Climate Action Rally - Melbourne 2103

According to The Age, "Up to 30,000 Melburnians gathered in Treasury Gardens on Sunday to call for stronger action on climate change" on Sunday 17 November 2013.

A glorious solar day at Treasury Gardens.

Progress 2013 Conference to plot political futures

Tony Abbott wants us to repent. Well here’s my confession. I have sinned by:

• chipping in for the Climate Council
• signing GetUp! and Change.org petitions about asylum seekers, the Great Barrier Reef and Burger Off’s campaign against McDonald’s in Tecoma.
• voting for @Albo and agitating for Labor party reform
• joining Blog Action Day with a human rights post about Tony’s confessor Cardinal Pell
• posting questions on Our Say Australia’s forums
• commenting on stories at Guardian Australia and the Conversation
• retweeting whether it is insensitive, nay unpatriotic to use ‘bushfires’ and ‘climate’ in the same tweet
• sharing rabble-rousing republican propaganda
• adding to the Sumofus.org
• having boorish thoughts about Barnaby Joyce on QandA

It all seems very passive and dispiriting – not saving the planet, not even the backyard, but at least it keeps some of us off the streets. Or is that the problem? These are dark days indeed for progressive activists in Australia as we are rolled back to the Howard and Menzies years. Time to ask the experts.

For all is not lost. There is light in the hall. Melbourne Town Hall, that is. The Progress 2013 conference in Melbourne on 7 & 8 November is beckoning:

‘Progress 2013 is about what’s next: the issues, the people, and the strategies that will define Australia’s non-profits and social movements for years to come.’

There will be lots of the usual suspects coming: Jane Caro, Tim Flannery, Robert Manne, Sam McLean, Miriam Lyons, Anna Rose, Rachel Perkins, Will Stefen, Tim Costello.

It’s a very catholic gathering with specialists in: human rights law, the environment in all its manifestations, Asia, refugees, cancer, disability, indigenous peoples, film, the Middle East, public health, population, participatory democracy, international aid, the web, wilderness, women, workplaces. To paste but a slice, and that’s just the speakers.

As you would expect at this kind of get together, there are plenty of process people on the agenda: researchers, social entrepreneurs, communications nurds and social media geeks, digital natives [not my terminology], community organisers and campaigners, crowd funders, political campaigners.

There is at least one: singer/songwriter, union organiser, NGO CEO, refugee activist, charities, journalist, LGBTI advocate, columnist, feminist, digital strategist, marriage equality, youth group, philanthropist, academic, political sociologist, economist, publisher, B-Corporation (had to look that one up!], pastor and at least one citizen journalist. Some shade under multiple hats.

There are even a couple of parliamentarians coming: Wayne Swan and Scott Ludlam. The conference is not cheap, unless an organisation is sponsoring you, but it might be tax deductible. The pollies normally cover these events through their parliamentary allowances but that’s another story.

The OurSay  participatory democracy platform has 3 forums operating before the conference. The top questions will be asked of speakers during their sessions.

OurSay is also giving away three tickets to the winning question at each forum. There is still time to post a question as voting closes on 2 November. It is very democratic. You get 7 votes to spread around or give to one question. [Confession: I’m in the running]. So vote early and vote often, as was oft heard around the Collingwood or Richmond town halls of yesteryear.

One of the forums is Words Count. The questions are for ‘Messaging guru and author’, Anat Shenker-Osorio.

@Kevin_Rennie @OurSayAust thrilled to be grilled by the Aussies! Bring it on
— Anat Shenker-Osorio (@anatosaurus) October 15, 2013

Timely given the insistence of Immigration Minister Morrison that asylum seekers be labelled “illegals” when they arrive by boat and “detainees” when he’s locked them up out of sight in our latest version of purgatory.

Finally, if you’re a follower of fashion then the flavor of the month is orange, part of the livery of Cathy McGowan’s successful Federal election campaign for Indi. Since we are having trouble getting our act together globally, we are all now thinking locally. Community campaigning is the rage since her triumph.

Ben McGowan, co-founder of Voice for Indi will be there. A drink or two with Ben and Obama field campaign director, Jeremy Bird, should be a door prize but you’ll have to elbow past me to be part of that round. There is a conference party for ticket holders at Thousand Pound Bend that will be opened by local member of the House of Reps, Adam Bandt. All expenses paid perhaps – if so it’s his shout.

