9 December 2009

From Canberra to Copenhagen

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While Copenhagen is in Europe and Canberra is down under, we are all part of what is happening there, and our discussions and our actions here in our little city, are what will make a difference for us. Regardless of what the world leaders decide to do, it is us the people, each one of us individually, that has the power to bring about change, and soon 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 4 etc.

So lets have the debate in the best forum we have in Canberra to discuss anything that affects our city, this groovy little website called RiotACT.

Here is my contribution to that debate:

The Copenhagen Summit

  1. On the first day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………120 World leaders focused on our planet and humanity instead of domestic politics and their own re-election.
  2. On the second day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:………….An agreement to give the benefit of the doubt to the planet on issues where the science is inconclusive.
  3. On the third day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………A world population that stops using violent protests to achieve its outcomes, and a level of tolerance and understanding that knows we have the ability to solve any challenge facing our planet and mankind.
  4. On the fourth day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………An admission that the world is using an irreplaceable source of energy, and that now is the time to move to sustainable energy, before the pressure to do so becomes even more extreme.
  5. On the fifth day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………An acknowledgement that our farming practises are not sustainable and need to change.
  6. On the sixth day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………A commitment to cease pumping chemical fertilisers into our soils, and replace them with life giving microbes that help our soils to store carbon from the atmosphere, and move us to “Permaculture” (permanent agriculture)
  7. On the seventh day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………120 leaders who took a well earned rest.
  8. On the eight day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………A commitment to start replacing the trees we have removed all around the planet, with an agreement that trees bring rain, and deforestation brings drought and desert.
  9. On the ninth day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………An agreed path and framework for moving away from irreplaceable fossil fuels to renewable energy.
  10. On the tenth day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………An understanding that renewable energy not only takes the climatic pressures of mankind, but also the long term economic pressures, and a major excuse for future wars.
  11. On the eleventh day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………An agreement to keep working together, to help the poorer nations make the required changes, regardless of how tough the challenges seem.
  12. On the twelfth day of Copenhagen, the conference gave to me:……………An outcome that serves the whole of humanity, the planet, and each person alive today and into the future.

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… otherwise we’d have a whole new crop of politicians (of all shades) each and every election. Perhaps that wouldn’t be so bad?

or maybe we’d get some who didn’t need to be replaced..? wouldn’t that be nice!

astrojax said :

if these smart folk who get elected can’t work that out, they should be dismissed next election – but probably shan’t be…)

… otherwise we’d have a whole new crop of politicians (of all shades) each and every election. Perhaps that wouldn’t be so bad?

neanderthalsis12:44 pm 14 Dec 09

georgesgenitals said :

http://www.news.com.au/world/australia-may-foot-huge-climate-change-bill-for-china/story-e6frfkyi-1225809806693

I wonder whether this will actually happen? I find it interesting that we hear lots of emotional crapola until we start having to share serious declines in our standard of living. Also interesting is how different a lot of the comments on that site are to this one. Canberra is clearly not typical of wider Australia…

Forking out large sums of moolah to China and India so that they can freely pollute themselves up to the standard of a developed nation will not sit well with the voting public no matter what spin is put on it.

Hells_Bells7410:02 am 14 Dec 09

They’re probably just trying to imagine how they could get the same if not more money out of people for their energy consumption while having people reduce use to the betterment of mankind, well.. to at least look good.

Meanwhile, they can’t make a car now without air-con and I’m pretty sure we used to survive without it. Just need a few more bogans with bogan air-con around town 🙂

georgesgenitals1:35 pm 13 Dec 09

http://www.news.com.au/world/australia-may-foot-huge-climate-change-bill-for-china/story-e6frfkyi-1225809806693

I wonder whether this will actually happen? I find it interesting that we hear lots of emotional crapola until we start having to share serious declines in our standard of living. Also interesting is how different a lot of the comments on that site are to this one. Canberra is clearly not typical of wider Australia…

Chop71 said :

Whistler Blackcomb smashed the record for snowiest month EVER with over 5.5 metres (18 feet) of snowfall – November 2009 took the podium as Whistler Blackcomb’s snowiest month in recorded history!

global warming my @#$%

don’t think of it as ‘global warming’ so much as ‘climate disruption’… yes, overall, the surface temperature of the globe is rising, but this is disrupting climates to give more severe climatic events (storms, snows, droughts, etc) in the interim. and in such a complex model, cherry-picking one minute spot on the globe and citing weather for a few days is utterly futile. ‘climate’ isn’t a day’s weather; it must be seen over an extended period. and over an extended period, mankind has f*cked with it too much and we are now reaping the seeds of our own destruction. good on us, eh? and you want to quibble while rome burns. thanks nero.

