Dear All

Thank you for your support.

We have raised about $1000 in donations so far.

The Rainbow Chai Tent has decided to go anyway, with crew from Nimbin to
Canberra to cater for the Convergence and the opening of Parliament House.

We are hoping more donations will come in to make up the short fall over the
next week.

Yours Benny Zable


Below ia a wonderful letter of support which has made me consider heading down
myself with flags and some banners.

Thank you all again.

Yours Benny Zable

Please circulate this around.



Name
of Account.  michael jack







Account
Number . 062-580  10132443    Commonwealth Bank Murwillumbah
N.S.W







  Thank
you
Michael
jack































  02-66897-050
   0429853036



From: john@...
To: murraygarde@...; teresaheal@...;
byronbodycare@...; ajanta@...;
JanSanderson@...; JaneMcInerney@...;
sandtdavis@...; chkremser@...; lalgreentree@...;
KylieCi@...; dyerama@...; bhosie@...; mclark@...;
bobbi@...; bamboojiggi@...; geoff@...;
dave@...; dj122452@...; h29john@...;
arabian2005@...; bobbi@...; michalarmstrong@...;
rbosnak@...; jennytemplin@...; saadi@...
CC: bennyzable@...
Subject: FW: Resend: Request from Benny Zable for assistance to Rainbow Chai
Tent Canberra Convergence.
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 10:03:31 -0800































Hello friends,

Here forwarding a request, below, from the
local “chai tent” owner  http://www.rainbowchaitent.com/   and also benny zable
performance
artist/activist extraordinary   http://www.bennyzable.com/
  . The Chai
tent and Benny have been a presence on many occasions at the tent embassy in
Canberra ( Just think for a moment about the tent embassy itself.  They actually
survived Howard. (just)  And how
bloody Australian to have a daggy tent, campfire and campgrounds in the grounds
of old parliament house for aALL these years)  
http://www.aboriginaltentembassy.net/
(This link shows the event in question and also pic
of embassy and  benny
flags at old parliament house ) Read the essay “Tent embassy Icon or
Eyesore”  on embassy site.



  Any way,  the chai
tent provides refreshment and catering and a good place to sit down and is much
appreciated.  Benny provides color
and movement and some media savy.

Hopefully there will be an apology issued
to people of the stolen generations in the first sittings of the new parliament
and hopefully this will usher in a better deal from Australian parliaments to
all Aboriginal peoples in Aus.

  The tent embassy is rustling up as many
people as it can to mark the occasion and also show they are still here and
watching to see what will happen.



Due to the wedge politics so beloved of
Howard the tent embassy had recently become even more controversial in and
outside of ‘aboriginal policits”  Some may
be embarrassed by it - some of us may even be a bit embarrassed by the chai tent
and benny!!   But it seems to me that is all to
the good  A healthy society needs to
be able to hear messages from the margins for sooner or later what is on the
margins comes to centre stage.  If
as a society we could listen a little earlier we could deal with things better
on
a social/environmental/political level.
Not hearing the voices of the margin dwellers; be they the disposed, the
activists, the artists and poets or the mystics is like  waiting to be slapped
in the face by a
dead fish instead of dealing with it when you get the first wiff
from the fridge when there has been a power failure.  Well there is not only
some fish in
there; There is a bloody big pile of prawn shells left over from the huge
consumer party of the past decades.
And many social and environmental issues need to be attended to.



When you a broke a few bob goes a long
way.  Read all the way down they
need $6 to $10K in all.  That’s
what it costs to get there and run the service.  This means on many other
occasions 2 blokes
with the arse out of there pants have provided this
kind of money to do this servive.  Amazing. Now you
know why they don’t have much financial back up –they give it all
away!



Chin up

Be well and happy and pass this on.

john





-----Original Message-----

From: benny zable
[mailto:bennyzable@...]

Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 11:18 PM

To: Jane Aboriginal ACT Morrison

Cc: Harry Freeman; helen
caldicott; James Courtney; janet starlight; Jilli Jackson; Jo Vallentine; John
Allen; john Ellis; John Aquarius Kirk; John Seed; johnathan king; Jon Edwards;
judith light; Junita Vallak; Juno Gemes; Keith Jaffray; Kerry Nettle; Kim
Kindersley;
kriolspeedy@...; Lisa peacebliss; Lisa Yeates; Lismore Eco; Liz
Elliottt; Lyne Hovey; maireid sullivan; Matthew Smith; melisa jenkins; melita
nonukes; Mia; MICHAEL BALDERSTONE; Michael Denborough; Michael Webb; Michaela
Friends of the Earth; Narangba No Nuke; nat nat; Nimbin Permecuture Village;
owleyes8@...; Paddy Friends of the Earth; Paddy Gibson Ind OZ; Paul
Kimball; Peace con Byron Bay; Peter Hamilton; Peter Hardwick; Peter Pedels

Subject: Resend: Request from
Benny Zable for assistance to Rainbow Chai Tent Canberra Convergence.



           Dear
All



I am resending this request as Michael would like to go with Chai Tent to the
Aboriginal Tent Embassy Gathering over next week end for the opening of
Parliament House, but just does not have the finances to go.



He is not on the dole and is broke from cancellations of consecutive rained out
Channon Markets.



Please put into his account anything you can.



As he stated he will return money if he cannot go.



If he goes I will go with flags to promote those environmental causes which I
believe you would like us to exhibit on the tent professionally.



This is also a test to see if people really want us there.



Words are not enough after countless thefts and abuse at festivals etc.



Between us, we are pretty broke,  and it is a
risky and expensive journey.



There are people who want us there to do the catering and staging for the
media.



Benny Zable


















    Help Send The Rainbow Chai Tent




                       To
Canberra






            Urgent Request for Financial
Assistance







         2 February 2008











Dear
friends











The
chai tent is being asked to do the catering and entertainment ,for the National
Aboriginal
Convergence, at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy  and Old
Parlaiment House form the  8th to the 14th of february.





Catering
for 500 - 1000 people possibly more.











It
provides a valued meeting space that has been much appreciated in the past.





It
is of the utmost Importance that the chai tent is able to offer a
high level of serves in both the catering and entertainment, as both
these things are vital for the aboriginal tent embassy and National convergence
to function.





With people coming
from all over the country , some coming to the
embassy possibly for the first time, they need to be
  made welcome and to feel at home. In between workshops and meetings food
and light entertainment will be an integral part of people forming
dialogue between each other and hopefully the government.











We
need to raise between 6,000 to 10,000 dollars by
this Monday if we are going to have any chance of going.





I
know this is a lot and very short notices .We have been supporting the
embassy for the last 3 years, taking the





Chai tent
down to Sovereignty Day on the 26 of January a return trip of about
2,500 kms we where unable to attend this year,
due mainly to the fact I have no money left,I have been funding this
my self at considerable cost. And as I,am unemployed
and without benefits I can on longer continuo without support
.





I
Will also have to miss the channon market, my only income at the moment.











In
the past we have sold food and drinks by donation as not all those attending
have enough money .





  We will continuo to
do this as it is more important that people are together.











The
money will  be spent on.





Food





Fuel
and accommodation there and back,





Gas





Hire
of marquees, tables and chairs ,trestles tables, Mobil cool
room, barbecue  possibly a flat bed truck if the convergence
can't find one.





And
help with the on going cost of running the Chai Tent.











If
you can help, please deposit funds directly into my account and please send me
an email letting me know how much you deposited and your contact details to
michael@...





If
we don't reach 3,000 dollars
by Monday night we won;t be going and I will return your
money,





  I
am looking for donations of 100 dollars and up and are
hopeing that  someone out there can put in a few thousand dollars in , as
in the scheme of things it not that much.















Please forward this
email to any one you feel maybe able to assist - now or in the future.



























Check our comprehensive Salary Centre Overpaid or Underpaid?







_________________________________________________________________
Overpaid or Underpaid? Check our comprehensive Salary Centre
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fcontent%2Emycareer%2Ecom%2Eau%2F\
salary%2Dcentre%3Fs%5Fcid%3D595810&_t=766724125&_r=Hotmail_Email_Tagline_MyCaree\
r_Oct07&_m=EXT

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi there, climatechangeaction@... ,
If you will go to http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/votebookeditor07.htm,
you will see why I am dancing on the ceiling.
?
Bob
---------------------------------------
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http://mudsmith.net/
Commit random acts of kindness.
---------------------------------------

Antarctica's massive coastal glaciers are quickly melting into the sea
as the oceans around the continent grow warmer - and the pace of ice
loss is speeding up.

An international satellite network measuring the thickness of the
glaciers as they shrink year by year has found that the glaciers have
melted so rapidly during the past 10 years that the continent is
losing almost as much ice as Greenland, according to researchers
gathering the satellite data.

The team from Chile, England and the Netherlands is led by Eric
Rignot, a radar engineer and glacier specialist at UC Irvine and
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has watched the shrinking
glaciers and gathered data for the past 15 years from Canadian,
Japanese and European polar-orbiting satellites.

Those satellites carry radar instruments that can measure the
thickness of each glacier with remarkable accuracy, and they have now
mapped more than 85 percent of the entire coastline of Antarctica,
covering all the continent's major glaciers.

Unlike Greenland's coastal glaciers, where meltwater from the ice on
the surface seeps down to the base of each glacier and lubricates it
to speed its flow to the sea, the glaciers on Antarctica move down
from the land as huge ice sheets and spread out over the ocean, where
the thick glaciers are known as ice shelves.

For many years, scientists have watched some of these giant ice
shelves breaking apart and crashing into the sea, and now more and
more of them are melting as they move out over the ocean.

The cause: Antarctic waters like the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas
are warming, and as their water temperatures rise they melt the
undersides of the ice sheets so the sheets become thinner and the seas
intrude farther and farther inland - to melt still more of the ice,
Rignot explained in a phone interview.

Although the effect of all this ice loss on global sea levels is still
small - measured in a rise of only a few thousands of an inch each
year so far from the melting in Antarctica - that increase has nearly
doubled in the past 10 years, he estimated.

"We're concerned that the rate of glacier melting will double
rapidly," Rignot said.

Ice loss is most pronounced in Antarctica's Pine Island Bay region,
where three major glaciers are losing ice fast, and on the northern
tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, Rignot and his colleagues reported.

Glaciers in those two regions alone lost about 212 billion tons of ice
from 1996 to 2006 - an amount very similar to the total loss of ice on
Greenland, Rignot and his team calculated.

The east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula is where two major ice
shelves - called Larsen A and Larsen B - disintegrated in 1995 and
2002. Those immense events were among the most convincing early
signals that global warming is real and dangerous.

The researchers calculated the increase in mass of the glaciers as
snow has piled up on them, and compared those numbers with the losses
due to melting into the sea. The calculations yield what Rignot and
his colleagues term the "ice sheet mass balance," and the overall
result is increasingly negative, they report.

"Large uncertainties remain in predicting Antarctica's future
contribution to sea level rise," Rignot said.

"The ice sheets are responding faster to climate change than (anyone)
anticipated," he said.

E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@....

This article appeared on page A - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/26/MN50UM20C.DTL

Published on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 by The Independent/UK
US Censors Arctic Scientists' Findings as it Prepares for Oil and Gas
Auction
http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3359083.ece
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/22/6547/

The United States has blocked the release of a landmark assessment of
oil and gas activity in the Arctic as it prepares to sell off
exploration licences for the frozen Chukchi Sea off Alaska, one of the
last intact habitats of the polar bear.

Scientists at the release of the censored report in Norway said there
was "huge frustration" that the US had derailed a science-based effort
to manage the race for the vast energy reserves of the Arctic.

The long-awaited assessment was meant to bring together work by
scientists in all eight Arctic nations to give an up-to-date picture
of oil and gas exploitation in the high north. In addition to that it
was supposed to give policy makers a clear set of recommendations on
how to extract safely what are thought to be up to one quarter of the
world's energy reserves.

Speaking yesterday from Tromso, one of the report's lead authors, who
asked not to be named, said: "They [the US] have blocked it. We have
no executive summary and no plain language conclusions."

Earlier this month, the Bush administration drew widespread criticism
when it said it would auction off 30 million acres of the remote
Chukchi Sea which separates Alaska from Russia on 6 February. The sale
to oil and gas companies has been rushed through before Congress can
complete efforts to protect the polar bear under the Endangered
Species Act, a move which could complicate efforts to sell its habitat
to oil majors.

The US House of Representatives held a hearing last week to
investigate the timing of the Chukchi sell off.

"Oil and gas is a sensitive subject," said the unnamed author of the
Arctic Council report, which has taken six years to compile. "And this
could be linked to activities in the Chukchi Sea between the US and
Russia where more research and assessment is needed."

A draft of the censored recommendations, seen by The Independent,
called on governments to conduct proper research on environmental
impacts before signing off new oil and gas projects in ecologically
sensitive areas such as the Chukchi.

One of the lead scientists at the Arctic Council, who again asked to
remain anonymous, said: "The key message was to be more careful. To
check more before you drill for oil and gas in the Arctic."

Comparatively little is known about the polar bear population in the
Chukchi because there hasn't been an intensive study since the
mid-1990s. The US mineral management service said it would allow
companies to "explore this intriguing frontier area" but critics,
including Senator John Kerry, have demanded a three-year delay while
the impact on polar bears can be examined.

"For a polar bear population already stressed due to massive climate
change, these activities could be the last straw," said Kassie Siegel,
the climate director at the US-based Centre for Biological Diversity.

She said the censoring of the Arctic report was typical of the actions
of the White House. "It fits a pattern of downplaying, denying, and
suppressing climate science at every turn. It's all part of the
Bush-Cheney strategy of handing out as many fossil fuel entitlements
as quickly as they can in their final months in office."

As climate change melts more of the north polar ice cap and global
demand for oil and gas surges there has been a frantic scramble for
the Arctic's vast energy wealth. The combination of increased access
and prices has seen Russia, Norway, Denmark and Canada step up claims
to sovereignty over the North Pole, while the US waits in the wings.