Following last Saturday’s NSW Miranda by-election, I fancy an orange firies’ suit for any kitchen table talk.

Anyway, come along and help plot a progressive future. If not then follow @ausprogress, #progress2013 or the Facebook page.

* The conference is organised by the Centre for Australian Progress ‘a new organisation dedicated to building the advocacy capacity of Australia’s civil society’.

For further coverage of Progress 2013, please watch this space.

Update: A list of Who’s coming to Progress 2013

Update 30 October: Video - 7 days to go - will you be there?

Cross post with No Fibs.

Support the National Day of Climate Action 17 November 2013

GetUp! are organising a National Day of Climate Action on 17 November 2013:

"The last month was the hottest on record.
The last 12 months were the hottest on record.
The last summer was the hottest on record, breaking 120 records.
This year? Summer has come early and bushfires are burning.

Meanwhile, Tony Abbott and our new Government are already going backwards on climate change. They've cut the climate department, abolished the Climate Commission, and are getting ready to try repeal a price on pollution and renewable energy funding.
Politicians have severely underestimated how much Australians care about climate change. Right now, it is more important than ever before that we make it clear that the majority of Australians want climate action.

Chip in at www.getup.org.au/climateaction and help us make this massive climate action project a reality."

Crowd-funding Revives Oz Climate Council After Government Axe

My post for Global Voices Online:

One of the first actions of the newly elected conservative government in Australia has been to axe Labor’s Climate Commission on 18 September 2013. Its purpose was “to provide all Australians with an independent and reliable source of information about the science of climate change”. Thanks to crowd-funding online, its ghost has arisen as the not-for-profit Climate Council with the same board members chaired by former Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery.

More: Crowd-funding Revives Australian Climate Council After Government Axe

Tim Flannery: Global Warming and Human Rights

Professor Tim Flannery addressed the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Conference on 20 July 2012. He spoke about global warming, climate change and their links to human rights issues.

Among the basic human rights, he included rights to: food and water; a nationality; protection from dangerous rates of change; life itself. He argued that each of these is affected by climate change. The greenhouse gases are the product of our economic success. We must uncoupled this link and there has been some progress over the last ten years in doing this.The most disadvantaged people are the most vulnerable and suffer the most from climate change.

What Would Change Your Mind on Climate?

My latest roundup for Global Voices Online: Australia: What Would Change Your Mind on Climate?

The scenario is simple. A wily conservative ex-politician and a young climate activist visit their ‘experts’ around the globe together. It’s a futile and inevitably failed attempt to change each other’s mind.

...The ABC, as our national broadcaster, is supposed to help us to form our views by presenting competing ideas. Many feel that giving equal time to the small percentage of scientists and commentators who are climate sceptics, delayers or deniers provides unwarranted weight to their arguments not true balance.

More

Clive Palmer's Perfect CIA Storm

My latest roundup for Global Voices Online:

In a “bizarre” outburst mining magnate Clive Palmer joined the ranks of the CIA conspiracy theorists this week during the Queensland State election campaign. Australian bloggers have revelled in his accusations that the CIA funds Green candidates and organisations such as Greenpeace.

...As they say: One person's conspiracy is another person's reality.
Australia: Mining Magnate's Bizarre Claim of CIA Coal Conspiracy

A friend on Google+ asked: "Are you sure you didn't make all that up :-)"

My reply:

As the cliché goes, you couldn't make up this stuff. Clive Palmer is a perfect storm: a greedy mining magnate, a climate denier, a Tory and a loose cannon. Gina Rinehart, who is referenced in the cartoon, also fits this description but she is also buying into TV and newspapers - presumably with a view to promoting her 'interests'. Andrew Forrest is the third leg of this axis of greed. Their common bond: digging stuff and selling it to the Chinese.

I forgot: And regime change, of course.

More

Think our political debate is tanking? Ask the s(c)eptic celebs

Think our political debate is tanking? Ask the s(c)eptic celebs.

The role of think tanks hit the headlines last week when the U.S. based Heartland Institute became embroiled in the denialgate controversy. Australia has a diverse range of think tanks covering much of the political spectrum, most with prominent public profiles.

