Reports on Climate Change
Sweating under pressure. CLIMATE CHANGE
Submitted by David Shearman on Sat, 15/09/2007 - 08:40. Reports on Climate ChangeCarol Nader, reproduced with permission from The Age.
Little consideration has been given to the effects on our health of more extreme weather, but experts agree that we should be prepared for a marked increase in infectious diseases, respiratory illnesses and food poisoning.
IN THE big city, it's called the heat-island effect. As the city sweats and swelters, heat is trapped and retained because of a mass of concrete and tar and scant green space. The temperature dips in the evening in the outer suburbs and the country, but there is no such reprieve in the city.
Populate and Perish
Submitted by David Shearman on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 18:40. Reports on Climate ChangeThis must be the silly season but I wish I could laugh about it. Addressing a business luncheon at the Brisbane Club on Tuesday, September 4th, Mr Beattie said Australia’s current ageing population of 21 million was too small to meet future needs. The credentials of the Queensland government to make any statement on this issue are surely very poor. It has failed to plan for the large numbers of Australians attracted to SE Queensland when climate change data suggested that they could not be sustained. In South Australia there are “aspirational” targets for a large increase in population in the face of continuing water shortage. The pressure comes from commerce, the building and real estate interests. Governments worry about the increasing numbers of elderly Australians and reason that we need more young people to pay for them. How naive, population growth in perpetuity!
Climate: the Key Issue for the next Federal Government
Submitted by David Shearman on Fri, 07/09/2007 - 20:16. Reports on Climate Changeby Dr John Coulter, President Sustainable Population Australia, Former Australian Democrat Senator, member of DEA
It is very possible that within the term of the next Federal Government southern Australia will be exposed to the hottest climate on record with massive failure of food production, the Murray/Darling basin a dustbowl, uncontrollable bushfires and insufficient water to service even minimal needs in capital cities.
This possibility emerges from work of the highly regarded Hadley Centre on Climate Research in the UK and published in the journal Science on August 10.
Public Transport, Health and Climate Change-- A DEA initiative
Submitted by David Shearman on Thu, 16/08/2007 - 16:57. Reports on Climate ChangeDoctors for the Environment Australia is involved in a national initiative to promote public transport. We have written to all Members, Senators and Ministers in federal parliament seeking their recognition that public transport is a climate change and a health issue. Greenhouse gases from transport are expected to grow (according to the Federal Government’s own Bureau of Transport and Resource Economics) by 68% between 2000 and 2020. This means it is the area of greenhouse emissions least under control in Australia.
We point out that in Australia the largest contributor to transport greenhouse emissions is the private car in Australian cities and government can help ease this growth with better public transport. At the same time the use of the private car carries significant responsibility for the epidemic of obesity and other life style diseases, and its pollutants increase the burden of heart and respiratory disease in the 70 per cent of the Australian public who live in urban communities.
Congratulations to Professor Tony McMichael
Submitted by David Shearman on Tue, 07/08/2007 - 20:27. Reports on Climate ChangeThere are two exciting developments involving Tony McMichael, member of DEA's Scientific Advisory Committee. We offer our congratulations.
Australia Fellowship
An Australia Fellowship of $4 million has been awarded to Professor Tony McMichael, a world leader in environmental epidemiology from the Australian National University, who will use his fellowship to further his pioneering research on the health risks of global climate change and environmental influences on infectious and parasitic diseases and autoimmune disease.
MEDIA RELEASE from Research Australia
High & Dry: John Howard, climate change and the selling of Australia’s future
Submitted by David Shearman on Thu, 02/08/2007 - 19:06. Reports on Climate Changeby Guy Pearse
This book, published by Penguin Viking, is a must read for anyone interested in the future of the world, climate change, the mal-functioning of democracy, corporate responsibility, human nature and political chicanery.
Guy Pearse, a former speech writer to Robert Hill, was moving towards Liberal party candidature when, on the advice of Rod Kemp, he went to the US for post-graduate education, under the aegis of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. Soon he discovered that this Foundation was far to the right of the Liberal party in Australia and he moved to the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard where the teaching and the book, Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken, influenced him greatly. He then moved to an internship with Al Gore at the White House. The book High & Dry describes the findings in his thesis on climate change.
Green China and Young China
Submitted by David Shearman on Wed, 01/08/2007 - 19:13. Reports on Climate Changeby Pan Yue, deputy director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). Part of a new generation of outspoken Chinese senior officials, Pan has given rise to a tide of environmental debate, attracting enormous attention and controversy.
Editorial comment
There are huge floods in China with millions displaced. The government attributes these to climate change. Beijing knows the costs of inaction: a recent major official study on climate change predicts up to a 37 percent decline in China's wheat, rice and corn yields in the second half of the century. Rain fall may decline by as much as 30 percent in three of China's seven major river regions: the Huai, Liao and Hai. The Yellow and Yangtze rivers, which support the richest agricultural regions of the country and derive much of their water from Tibetan glaciers, will initially experience floods and then drought as the glaciers melt which they are doing rapidly. A one-meter rise in sea level will submerge an area the size of Portugal along China's eastern seaboard home to more than half the country's population and 60 percent of its economic output. Already climate change-related extreme weather is taking its toll: in 2006 such disasters cost China more than $25 billion in damage.
Climate Change Commentary from the Field
Submitted by David Shearman on Thu, 26/07/2007 - 19:00. Reports on Climate ChangeBill Castleden
Having been trained by Al Gore to become a climate change educator, with 83 other Australians of whom 6 were from WA, in November 2006, I have been travelling around the S-W of WA for the last few months giving community talks about climate change and what individuals can do to become “carbon neutral”. Apart from Margaret River I have been to Albany, Boyup Brook, Bridgetown, Bunbury, Busselton, Denmark, Esperance, Manjimup, Nannup and Narrogin as well as to Perth on a few occasions. It has been interesting to sense that community awareness of the problem has been increasing and that audiences previously hostile to the idea that the issue needs to be tackled are becoming more interested. Councils are recognizing that they have enormous potential to participate, and businesses with significant numbers of employees are seeking out climate change speakers.
Report on Zero Emissions at the “Target Zero” conference, Melbourne 30 June
Submitted by David Shearman on Sun, 08/07/2007 - 22:07. Reports on Climate Changeby Lindsay Quennell
I was very impressed by the quality of the presentations. Unfortunately I was only able to attend the first day which focused on the scope of the problem and the solutions needed to implement a fast transition to a zero emissions future. This report is not necessarily complete as there were some presentations on which I failed to keep adequate notes but I believe it does give a good indication of the scope of the problem and more importantly, the wide range of possible solutions. The overall message from all speakers was that climate change is of critical importance to everyone on the planet and that to prevent a catastrophe in the coming decades we must act with great urgency. Talk of action to reduce greenhouse emissions by 2050 misses the point. We need to take major steps in the next 5 - 10 years, starting now.
The Green Clinic Initiative by ACF and DEA
Submitted by David Shearman on Mon, 25/06/2007 - 18:22. Reports on Climate ChangeThe GreenClinic initiative by the ACF and DEA has now been in existence for some time, yet I meet many doctors who have not heard of it. We also know that some of our members look at our web site but not those of the environmental groups. So this communication is to summarise the recommendations and enourage you to look at the ACF GreenClinic web site which says
“GreenClinic assists doctors and practice managers to identify simple changes to make in clinics that will save energy and water,reduce waste, and help patients and communities to live more sustainable and healthy lives”