The Chukchi Sea is believed to hold 15 billion barrels of recoverable
oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The receding sea ice
and record price for crude is tempting companies into Arctic oil and
gas development further out to sea with potentially disastrous
consequences. The agencies approving the Chukchi sale admit there is a
40 per cent chance of an oil spill, and that contact with spilt oil is
almost certainly fatal for polar bears.

© 2008 The Independent

*Climate change | Social change conference*

April 11-13, 2008
Sydney

The world is teetering on the brink of unstoppable climate change. Many
now recognise the need for serious change in the way we produce and use
energy, our transport systems, food production, urban design and
forestry practices. Yet politicians are still mouthing platitudes while
allowing corporations to continue to profit from polluting our
atmosphere and destroying our ecosystem.

The need for social change has become an urgent part of preventing
catastrophic climate change. Can the market fix the problem? What is
the real record of carbon trading? How can we build a social movement
capable of averting this disaster? What models and experiences can offer
real solutions?

To strengthen the exchange of ideas and contribute towards that urgent
action Green Left Weekly is organising the Climate Change â€" Social
Change conference from April 11-13, 2008 in Sydney.

We are pleased to have confirmed:

*John Bellamy Foster, *author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature,
editor of Monthly Review (http://sociology.uoregon.edu/faculty/foster.php)

*Patrick Bond, *Director of the Centre for Civil Society, University of
KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil
Society (<www.zcommunications.org/zspace/patrickbond>)

*Roberto Perez, *Cuban permaculturalist (featured in The Power of
Community: how Cuba survived peak oil) (<www.powerofcommunity.org>)

We invite your participation in making this more than just an exchange
of ideas -  important as that is - but a part of building up resistance
to corporate-led climate change and strengthening the movement for
sustainable development.

If you would like to participate, including presenting a workshop,
taking part in a panel, exhibiting your artwork or simply to register
your interest in the conference, please email
climatechange.socialchange@...

April 11-13, 2008
Sydney


The world is teetering on the brink of unstoppable climate change. Many
now recognise the need for serious change in the way we produce and use
energy, our transport systems, food production, urban design and
forestry practices. Yet politicians are still mouthing platitudes while
allowing corporations to continue to profit from polluting our
atmosphere and destroying our ecosystem.

The need for social change has become an urgent part of preventing
catastrophic climate change. Can the market fix the problem? What is
the real record of carbon trading? How can we build a social movement
capable of averting this disaster? What models and experiences can offer
real solutions?

To strengthen the exchange of ideas and contribute towards that urgent
action Green Left Weekly is organising the Climate Change â€" Social
Change conference from April 11-13, 2008 in Sydney.

We are pleased to have confirmed:

*John Bellamy Foster, *author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature,
editor of Monthly Review (http://sociology.uoregon.edu/faculty/foster.php)

*Patrick Bond, *Director of the Centre for Civil Society, University of
KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil
Society (<www.zcommunications.org/zspace/patrickbond>)

*Roberto Perez, *Cuban permaculturalist (featured in The Power of
Community: how Cuba survived peak oil) (<www.powerofcommunity.org>)

We invite your participation in making this more than just an exchange
of ideas -  important as that is - but a part of building up resistance
to corporate-led climate change and strengthening the movement for
sustainable development.

If you would like to participate, including presenting a workshop,
taking part in a panel, exhibiting your artwork or simply to register
your interest in the conference, please email
climatechange.socialchange@...

http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm?p=3

Good morning Anne,

I've just read your nice letter and sent Kevin and his team my
supportive good wishes also.

Peter Bright
Abbeyfield House,
Huonville,
Tasmania 7109

pebri@...




--- In ClimateChangeAction@..., "Anne
Goddard" <anne@...> wrote:
>
> Hiya Members :-)
>
> I woke this morning with that warm feeling that has persisted and
grown
> since we saw the back of Howard and crew. It appears that dark sick
tummy
> aches may be a thing of the past?
>
> Anyhow, i got to thinking that it would be nice to encourage Kevin
Rudd and
> the new ALP Party.
> Something positive for a positive future... so many emails and
letters of
> disgust and frustration have come from my hands over the last 11
years...
> It is not going to be an easy job the ALP has taken on, and I am
thinking
> they will be needing all the support that we can muster.
>
> If you agree, here is Kevin's email address.
> Kevin.Rudd.MP@...
> Perhaps you would also like to get those fingers moving
> :-)
> for a positive, peaceful and hopeful future.
>
> Warm regards
> Anne
> ---------
> my letter:
> Dear Mr Rudd,
>
> Thank you for ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.
>
> I woke this morning with such feelings of happiness, that I felt
the need to
> pass them on. I guess the election results are finally beginning to
sink in.
>
> After so many years of frustration and disgust at the actions of
the
> previous government, your election success has given my family and
I some
> desperately needed hope.
>
> I wish you well and am sure you realise the task you have taken on
is no
> easy one. I understand and empathise with you. The political
lobbying you
> will be facing... the corporate lobby which will do everything
possible to
> ensure that they retain their huge slice of the people of
Australia's taxes.
>
> You are the man that will be making the decisions that shape our
nation's
> future. I am sure you will not be taking this responsibility
lightly.
>
> My children and yours deserve a wonderful future, a future bright
with
> promise, a peaceful future, a sustainable future.
>
> Lead us with honesty and integrity, allow your people to love you,
as they
> should.
>
> I am ecstatic and overcome with relief. I look forward to this new
and
> exciting era in Australian Politics.
>
> With the deepest respect and warm regards
> Anne Goddard
>

[Greens-Media] MARK PARNELL MLC: Govt must scrap plans to mine Arkaroola

Media Release
17 January 2007

  Greens MLC Mark Parnell has called on the Government to stop all
exploratory drilling in the wild and beautiful Arkaroola Wilderness
Sanctuary in the Flinders Ranges, in the wake of an investigation by
the Government and the EPA into significant environmental breaches at
the site.

The mining company, Marathon Resources is currently drilling in the
Wilderness Sanctuary as part of its plan to develop a uranium mine at
Mount Gee. It appears thousands of plastic bags containing low level
radioactive waste have been dumped in shallow trenches, in
contravention of the operating licence.

"Marathon Resources shouldn't be there, full stop.  The Arkaroola
Wilderness Sanctuary is the jewel in the SA eco-tourism crown.  It's
absolutely the last place in SA you would want to place a uranium mine.
So for this damage to have occurred is simply inexcusable," Mr Parnell
said.

"If it's found that Marathon has breached its licence then the
Government has no choice but to immediately step in and take their
licence away from them.  After that, the Government should announce
proper protection for the Arkaroola Wilderness.  That means: no
further exploration and no further mining," he said.

Mark Parnell currently has a Bill before State Parliament that will
ban all exploration and mining in South Australian wilderness sanctuaries.

"Sanctuaries have currently very little legal protection, which is why
the Greens bill before State Parliament seeks to put them off limits
to mining. There are plenty of other places in South Australia where
the mining industry can explore and extract the minerals they find.

"This terrible incident is a wake-up call.  The rest of the mining
industry is watching very closely.  If the Rann Government goes soft
on this breach, it will send a very clear message that they are prepared
to put mining profits above our state's precious wilderness," Mark
Parnell said.

For further comment contact Craig Wilkins on 0434 007 893

Vienna, Austria — Editor's note: In preparing this article about the
meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, we
read the news stories from all of the most reputable sources, we read
the reports from all of the best institutions, we read the statements
from all of the governments and agencies, but nowhere could we find a
reasonable, rational, or plausible explanation of what was happening.
We decided the only answer was the absurd.


Ever since Alice had slipped down the Rabbit Hole, the news had been
getting curiouser and curiouser. She found herself at a very large
table where the March Hare, a dormouse, a hippopotamus, and the Mad
Hatter were having tea.

The Hatter was telling a story about how George W. TweedleDum had just
got back from a trip to India, where he was promising to give away
shiny new nuclear technology. At the same time, TweedleDee had been
getting very red-faced at the United Nations about some shiny new
nuclear technology in Iran that he wanted taken away. He broke off his
story to wave an empty teapot at Alice.

"Would you like less tea, my dear?"

"Don't you mean more tea?" asked Alice politely.

"No no no no. We don't have any "more tea" we only have "less tea."
And it's very rude to ask for what we don't have. Now, would you like
some more Peaceful Nuclear Technology and Less Nuclear Weapons to go
with that?"

"Umm, yes please" said Alice, thinking this must be the correct answer
and not wanting to upset the Hatter again.

"There you go again, asking for what we can't possibly give you!"
cried the Hatter, springing to his feet.

"How about some safe, clean nuclear power instead?" offered the
dormouse helpfully.

"That sounds quite nice, I suppose," said Alice with some hesitation.

"Wrong answer! No such thing!" the Hatter shouted with glee, politely
adding "One lump or two?"

Alice was quite put out. "Isn't it rude to offer something you don't
have?" asked Alice. "And even ruder to offer something that doesn't
exist? What kind of a tea party is this?"

"Why this is an IAEA Board of Governors meeting, my dear, and we're
having an NP Tea Party!" said the March Hare, glancing nervously at a
very large watch which was chiming the hour by barking loudly.

"An NP Tea Party? What's that?"

"It's all very simple," said the Hatter as he handed out slices of
cake and then went around smacking everyone's hand when they started
eating it, "the NPT is a treaty in which the parties that have nuclear
weapons agree to get rid of their nuclear weapons in exchange for the
parties that don't have nuclear weapons promising not to get nuclear
weapons. As part of the incentive for not getting nuclear weapons
they're rewarded with the means to make nuclear weapons. Slice of Cake?"

Alice eyed the yellow cake suspiciously. She heard a distant voice
shouting "Off with their heads!"

"Now, at the moment we're discussing the case of Iran, which has
signed the treaty and promised not to build nuclear weapons and so has
been rewarded with the means to make nuclear weapons. But there are
some people at this party who think that they're actually using those
means to make nuclear weapons as a means to make nuclear weapons."

"Which they've said they don't want..." said Alice.

"Oh yes, but as you of all people should know, my dear, saying what we
mean isn't always the same as meaning what we say. Saying that they
aren't making nuclear weapons is just what you'd expect them to do if
they were making nuclear weapons. Proof enough."

The Hatter took a slice of cake and pushed it into the face of the
Hippo, who already had his mouth full. "You shouldn't eat so much
cake," he sputtered.

George W. TweedleDum suddenly appeared. "Personically, I'd like to see
less nuclear weapons in the world. Which is why I'm building more."

"THAT's the spirit!" cried the Hatter.

"But I don't understand!" cried Alice. "If you can use nuclear power
technology to make nuclear weapons, and you want to get rid of the
nuclear weapons, shouldn't you stop handing out the nuclear power
technology?"

George W. TweedleDum patted Alice on the head. "You are an absurd
little creature, aren't you? Hatter, why don't you explanify the
Treaty thing?"

"The TREATY thing, yes yes, mustn't forget that!" cried the Hatter as
he absent-mindedly dipped the dormouse in his tea.

"Now you see on the one hand, Iran has signed the Non-treaty on
Weapons Proliferation, and the Treaty on the Proliferation of
Non-weapons Nuclear, and the Proliferation of Treaties on the
Proliferation of Weapons, Non..."

"Which are all the same thing," said the dormouse, yawning.

"So if THEY try to get nuclear weapons, that's quite illegal and we
must send them to the Queen of Hearts' Security Council for punishment."

"India, on the other hand," said the Hatter holding up a second hand
and dropping the teapot on the dormouse's head, "has never signed the
treaty, so their nuclear weapons are perfectly OK and they should be
rewarded with more nuclear technology."

"Pakistan, on the third hand," and oddly the Hatter actually produce a
third hand at this point, " has never signed the treaty, but we're not
so sure about them, so we're NOT going to reward them with more
nuclear technology."

George W. TweedleDum smiled broadly. "The lessonification here is
never, never sign a treaty. That's my motto. Lot of bother. I promise
to keep my nuclear weapons and everybody else has to get rid of theirs
unless I say they can keep them. That's my kind of Treaty. I believe
in maintaining high standards. I believe in maintaining high standards."

"You said that twice." said the Hatter.

"He has to say it twice," said the dormouse. "It's a double standard."

The Hatter now declared it was time for a vote. "Now, who thinks we
should send Iran to the Queen of Hearts? ("Off with their heads! came
the cry from the garden next door again...) Everyone looked at the
Hippo. The hippo started to raise his foot, and everyone in the party
started to raise their hands. Or paws. Then the hippo put his foot
down, and everyone in the party did the same. Then George W.
TweedleDum took a large hatpin and quietly stuck it into the rather
large backside of the Hippo, who jumped into the air with his foot
raised, and everyone in the party followed suit."

"There then, it's settled, off to the Queen of Hearts with them!" sang
the Hatter.

"Is that what you call democracy?" asked Alice curiously.

"Well it looks like democracy, but in reality the Hippo decides, and
the Hippo just does what TweedleDum tells him to do" said the Hatter.

"Oh. I see," said Alice. "I suppose then it's not really a democracy
at all, is it?"

"Well it's just a very different kind of democracy, my dear. Some
people call it a Hippocracy. Cake?"

(link might not be active)
source: http://www.greenpeace.org/international … nuclear-bl
underland080306

“False Solutions” Reading Room/
     An introduction to the many bogus solutions being proposed to
     address the climate and energy crisis/
     All in PDF format

http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/false-solutions/

Hi again members...

Following the last message (with figures taken direct from the AEC) here is
a news article from the Age which presents a much brighter picture, I guess
the AEC needs to update their website..?

From:
http://news.theage.com.au/greens-win-was-sixth-senate-seat/20071218-1hrn.html


The Greens win a Senate seat in WA.

Greens win WA's sixth Senate seat
AAP
December 18, 2007 - 4:56PM

The Greens claimed Western Australia's sixth Senate seat, taking the
number of senators it will have in parliament to five, as the WA result
became official.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) officially declared the six
successful Senate candidates on Tuesday.

Scott Ludlam joined other successful candidates - the Liberals David
Johnston, Alan Eggleston and Michaelia Cash and Labor candidates Louise
Pratt and Mark Bishop.