the ETS, on the other hand, is an economic method to address some potential behaviour changes – it is insufficient and will be shown to be so by the eventual agreement reached through the copenhagen process. and ck, the coalition is not-so-quietly imploding with the stupidity of its deniers, whose voice was a whisper when the more stable and sane howard (for all his appalling faults) held the reins. we don’t need a ‘tax’ on carbon – we just need a price. (which will effectively ‘tax’ some elements of the economy, but if these smart folk who get elected can’t work that out, they should be dismissed next election – but probably shan’t be…)

Clown Killer11:00 pm 12 Dec 09

Abandoning for a moment the whole idea of whether we need an ETS or not … we get a bunch of Government policy we don’t ‘need’ – middleclass welfare: Medicare, childcare subsidies, first homeowner handouts – so let’s just accept that it’s hypocritical to argue against an ETS but to support other wasteful pandering.

I find it interesting that the coalition will so readily abandon the exact same ETS it developed, refined and nurtured since 2003 for the political expediency of making life difficult for a Labor Government. For what purpose? why call something that isn’t a tax a tax – just to rule out the other perfectly acceptable policy avenue of having a tax on carbon?

It must be true then with only 150 years worth of data to back it up. Duh! Silly me.

As they say “It must be true because the evidence supports it.” What evidence?! Apparently, WMO states that this decade will be the hottest on record. Maybe it is but that is only because the records go back to just 1850. This means we have no evidence for the previous 4-billion-odd years other than digging up ice caps and guestimating. 150-years out of 4-billion isn’t really a good sample to justify the notion of global warming that we insitgated. Don’t get me wrong, I think we could make the environment cleaner but let’s think about it. There was once an inland sea in the outback, there were once dinosaurs walking in snow in India (or something like that), so why would we be so bold not to suggest that this “warming” is just part of a 1 in 1-million cycle or something.

Oh and if we were serious about carbon footprint we wouldn’t be living in one of the highest private car use cities in the world! I think from memory without looking at the stats that we now beat LA!

Whistler Blackcomb smashed the record for snowiest month EVER with over 5.5 metres (18 feet) of snowfall – November 2009 took the podium as Whistler Blackcomb’s snowiest month in recorded history!

global warming my @#$%

Big Dave said:

It’s farcical to think that we can change the climate anyway! LMAO!

Sorry Big Dave, you might not be old enough to remember the ozone depleting CFC issue .. but it was real and it was caused by humans. Luckily, we actually had a simple solution and the issue was dealt with. Carbon pollution is not so easy .. doesn’t mean it isn’t real or not caused by humans.

One question for all the doubters … what does any politician get out of creating a “big new tax” on anything other than being hugely unpopular and creating a backlash? Nothing. Politicians are just as allergic to creating new taxes as the little people who have to pay it are.

Sorry imhotep, I’m just not gullible enough to be taken in by this scam. You only have to look at the proposed ETS that Rudd wants to suspiciously steamroll through. Nothing but a blatant tax grab that will do absolutely zero for the environment and everything for the government coffers! It’s farcical to think that we can change the climate anyway! LMAO! Mother Nature always has done and will continue to do it herself long after we are gone.

justin heywood10:59 am 11 Dec 09

housebound said :

…. it makes it hard for anyone not working in the field to know who and what to believe. In variably, we (the unwashed masses) end up believing the better (louder, better funded and more organised) communicators or those who say what we want to hear in a way we can understand it.

You don’t have to be part of the ‘unwashed masses’ in this debate. You can easily educate yourself about merits of either side of the climate-change ‘debate’ by objectively looking at the evidence (simply via Google if you wish). Look at which side cherry-picks the evidence. Look at which sides claims any uncertainties as ‘proof’ in their argument. Look at the sort of people who are promoting each side.

In reality, amongst the scientific community there is no real debate about human-caused climate change -the jury came in on that one a long while ago. The climate-change deniers (and the media) create an illusion of debate by giving a dispropotionately loud voice to anyone who supports their cause and can plausibly be called a scientist.

housebound said :

When it comes to scientific debate, most scientists are right at least some of the time, all are wrong at least some of the time, and almost all have a vested interest in having their version of science (whatever it may be) heard above all others.

The CRU scandal – with evidence of suppression of alternative views from being published – is just one example. Here’s another closer to home. The need to chase external grants in lieu of core funding for research has caused this type of problem, so it won’t stop anytime soon.

But it does mean that when we come to a high stakes debate, it makes it hard for anyone not working in the field to know who and what to believe. In variably, we (the unwashed masses) end up believing the better (louder, better funded and more organised) communicators or those who say what we want to hear in a way we can understand it.

What a good response. How very true. We become unstuck when we believe our view of something is totally correct. Every adult human changes his view of the world and everything in it many times during their journey through life as he/she develops. Look how much our “Proven” scientific knowledge has changed over the last century.