The bright sparks of the commentariat are ubiquitous. It seems impossible to make even short visit to the mass media, especially ABC radio or television, without running into one of the young jerks from the conservative (or is it libertarian) Institute of Public Affairs. Chris Berg and Tim Wilson have an opinion on everything. Name a topic and you can guess what their research has discovered before they speak. This foresight is a skill shared by tankers of all political persuasions.

They not only comment on the latest spoke in the news cycle, they are often its origin. The Grattan Institute, a brains trust of the middle ground, has led recent news headlines with its report on energy No easy choices: which way to Australia's energy future? and its education research Catching up: learning from the best school systems in East Asia

The current programs of the Grattan Institute focus on ‘productivity growth, cities, school education, tertiary education, and energy’. Their board is made up of academics, senior public servants, a former Liberal MHR, big business CEOs and lawyers. There are three women in the ten, reflecting most company boards in Australia. Grattan’s CEO John Daley has worked in most of these areas.

Often we are dished up research with attitude. “Who needs a car industry anyway?” The Centre for Independent Studies thinks "perhaps not". It’s hard to know if Tony Abbott is taking his lead from them or vice versa. The CIS supports ‘a market economy and a free society under limited government where individuals can prosper and fully develop their talents’. It has that in common with U.S. right thinkers The John Birch Society. CIS has only two women on its board of twentyone with a similar composition and backgrounds to Grattan. It is very much the big end of town, although its Executive Director Greg Lindsay was a high school teacher before founding the organisation in 1976. Their research scholars number sixteen.

Recently CIS staffer Sara Hudson contributed a good news story to News Limited’s online blog The Punch: An Indigenous program that’s boxing clever. Perhaps a Jimmy Sharman Troupe employment program is in the offing to replace the much maligned Community Development Employment Program. Her expertise is Indigenous Affairs. With a job description that starts with ‘welfare dependency’, it is not hard to anticipate the direction of her research.

Wikipedia lists 34 think tanks in Oz. The entry has the National Civic Council and the H. R. Nicholls Society but not the Climate Institute.

One prominent organisation that describes itself as ‘the country’s most influential progressive think tank’ is The Australia Institute. Its concerns include poverty and ‘our planet’. Executive director Richard Denniss has a strong media presence. One of the five women directors out of eleven is Australian Council of Trade Unions President Ged Kearney.

Behind the sparkling teeth of the young jerks lurks many an old stager. Frank Lowy’s passion for soccer, including the unsuccessful bid for the World cup, is well known. His Westfield shopping centre empire helps to fund the Lowy Institute for International Policy. ‘It ranges across all the dimensions of international policy debate in Australia - economic, political and strategic – and it is not limited to a particular geographic region.’ Its Board includes climate change reviewer Professor Ross Garnaut and its International Advisory Council sports former Australian Rupert Murdoch. It has a very large cohort of research staff and visiting fellows.

Think tank cross-fertilisation is first class. Samantha Hardy, a Strategic Adviser at Graeme Wood Foundation, is a director of the Australia Institute. Graeme Wood, of wotif.com fame, is the philanthropist behind the latest online media venture, The Global Mail. Before he switched to the Grattan Institute as program director for higher education in 2011, Andrew Norton spent 11 years working for both the University of Melbourne and CIS. IPA Executive Director John Roskam has strong Liberal party connections. Liberals on the Board include former Federal Minister Rod Kemp and Victorian powerbroker Michael Kroger.

Another tank that Wikepdia does not mention is the climate change skeptical Galileo Movement. They do undertake research, though #thinktank might be too rich a tag for an organisation that knows what it will find beforehand: ‘to expose misrepresentations pushing a price on carbon dioxide'. Their parton is radio shock-jock Alan Jones. Former Western Mining Corporation CEO Hugh Morgan and billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart have been linked to Galileo. Morgan is also President of the Lavoisier Group, another global warning skeptics organisation.

Galileo has ambitious aims:

‘The Galileo Movement seeks to protect Australians and our future in five areas:
- Protect freedom - personal choice and national sovereignty;
- Protect the environment;
- Protect science and restore scientific integrity;
- Protect our economic security;
- Protect people's emotional health by ending Government and activists' constant destructive bombardment of fear and guilt on our kids and communities.’