Mr Ludlam will join Greens senators Sarah Hansen-Young, Bob Brown,
Rachel Siewert and Christine Milne when he takes his seat on July 1 when
the new Senate is sworn in.

"I am over the moon," Mr Ludlam said.

"It is a very exciting time to be entering federal parliament, there is a
lot of
change in the air after 11 years of the Howard government."

AEC WA manager Jennie Gzik said the count had involved the keying in of
votes to allow a computerised preference distribution.

"As with all aspects of the count, the final process undertaken today was
able to be observed by scrutineers representing candidates and parties," Ms
Gzik said.

Hiya Members

       Below are results to date in the Australian Senate

       Let's hope for lots of expediently passed legislation that leads
Australia down a cleaner energy future.

       Interesting times ahead.
       ---------------------------------

       2007 Federal Election Senate Party Representation [Please Note: These
results are not final. Event:13745 Phase:PostElection
Generated:2007-12-23T08:18:44 Cycle:be1ca9c8-e135-4b5f-9015-49ce690b99ce
Created:2007-12-23T08:02:28 Environment:PROD Site:UL Server:VTR01
Version:3.10.0.0]
       PartyAb Party NSW VIC QLD WA SA TAS ACT NT TOTAL
       LP Liberal 2 3 2 3 2 2 1 0 15
       ALP Australian Labor Party 3 3 3 2 2 3 1 1 18
       GRN The Greens 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 3
       NP The Nationals 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
       CLP CLP - The Territory Party 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
       NAFD Non Affiliated 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

Thanks to Philip Sutton of Greenleap for the following two articles, please
distribute widely.
Archive:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greenleap/messages

From the SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rudd-takes-control-to-new-highs/2007/12/20/1\
197740472726.html
or use
http://tinyurl.com/24xepg

Rudd takes control to new highs
Phillip Coorey - Chief Political Correspondent
December 21, 2007

SOME of Australia's major institutions will have their media releases vetted
by the Rudd Government to make sure they reflect Labor's "key messages".

A directive was issued this week by the Department of Innovation, Industry,
Science and Research to about a dozen statutory agencies.

Recipients include the CSIRO, the Australian Institute of Marine Science,
the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, the Australian
Research Council, the Co-operative Research Centres and Invest Australia.
Even the Questacon science museum in Canberra was sent the directive.

It says the Prime Minister's office has instructed that "all strategic media
releases which relate to the Government's key messages" must be forwarded to
the department which will then submit them to the office of the minister,
Kim Carr.
If necessary, Senator Carr would send the release to the Prime Minister's
office. The department would contact the agency "regarding required
changes".

The directive says releases "of a more pedestrian nature" need not be vetted
but anything to do with climate change, industrial relations policy,
education and science reform, tax policy, national security and health must
be submitted. It has caused concerns within the statutory authorities which
were never subject to such conditions under the Howard government.

One former Liberal minister called the Rudd Government "control freaks".
"The CSIRO sent out a lot of things that were quite contrary to our position
on climate change. We just gritted our teeth and wore it," he said.

A Government spokesman said vetting the releases was a temporary measure
until ministerial staff were in place.
The secretary of the department, Mark Paterson, said there was nothing
unusual about the directive, especially in the early days of a new
government.

Only 30 per cent of the public service had experienced a change of
government and a number of agencies had sought "guidance on how to deal with
media release issues", he said.

Mr Paterson said statutory authorities should not be immune.
"There's a mindset with some that statutory authorities are independent for
all purposes. They're not," he said.
"They are created to undertake a particular task. That doesn't give them
free range or nor should it."...<snip>

From the ABC:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/21/2124888.htm

CSIRO told to clear media releases via PM
December 21, 2007

Government bodies like the CSIRO have been told to clear their media
releases through Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's office.

Industry Department head Mark Paterson has issued a directive for the
agencies to have significant media releases checked by the Prime Minister's
office.

Mr Paterson says it is not about controlling the message, it is about
consistency.

"It was something that we were asked for from those agencies so that they
were certain as to how to deal with media releases," he said.

"The essence of the message was that the Government wanted to ensure a
degree of consistency in message on key messages and therefore wanted
to clear key messages through the Prime Minister's office."

Mr Paterson says it is not unusual. "I at no stage, nor was the guidance
that
was given, was the word vetting used nor was the concept of vetting used,"
he said.

"This is not about constraining academic observation or comment in an
independent area, this is not about independent commentary from scientists,
this is about institutional media releases."

From: "Jessica Morrison" <jessica@...>
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 1:20 PM
Subject: Invitation: National Nuclear Strategy Weekend 1-3 February


The national nuke strategy weekend is coming up on the 1-3 Feb, and I
wanted to invite you to participate.

Friday afternoon is particularly for those who would like sessions to
'get up to speed' where things are at, where Saturday and Sunday will
look forward and have skills sessions also.

We would look forward to having participate anyone who has been active
(or would like to be) on nuclear issues.

Information including preliminary agenda is pasted below.

Yours truly

Jessica

--
Jessica Morrison
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Director - Australia
Medical Association for Prevention of War
G03 60 Leicester Street, Carlton VIC 3053
Phone: + 61 3 9347 4795
Mob:     0431 519 577
Fax: + 61 39347 4995
______________________________
www.icanw.org

By far the greatest single danger facing humankind – in fact, all living
beings on our planet – is the threat of nuclear destruction. - His Holiness,
the 14th Dali Lama




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Who

People involved in campaigning on nuclear issues.



Where

Commonground, near Seymour, 100kms north of Melbourne



When

2pm Friday February 1 to Sunday February 3, 2008



RSVP by Wed January 16 to Jim Green <jim.green@...> 0417 318368



What to bring:

* accommodation is shared bedrooms, bring your own bedding (or pay $8 for
sheets + doona)

* or bring your swag or tent

* towel and toiletries

* swimmers (for the dam)



Can you help?

Can you help with catering, facilitating and other jobs? If so, please
contact <jim.green@...> 0417 318368



Cost:

$100 waged, $60 concession (covers all accommodation and food)

Extra $8 for sheets / doonas.







Draft Agenda (Subject to change - your thoughts welcome)



       Fri 2-5pm
      Issue and campaign updates:

       Mining; Waste Dump; Uranium Sales; Nuclear Weapons: Nuclear Reactor;
Waste Dump

       Fri evening
      Dinner, agenda review

       Sat 9am
      Overview: New Government- New Circumstances

       Sat 9.30am
      Plenary – looking to 2008

       Activists outline key issues, challenges, events, key players
regarding:

       1.      plenary to identify key issues, challenges, develop shared
understanding, key players about: - uranium here - environment, OH&S,
Indigenous

       2.      uranium there - safeguards, proliferation, Russia, China,
Nuclear Weapons Convention, nuclear power.

       3.      nuclear waste

       4.      Other nuclear issues; Food Irradiation; Australian Nuclear
Reactor

       Sat 11.30am
      Presentation: what to expect from the new ALP Government

       Sat 1pm
      LUNCH

       Sat 2.30pm
      Extended Strategy Sessions (consecutive)

       - Indigenous outreach

       - Nuclear weapons

       - Education / schools program



       Sat night
      Dinner

       Showing of new nuclear DVD’s
       Sharing of best Howard era stories

       Sun 9am
      Recap of Saturday – including full timeline of 2008 activities

       Sun 9.45am
      Brainstorm

       -         Key Allies

       -         Key Messages

       Sun 11.30
      Concurrent Skillshare Sessions

       -         media;

       -         lobbying;

       -         education;

       -         nuclear weapons train the trainer;

       -         IT / websites;

       -         legal.

       Sun 1.30
      Lunch & Pack up





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Full report:
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=668

*Communiqué*

November/December 2007
Issue # 96

*


     Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils

*/In the name of moving “beyond petroleum,” Big Oil, Gene Giants,
governments, start-ups and others are forming partnerships that will
extend corporate control over more resources in every part of the globe
– while keeping the root causes of climate change intact. With grudging
recognition that first-generation agrofuels are neither economical nor
ecological, investors turn to other life-based technologies, including
synthetic biology, for the next alternative fuel fix. /

Dear climatechangeaction@... ,
Just to let you know that Bobbing Around Volume 7 Number 4 is up at
http://mudsmith.net/bobbing7-4.html

You will find me up on my usual outrageous political, philosophical and
environmental soapbox, riding my writing hobbyhorse and pushing my
counselling barrow. Of course, cliches are among my pet hates too. :) And
then, there are always announcements of interest from my friends

This issue is full of good stuff, including a powerful poem from a
79-year-old lady, a speech by a Nobel Prize laureate, and a speech by a
politician I actually agree with.

Enjoy.
:)
Bob
---------------------------------------
Dr Bob Rich bobrich@...
http://bobswriting.com/
http://anxietyanddepression-help.com/
http://mudsmith.net/
Commit random acts of kindness.
---------------------------------------

Rudd praises US climate 'flexibility'

<http://mercury.tiser.com.au/ADCLICK/CID=fffffffcfffffffcfffffffc/acc_random=718\
78735/SITE=TAUS/AREA=NEWS.POLITICS.ELECTION/AAMSZ=110X40/pageid=11746328>Matthew
Warren, Environment writer | /December 18, 2007/

*KEVIN Rudd has again praised the US for its "flexibility" to deliver a
global climate change road map to trigger two years of intense
negotiations for a new post-Kyoto pact to start in 2012.*

Full:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22940307-5013871,00.html


   Monbiot on US `flxibility':

America will keep on wrecking climate talks as long as those with vested
interests in oil and gas fund its political system

George Monbiot
Monday December 17, 2007
The Guardian

'After 11 days of negotiations, governments have come up with a
compromise deal that could even lead to emission increases. The highly
compromised political deal is largely attributable to the position of
the United States, which was heavily influenced by fossil fuel and
automobile industry interests. The failure to reach agreement led to the
talks spilling over into an all-night session."

These are extracts from a press release by Friends of the Earth. So
what? Well it was published on December 11 - I mean to say, December 11
1997. The US had just put a wrecking ball through the Kyoto protocol.
George Bush was innocent; he was busy executing prisoners in Texas. Its
climate negotiators were led by Albert Arnold Gore.

The European Union had asked for greenhouse gas cuts of 15% by 2010.
Gore's team drove them down to 5.2% by 2012. Then the Americans did
something worse: they destroyed the whole agreement.

Most of the other governments insisted that the cuts be made at home.
But Gore demanded a series of loopholes big enough to drive a Hummer
through. The rich nations, he said, should be allowed to buy their cuts
from other countries. When he won, the protocol created an exuberant
global market in fake emissions cuts. The western nations could buy "hot
air" from the former Soviet Union. Because the cuts were made against
emissions in 1990, and because industry in that bloc had subsequently
collapsed, the former Soviet Union countries would pass well below the
bar. Gore's scam allowed them to sell the gases they weren't producing
to other nations. He also insisted that rich nations could buy nominal
cuts from poor ones. Entrepreneurs in India and China have made billions
by building factories whose primary purpose is to produce greenhouse
gases, so that carbon traders in the rich world will pay to clean them up.

The result of this sabotage is that the market for low-carbon
technologies has remained moribund. Without an assured high value for
carbon cuts, without any certainty that government policies will be
sustained, companies have continued to invest in the safe commercial
prospects offered by fossil fuels rather than gamble on a market without
an obvious floor.

By ensuring that the rich nations would not make real cuts, Gore also
guaranteed that the poor ones scoffed when we asked them to do as we
don't. When George Bush announced, in 2001, that he would not ratify the
Kyoto protocol, the world cursed and stamped its foot. But his
intransigence affected only the US. Gore's team ruined it for everyone.

The destructive power of the American delegation is not the only thing
that hasn't changed. After the Kyoto protocol was agreed, the then
British environment secretary, John Prescott, announced: "This is a
truly historic deal which will help curb the problems of climate change.
For the first time it commits developed countries to make legally
binding cuts in their emissions." Ten years later, the current
environment secretary, Hilary Benn, told us that "this is an historic
breakthrough and a huge step forward. For the first time ever, all the
world's nations have agreed to negotiate on a deal to tackle dangerous
climate change." Do these people have a chip inserted?

In both cases, the US demanded terms that appeared impossible for the
other nations to accept. Before Kyoto, the other negotiators flatly
rejected Gore's proposals for emissions trading. So his team threatened
to sink the talks. The other nations capitulated, but the US still held
out on technicalities until the very last moment, when it suddenly
appeared to concede. In 1997 and in 2007 it got the best of both worlds:
it wrecked the treaty and was praised for saving it.

Hilary Benn is an idiot. Our diplomats are suckers. American negotiators
have pulled the same trick twice, and for the second time our
governments have fallen for it.

There are still two years to go, but so far the new agreement is even
worse than the Kyoto protocol. It contains no targets and no dates. A
new set of guidelines also agreed at Bali extend and strengthen the
worst of Gore's trading scams, the clean development mechanism. Benn and
the other dupes are cheering and waving their hats as the train leaves
the station at last, having failed to notice that it is travelling in
the wrong direction.

Although Gore does a better job of governing now he is out of office, he
was no George Bush. He wanted a strong, binding and meaningful protocol,
but American politics had made it impossible. In July 1997, the Senate
had voted 95-0 to sink any treaty which failed to treat developing
countries in the same way as it treated the rich ones. Though they knew
this was impossible for developing countries to accept, all the
Democrats lined up with all the Republicans. The Clinton administration
had proposed a compromise: instead of binding commitments for the
developing nations, Gore would demand emissions trading. But even when
he succeeded, he announced that "we will not submit this agreement for
ratification [in the Senate] until key developing nations participate".
Clinton could thus avoid an unwinnable war.

So why, regardless of the character of its leaders, does the US act this
way? Because, like several other modern democracies, it is subject to
two great corrupting forces. I have written before about the role of the
corporate media - particularly in the US - in downplaying the threat of
climate change and demonising anyone who tries to address it. I won't
bore you with it again, except to remark that at 3pm eastern standard
time on Saturday, there were 20 news items on the front page of the Fox
News website. The climate deal came 20th, after "Bikini-wearing
stewardesses sell calendar for charity" and "Florida store sells 'Santa
Hates You' T-shirt".