So when it comes to this debate, put self interest aside for one moment and seek to listen to your instinct, your inner voice. Is our current life style, energy consumption, farming practises sustainable or not?

Can the next 50 years be the same as the last 50 years, or do we have to change. When you take your emotional reaction out of the picture, what does your inner voice say?

There is no need for panic or hysteria, for that is how we will stuff it all up, but what we as the little people can do is stop listening to the media and educate ourselves from many different varying sources, and be open to listening to all the opposing opinions.

When it comes to scientific debate, most scientists are right at least some of the time, all are wrong at least some of the time, and almost all have a vested interest in having their version of science (whatever it may be) heard above all others.

The CRU scandal – with evidence of suppression of alternative views from being published – is just one example. Here’s another closer to home. The need to chase external grants in lieu of core funding for research has caused this type of problem, so it won’t stop anytime soon.

But it does mean that when we come to a high stakes debate, it makes it hard for anyone not working in the field to know who and what to believe. In variably, we (the unwashed masses) end up believing the better (louder, better funded and more organised) communicators or those who say what we want to hear in a way we can understand it.

BigDave said :

It’s a shame that these “climate scientists” can’t tell us the truth for fear of their government funding being cut, eh?!

Sounds to me like the scientists simply aren’t telling you the ‘truth’ that you want to hear.

.

I am totally in favour of global warming. Canberra needs a beach.

Sorry Tuvalu. My advice is to try to discover some oil.

yellowredme

If a 16 year old can’t understand a simple bus timetable, perhaps he should go back to school?

It’s a shame that these “climate scientists” can’t tell us the truth for fear of their government funding being cut, eh?!

IMHO Copenhagen is a pretty silly place to hold just such a conference. All that pointless hot air will melt all that northern european winter snow and cause flooding.

Deadmandrinking4:30 pm 10 Dec 09

Of course climate change is all a fraud. I heard it from a guy on the internet. I mean…who do you want to believe? Pretty much every climate scientist on the globe? Pah!

icantbelieveitsnotbutter1:31 pm 10 Dec 09

Chop71 said :

Scientists tip 2010 as hottest yet –

Well of course they do, they get more funding to perform the next study…..
and next year…..OMG it is getting hotter …….. more money, more studies …

…and the kids at school learn this great poem
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

yes folks, back in the 1900’s we had droughts and flooding rains
(although we didn’t have as many people running around saying OMG the sky is falling)

lol… my grandmother always quotes that poem when people start harping on about climate change!

I’m already tired of hearing about the Summit. It’s all hot air if you ask me

First of all I apologise for going off on a tangent, it relates to carbon footprint etc …

Lonefighter, I agree public transport in Canberra is inadequate, I moved here as a nursing student and had to buy a car to get around, I surmised Australia’s capitial would have good public transport, but buses dont run early or late (I can’t bus to hospital shifts, nor get home from a night out on public transport, most venues are in Civic, a taxi home is expensive, no wonder Canberra has high DUI rates). I admit express/peak hour buses are good and I can get my bike on the bus.

My home backs onto a main road with two bus stops in sight, busing to Uni in the middle of the day I have ended up walking because buses were late, another didnt turn up when I had an appointment, this journey takes 8 minutes by car but sometimes half an hour by bus if I have to transfer. Frequency and reliability of daytime buses leaves alot to be desired, maybe it is a matter of supply and demand.

Planning a new or spontaneous bus journey isn’t easy, the transport info line operates 7am-8pm Monday to Friday (shorter hours on weekends) operators have had difficulty identifying where I catch a bus from (even when given cross street details), timetables and maps are informative but it takes a while to figure out journies with transfers. A 16 yo who visits thinks it is too difficult to figure out and just waits until a bus turns up. Easily accessible info could influence more people to use public transport and in turn allow more buses to run cost effectively.

I have emailed and phoned Action Buses asking why Canberra, a capital city, does not have an online journey planner (Sydney’s is good, London’s is briliant). Action gave several verbal replies: it will be up and running soon, try Google Maps (does not work), no we dont have one. I wrote to the Transport Minister, his reply said Action Buses had advised the Minister’s office that Google Maps provide a journey planner for Canberra. I tried Google Maps again, it certainly doesnt work for the routes I require. I emailed Action quoting the Minister’s reply, they replied advising that although they had given Google Maps the info it was out of their control as to when Google chooses to use this information. It is a poor excuse giving the impression Action have not outlaid money for a journey planner, or they wouldn’t allow Google to fob them off.

I have had parking fines for squeezing my little car into voids during busy parking periods, I would hope that this revenue may go towards solving these problems. Lack of accessible public transport causes our small population spread over a wide area parking problems, parking at Canberra Uni often nears capacity as student numbers have increased, it was discussed in a student publication that commuters may be using UC to park for free whilst busing into Civic or Belconnen.