Its methods sound more like those of a political pressure group:

‘We address those five areas in four ways:
- Exposing UN IPCC misrepresentation of science, climate and Nature;
- Presenting real-world science and advocating for scientific evidence as the basis of policy;
- Revealing economic damage from needless additional taxation burdening people already reeling under high and rising costs of living;
- Revealing environmental damage of bureaucratic control taxing and 'trading' carbon dioxide.’

A huge agenda, but those who are hoping for long term protection of their freedoms will be disappointed:

‘Expected life-span: The intent is to terminate the Galileo Movement when the push to price carbon dioxide is destroyed. That's anticipated to be by the next federal election.’

It seems that the Galileo Movement is really only interested in regime and tax change.

Their experts include: Professor Bob Carter of Heartlandgate fame, Professor Ian Plimer, Dr Jennifer Marohasy, Jo Nova, David Flint, Andrew Bolt and Lord Monckton. Marohasy is now a research fellow at Central Queensland University after five years with the IPA.

Meanwhile, it is great to know that Oz is in safe and secure hands - the firm grip of the defence establishment that is. The Australia Defence Association (ADA) claims to be ‘Australia’s only truly independent, actively non-partisan, community-based, public-interest guardian organisation and ‘think-tank’ on defence and wider national security issues.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) also claims independence but was set up and funded by the Howard government. It continues to accept government money but also receives private funding.

Another defence organisation is the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), based at the Australian National University. Its head is Hugh White, is a frequent media contributor. His past includes Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defence and ALP adviser.

These defence tanks never seem to capture any new ground. Those that weren’t completely wrong about Iraq and Afghanistan certainly weren’t right in any meaningful way. They have a worse record of predicting disaster than most of the economists who occupy the extensive desks of groupthink land. It is hardly a surprise that Hugh White was a regular companion of Kerry O’Brien on the 7.30 Report before and during the Iraq invasion.

A number of the think tanks are not flush with money. The Sydney Institute is a niche operation with a tiny staff, consisting of conservative commentator Gerard Henderson, Anne Henderson, an executive assistant and 3 office personnel. Viewers of the Insiders will be familiar with Gerard’s cheery countenance as a regular panellist over the years.

The minnow is The Brisbane Institute,‘Queensland’s premier think tank and independent forum for ideas, insight, inspiration and innovation’, with three policy staff and one administration. It has University of Queensland, Brisbane City Council, State government and private company funding. Board member Philip Bacon is the well-connected owner of the eponymous art galleries.

As the name suggests, the Evatt Foundation sports a range of mostly left-centrist ALP types and fellow travellers. It appears to have few permanent research staff but its website was far from enlightening about resourcing.

One progressive organisation that punches above its funding is the Centre for Policy Development. Executive director Miriam Lyons is fast becoming a panel celeb on current affairs platforms such as the ABC’s Q&A and the TV version of the Drum. The CPD is a relatively recent addition to tanking, opening in 2007. It grew out of the online magazine New Matilda but is now quite separate. 4 of the 6 members of the research arm are women. The board boasts directors with trade union experience, as well as former Whitlam staffer and head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet John Menadue.

Fulltime pipers are expected to rap for their paymaster. Often it’s a case of seeing what your patrons and benefactors believe. On the other hand, whether they are paid or just patronised, visiting fellows and commissioned authors appear unconcerned by potential conflicts of interest. Visiting fellows at the Lowy Institute include Paul Kelly, editor-at-large of Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper, Peter Hartcher, Political and International Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and the very enterprising Hugh White.

Facts flow forth from the cluttered foreheads of the think tank performers with such predictability that it would be harmless, if it were not so pervasive. It is just one of many reasons our political understanding and debate is tanking.

Update: Free copy of How to Get Expelled From School "Offer comes courtesy of The Galileo Movement."

Very public-spirited of them!

Andrew Charlton: Balancing Progress and the Planet

A binding agreement on carbon emissions is a totally unrealistic expectation of next week's Durban COP17 climate change conference. So what are the alternatives?