Let us consider instead the other great source of corruption: campaign
finance. The Senate rejects effective action on climate change because
its members are bought and bound by the companies that stand to lose.
When you study the tables showing who gives what to whom, you are struck
by two things.

One is the quantity. Since 1990, the energy and natural resources sector
- mostly coal, oil, gas, logging and agribusiness - has given $418m to
federal politicians in the US. Transport companies have given $355m. The
other is the width: the undiscriminating nature of this munificence. The
big polluters favour the Republicans, but most of them also fund
Democrats. During the 2000 presidential campaign, oil and gas companies
lavished money on Bush, but they also gave Gore $142,000, while
transport companies gave him $347,000. The whole US political system is
in hock to people who put their profits ahead of the biosphere.

So don't believe all this nonsense about waiting for the next president
to sort it out. This is a much bigger problem than George Bush. Yes, he
is viscerally opposed to tackling climate change. But viscera don't have
much to do with it. Until the American people confront their political
funding system, their politicians will keep speaking from the pocket,
not the gut.

Stop taking it out of the ground

George Monbiot interviewed by Sonali Kolhatkar
George Monbiot interviewed by
Sonali Kolhatkar
December 15, 2007

About ten thousand delegates from more than 180 nations are meeting in
Bali to attempt to extend the Kyoto Protocol Global Warming Pact beyond
2012. Opposition from the United States, Canada, and Japan is likely to
stand in the way of any attempts to include emission reduction targets
in a “road map” for future global warming talks. The US said a proposal
for wealthy nations to reduce emissions by 25-40% by 2020, was “totally
unrealistic” and “unhelpful”. Meanwhile climate change activists in
cities around the world held rallies and demonstrations on Saturday
December 8th to urge leaders at the Bali conference to take action
against global warming.



George Monbiot is a columnist for the Guardian newspaper and author
“Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning.” In Heat, Monbiot advocates
a goal of ninety percent reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2030
in order to save the planet.



Kolhatkar: Is it true that even the most drastic cuts being recommended
at the table in Bali are not realistic, not based on current science and
just not going to be good enough to save the planet?



Monbiot: That’s right. If you look at the latest report from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it shows that if we’re going
to avoid 2 degrees Celsius, that’s 3.6 degrees Farenheit of warming,
above pre-industrial levels – and that’s really the critical cutoff
point; we have to avoid that level of warming – then we need a global
cut of 85% of carbon emissions by 2050. Now, a global cut of 85% means
that in the rich nations the cut has to be a lot higher if it’s going to
be distributed equally, if everybody’s going to produce the same amount
of carbon dioxide. And that means that in countries such as the United
Kingdom and the United States, we’re talking about the high 90s. My
calculation suggests 98.3% in the U.S. corresponds to an 85% cut
worldwide. So, we’re really talking about a complete de-carbonization of
the global economy if we’re to have a high chance of preventing 2
degrees Celsius of warming.



Kolhatkar: Why is it that even the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) is looking at science that seems to be out of date?



Monbiot: One of the really frightening things that we’re discovering
about climate change is that the events are overtaking the science and
as quickly as people can research the events, the events move on. For
example at the moment, we have a rate of growth in carbon emissions
which outstrips even the IPCC’s worst case scenario. So, when the panel
says we’ve got this very high case where there would be a great deal of
emissions – and we call that the A1F1 case – we’re actually finding that
right now it’s worse than that.



But we’re also seeing that there are various effects called “feedbacks”
which the panel hasn’t yet taken into account - it intends to do so in
the future - but they greatly accelerate climate change. A positive
feedback is a process that accelerates itself and there are several of
these which take place as far as climate change is concerned. For
example, when the oceans get warmer, less carbon dioxide can be absorbed
in the water. It’s just like a bottle of Coca-Cola – as you warm it up,
the carbon dioxide outgasses because it’s a simple physical property of
water that it can hold less gas when it warms up. As that takes place,
that carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere and makes the oceans even
warmer and so less carbon dioxide is absorbed by them and thus the
process goes on. It’s these feedbacks that the IPCC admits have not yet
been taken into account when calculating the necessary cut. Taken into
account, the cut could be even worse.



Kolhatkar: Given the real numbers, the Kyoto Protocol and its call for
cuts of about 5% of carbon emissions below 1990 levels in the next 5
years, sound ludicrous now.



Monbiot: It’s a complete joke, to be honest. And, not only are the
numbers completely out of scale by more than an order of magnitude with
the necessary cut, but not even that cut is being achieved! Not even the
5% is being achieved! The Kyoto Protocol has failed. And, I hate to say
this but it’s failed because primarily of the position taken by the U.S.
delegation during the negotiations in 1997. And, I hate to say this even
more but that delegation was led by Al Gore. And what Gore negotiated
was the institutional failure of the Kyoto Protocol. And he undermined
it primarily by creating some different standards for different nations.
He was talking about the U.S. making a cut against what it would
otherwise have produced, rather than a cut from the carbon levels which
were already taking place, which is a whole different ballgame. And he
also said there’s got to be emissions trading - we’ve got to be able to
buy cuts from other nations and that’s been incredibly destructive to
the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol.



Kolhatkar: And, ironically this week Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace
Prize along with the IPCC. Gore is in Bali right now taking what seems
to be a different position than 1997. Is he actually backing the science
that you quote or are his numbers also an underestimate?



Monbiot: They’re still too low but there’s no question that Al Gore, in
common with almost every other leader, makes an awful lot better job of
governance when he’s out of office. Just like Clinton, just like Tony
Blair on this other side of the Atlantic - they say all the right things
when they can no longer influence the outcome. And, I’m sorry if I sound
cynical, you know. I don’t mean to pour cold water on his prize and all
the rest of it. I think he’s done some great stuff since he’s been out
of office but I also want people to remember what happened when he was
in office and he sunk the Kyoto Protocol.



Kolhatkar: What do you think about the discussions between finance
ministers during this Bali Climate Conference to have an exchange of
green technology and a trade in green goods? Developing nations are
calling on rich nations to share the technology that they say they
require in order to cut carbon emissions.



Monbiot: Well, fine, but I’ve had a horrible revelation over the past
few days and it’s something which has gradually been building up in my
consciousness and it suddenly hit home as I researched the figures,
which is that while there are plenty of schemes for sharing technologies
and for introducing alternative technologies and, indeed, for
encouraging consumers to reduce their demand for fossil fuels and all
the rest of it, as far as I can discover, nowhere on earth, in no nation
is there a scheme for reducing the supply of fossil fuels. You can say
what you like about demand but if you’re still digging the stuff out of
the ground - the coal and the oil and the gas – it’s going to get
burned! There’s no other reason it’s taken out of the ground. They don’t
get it out of the ground as a hobby. It’s going to get burned!



Kolhatkar: Now, aren’t we to assume that the supply will simply follow
the demand?



Monbiot: Well, the demand will follow the supply if the supply is there,
because we will use what energy is available to us. But, unless you have
a plan for reducing supply, your plans for reducing demands are a
complete waste of time. They’re just not going to materialize.



Kolhatkar: What about the assertion by the United States and other
nations that global warming reduction has to be somehow consistent with
their national economies? This is the main U.S, line, that the reason
they won’t accept these cuts is that it would impact the economy of the U.S.



Monbiot: Let’s look at the big picture here. At current rates of growth,
roughly 3% of the global level, the size of the economy doubles every 23
years. It’s an exponential function and this means that in the 92 years
between now and the end of the century, it increases by 16 times the
level of economic activity. Now, a very interesting series of equations
published recently on this side of the Atlantic prove that that level of
economic activity effectively equates into resource use. And, that a
doubling in the level of activity doubles the amount of resources that
human beings have ever used. What that means is that in the next 23
years between now and 2030, we will use as many economic resources as
humanity has used since it first stood on two legs – over 3 million
years or so. And this is simply unsustainable! We cannot sustain that
rate of growth. Even 3% is way beyond the levels of sustainability. By
the end of the century, we will have used 16 times the resources that
humanity has used since it first stood on two legs. There is not 16
times that level of resources on earth. They do not exist. Far from
allowing the rates of economic growth to dominate our policy on climate
change, our policy on climate change should dominate rates of economic
growth.



Kolhatkar: What about the United States saying that it would come up
with its own plan to cut global warming gasses by mid-2008? Any ideas on
what that might look like?



Monbiot: Yes, I have a pretty good idea of what it would look like. It
will be entirely voluntary. It would probably have to do with the carbon
intensity of the economy. This is the formula that George Bush keeps
using which is that we will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced
per unit of economic productivity rather than reduce it in absolute
terms (which is what we need to do), and it will be completely useless.
The only way we’re going to crack this problem is through international
agreement and everybody setting the same standards for themselves. So,
in other words, a binding international agreement.



Kolhatkar: This past Saturday was declared a global day of action on
climate change and there were rallies and demonstrations in cities
around the world. Do you feel that that sort of protest is increasing in
intensity fast enough?



Monbiot: No, not fast enough. And, by itself, it doesn’t go far enough.
A group of us preceded that protest on Wednesday when we went down to a
large open-cast coal mine which is being built here in South Wales. We
occupied that mine and we sat on the excavating equipment and we stopped
it from operating for the day. And that’s what I want to see a lot more
of. This is the only way in which we’re really going to register our
protest is to get in front of the mining equipment and to stop this
fossil fuel from being extracted. Unless we do so, we are doomed to
runaway climate change. We cannot prevent it without stopping that
fossil fuel from coming out of the ground. Some of us are now prepared
to risk arrest and imprisonment in order to do that. It’s got to that
level of desperation and a group of us decided that we’re going to keep
doing this until we can no longer do it, in other words, probably until
we’re all in prison.



Kolhatkar: Is this an organized group or is it just individuals?



Monbiot: No, it’s self-organized. In this case, we simply put out a call
– this is where we’re going to be, this is what we’re going to do,
here’s the date – and anyone can set up their own group amongst people
they trust and come down and join us. And, it worked very well and
that’s what we want to see a lot more of.



Kolhatkar: Here in the United States, there were demonstrations but they
were not very widely reported. It was not something that necessarily
distracted most Americans from their holiday shopping. But based on what
you and most other people paying attention to the environment say, it’s
really here in the United States that there needs to be the most action.



Monbiot: Yes, it really is. And the U.S. sets the pace for everybody
else. It’s also the case that the United States is the place where
things happen. When you want something to happen, and when the
government in the U.S. is prepared to allow it to happen, it can happen
very, very quickly there because you remain the technological and the
economic powerhouse. You remain the place where things can switch.



We saw this most clearly when the United States entered the 2nd World
War. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was this extraordinary
economic and technological transformation which took place not within
decades, not within years, not within months, within days! It was quite
phenomenal! Now, this is what won the war for the allied cause. It was
the turnaround in the United States. And, we saw for example, a largely
civilian economy switched over to a military economy within 90 days. The
whole process really took place within 90 days. General Motors, which
never looked at a piece of military technology before then, suddenly
became a military technology company. It turned out a fighter bomber
within 90 days of having been given the instructions to do so. It
designed, it prototyped, it tested and then it was working at full
commercial operation turning out fighter bombers. Now, that was in 1942.
This was in the days before just in time production and modular delivery
and all the rest of it. This was in the days when industry and
manufacturing was quite primitive compared to today. We could turn the
whole global economy around within a month if we wanted to now. All that
is lacking is the political will.



Kolhatkar: In this final week of the Bali Climate Conference, if most
nations who are attending, minus, of course, the U.S. and perhaps Canada
and Japan, do turn out a document that has more drastic cuts than the
Kyoto Protocol, even if it is not going to save the planet, I’m assuming
you’ll think that it’s a step in the right direction? Are you hopeful,
at least, that the people are coming together at such a large scale to
discuss this issue on an international level?



Monbiot: Well, I suppose it’s what Gramsci says: it’s the pessimism of
the intellect and the optimism of the will. I keep hoping but I’m not
hearing the right signals coming from governments at the moment and I’m
hearing an awful lot of “greenwash”, an awful lot of discussion aimed at
assuaging public opinion, but very little aimed at actually dealing with
the problem. By greenwash, I mean environmental whitewash. That’s a term
used to denote an impression of action without creating any action and
so far that’s all we have seen from these negotiations and it needs to
go a heck of a lot further and faster than that.

This interview aired on Monday December 10th on Uprising,
www.uprisingradio.org. Special thanks to Julie Svendsen for transcribing
the interview. Uprising is hosted and produced by Sonali Kolhatkar.
Assistant Producer is Gabriel San Roman.

Hiya :-)

My brain remains in trauma ... i think...? Though the relief i feel keeps me
feeling satisfied.

Has 11 years of talking, crying, typing, reading, trying, yelling, fighting,
demonstrating, crossing the country to connect, building, growing, hugging
;-)
...attempting to protect the rights and freedoms of our brothers and
sisters, my own freedoms and that of my children's, ... ended...?

Do i no longer need to attempt to halt the destruction of our precious and
fragile eco-systems?
Will the people's demands be heard, will our requests no longer be brushed
aside? Will my body no longer be thrown into the gutter by those paid to
protect me?
Will my words be blown away in the wind, my actions demonised, will this
demoralisation continue, will i continue to be ridiculed?
... has the last 11 years of struggle and victimisation finally ended...?

Can I lay down my arms?
Will our new leaders LEAD the people of this great nation SAFELY forwards?

i live in hope :-)
i lay down my arms, and walk away from the politics and my little
sustainable house (to be)... in peace, knowing that i did all in my human
power to get that nasty little man out of the position of control he held
over our civilisation and our many and varied cultures and clans.

They (the ALP) have the information they need at their fingertips... i
personally gave it to them!
So did 1050 or so others via our little petition :-)
(thank you from the depths of my heart all who signed - and thank you to the
Australian Greens, the Socialist Alliance and the Democrats who have all
formally endorsed the wording.)

Will former US presidential candidate Al Gore's words be heard? Should i
say, the rightful US President, will he be listened to? Will the reports of
our own CSIRO be dusted off read and acted upon, or buried once more in the
"two hard basket"... ???

