if everyone in the world payed 10% on their cost of living towards reducing impact on the environment, the impact on the environment could be reduced by atleast 10%, maybe more….

“All you climate change deniers – have you ever attempted to read any of the science?”

Yeah, and what good has science ever done for this planet? 😉

activistupdates9:51 am 25 Mar 08

Hi, I’m the original poster and I just wanted to make a quick response to a few things.

“Show me real proof that we cause climate change”.

Go to: http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-syr.htm

“Many people will regard it as a futile undergraduate stunt. I mean, what’s with turning up dressed as clowns, jesters etc?”

I’m sure some people will, but like all stunts like this its purpose is to grab attention and get across a condensed message in this time of soundbites and quick media grabs (namely that the Greenhouse Mafia is, quite simply, ridiculous). That doesn’t mean we are flippant about this issue or aim to make it too “out there” to appeal to more than the usual crowd though.

“Not “they”, WE! We buy the crap they sell, we waste the energy, we elect the governments who allow it all to happen by pandering to lobby groups. Until we realise that we must all change these things through our behaviour, forget real change.”

I agree that our behaviour is a part of the problem, but we are in an economy where opting out isn’t really an option and where its form is determined by its biggest players. The Greenhouse Mafia, in representing companies like Exxon-Mobil or Xstrata, holds a fair amount of responsibility in this regard – not all, but I would argue much of.

“Bad management is throwing as much as it takes to get some result. It is bad in this case because, within a generation, you have less money and the environment is exactly the same.”

I’m afraid that in a generation we will see that the environment will not be exactly the same, and in two or three we will see quite radical changes to our environment (as listed in my original post), if we do not change our current course. Also, we are currently subsidising the coal and logging industries to quite a substantial degree and could save money by removing these subsidies. Plus, I don’t think you have realised the scope of this problem. Climate change looks very likely to result in a halving of arable land in Australia alone, not to mention the death of the Great Barrier Reef and the substantial tourist dollars that go with it, not to mention the flooding (to varying degrees) of most Australian coastal cities (which is quite a few), plus the total economic and environmental collapse of a number of our neighbouring countries. To think that this is not a threat to our prosperity is extremely short sighted.

Lastly, to eliminate some of the automatic stereotyping that is going on here, most people involved in this campaign are not hippies, many are scientists and most are what you could only really call “normal” people with families, steady jobs and a rational view of things. Personally, I am an economist with the government (and yes, I agree, we should aim for the highest – intergenerational – utility possible, which is only achievable by making those changes which will end Australia’s position as the WORST per capita emitter of greenhouse gases in the world).

We’re certainly not the world leader. Germany and Brazil are beating us hand over fist. We’re not even coming third, or fourth, actually we’re not even in the race we’re doing that badly.

(A negative spinoff from being so far up America’s ass for so long).

So not only are we environmental losers, we’re being beaten by third world countries. Aren’t we special.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy8:57 am 25 Mar 08

Sounds like (another) total waste of time to me. I won’t be going, or supporting these idiots.

I actually said I support taking action, not doing nothing. What I don’t support is the hair-cloth-and-ashes response, quite common amongst greenies, where action taken locally costs a huge amount relatively.

Motherhood statements aren’t enough for me to pay extra, IMO. I don’t want the cost of being leader, I’m happy to be second or fifth or tenth instead of first. And, you can’t export behaviour.

However, one action would be for the govt to tax export coal to increase its price. Our export income would remain the same as volume supplied decreases, but there would be little local effect on energy prices. Net carbon output would reduce since total annual consumption of Australia’s dirty coal would reduce.

I’m sure there are others that smarter people can think up.

What I am concerned about is the rush to be on the bandwagon. I want someone to say to me, “This is how much it will cost you per annum, plus the compound effect of increased yearly inflation from increased prices, and you will see no benefit, either materially, or in social effects, or in the environment.” That is the honest statement of the effect.

——————————————————————————————————-

Psychologically, the greenies’ response over the last three decades is a form of passive-aggressive behaviour. It’s also patronising. It is saying, “We know the answers better than you and this is what they are. You are too stupid to figure it out for yourself.” That is why you often get the heightened passion you see, because they are frustrated as individuals in the sense of “Why can’t people see this, it’s so obvious, we must show everyone.” Well, perhaps, except that they conveniently forget to factor in the cost side of the equation.