Adam Morton, Environment editor at The Age, explored some solutions with Andrew Charlton, author of the Quarterly Essay Man-Made World: Choosing between progress and planet at the Wheeler Centre on 23 November 2011.

“Progress has its price. Each step of human advancement has left a footprint on the planet. Today our two defining challenges are managing climate change and eliminating global poverty. In Copenhagen we learned that these challenges are inseparable.”

According to Charlton the lesson from Copenhagen is that changing geopolitics mean that the needs of the developing world must be met, as well as those of the developed world.

This will require an enormous effort globally of an unprecedented scale. On climate change, he argues that we need a total re-engineering equivalent to the Second World War. Similar action is required to double food production during this century as world population continues to climb.

He sees ingenuity as the key to the kinds of solutions necessary in both areas. Power needs to be less expensive but more available in developing countries by making clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels.

Current technologies such as wind and solar cannot deliver the kind of cutbacks in greenhouse gases that the Greens believe possible. Nor can carbon prices by themselves. Alternative solutions will necessitate a massive shift in focus to research and development of breakthrough technologies.

Charlton was not without some optimism. He believes that China is misunderstood. Its leaders are driven by four motives that together offer hope:

• overcoming poverty through development
• obtaining energy security
• reducing air pollution
• tackling climate change

Most of the big gains in technology will happen overseas. Australia needs to collaborate with countries like China on the technological solutions. When questioned about our carbon legislation he stressed that it is necessary, though even the 5% reduction from 2000 levels by 2020 is ambitious since it represents a 30 - 40 % decline from projected emissions.

He emphasised that the 'balance of risks' has moved on both climate change and poverty. Despite his misgivings that the risks are real, nuclear power must be part of the solution for many countries. Similarly GM crops have the capacity to meet the food challenge, as organic farming cannot deliver the necessary increases. We must be alert to the possible dangers without ruling out these unpopular options.

Needless to say, Andrew’s views were not popular with many in the audience, especially those supporting approaches such as the Beyond Zero Emissions plan, which he contested during the session.

Political leadership will be a decisive factor. Our leaders must focus on the cost of not acting.

Charlton’s presentation had the desired effect. It will be weekend reading. Watch this space or buy a copy.

GetUp! Ad: Don't Be fooled

GetUp! Ad: Don't Be fooled by Mining Billionaires

Tony Abbott: Carbon dioxide 'weightless'

When I read this artcile by Barry Jones in The Age this morning, it seemed worth checking the quote. Not that you can't trust journalists to be accurate, of course:

People are better educated than ever yet debate is dumbed down.

AN ARTICLE by The Age's Michael Gordon titled 'He says She says' last week, included a disturbing paragraph in which he quoted Tony Abbott, in South Dandenong, answering a question about how CO2 emissions are calculated: ''It's actually pretty hard to do this because carbon dioxide is invisible and it's weightless (my emphasis) and you can't smell it.''

This striking observation probably reflects his understanding. If carbon dioxide is invisible, odourless and weightless, in a world outside measurement or analysis, then attempting to control or limit it is pointless.

He appears to take a mediaeval scholastic view of how the universe works. He has forgotten that legislation setting strict standards for emission accounting was passed under the Howard government, in which he was a senior minister.

Intelligent discussion all but extinct

Found quick corroboration but at an unlikely source:

On the Liberal Party's website:

JOHN LAWS:
And imagine the administration costs of doing that? What’s the point of it if you take it away with one hand and give it back with the other?

TONY ABBOTT:
Exactly right. Even if they were trying to give it all back to you, there would still be the deadweight costs, all the extra bureaucrats. See, one of the things that people haven’t quite twigged to is that carbon dioxide is invisible, it’s weightless and it’s odourless. How are we going to police these emissions…

JOHN LAWS:
I don’t know.

TONYABBOTT:
…I mean, how are we going to police these emissions? This carbon cop is going to be an extraordinarily intrusive instrumentality, running around trying to make sure that all these businesses aren’t actually emitting given that you can’t actually see, smell or touch what’s going on.

JOHN LAWS:
Well, I just don’t know how it can be measured.

TONY ABBOTT:
Well, it can be measured but it’s a very difficult process.