Well, I don't have a crystal ball, and i have been fighting for long enough.
I am in no way tired of the fight, well a little, but it feels like there is
no longer a need for my personal direct input into the fight. I walked into
it a mum and remain a mum first and foremost.

There ARE sustainable ways forwards, and the ALP have to act on their
expedient implementation... ASAP!
Fairly simple... and it's their business now... not mine.

Can I survive being a victim of the last 11 years of "civilisation"...
hahahahaha... of COURSE i can!
with a bloody big smile on me uglee dial!

My son and I will soon be departing for Townsville. Not exactly the safest
thing to do in the cyclone and stinger season. He wants to live nearer to
his dad and he wants to go to high school in Townsville, with the kids he
grew up with from Magnetic Island. I am very nervous about his father's
current housing status (on the lowest point of Picnic Bay, Magnetic Island),
so I will be going up there with him to ensure he is housed safely...
cyclones don't mess around up there and they are not gonna get any better.

It looks like i may be homeless for a little while by choice, unless
something better turns up. Rentable houses up there in my price bracket that
would sustain a cyclone hit are few and far between i recon. I will feel
safe in the cyclone season up at The Forts - should a cyclone hit...
I have a little car which is all the roof my dog and i need (a luxury),
however, i may have to invest in some sturdy chains to pin it down :-)

What life will bring me after that i really don't know yet...?
positive vibes i hope... and lots of hugs :-)

i'll be taking ole faithful 'puter with me, where there is a phone line i
will be able to plug in and say hi to my online friends (Luv each and every
one of you)!
Also Luv dem hugs, maybe it's time to collect the ones i've been missing out
on to date....?

The house where i lived is to be left in the hands of a highly trusted
friend, rent free. While he keeps it safe, i can always go back when needed
or necessary.

..Once again i have survived into a new life, i approach a new year with
much light and laughter in my life and a new way of being.

and today is another day so i guess i better get to it...

Warm regards
Anne

"The story of stuff" <http://www.storyofstuff.com/> .

Christmas is about buying presents that is stuff polluting our environment
mainly.

It is a culture we will need to take action on the sooner the better like
climate change and Nuclear madness.

That is why the "The story of stuff" is one to check out and send round and
hopefully by next December we have strategies to encourage people not to buy
this stuff because it is CHRISTMAS.

I personally do not buy presents for christmas or send out a whole lot of
christmas cards.

Check out "The story of stuff"

Pass this around.

All the best for the New Year.

  Benny Zable

[extract]
The oceans absorb around a third of the 20bn tonnes of carbon dioxide
produced each year by human activity. While the process helps to slow
global warming by keeping the gas from the atmosphere, in sea water it
dissolves to form carbonic acid - rising levels of which cause
carbonates to dissolve. One of these minerals, aragonite, is used by
corals and other marine organisms to grow their skeletons. It is
particularly susceptible to carbonic acid. Without it, corals become
brittle and are unable to grow and repair damage caused by fish, snails
and natural erosion.
[end extract]
Full text @
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/14/carbonemissions.climat
echange
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/14/5826/

Ominous Arctic Melt Worries Experts
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/12/5795/
[quote]An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated
this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean
global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even
speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.1212 09

Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the
previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end
was half what it was just four years earlier, according to new NASA
satellite data obtained by The Associated Press.[/quote]

NASA's "Tipping Points" panel and slide show materials:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/tipping_points.html


Indigenous Peoples Shut Out of Climate Talks, Plans
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/12/5791/
[quote]In its report, London-based Survival International named and
shamed countries where the violations of tribal peoples' rights are
most egregious, including Botswana, Brazil, New Zealand, Malaysia,
Paraguay, Peru, and the United States.[/quote]

[quote]Last week, an indigenous delegation charged that despite having
received an invitation, it was forcibly barred from entering the
meeting between the UNFCCC executive secretary and civil society
representatives.[/quote][/quote]

Dear friends,

The US, Canada and Japan are climate-wrecking at Bali - here's our global
emergency petition to save the talks, add your name automatically by clicking
below!

" We call urgently for the US, Canada and Japan to stop blocking serious 2020
targets for emissions reductions, and for the rest of the world to refuse to
accept anything less."
[http://moveon.org/images/buttons/button_red_signpetition.gif]


We're here at the climate summit in Bali -- but it's reached crisis point.
Working late, negotiators were nearing consensus thatdeveloped countries should
pledge post-Kyoto emissions cuts by 2020--a step which the scientists say is
needed to avert the worst ravages of global warming, and which will help to
bring China and the developing world onboard. But then the news broke: the US,
Canada and Japan rejected any mention of such cuts. Every few hours the draft
changes.

We can't let three governments hold the world to ransom: so we're launching a
global emergency petition before the summit climax in 48 hours.We'll deliver our
message every way we can -- a stark full-page advertisement in the Jakarta Post
conference supplement which all the delegates are reading, stunts at the
conference gates, direct to country negotiators -- telling Canada, Japan and the
US to accept the option of post-Kyoto targets, and the rest of the world to
settle for nothing less.

Please take a moment right now to sign the new global emergency petition -- the
text is in the box above, so click this link to sign automatically if you've
taken action with us before -- then tell all your friends:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_emergency/7.php

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the expiring Kyoto pact, but Japan, the US
and Canada don't seem to want a workable global deal to follow it. There is
almost universal agreement in Balithat the idea of 2020 climate targets should
be included, making possible a deal to bring the developing world onboard over
time. As the news links below make clear, the US, Japan and Canada are
destroying that delicate bargain, not even allowing the idea to be mentioned.

We're doing everything we can. Tens of thousands of Canadian Avaaz members have
launched an ad campaign telling their government not to betray them -- our
Japanese members are emailing their leaders -- while our American members will
send their own message to Bali as Al Gore and Congressional and local
representatives land there, asking negotiators to ignore the official US
delegation because it does not represent them.

Coming from every country on earth, all of us can play a direct role in the Bali
face-off by signing this global emergency petition -- delivered at the summit
gates, in a full-page Financial Times ad, and direct to delegates. Add your name
at this link, act now and spread the word -- we have just 48 hours:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_emergency/7.php

With determination and hope,

Paul, Ricken, Galit, Ben, Iain, Graziela, Milena and the whole Avaaz team

PS This article explains a bit of what's going on:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/10/news/climate.php

The New Scientist has more detail here:

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007/12/bali-draft-hints-emissions-\
targets-may_10.html

We're in the thick of things here at Bali -- Avaaz was the only organisation
allowed to demonstrate inside the fortified summit Saturday. As hundreds of
thousands marched around the world, we brought over half a million voices to the
heart of the decision-making venue, carrying big banners and scores of country
flags. We've also been hosting the daily Fossil Awards of the Climate Action
Network, the umbrella of all the NGOs here – see http://www.avaaz.org/fossils.

[http://cluster1.avaaz.org/act/open/43075825.gif]

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that
works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global
decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no
money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in
London, New York, Paris, Washington DC, Geneva, and Rio de Janeiro.

You are getting this message because you signed "Stand with the Burmese
Protesters" on 2007-10-02 using the email address carolmarshall@....

To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz@... to
your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other
personal information, click here, or simply go here to unsubscribe.

To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to
info@.... You can also send postal mail to our New York office: 260 Fifth
Avenue, 9th floor, New York, NY 10001 U.S.A.

If you have technical problems, please go to http://www.avaaz.org.
_______
> From: greenweave@...
> To: ;
> Subject: Fw: URGENT ALERT - climate-wrecking at Bali
> Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:34:08 +1100
>
> Here is another VERY urgent petition to please sign. xoxooxoxox Junitta
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Fran
> To: Undisclosed Recipient
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 9:40 PM
> Subject: Fw: URGENT ALERT - climate-wrecking at Bali
>
>
>
> Subject: Fwd: URGENT ALERT - climate-wrecking at Bali
>
> Please at least consider this!!!!
> A very happy Christmas to everyone and may we and our children breathe easy in
2008 and beyond. xF
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "Paul Hilder - Avaaz.org">
> Date: 13 December 2007 1:18:04 AM
> To: "carolmarshall@...">
> Subject: URGENT ALERT - climate-wrecking at Bali
>
> ___________
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.17.1/1182 - Release Date: 12/12/2007
11:29 AM
_________________________________________________________________
New music from the Rogue Traders - listen now!
http://ninemsn.com.au/share/redir/adTrack.asp?mode=click&clientID=832&referral=h\
otmailtaglineOct07&URL=http://music.ninemsn.com.au/roguetraders

A list, hosted in Australia, for people interested in leapfrogging to an
ecologically sustainable economy. The list is for theFull digest from Greenleap
below.
----- Original Message -----
From: greenleap@yahoogroups.com
To: greenleap@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 10:35 PM
Subject: [greenleap] Digest Number 1670


A list, hosted in Australia, for people interested in leapfrogging to an
ecologically sustainable economy. The list is for the
Messages In This Digest (9 Messages)
   1. Urgent Alert: new Bali emergency online petition re blocking by US, From:
Philip Sutton
   2a. Re: Bali and Beyond: FEEDBACK DYNAMICS and the ACCELERATION of CLIMA From:
Frank Fisher
   2b. Re: Bali and Beyond: FEEDBACK DYNAMICS and the ACCELERATION of CLIMA From:
Philip Sutton
   3. Red Cross: Global warming causing record disasters this year (2007) From:
Philip Sutton
   4. A serious look at large-scale wind power developments in California From:
Philip Sutton
   5. The latest science on the Greenland ice melt From: Philip Sutton
   6. January: Workshops: Climate Change; Deep Ecology; Despair & Empowerm From:
Philip Sutton
   7a. Re: Shifting goal posts - what to do about them? From: Philip Henshaw
   8. Re: biofuels From: Philip Henshaw
View All Topics | Create New Topic Messages
   1. Urgent Alert: new Bali emergency online petition re blocking by US,
   Posted by: "Philip Sutton" Philip.Sutton@...  
philipsuttonoz
   Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:44 am (PST)
   From:"Paul Hilder - Avaaz.org" <avaaz@...>
   Subject:URGENT ALERT - climate-wrecking at Bali
   Datesent: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:53:58 -0800

   Dear friends,

   We're here at the climate summit in Bali -- but it's reached crisis point.
Working
   late, negotiators were nearing consensus that developed countries should
pledge
   post-Kyoto emissions cuts by 2020--a step which the scientists say is needed
to
   avert the worst ravages of global warming, and which will help to bring China
and
   the developing world onboard. But then the news broke: the US, Canada and
Japan
   rejected any mention of such cuts. Every few hours the draft changes.

   We can't let three governments hold the world to ransom: so we're launching a
   global emergency petition before the summit climax in 48 hours. We'll deliver
   our message every way we can -- a stark full-page advertisement in the
Financial
   Times Asia, stunts at the conference gates, direct to country delegations --
telling
   Canada, Japan and the US to accept the option of post-Kyoto targets, and the
rest of
   the world to settle for nothing less.

   Please take a moment right now to sign the new global emergency petition and
tell
   all your friends: http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_emergency/

   The US, Canada and Japan are climate-wrecking at Bali - here's our global
emergency
   petition to save the talks, add your name by clicking below!

   "We call urgently for the US, Canada and Japan to stop blocking serious 2020
targets for
   emissions reductions, and for the rest of the world to refuse to accept
anything less."

   Today marks the 10th anniversary of the expiring Kyoto pact, but Japan, the US
and
   Canada don't seem to want a workable global deal to follow it. There is almost
   universal agreement in Bali that the idea of 2020 climate targets should be
   included, making possible a deal to bring the developing world onboard over
time.
   As the news links below make clear, the US, Japan and Canada are destroying
that
   delicate bargain, not even allowing the idea to be mentioned.

   We're doing everything we can. Tens of thousands of Canadian Avaaz members
   have launched an ad campaign telling their government not to betray them --
our
   Japanese members are emailing their leaders -- while our American members will
   send their own message to Bali as Al Gore and Congressional and local
   representatives land there, asking negotiators to ignore the official US
delegation
   because it does not represent them.

   Coming from every country on earth, all of us can play a direct role in the
Bali
   face-off by signing this global emergency petition -- delivered at the summit
gates, in
   a full-page Financial Times ad, and direct to delegates. Add your name at this
link,
   act now and spread the word -- we have just 48 hours:

   : http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_emergency/

   With determination and hope,

   Paul, Ricken, Galit, Ben, Iain, Graziela, Milena and the whole Avaaz team

   PS This article explains a bit of what's going on:

   http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/10/news/climate.php

   The New Scientist has more detail here:

  
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007/12/bali-draft-hints-emissions-
   targets-may_10.html

   We're in the thick of things here at Bali -- Avaaz was the only organisation
allowed
   to demonstrate inside the fortified summit Saturday. As hundreds of thousands
   marched around the world, we brought over half a million voices to the heart
of the
   decision-making venue, carrying big banners and scores of country flags. We've
also
   been hosting the daily Fossil Awards of the Climate Action Network, the
umbrella of
   all the NGOs here - see http://www.avaaz.org/fossils.

   ABOUT AVAAZ
   Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization
that works to ensure that
   the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making.
(Avaaz means "voice" in
   many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and
is staffed by a
   global team based in London, New York, Paris, Washington DC, Geneva, and Rio
de Janeiro.

   To contact Avaaz write to info@.... You can also send postal mail to our
New York office: 260
   Fifth Avenue, 9th floor, New York, NY 10001 U.S.A.

   If you have technical problems, please go to http://www.avaaz.org.
   ------------
   This message has been posted to the Greenleap List by:
   Philip Sutton
   Greenleap List Manager


   Back to top Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post
   Messages in this topic (1)
   2a. Re: Bali and Beyond: FEEDBACK DYNAMICS and the ACCELERATION of CLIMA
   Posted by: "Frank Fisher" FFisher@...
   Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:46 am (PST)
   As a teacher of systems theory for 30 years i say with some conviction that we
do not know all the dynamics at work and that some will be negative feedbacks
too. Not all will be positive (accelerative). Some months ago, in this forum i
asked if anyone had seen any modelling on the notion that the slowing/cessation
of the Gulf Stream (part of the global - inter-oceanic - thermo-haline conveyor)
will tend to contradict the consequences of Arctic ice melt ... the response was
one of resounding silence! So people, HAS anyone heard anything on this??