Maybe I have just become spoiled living away from Oz for a few years using efficient public transport and not needing a car. Saying all of this, I should really use my bike more to lessen my carbon footprint and save money, Im the one that slows down the fast guys on the bike paths particularly on the hills!

There, I have had my rant.

you of course can have your opinions, toad – but the science isn’t ‘junk’; unlike the ‘evidence’ to which denialists resort.

I think it is always a good thing to clean up our environment, that can’t hurt, but we don’t need a New World Order to tell us how to do it. It should be managed by each individual government down to a local level.

neanderthalsis10:40 am 10 Dec 09

On the first day of Copenhagen… the media got hold of a leaked doc that outlined plans to bypass the UN and screw over developing countries.

On the second day they argued over said document.

On the third day, they said %&*$ it, we’re going home.

We have a PM whose blatant toadying to Obama makes the Howard / Bush thing look like an equal partnership and whose efforts to create a role for himself as a world leader instead of a petty bureaucrat are both comical and embarrassing.

I agree that we need to rein in our reliance on coal and oil, stop cutting down forests & plant more trees and stop polluting our air and water; but this frenzied “we’ll all be rooned” catastrophic climate change mentality is the abandonment of all common sense.

The world is warming and sea levels are rising. 10 000 years ago it was much colder and you could walk from Singapore to Hobart. In another 10 000, Queanbeyan might be a seaside village.

Barking toads likening the Copenhagen to an evangelist in a white suit claiming that salvation is sold here for a meagre donation is all too true unfortunately.

Good work Coach! While it appears that KRudd seems more focused on getting himself elected to the supreme council of every world forum, there is some good work happening in Copenhagen.

What about ‘On the 4th day of Copenhagen the conference gave to me …. the tiny country of Tuvalu keen to stop sinking in the sea!’

Anyone been there? I have … highest point on the whole island is about 1 metre above sea level. Not much room for complacency or the Mad Monk’s ‘lets wait to see what every other country on the planet does before we do anything to cut our unsustainable, fossil fuel intensive, environmentally destructive over consumption’ attitude.

barking toad9:30 am 10 Dec 09

If you want to understand the dodgy temperature measurements as adjusted by CRU (as exposed by the leaked emails/coding) with the assistance of the now politically correct BoM and CSIRO have a look at the featured post about Darwin’s temperature records at http://www.wattsupwiththat.com/

The shenanagins at Copenhagen are like a tent revivalist meeting with conversions, swooning and, most of all, money extraction.

As Thumper noted, our little Kev747 trots after Hussein like a lovesick puppy seeking attention as he angles for a plum job at the UN.

Meanwhile the “do as I say, not as I do” crowd fly to Copenhagen in their private jets to be collected by limos that had to be driven from other countries to meet the demand so they can pose and demand the great unwashed must reduce their carbon footprint (whatever that stupid saying means).

A pathetic political circus with competing interests driven by a lust for power and money based on junk science provided by those benefiting from the scam.

Yes it came out of my mind, yesterday at my desk, taking a break from my work. Whether it is good or not depends on whose filters it is read through. It’s purpose is to stimulate debate.

But I will allow myself the indulgence to add an observation, and this one is a quote from Deepak Chopra’s new book “A tightly focused mind becomes narrow and linear if it can’t expand. We are all guilty of following narrow mental grooves, like a train confined to one narrow set of tracks.”

So whatever your current opinion, lets allow ourselves to step out of judgement mode (where we judge everything to be right or wrong based on our current beliefs) and get into curiosity mode, where we seek to understand why other people hold different opinions. We don’t need to agree with them, just respect the opinions and attempt to undertand where they come from.

Scientists tip 2010 as hottest yet –

Well of course they do, they get more funding to perform the next study…..
and next year…..OMG it is getting hotter …….. more money, more studies …

…and the kids at school learn this great poem
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

yes folks, back in the 1900’s we had droughts and flooding rains
(although we didn’t have as many people running around saying OMG the sky is falling)

A… LITTLE bit optimistic, you say?

If you’re living in a fantasy world of fairies and unicorns it’s a little bit optimistic.

If Canberra wants to go green then one way is to put something decent to do in Southside to reduce people driving to Civic and Northside thus reduce our carbon imprint. Also could it kill them to put in place a decent public transport system- buses are too unreliable and slow, Taxis too expensive.

I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth

georgesgenitals7:54 pm 09 Dec 09

Sounds like we should sit around singing ‘Kumbaya…’

is this actually your work, coach – or lifted from another’s creativity? in which case citing a source and not purporting it to be ‘your contribution’ would be appropriate; even if we are only little ol’ riotact…

it is good but, if a little over-optimistic. the ‘outcome’ from copenhagen is more likely to mimic doha trade negotiations – which linger yet, some years after doha was spick and polished, if less endowed with mermaids than copenhagen.

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