Tony Abbott interview with John Laws - Julia Gillard’s carbon tax; live cattle export ban

It's great to know that Party Headquarters are so proud of their Tony's Science homework, even the mistakes. It gives extra meaning to 'snollygoster' when applied to Abbott.

Oz Politics: Some Gems on the Net

Some Australian politics gems from the last week that shouldn't be missed:

A couple of blog posts

Australiar and the f*cking idiot dilemma by Geoff Lemon of Heathen Scriptures

There are definitely times when you wonder if light-fingered alien doctors have been handing out mass lobotomies while we sleep. Or there really is something in the water.

I am confused, I do not understand by 'Catching up' at Café Whispers

I am a little confused about Australian politics today. The following is what I understand the situation to be.

We have a legit elected minority government that on all accounts is performing well. We have a strong economy, employment, trade balance and stable interest rates.

There are problems with a two or multiple speed economy. I believe the proposed tax on miners is important in bringing some balance to the economy.

We do have a problem with lack of confidence in the economy. I wonder how much of this lack of confidence can be sheeted home to the negative and down talking of the economy of the leader of the Opposition. There are concerns of what is occurring overseas, in Europe. The Asian region which we are a part of is still seen as going strong.

...Have Australians become too lazy or disinterested, that they refuse to take the time or effort to listen for themselves and accept unquestioning much of what is written and said in the media.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Radio National's Background briefing - The Lord Monckton roadshow 17 July 2011

The Scottish peer Lord Monckton has been raising hell against the carbon tax in barnstorming rallies and public meetings around the country. But just who is Lord Monckton and who are the forces behind him? Chief amongst them a mysterious group called the Galileo Movement and mining magnate and now media player Gina Rinehart. Reporter Wendy Carlisle

Audio and transcript available.


Media Watch Personal or policy? You be the judge 18 July 2011

A look at the very unbalanced radio station 2GB.

Video and transcript available.

Regime Change Rupert Murdoch Style

My latest post for Global Voices:

Australia: Regime Change Rupert Murdoch Style

It is a sign of the times when John Hartigan, News Limited’s head in Australia, has to defend his newspapers’ aggressive approach to the Gillard government. Murdoch’s Oz media have been accused of abusing their power with a campaign for regime change. The announcement of the carbon pricing and emissions trading scheme is the latest battleground.

More

Murdoch Press Ignore 4 Degrees Climate Change Conference

Try googling 'Four Degrees or More' or 'Schellnhuber' to see how much coverage the FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Australia in a Hot World conference received this week. Fairfax had a series of articles and the ABC interviewed him on TV and radio.

The sole contribution from Rupert Murdoch's News Limited stable ignored the science and picked up on the sensational. The story in today's Australian is headed: Climate anger dangerous, says German physicist If you were expecting some of his global warming tipping point scenarios, forget it. Somehow they heard about the stoush at his Keynote address on Tuesday night:

ANGER against scientists involved in the climate debate is reaching dangerous levels and it's only a matter of time before one is murdered, says leading German physicist Hans Schellnhuber.

...While he was opening a recent climate conference in Melbourne, a man in the front row waved a noose at him. "I was confronted with a death threat when I gave my public lecture," Professor Schellnhuber said.

"Somebody got to his feet and showed me a rope with a noose.

"He showed me this hangman's rope and he said: 'Mr Schellnhuber, welcome to Australia'."

The man and three friends went on to interject during the lecture.

It's amazing that it took two journalists, Brendan Nicholson and Lauren Wilson, to write such a short piece.

They could have had the exclusive if they'd turned up, but reporting the arguments in favour of strong climate action is not part of Murdoch's agenda to destroy the carbon tax and the Gillard government.

Shame! Rupert, Shame!

Even Fairfax's Maribyrnong Weekly had coverage: Too hot to handle: can we afford a 4-degree rise?

The Jackboot's On the Other Foot

Recently Lord Monckton, displaying a swastika, called Ross Garnaut a fascist. If you’re German and a climate scientist then you’ve probably come to expect the term Nazi to be thrown at you but not necessarily a noose.