   Yours Frank Fisher
   [inaugural Aust. Env'l Educator of the Year]

   Frank Fisher
   A/Prof. & Convenor, Graduate Programs
   National Centre for Sustainability

   Swinburne University of Technology
   PO Box 218, Hawthorn Vic 3122
   Tel: (+61 3) 9214 4821
   Fax: (+61 3) 9214 5967
   Email: ffisher@...
   www.swin.edu.au/ncs & www.ncsustainability.com.au

   Finalists in the United Nations Environmental Awards & Banksia Environmental
Awards 2006

   Please consider the environment before printing this email

   >>> "Philip Sutton" <Philip.Sutton@...> 3/12/2007 9:20 am
>>>
   ------- Forwarded message follows -------
   Send reply to: <wasdell@...>
   From: "Wasdell" <wasdell@...>
   Subject: Bali and Beyond.
   Date sent: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 22:00:50 -0000

   FEEDBACK DYNAMICS and the ACCELERATION of CLIMATE CHANGE

   Climate change is non-linear. Once set in motion it is acceleratingly self-
   perpetuating. There is then only a small time-window
   within which human intervention has any (rapidly diminishing) chance of
   halting the process and returning the system to a stable
   state. Failure to act effectively within that window of opportunity would
   inevitably precipitate cataclysmic change on a par with
   the five mass extinction events known to have obliterated almost all life on
   earth.

   This WESTMINSTER BRIEFING (subtitled: PLANET EARTH WE HAVE A
   PROBLEM) was delivered to a packed audience in the House of Commons
   in
   June 2007. It is now released in the approach to the Bali Meeting of the
   UNFCCC because it presents material not yet addressed by
   the IPCC, but which is absolutely critical to the decision-making process at
   and beyond that event.

   Click on <http://www.apollo-gaia.org> (if the link is not active, copy and
   paste the address to your browser) then follow the link
   to BALI & BEYOND to access the Introduction, Summary for Policy Makers,
   Sample Presentations, and Book Order Form.

   FEEDBACK DYNAMICS and the ACCELERATION of CLIMATE CHANGE
   provides an essential briefing for every person and organisation involved
   in the UNFCCC Bali Meeting. Beyond Bali it lays the foundation for all future
   strategic engagement with the imperative task of
   climate stabilisation.

   Please do everything in your power to ensure that the material reaches:

   All delegates and participants involved in the UNFCCC Bali Meeting
   Political leaders and members of government at every level of society
   Business leaders with strategic responsibility
   Academics and research institutions working on climate change and
   environmental studies
   NGOs and organisations of the Civil Society
   Concerned citizens of all ages throughout the world community
   Friends and family, colleagues and contacts
   E-mail lists, groups, listings, networks, postings and web-sites

   With best wishes,

   David Wasdell

   Director: The Apollo-Gaia Project
   (Hosted by the Meridian Programme)
   Meridian House
   115 Poplar High Street
   London E14 0AE
   Tel: +44 (0) 207 987 3600
   E-mail: wasdell@...
   Web-site: www.meridian.org.uk

   ------- End of forwarded message -------
   ------------
   This message has been posted to the Greenleap List by:
   Philip Sutton
   Greenleap List Manager


   Back to top Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post
   Messages in this topic (3)
   2b. Re: Bali and Beyond: FEEDBACK DYNAMICS and the ACCELERATION of CLIMA
   Posted by: "Philip Sutton" Philip.Sutton@...  
philipsuttonoz
   Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:11 am (PST)
   Hi Frank,

   > As a teacher of systems theory for 30 years i say with some conviction
   > that we do not know all the dynamics at work and that some will be
   > negative feedbacks too. Not all will be positive (accelerative). Some
   > months ago, in this forum i asked if anyone had seen any modelling on
   > the notion that the slowing/cessation of the Gulf Stream (part of the
   > global - inter-oceanic - thermo-haline conveyor) will tend to
   > contradict the consequences of Arctic ice melt ... the response was
   > one of resounding silence! So people, HAS anyone heard anything on
   > this??

   My understanding is that there are modeling results that suggests that the
   thermo-haline conveyor is likely to slow down/weaken. But the earlier
   expectations, based on models, that it would stop altogether - especially in
   the North Atlantic, are no longer thought to be likely to be fulfilled.

   Direct measurements of the actual North Atlantic current appear to show a
   decided slowing (by about 30%?).

   My impression is that even if the North Atlantic branch of the thermo-haline
   conveyor shuts down completely this may not actually halt global warming
   and that it may not plunge Europe into old-style Siberian conditions because
   the over all gobal warming is so strong.

   James Hansen and others have made the point very strongly that the
   climate system is dominated most of the time by positive feedbacks - in both
   directions. Which is why the system over the last million years of more has
   been highly volatile.

   But you are right - positive feedbacks have not been the only driver -
   otherwise Earth would resemble Venus. There are occasionally negative
   feedbacks that reverse the direction in which the positive feedbacks run.
   (eg. weakening or strengthening of solar radiation) and some of the drivers
   of the positive feedbacks can 'run out of steam' - making the system more
   responsive to small negative feedbacks.

   Frank, is this anything like what you were fishing for?

   Cheers, Philip

   Philip Sutton
   Convener, Greenleap Strategic Institute
   Director, Strategy, Green Innovations Inc.

   PO Box 27
   Fairfield (Melbourne) VIC 3078
   AUSTRALIA

   Also:
   President, Sustainable Living Foundation
   www.slf.org.au
   Manager of the Greenleap info list

   Tel: +61 3 9486-4799
   Skype: philip_sutton
   Email: <Philip.Sutton@...>
   http://www.green-innovations.asn.au/

   Victorian Registered Association Number: A0026828M


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   Messages in this topic (3)
   3. Red Cross: Global warming causing record disasters this year (2007)
   Posted by: "Philip Sutton" Philip.Sutton@...  
philipsuttonoz
   Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:13 pm (PST)
   From:
   http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/13/2117667.htm

   The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) says global warming
   caused a record number of natural disasters across the world in 2007, up
   nearly 20 per cent from a year earlier.

   "As of 10 October 2007, the Federation had already recorded 410 disasters,
   56 per cent of which were weather-related, which is consistent with the trend
   of rising numbers of climate change-related disasters," the IFRC said in its
   World Disasters Report.

   In 2006, the IFRC recorded 427 natural disasters, a rise of 70 per cent in the
   two years since 2004.

   Over the last 10 years, the number of natural disasters rose by 40 per cent
   from the previous decade, while the number of deaths caused by disasters
   doubled to 1.2 million people from 600,000, the report said.

   The number of people on average affected by natural disasters each year
   rose to 270 million from 230 million over the same period.

   "Better reporting of smaller disasters partially explains these increases.
   However, more severe disasters are also on the increase," the IFRC report
   said.

   The report warned that vulnerable groups in society such as women,
   disabled people, the elderly and ethnic minorities face extra hardships when
   coping with natural disasters.

   - AFP
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   4. A serious look at large-scale wind power developments in California
   Posted by: "Philip Sutton" Philip.Sutton@...  
philipsuttonoz
   Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:45 pm (PST)
   ------- Forwarded message follows -------
   From: Matthew Wright
   <matthew@...>
   Date sent: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:03:43 +1100
   Subject: [Team] 25 - 100% wind power for California
   realistic -Stanford Uni Researchers - Cal is same size as South Aus
   and Electricity Grid same size as our grid

   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071212201424.htm

   Wind Power Explored Off California's Coast

   ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2007) In many ways, wind energy seems an ideal
   energy source. Fields of mighty turbines spinning in rhythm could
   harness carbonless power and shuttle it off to homes and industries. But
   questions remain about the feasibility of wind parks: How much will they
   cost? Can this unpredictable energy source be relied upon to contribute
   appreciably to the country's power needs?

   A team of Stanford researchers set out to find answers in a recent study
   of the California coast and will present their research during a Dec. 13
   poster session at this year's meeting of the American Geophysical Union
   in San Francisco. The poster is titled ''California Offshore Wind Energy
   Potential.''

   Michael Dvorak, a Stanford doctoral student in civil and environmental
   engineering, joined Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental
   engineering, and Cristina Archer, consulting assistant professor of
   civil and environmental engineering, in evaluating the potential for
   harvesting wind energy offshore in California.

   ''This is basically the first study that's a detailed look at places
   where we could develop offshore wind energy in California,'' Dvorak
   said. ''Some of the studies have looked at the wind speeds offshore, but
   they hadn't looked at the [water] depth and wind speeds at this high of
   resolution.''

   Deeper water means higher costs for building wind turbines. Not only
   would it require more materials to reach the bottom and anchor the
   structures, but, as the water depth increases, so does the power of the
   waves constantly slamming into the turbine supports, Dvorak said.

   Furthermore, most engineering research worldwide has been focused on
   building turbines in shallow water, like that of the North Sea in
   Europe, where all of the existing offshore wind parks are. Consequently,
   most available technology is geared toward building turbines in water
   less than 20 meters deep. Though wind speeds are usually higher further
   offshore, the study concluded it would likely be more economical to
   build in shallower water.

   To assess wind speeds, the team employed computer models like those
   used
   by meteorologists to predict weather patterns. The researchers looked at
   wind speeds in 2005 and 2006 at locations along California's coast to
   estimate how much power could be generated annually.

   Findings indicated that two of the three study areas are less than ideal
   for harvesting wind energy. Water depths of greater than 50 meters in
   the San Francisco Bay Area would require floating platforms, similar to
   those used for oil and gas exploration, but not yet developed for use in
   wind technology. In most of Southern California, the winds die down
   during the summer and thus would not generate a steady amount of power
   throughout the year.

   The third study area the researchers looked at was a specific area in
   Northern California off Cape Mendocino. They found that a wind park at
   this site would supplant about 5 percent of California's electricity
   coming from carbon-emitting sources, Dvorak said. When combined with
   offshore wind energy at several other sites, it may be possible to
   produce between at least a quarter-and potentially all-of California's
   electricity.

   Unfortunately, most transmission lines available to deliver power are in
   the southern part of the state, where winds are not as strong. But
   Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is looking into ocean wave-energy projects
   in Northern California, which also would require new transmission lines.

   ''There's a chance the wind and wave-energy projects could dovetail
   together and lower the transmission costs for both projects,'' Dvorak
   said.

   A recent study authored by Archer and Jacobson and published in the
   November Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology examined ways
   to
   link wind farms to further exploit economies of scale and thereby reduce
   the cost of wind energy. Interconnecting multiple parks can offset the
   intermittent nature of wind and make it a more dependable source of
   energy, the authors said. And, like the wave-energy project, it would be
   cheaper to have an integrated set of transmission lines instead of
   separate connectors to each wind park.

   Offshore wind farms have made headlines lately, as some residents of
   Cape Cod have argued that a potential Cape Wind project there would
   spoil their pristine view. A survey conducted earlier this year by
   Opinion Research Corp. found that, despite a vocal minority, 84 percent
   of all Massachusetts residents and 58 percent who live on or near Cape
   Cod support the Cape Wind project, Dvorak said.

   ''The proposed Cape Cod wind project, if it was built, would be the
   largest offshore wind park in the world,'' Dvorak said, noting smaller
   projects in Europe have been met with more support. Projects in Denmark,
   for example, began with one or two offshore turbines, he added. The
   proposed Cape Cod wind park calls for the construction of 130 turbines
   in Nantucket Sound.

   In informal conversations with people who live near Cape Mendocino,
   Dvorak said most people seemed willing to sacrifice their view to have
   an environmentally friendly source of power.

   Still, he added, ''You would want to do a pretty extensive survey of the
   local population and the environment to see how they would be
   affected.''

   Another limiting factor is the development of new technology. Under
   provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the construction of ships
   and offshore equipment-both of which are needed to build the wind
   turbines-must be done in the United States, even though there are
   experienced crews and ships outfitted for this sort of work in Europe.

   ''You can't actually farm it out to a foreign vessel,'' Dvorak said.
   ''So the first offshore wind project of this type is going to incur a
   lot of extra cost.''

   It would take seven to eight years before a wind park like the one in
   Northern California could start producing electricity, Dvorak said,
   given the required environmental considerations.

   Adapted from materials provided by Stanford University.

   ------- End of forwarded message -------
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   5. The latest science on the Greenland ice melt
   Posted by: "Philip Sutton" Philip.Sutton@...  
philipsuttonoz
   Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:50 am (PST)
   http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2007/481.html

   Greenland Melt Accelerating, According To CU-Boulder Study

   Dec. 10, 2007

   The 2007 melt extent on the Greenland ice sheet broke the 2005 summer
   melt record by 10 percent, making it the largest ever recorded there since
   satellite measurements began in 1979, according to a University of Colorado
   at Boulder climate scientist.

   The melting increased by about 30 percent for the western part of Greenland
   from 1979 to 2006, with record melt years in 1987, 1991, 1998, 2002, 2005
   and 2007, said CU-Boulder Professor Konrad Steffen, director of the
   Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Air
   temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet have increased by about 7
   degrees Fahrenheit since 1991, primarily a result of the build-up of
   greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, according to scientists.

   Steffen gave a presentation on his research at the fall meeting of the
   American Geophysical Union held in San Francisco from Dec. 10 to Dec.
   14. His team used data from the Defense Meteorology Satellite Program's
   Special Sensor Microwave Imager aboard several military and weather
   satellites to chart the area of melt, including rapid thinning and
acceleration
   of ice into the ocean at Greenland's margins.

   Steffen maintains an extensive climate-monitoring network of 22 stations on
   the Greenland ice sheet known as the Greenland Climate Network,
   transmitting hourly data via satellites to CU-Boulder to study ice-sheet
   processes.

   Although Greenland has been thickening at higher elevations due to
   increases in snowfall, the gain is more than offset by an accelerating mass
   loss, primarily from rapidly thinning and accelerating outlet glaciers,
Steffen
   said. "The amount of ice lost by Greenland over the last year is the
   equivalent of two times all the ice in the Alps, or a layer of water more than
   one-half mile deep covering Washington, D.C."