Everything has a cost, and good effective management, by definition, is allocating resources (money, taxes, people, policy) to have the highest net effect, or utility as economists call it.

Bad management is throwing as much as it takes to get some result. It is bad in this case because, within a generation, you have less money and the environment is exactly the same.

tl;dr.

If April Fool’s Day is about tricking people to believe things that aren’t true, is this the appropriate day to be having a climate change march, even if it weakly tries to fit in to the fact that it is on 1 April?

…and everyone waits on someone else to act…

Yes, the entire world has to be involved, but what if we could be a leader? Implement the technology and behaviour here, export it to the world as we phase out the old ways ove the next two decades. Leaders prosper, followers struggle.

And on this issue John Howard was a FOOL – he denied the science and only came to recognise it when he realised that public opinion was against him. Why not recognise the science in the first place as any rational leader would have done?

Anyway, go on doing nothing – most other people are. That is the way of the world.

I’m happy to accept we contribute to global warming and happy to take action to reduce our effects. I’m not at all happy for our local changes to cost me an extra 10% to live when it effects global warming by 0.0000000000000001%.

You fossil fools do realise that you are in effect paying for a feel-good exercise. The only benefit from local change is for spin that can be used against the real contributors: US, China, India. Sorry, but I don’t want to pay quite that much just for spin.

I detested Howard’s selfish policies generally, but this was one where he was correct.

As for the event, it does feel like a futile stunt because nothing is going to change until we all start to change our individual behaviour. They are right about the ridiculous power granted to the Greenhouse Mafia (read the transcript of the 4 Corners episode about the access of lobbyists to government here: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1568867.htm ), and good on them for pointing it out, but they go wrong in this statement:

“clean up the mess they have made of our climate.”

Not “they”, WE! We buy the crap they sell, we waste the energy, we elect the governments who allow it all to happen by pandering to lobby groups. Until we realise that we must all change these things through our behaviour, forget real change.

Yes lets stop drilling oil, thats a law I would support. Unfortunately it would leave me without a job though, the company I work for is a plastics manufacturer, guess what plastic is made out of?

I’m all for looking after the planet, recycling etc but as Hasdrubahl pointed out, it seems like a bunch of dreadlocked student hippies chaining themselves to trees and not looking at the bigger picture. (That generalisation was on purpose, it’s probably far from the truth, but first impressions count)

All you climate change deniers – have you ever attempted to read any of the science? Are you assuming that it’s a massive conspiracy of thousands of scientists worldwide “protecting their tenure”? WTF?

If you want to know about the evidence for climate change theory, READ IT. It is all out there on the net at the touch of a keystroke. Start with the IPCC, follow the links. Or start with a popular science magazine and follow the links. Read one of the hundreds of scientifically-based books on the subject. Go to the ANU and have a chat to some scientists. Do something! Climate change science is not some nightmare manufactured by marketers, it is a scientific concensus backed up by thousands of independent scientific papers by tens of thousands of the world’s sharpest minds.

Want to discuss these things with climate scientists online in unmoderated discussions, start with http://www.realclimate.org/ .

But please, whatever you do, disabuse yourself of idiotic notions like “it is just a cycle the planet goes through”. The warming we are currently experiencing is 10-100times faster than during the last thaw (which took 3000 years before the climate restabilised), and it just happens to coincide with the industrialisation and consequent greenhouse pollution of the last 50 years. Go figure.

Exactly 🙂

Whilst the post has been written quite convincingly, I fear that the concept of “Fossil Fools Day” will be counterproductive to the cause.

Many people will regard it as a futile undergraduate stunt. I mean, what’s with turning up dressed as clowns, jesters etc?

Prove to me that Climate Change isn’t true.

OK Mael…Can you now please explain to me what the use of all the coal will be if we are no longer exporting it or using for power station?

Our economy won’t crash hard, or fast. We’ll have all the coal. Dumbass.

I’ll not bother talking to you about Climate Change (note the use of capitals), upon proof of how thick you really are in my first statement.

Show me real proof that we cause climate change and it is not just a cycle the planet goes through like it did before the last ice age and I might actually care.

And BTW if we stop exporting coal our economy will crash so hard and fast you won’t know what hit you.

Growling Ferret7:14 pm 24 Mar 08

Can’t wait until Ralph and the Barking Toad read about this….

NIMBYs.

That is the best sarcasm I have seen on this site in a while. Or perhaps cynicism, since the whole planet is our back yard with respect to global climate change.

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