The scene:

Melbourne University 7 PM 12 July 2011

The event:

The Critical Decade, the keynote address for the FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Australia in a Hot World conference

The speaker:

Professor Schellnhuber, Head of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research and Chair of the German Government's Advisory Council on Global Change

The protestors:

4 Citizens Electoral Council members

The Stoush:

As we entered the building, people were handing out leaflets for and against climate action. It didn’t take much grey matter to work out there would be some political theatre coming up. As the good professor began to speak, a protestor leapt to his feet in the second row and waved a very large noose. He yelled about a climate conspiracy involving Queen Elizabeth, the royal family, and green Nazis. He was taken by the arm by a senior academic who vigorously escorted him from the auditorium.

A series of interruptions followed. Next up was Doug Mitchell, a familiar face from Ross Garnaut’s recent talk at Melbourne University about the 2011 Update to his 2008 Climate Change Review. Mitchell had started a provocative verbal assault on Garnaut during question time but was relieved of the microphone by another assertive academic before getting to his question. I captured the incident on video:

This time he ran down the steps towards the stage, yelling slogans and accusations. He too was removed.

There were two more subdued outbreaks. They had obviously either skipped or failed Agitator Histrionics 101. As indicated in an earlier post, Professor Schellnhuber is clearly used to this kind of protest and seemed a bit surprised that the count stopped at four. Unfortunately, I could not find the incidents on the official video of the address.

As they were ejected, they accused the organisers of not letting them speak. The audience applauded when they were forcibly removed. It seems they came to listen to rational discussion not hysterical insults. The use of the noose was a reminder that some of the scientists in the hall have recently received death threats. To their credit the protestors were not hiding behind anonymity. Nor do I mean to imply any connection between them and the death threats.

Was it a case of quashing political dissent or a defence of the right to speak in public without harassment or abuse? More likely it’s just a healthy, if somewhat bizarre, part of our democracy. Both sides undoubtedly thought that the jackboot’s on the other foot. We lowered the bar of public behaviour when highly offensive and personal comments were not loudly condemned during the Murray Darling plan consultation meetings in October 2010.

But as they say, if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the limelight. Most of the audience seemed more concerned with the threats posed by the global warming scenarios explored by the professor.

When I edited my video Million of Low Carbon Jobs, I left out the incident above. The mainstream media are already obsessed with theatrical sideshows and stunts without adding more. Fringe dwellers like the CEC don’t need extra oxygen or carbon dioxide for that matter. But after Tuesday night, it seems impossible to ignore the low level of ‘debate’ that Australian politics has descended to. A couple of examples from their literature should suffice:

Anyway it wasn’t the most dramatic piece of stagecraft I’ve seen at a political meeting. WhenJohn Gorton launched his 1970 half-Senate election campaign at Springvale Civic Centre, a group of anti-Vietnam war demonstrators displayed large cardboard coffins they had snuck into the hall in pieces. Some Young Liberals attacked them. Guess who was arrested? A very young Laurie Oakes told me that he had threatened to make the police front-page news on The Sun newspaper if they didn’t release the protesters. Which they did.

Some of the more extraordinary views that surface during public debates, such as those of the CEC, are cause for reflection. What tortured paths bring one to the realisation that global warming is a monarchist, green nazi conspiracy. Why are some people drawn to gurus such as the CEC’s idol Lyndon LaRouche?

Just goes to show that there’s no such thing as normal.

Climate Change: Critical Decade or Fumbled Future

If the world manages to achieve the kind of international agreement that is needed on global warming, it could be down to the fact that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a physicist. According to Professor Hans Joachin Schellnhuber, she even understands some of the mathematics.

The Critical Decade, the keynote address for the FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Australia in a Hot World conference, was not all doom and gloom but it is difficult to recall the optimistic bits.

The Professor maintains there is “something revolutionary happening in Germany”. It has taken a U-turn on nuclear power as the answer to reducing carbon emissions but “will honour its climate protection pledges” through renewable energy and other measures. He hopes this "post fossil-fuel/nuclear era" will be a step in the transition to a low carbon world.

He stressed the pressures on traditional democracy. We need to "extend or even transcend traditional democratic processes" to take into account the interests of “the generations not yet born …across space and time”.

He stressed that these processes must be “guided by insight” - in particular the insight of science but also of economics.