   The Jacobshavn Glacier on the west coast of the ice sheet, a major
   Greenland outlet glacier draining roughly 8 percent of the ice sheet, has
   sped up nearly twofold in the last decade, he said. Nearby glaciers showed
   an increase in flow velocities of up to 50 percent during the summer melt
   period as a result of melt water draining to the ice-sheet bed, he said.

   "The more lubrication there is under the ice, the faster that ice moves to the
   coast," said Steffen. "Those glaciers with floating ice 'tongues' also will
   increase in iceberg production."

   Greenland is about one-fourth the size of the United States, and about 80
   percent of its surface area is covered by the massive ice sheet. Greenland
   hosts about one-twentieth of the world's ice -- the equivalent of about 21
feet
   of global sea rise. The current contribution of Greenland ice melt to global
   sea levels is about 0.5 millimeters annually.

   The most sensitive regions for future, rapid change in Greenland's ice
   volume are dynamic outlet glaciers like Jacobshavn, which has a deep
   channel reaching far inland, he said. "Inclusion of the dynamic processes of
   these glaciers in models will likely demonstrate that the 2007
   Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment underestimated
   sea-level projections for the end of the 21st century," Steffen said.

   Helicopter surveys indicate there has been an increase in cylindrical,
vertical
   shafts in Greenland's ice known as moulins, which drain melt water from
   surface ponds down to bedrock, he said. Moulins, which resemble huge
   tunnels in the ice and may run vertically for several hundred feet, switch
   back and forth from vertical to horizontal as they descend toward the bottom
   of the ice sheet, he said.

   "These melt-water drains seem to allow the ice sheet to respond more
   rapidly than expected to temperature spikes at the beginning of the annual
   warm season," Steffen said. "In recent years the melting has begun earlier
   than normal."

   Steffen and his team have been using a rotating laser and a sophisticated
   digital camera and high-definition camera system provided by NASA's Jet
   Propulsion Laboratory to map the volume and geometry of moulins on the
   Greenland ice sheet to a depth of more than 1,500 feet. "We know the
   number of moulins is increasing," said Steffen. "The bigger question is how
   much water is reaching the bed of the ice sheet, and how quickly it gets
   there."

   Steffen said the ice loss trend in Greenland is somewhat similar to the trend
   of Arctic sea ice in recent decades. In October, CU-Boulder's National Snow
   and Ice Data Center reported the 2007 Arctic sea-ice extent had plummeted
   to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979 and was 39
   percent below the long-term average tracked from 1979 to 2007.

   CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and
   Atmospheric Administration. For more information on Steffen's research,
   visit the Web site at: cires.colorado.edu/science/groups/steffen/.
   ------------
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   6. January: Workshops: Climate Change; Deep Ecology; Despair & Empowerm
   Posted by: "Philip Sutton" Philip.Sutton@...  
philipsuttonoz
   Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:03 am (PST)
   ------- Forwarded message follows -------
   From: "John Seed" <johnseed1@...>,
   "Ruth Rosenhek" <ruthr@...>
   Date sent: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:25:12 +1100
   Subject: [Team] Deep Ecology in Melbourne and Tasmania

   Please join us and help to network the following events...

   JANUARY 2008 DEEP ECOLOGY EVENTS WITH RUTH ROSENHEK
   Melbourne and Tasmania

   Jan 12-13 Melbourne Facilitation Training Workshop (train-the-trainer
   fashion). See invitation including all details from GaiaVic below.

   Jan 16 Lucaston, Southern Tasmania - Despair & Empowerment all day
   Workshop

   Jan 17 Hobart (venue to be announced)- Living In The Age of Global
   Warming - Climate Change Roadshow - Evening Session

   Jan 18th - 20th Southern Forests Convergence (Burtons Reserve Cygnet)
   Skillshare. Learn about the southern forest campaigns, forests and climate
   change and how you can help. Speakers, workshops (Sunday 2 hour deep
   ecology with Ruth Rosenhek), films, music. Camping. No Dogs.

   For all Tassie events including bookings please contact Jenny Weber
   on 0427 366 929 or jweber@...
   ___________

   INVITATION FROM GAIAVIC TO FACILITATION TRAINING JANUARY
   12-13, MELBOURNE

   Hi Folks,

   The GaiaVic co-ordinating team has invited Ruth Rosenhek to spend a
   weekend in Melbourne to further explore the art of facilitating The Work that
   Reconnects, with particular emphasis on despair and empowerment
   facilitation and processes.

   We wish to create safe opportunities for participants in groups to express
   their worldly concerns, to enable them to move into their empowerment, and
   to explore ways they can more easily act on these concerns.

   One of Ruth's skills is the remarkable ability to improvise and adapt her
   processes as she works with a group. Her process intro's, the linking
   between processes, and indeed her ability to change stream to
   accommodate the group at any given moment, is lovely to experience. She
   will enable us to fill up our kit bag so we too can pull out just what is
needed
   by the groups we facilitate.

   Because we only have enough space for around 20 people we are inviting
   facilitators who we believe already recognise the value of, and increasing
   need for, despair and empowerment work.

   If you know someone who would benefit and enjoy honing their skills in such
   a workshop please pass this on. A reminder that numbers will be limited to
   about 20, however if there is a lot of interest we will find a way to schedule
   another workshop with Ruth (and possibly others) later in the year.

   We are catching Ruth on her way through to the Forest Convergence in
   Tasmania where she is running the d&e workshop. She is based in Lismore
   where she and John Seed run the virtual Rainforest Information Centre. See
   http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/ruth_photos.html for Ruth's bio.

   Ruth Rosenhek is waiving her fee and instead asks if we could all put in $50
   to go towards the CURRENT PROJECTS as listed on the Rainforest
   Information web site.
   http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/projects/grants.htm#CURRENT

   Getting the work of despair and empowerment out into the broader
   community is our priority, and the intention behind putting on this workshop.
   However, like us (GaiaVic), Ruth also feels strongly that no-one should be
   turned away from the workshop due to issues of cost, so we propose
   payment on a sliding scale basis to invite people who are flush to pay higher
   on the scale which will help subsidise people with less money to offer.
   Please pay what you can on this scale, and if you have difficulty raising the
   funds please contact me and we'll work something out.

   Workshop details:

   Where:
   Collingwood Library Meeting Room
   In Stanton Street, between Collingwood train station and Hoddle Street
   (Melway 2C H10).

   When:
   Saturday, January 12 & Sunday, January 13
   9.30 am - 5.00 pm
   (Please arrive by 9.00 am to complete your registration)

   What to bring:
   To keep costs down we ask people to byo lunch food to share each day,
   and GaiaVic will supply teas, coffee, milks, etc. for am & pm tea breaks.
   Please note that there are no shops nearby for buying food so best bring it
   with you.

   Cost:
   $150 - $90 (pay what you can from this sliding scale)

   (Payment covers : Ruth Rosenhek's travel, the cost of room hire, and (as
   mentioned above) $50 towards social change projects. NB: If you can't raise
   $90 please get in touch - see below).

   Payment:
   Please pay a deposit of $50 by December 5 to :

   National Australia Bank

   GaiaVic Incorporated
   BSB: 083 184
   Acc no: 594465816

   This can be done either online, or in person at any branch. Please write
   'GVFAC1' and 'your name' in the Reference Box.

   If you pay in a way which doesn't allow you to write your name, please email
   me, ruthyeat@... to let me know when you've made the
   payment. Thanks!

   Balance of payment can be made on January 12, or feel free to pay in full
   when making your deposit to minimise registration time on that day.

   Contact & Registration:
   For enquiries and to book a place, please email Ruth Yeatman
   ruthyeat@...

   I look forward to exchanging ideas, processes, and generally developing our
   skills together.

   Ruth (Yeatman)

   --

   Rainforest Information Centre
   Box 368, Lismore 2480 NSW
   (02) 66897519

   http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/
   rainforestinfo@...

   Palm Oil Consumer Campaign, Take Action Now! -
http://www.palmoilaction.org.au/
   ------- End of forwarded message -------
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   Messages in this topic (1)
   7a. Re: Shifting goal posts - what to do about them?
   Posted by: "Philip Henshaw" otwo@...   pfhenshaw
   Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:23 am (PST)
   Philip,
   I'm surprised I overlooked your passionate and very accurate framing of our
predicament quoted for me in June (!). You seem to hit all the main points. I
like the way you emphasized our getting stuck in half-way measures. That's been
raising my alarm for a long time. I've got a whole systems approach that could
add some new perspectives I think.
   One might ask, how big a resource for growth is improving system efficiency,
continually raising the amount of wealth created from physical resources
perhaps. I don't object in the slightest to efficiency for the pleasure of
living simply, or for profit, mind you. Using efficiency to perpetuate continual
growth, though, can be shown conclusively to be a dangerous dead end. Because
efficiency will always get harder and harder to improve on over time, and growth
makes bigger and bigger demands, growing returns from efficiency require
sacrifices of quality, comfort, reliability, adaptability, etc.. We're
experiencing a kind of 'celebration' of ideas for new efficiencies right now,
but the data already shows efficiency gains following a long trend of getting
smaller and smaller. It would be less of a problem, of course, if the major
sustainability models behind LEED and the IPCC didn't actually rely entirely on
projections of efficiency gains getting larger and larger over time.
   Yikes! more bad news, you might say... but there's also very cool stuff
exposed by my whole systems approach. The true solution is clearly not just more
panicky applications of half-way measures, as you clearly recognize. Those don't
even get you *to* the door, let along *through* the door. What growth systems in
trouble at their limits need to do is follow the curiously obvious examples from
nature on how to stabilize. Nature switches the use of the surpluses serving to
continually multiply size to continually improving quality. Our own bodies are
good evidence of that. We begin our development with a single cell and it's
'runaway growth process' and then switch to maturation as both an organism and
as a member of a community, and still leaving us lots of freedom. You can find
the same sequence in myriad natural developmental systems, a very definite
switch from one kind of development to the other at the growth inflection point.
   I even think there's a good chance of getting the point across, given the
stark self-interests, even the subtle if also somewhat drastic things that
appear necessary for our 'runaway growth process' to do it. At this point in
time we can't avoid some of the worst consequences of our ever growing intrusion
into the earth's natural systems. Somehow we just didn't notice that guiding
growth systems to stabilize is practically the most fundamental 'operating
principle of spaceship earth' . We can do better than just let the growth system
be brought to its knees in complete disarray, though! :-,)
   If you look at my site you'll see I've been having fun with a really effective
new way of modeling natural systems for quite a while, and recently have been
making some good progress in learning how to speak about it. My method is sort
of doing science backwards, using the discrepancy between nature and our models
to point to the independent behaviours of the natural systems. The usual
approach is to use models to substitute for the real thing and represent nature
as simplistic. A couple places I might point you are my consulting intro. page,
one of my principles pages, and my whole system method for measuring energy &
CO2 choices
   www.synapse9.com/HDS.htm outlining some of my approach to sustainability
   www.synapse9.com/prpr.htm describing what I call 'The principal principle of
cybernetics'
   www.synapse9.com/design/dollarshadow.htm measuring total embodied energy & CO2
   Thanks for all your work,
   Cheers,
   Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   680 Ft. Washington Ave
   NY NY 10040
   tel: 212-795-4844
   e-mail: otwo@...
   explorations: www.synapse9.com
   -----Original Message-----
   From: greenleap@yahoogroups.com [mailto:greenleap@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Philip Sutton
   Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 11:53 PM
   To: greenleap@yahoogroups.com
   Subject: [greenleap] Shifting goal posts - what to do about them?
   Dear Greenleapers,
   I think over the next few years that the global warming will come to dominate
politics and public debate in ways that will surprise us.
   Once the wall of denial crumbles, as it is doing very rapidly now, the debate
will shift to: "how should we act?"
   Vested interests will try to contain the change and shape it to their short
and medium term benefit. But the real (frequently negative) changes in the
environment and the improving science will keep destabilising short term half
measures.
   What we will experience will be endless shifting of the goal posts. This will
lead to widespread confusion and will not ultimately be good for business or
anyone really.
   Another way to go is to give up on trying not to see the big picture. If we
know the medium and longer term consequences of various courses of action (while
this might be a shock for a while) it will allow us to get a solid grip on what
we need to do and fast and effective action (which is the only practical basis
for building optimism) will become possible - because we will know what problems
we really need to work on.
   We have a massive cultural shift to go though to come out on the positive side
of all this.
   We have to stop telling each other and ourselves that we can't bear to hear
the truth of what we are doing to the earth system. If a war was raging about
people's ears and people said "don't tell me that there's a war on, I want to
keep thinking that there is no problem at all", then you would say that those
people were suffering from a mental breakdown. Solid morale, even in wartime is
not based on a total denial of reality. But equally it does not reside in
endless anguish and hand wringing. It resides in an energetic commitment to
tackling the problems (that really exisit, no matter how big) in a practical way
and in a sense that we are all pitching in together.
   So what do we need to do?
   While climate change is the most devastating symptom of having an
unsustainable economy and way of living, it is not the only problem. To get out
of our mess as fast as possible we need to commit to the rapid creation of a
sustainable and sustaining economy and lifestyles that address all the issues:
climate, resource depletion, water shortage, soil protection,
biodiversity/nature protection, social sustainability, etc. etc. etc. etc. These
issue will keep coming back until we solve them. And much is lost every time we
fail to get on with the job.
   My feeling is firming up strongly that:
   we must stop working on half-measures (as John Connor of the Climate Institute
is saying). I think we must quickly develop a good idea of what a truly
sustainable and sustaining economy would look like and then take the fastest and
most effective steps to get to that condition. If we are being asked to work on
half measures by our bosses then I think we need to challenge them (in a very
firm but effective way that keeps communications open and constructive) to take
on full measures. I don't think we can any more just complain about our bosses
attitudes. If they are not providing effective leadership then we cannot afford
to keep following.
   if we don't know what 'full measures' look like then we need to take
responsibility to educate ourselves
   we all need to contribute to public (especially adult) education so that top
level decision makers/'leaders' have the support they need or the political
space to promote action to achieve 'full measures' from the top of the
hierarchy.
   we have to stop passing the meme to each other that we/others cannot face the
full magnitude of the challenges and instead pass the meme that courage, the
capacity to cope and real hope and optimism springs from energetically tackling
the real issues - fully.
   we need to take these ideas into the heart of the political and business
mainstream. We have to find increasingly effective ways to act out these changes
in mainstream organisations. But we have to make sure that as we engage the
mainstream we do not water down the sustainability objectives.
   If doing all this seems hard then our job is to figure out how to make it
easier so that it can be done - and so it is done!
   Cheers, Philip
   Philip Sutton
   Director, Strategy, Green Innovations Inc.
   Convener, Greenleap Strategic Institute
   -----End of Original Message-----
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   Messages in this topic (2)
   8. Re: biofuels
   Posted by: "Philip Henshaw" otwo@...   pfhenshaw
   Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:26 am (PST)
   You know... it occurs to me that there's a glaring contradiction between
   the major views on renewable resources. I've been reading and
   discussing with other scientists the seemingly good research indicating
   that the burdens of development have already significantly overshot the
   recovery capacity of the earth's renewable resources generally. The
   climate control models and most sustainable development models, noticing
   the problems with non-renewable resources, propose switching over all
   development to renewable systems (already in overshoot). The two
   opposite views often seem to be discussed on consecutive pages of major
   think tank discussions, with no one mentioning the connection.