He presented a number of tipping point scenarios, some involving runaway greenhouse dynamics that 4+ degrees could bring:

1. Collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet
2. Permafrost melting
3. Methane Hydrates release

Each of these would be irreversible in the short term. He was talking about 1000+ years.

In response to audience questions, he contended that use of natural gas is the best transition but not for the long run without capture and storage by carbon sequestration. He also sees use of biomass as part of the solution. His view on the future of nuclear energy is that it is too expensive if all the real costs are taken into consideration.

If "generational" democracy is the key to embracing real action, the preponderance of baby boomers at the address is a major concern. Gen X and Y - where are you?

For more on the The Critical Decade, please visit Climate: Taming the Unchained Goddess

Update: Professor Schellnhuber was interviewed on ABC TV's Lateline: A carbon price label is all-important: Schellnhuber:

There is also a transcript at the link.

Climate: Taming the Unchained Goddess

The Murdoch media, the shock jocks and TV breakfast shows and much of the other mainstream media are obviously too scared to leave home at night as a result of the carbon tax fear and loathing they’ve been spreading. Perhaps it's the dreaded bird-brain flu.

Or ironically it may have just been Melbourne University’s cold winter evening that kept them away. One way or the other they missed out on lots of sensational footage when Professor Hans Joachin Schellnhuber gave his public address for the FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Australia in a Hot World conference. The Age had a report on his worst-case scenarios from earlier in the day. There was plenty of gloom mixed with formidable science:

Agricultural systems have broken down, crops yields decimated. Human health is tested by extremes beyond the endurance of many citizens. Shorelines and the island homes of Pacific neighbours - communities who have contributed nothing to rising greenhouse gases - are consumed by rising tides. Coral reefs erode and lifeless oxygen-starved ''holes'' grow in the ocean depths, the physics and chemistry of the water having been utterly changed.

Professor Schellnhuber, the director of the Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and chairman of the German Scientific Advisory Council, conjures up the future with a selection of graphs and tables composed from observations and modelling.
The end of the world is nigh? It's just a matter of degrees, says one expert (The Age 13 July 2011)

The cameras would have loved the contribution from four Citizens Electoral Council alternative thinkers whose series of loud interruptions included a very theatrical noose and accusations of a conspiracy lead by none other than Her Majesty ERII and her “green Nazis”. They underestimated the senior academic who vigorously escorted the ringleader out of the auditorium. Professor Schellnhuber is head of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research and Chair of the German Government's Advisory Council on Global Change. He is clearly used to this kind of protest and seemed disappointed that the count stopped at four. Anyway more about this challenged band of activists in another post.

There was lots of stuff about tipping points and runaway greenhouse dynamics but I’ll also leave that to the next post.

As we choose our future, it must be an informed choice not one based on political and economic populism and propaganda.

To finish, a little bit of Frank Capra’s 1958 The Unchained Goddess that the prof shared with us:

Update from the conference:

A media release from the CSIRO +4ºC scenarios for Australia's future climate:

A CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship climate researcher, Dr Whetton said that, compared to annual average temperatures recorded in 1850, a 4ºC warming might occur by the end of this century if greenhouse gas emissions stay high.
"Rapid global warming of 4ºC would be unlike anything experienced before by modern human societies – presenting us with huge challenges in terms of our ability to adapt," Dr Whetton said
She said according to a review of recent climate models by CSIRO and Melbourne University, Australian climate changes at 4ºC or more of global warming include:

• Temperature increases of about 3ºC to 5ºC in coastal areas and 4ºC to 6ºC in inland areas
• Likely declines of annual rainfall in southern Australia, particularly in winter, of up to about 50% but uncertain rainfall changes in other regions
• Marked increases of potential evaporation of about 5% to 20%
• More droughts in southern Australia
• Snow cover duration falling to zero in most alpine regions.

Update 2: The video and audio of the address are available at: Live @ Melbourne

First Net Reactions to Carbon Pricing Package

Cross post of my Global Voices roundup on the first web reactions to Julia Gillard's announcement of a carbon price and clean energy package:

Australia Unveils Carbon Pricing Package

Australians remain divided after Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of aClean Energy package with a carbon price of $A 23 per tonne and an emissions trading scheme from 2015. Crikey had an early summary, and the rest of the local blogosphere was also quick off the mark.


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