   Is this worth pointing out...??? Could it be an example of my
   principle that when you make ever bigger decisions ever faster you make
   ever bigger mistakes? These disconnects have gone too far not to have
   consequences it seems, but it's equally certain that you can still
   minimize the disruption by, a) paying more attention, and b)
   constructively slowing the whole process down.

   Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   680 Ft. Washington Ave
   NY NY 10040
   tel: 212-795-4844
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Highly recommended reading...
"Ishmael" .. Daniel Quinn
Disturbing, mind frame altering, inspirational.

Anne Goddard

The Real Answer to Climate Change Is to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground
[extract]
Ladies and gentlemen, I have the answer! Incredible as it might seem,
I have stumbled across the single technology which will save us from
runaway climate change! From the goodness of my heart, I offer it to
you for free. No patents, no small print, no hidden clauses. Already
this technology, a radical new kind of carbon capture and storage, is
causing a stir among scientists. It is cheap, it is efficient and it
can be deployed straight away. It is called … leaving fossil fuels in
the ground.
[end extract]
Full text @
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2225387,00.html
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/11/5771/


Big Oil lets sun set on renewables
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/11/oil.bp
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/11/5755/


Democrats Accuse White House of Cooking Climate-Change Testimony
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/22934.html
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/11/5761/


US Threatens To Undermine Funding For Climate Change Adaptation
[extract]Despite being the world's largest historical emitter of
global greenhouse gases, the US has contributed  exactly US$0 to the
multilateral funds created under the UNFCCC.
[end extract]
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1211-13.htm
Related articles @
http://www.oxfam.org/en/programs/campaigns/climate_change/index.htm
http://www.oxfam.org/en/


Beyond the Point of No Return
[extract]
     * Despite growing public awareness of global warming, the world's
carbon emissions are rising nearly three times faster than they did in
the 1990s. As a result, many scientists tell us that the official,
government-sanctioned forecasts of coming changes are understating the
threat facing the world.
     * A rise of 2 degrees C over preindustrial temperatures is now
virtually inevitable, according to the IPCC, as the atmospheric
concentration of carbon dioxide is approaching the destabilizing level
of 450 parts per million. That rise will bring drought, hunger,
disease, and flooding to millions of people around the world.
     * Scientists predict a steady rise in temperatures beginning in
about two years — with at least half of the years between 2009 and
2019 surpassing the average global temperature in 1998, to date, the
hottest year on record.
     * Given the unexpected speed with which Antarctica is melting,
coupled with the increasing melt rates in the Arctic and Greenland,
the rate of sea-level rise has doubled — with scientists now raising
their prediction of ocean rise by century's end from about three feet
to about six feet.
     * Scientists discovered that a recent, unexplained surge of carbon
dioxide levels in the atmosphere is due to more greenhouse gases
escaping from trees, plants, and soils — which have traditionally
buffered the warming by absorbing the gases. In the lingo of climate
scientists, carbon sinks are turning into carbon sources. Because the
added warmth is making vegetation less able to absorb our carbon
emissions, scientists expect the rate of warming to jump substantially
in the coming years.
     * The intensity of hurricanes around the world has doubled in the
last decade. As Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research explained, "If you take the last 10 years, we've had twice
the number of category-5 hurricanes than any other [10-year period] on
record."
     * In Australia, a new, permanent state of drought in the country's
breadbasket has cut crop yields by over 30 percent. The
1-in-1,000-year drought exemplifies a little-noted impact of climate
change. As the atmosphere warms, it tightens the vortex of the winds
that swirl around the poles. One result is that the water that
traditionally evaporated from the Southern Ocean and rained down over
New South Wales is now being pulled back into Antarctica — drying out
the southeastern quadrant of Australia and contributing to the buildup
of glaciers in the Antarctic — the only area on the planet where
glaciers are increasing.
[end extract]

Full text @
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/12/10/165845/92
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/11/5773/

Published on Monday, December 10, 2007 by The Independent/UK

BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by
finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of
abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract
oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which
environmentalists say are part of the "biggest global warming crime"
in history.

Full text @
http://environment.independent.co.uk/article3239364.ece
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/10/5734/


US Balks at Bali Carbon Targets

The UN climate talks seeking a new pact on global warming hit a
potential problem today when the US said it was unwilling to approve
a draft agreement setting firm targets for cuts to carbon pollution.

The US said a proposal for developed nations to reduce emissions by
25-40% by 2020, which is backed by Britain and the EU, was "totally
unrealistic" and "unhelpful". Other nations, including Japan, are
believed to be against the idea.

Full text @
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/10/climatechange.usnews
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/10/5733/


No Deal in Sight at Bali

As a major United Nations `framework convention' on climate change
(UNFCCC) crossed into its second half on Monday, the official view is
one of optimism that progress has been made in laying the "building
blocks" for a future agreement.

But others say the discussions are hopelessly deadlocked and that
proposals could fall far short of the drastic emission cuts required
to curb global warming.

Speaking at a press briefing at the end of the first of two weeks of
negotiations, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said the
conference needed to do two things: "First of all, it needs to
deliver on a number of ongoing issues that are of particular
importance to developing countries. For example, we need to advance
on the question of adaptation, we need to advance on technology
transfer, we need to strengthen capacity-building and we need to move
forward on the issue of reducing emissions from deforestation."

"And secondly, it needs to launch a process on climate change action
beyond 2012 when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol
ends."

Full text @
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40401
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/10/5746/

I agree with Bob's comments above. from what I've seen of Kevin
Rudd's hollow rhetoric, he is owned by the Greenhouse Mafia no less
than John Howard.

[Greens-Media]
Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Rudd takes loggers to Bali

Brown again calls for 10% cut in Australia's emissions by ending
native forest logging

The inclusion of the CEO and deputy CEO of the National Association of
Forest Industries in the Rudd government's delegation to Bali is a
signal of no change from the Howard years, Greens Leader Bob Brown
said in Hobart today.

"The fastest way for Australia to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10
per cent is to stop logging and burning native forests. NAFI, which
fronts for Gunns and its pulp mill proposal, is there to agitate
against this prudent move by Australia," Senator Brown said.

"How can Rudd join calls for Indonesia, Papua New Guinea or Brazil to
end logging when he has a loggers' lobby group in his own camp?"
Senator Brown asked.

"Instead, Mr Rudd should show he means business by announcing
Australia will dump Gunns' pulp mill which will produce 100 million
tonnes of greenhouse gases if it is built," Senator Brown said.

Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603



[Greens-Media]
Mon, 10 Dec 2007

Pricewaterhouse Coopers points way for Rudd and Nelson: 30% cuts are
absolute minimum

Pricewaterhouse Coopers points way for Rudd and Nelson: 30% cuts are
absolute minimum

Nusa Dua, Bali, Monday 10 December 2007:  Australian Greens climate
change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, today welcomed
consulting firm, Pricewaterhouse Cooper's (PwC) valuable contribution
to the carbon targets debate and urged Prime Minister Rudd to swiftly
step up to the plate on 2020 targets.

The report by the highly-regarded financial advisory firm, showing
that Australia could reduce emissions to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020
without damaging the economy, effectively demonstrates that 30% cuts
by 2020 should be seen as the absolute minimum targets
environmentally and economically justifiable.

Senator Milne, at the Bali climate conference in her capacity as Vice
President of the World Conservation Union, said "The IPCC clearly
states that 30% cuts are the absolute minimum we need from rich
countries in order to prevent 2ºC warming, and PwC's study shows that
such targets can be met at zero net cost.

"Prime Minister Rudd cannot continue to use the Garnaut report as a
fig leaf. He should commit to 30% cuts now as the minimum that is
economically and environmentally justifiable, and direct the Garnaut
report towards examining how far beyond 30% Australia can
realistically go.

"Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson should also seize this opportunity
to formally ditch former Prime Minister Howard's climate nonsense and
move Australia towards a cross-party acceptance that swift and
decisive action on climate change makes economic and environmental
sense.

"Mr Howard's anti-climate position was based on personal prejudice and
fossil fuel lobbying, not on any economic evidence. Dr Nelson should
ditch it now.

"Prime Minister Rudd clearly wants to be seen as a global leader on
climate change, and he can indeed become one if he starts to act like
a brave Prime Minister instead of a cautious opposition leader.

"My warnings from last week, that Mr Rudd cannot expect to bask for
long in the glow of ratifying Kyoto, have already been echoed by the
executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
Yvo de Boer, who told the conference that Mr Rudd should come to Bali
sooner than planned if he wants Australia to take a leadership role.

"PwC's report gives Mr Rudd his first opportunity to be the brave
Prime Minister. Mr Rudd should grasp this report with both hands and
commit his Government to working towards a minimum target for rich
countries like Australia of 30% cuts below 1990 levels by 2020."

Contact: Tim Hollo on 0437 587 562 or Cassy O'Connor 03 6224 8899

Cassy O'Connor
Adviser
Senator Christine Milne

First floor
Murray St Pier
Murray St, Hobart 7000
(ph) 03 6224 8899
(fax)  03 6224 7599
www.christinemilne.org.au
http://www.youtube.com/senatormilne

"We must all have a great sense of responsibility and not let things
happen because everyone takes the comfortable view that someone else
is looking after it. Someone else isn't looking after it." - Rachel
Carson, 1962

The was is not over, Anne. We now have a party in power that approved
Gunns in Tassie.
I am afraid it's quite likely to be the same game, different players.
:)
Bob
---------------------------------------
Dr Bob Rich bobrich@...
http://bobswriting.com/
http://anxietyanddepression-help.com/
http://mudsmith.net/
Commit random acts of kindness.
---------------------------------------

Game on is right ...

Big Oil, Anti-Environment Lobby Block Energy Bill Progress in Senate
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1207-07.htm

WASHINGTON - December 7 - Friends of the Earth President Brent
Blackwelder's statement on the Senate's failure today to overcome a
filibuster of the energy bill follows:

"Big oil and the anti-environment lobby no longer control the House,
but they showed today that they can still block progress in the
Senate. This situation is not tenable. Our planet is headed toward a
global warming tipping point, and if Congress doesn't act soon, it's
going to be too late. We simply must end our over-reliance on fossil
fuels. If the current Senate can't get the job done, the next Senate
must."

To see Friends of the Earth's analysis of the energy bill that passed
the House yesterday but failed to overcome today's filibuster in the
Senate, visit:
http://www.foe.org/energy/12-06-07_Energy_Bill_Letter.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Common Dreams crew have a few good related articles at the moment.
http://www.commondreams.org/

Iraq and Climate Change
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4800
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/07/5696/

CLIMATE CHANGE:  Cut GhGs or Face Extreme Events - Scientists
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40379
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/07/5678/

Gore Calls For Early Climate Pact
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0711559720071207?sp=true
Reproduced @
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/07/5681/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

--- In ClimateChangeAction@..., "Anne Goddard"
<anne@...> wrote:
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Adam Browning, Vote Solar
> Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 8:34 AM
> Subject: House passes energy bill, game on in the senate
>
>
>
> Friends-
>
> The game is on. Today, by a 235 to 181 vote, the House passed a
energy bill that contains the strong support for solar necessary to
bring this technology to scale. Namely:
>
>   a.. an 8-year extension of the 30% investment tax credit for solar
installations in businesses
>   b.. a 6-year extension of the investment tax credit for
residential solar systems, with a $4000 cap
> This is the strongest solar bill ever introduced in Congress, and is
what's necessary to build the renewable energy future that the world
so desperately needs.
> Now, the fight moves to the Senate, where prospects are much less
certain. To quote Energy and Environment Daily:
>
>   'Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), the top Republican on the Senate
Energy Committee, said "If it comes over here, we have no alternative
but to have war," he told reporters.'
>
> Well then. Merits aside, that's just stupid politics. With support
for renewable energy polling through the roof, that's a long term
losing hand.
>
> But if it is war the solar-haters want, it is war they get. A vote
earlier this summer on the same issue broke down along largely party
lines (list here, pdf). If you have a Republican senator, now would be
a good time to give them a call. Seriously. Domenici just dared you.
All but called you a punk. Pretty much spat in your general direction.
You going to take that lying down?
>
> Find phone numbers here.
> Share your views on solar, and maybe how you feel about politicians
that think it is just fine to thwart the will of 90% of America. And
ask them, for the good of the country, to support HR 6.
>
> At this point, it appears that Senator Reid will schedule the Senate
vote as early as Saturday.
> More information, including bill text and summaries, can be found here.
>
> Onwards-
> The Vote Solar team
> 300 Brannan, Suite 609
> San Francisco, CA 94107
> www.votesolar.org
>
> to suscribe:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/votesolar/signUp.jsp?key=9\
87
> to unsuscribe:
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/votesolar/unsubscribe.jsp
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>