Looks like Christmas is coming early this year. (illustration: Alex Mankiewicz)

We finally got a government after the most protracted post-election negotiations in my lifetime.

While the process was not edifying, I think the result is as good as we could have hoped for. It is a lot better than the only two outcomes that looked possible during the election campaign: either the return of the Gillard government, or an Abbott-led Coalition taking power. While Julia Gillard is still Prime Minister, she needs the support of the Green MP for Melbourne and three Independents, all of whom have strong views on the need to respond to climate change. We will also have nine Green Senators holding the balance of power from next July. With the Gillard government needing the support of either the Greens or a pathologically obstructive Coalition to pass laws through the Senate, the path of least resistance will be negotiating with Bob Brown. So we can expect most new laws passed from July 2011 to be given a greenish tinge in the drafting.

The most important outcome is that there is real pressure on the government for a concerted response to climate change. This is new territory for Julia Gillard. The word from Canberra was that she and Wayne Swan pushed for the Rudd government’s retreat from its half-baked ETS, then took over when Rudd’s support subsequently collapsed. Her election campaign promised only a citizens’ assembly, not a bad thing if proposed ten years ago when there was some community uncertainty about climate change, but a waste of time now that poll after poll shows overwhelming public support for action. So there would have been little prospect of concerted action from a Gillard majority government. The influence of the Independents and Adam Bandt has changed the political landscape. The agreement with the Greens includes a multi-party Climate Change Committee to draw up the plan for action. We should now be pushing strongly for a serious response, including a price on greenhouse pollution, a more ambitious renewable energy target, a real commitment to efficiency improvements and major investments in active transport.

While environmental issues did not have a high profile during the election campaign, there were some significant commitments. Julia Gillard stated that “no new dirty coal-fired power stations” will be built in Australia. ACF is urging the PM to implement this pledge by imposing an immediate moratorium on new coal-fired power stations, including those currently being considered. We should be setting serious pollution standards for new generating capacity, such as less than 0.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour. The proposed National Green Corridors Plan should be implemented to help build resilience and assist natural systems to cope with climate change. The process outlined in the Carbon Farming policy is also a step forward. There is a prospect of including reforestation and similar activities in future carbon markets, creating real economic incentives to repair damaged landscapes, restore native vegetation and develop connected corridors of habitat.

Julia Gillard also promised during the election campaign to provide the resources needed to implement the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s plan. This will involve buying back the water needed to restore the ecological systems of the river basin, based on the Authority’s science-based assessment. The government undertook to incorporate the Indigenous lands of Koongarra into Kakadu National Park, ending the decades-long threat of uranium mining in that area. It also agreed to ban the import of timber products from illegal logging. The discussions going on in Tasmania now offer a real prospect of ending decades of conflict with an agreement to stop logging native forests and move the timber industry onto a plantation basis. There was also a commitment during the campaign to develop a comprehensive system of marine national parks and provide the resources needed for their effective management. Again, this will be a major step forward.

Some broader issues were raised during the election, so we should be pushing them in the new political environment. The PM spoke in Brisbane of the need for a sustainable population policy. While the initial discussions have largely been based on an assumption that growth is inevitable and we can only influence where the extra millions go, there is a real opportunity to press serious consideration of the whole population issue. It is obvious that a sustainable future will involve stabilising the population and consumption at levels that can be supported without degrading natural systems. The issue is now out in the open, instead of being cloaked in simplistic assumptions about the alleged economic benefits of growth. The election campaign also included a commitment to introduce sustainability impact assessments into the Cabinet process. If taken seriously, this will have a major impact. It is hard to see, for example, how proposals to expand coal exports could pass even the most superficial sustainability assessment. We should be working now to ensure that the process for assessing new proposals is rigorous and robust. The ALP does have a platform commitment to establish a Sustainability Commission. That would be an appropriate basis for serious assessments.

It might be an appropriate time to remind the new government of some other issues. For example, the Rudd government agreed with other G20 nations that we should phase out subsidies of fossil fuel supply and use, recognising that these public handouts “encourage wasteful consumption, distort markets, impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to deal with climate change”. Various estimates put the public subsidy of fossil fuels between 6 and 9 billion dollars a year. In other words, each Australian household spends hundreds each year helping the big polluters and encouraging them not to clean up their act. This is a great time to pressure the government to end these ridiculous practices.

Every problem is also an opportunity. The Prime Minister’s political problem represents a great opportunity for environmental organisations to promote the case for a sustainable future. We should seize that opportunity.

About the Author: Ian Lowe is president of the Australian Conservation Foundation and a Sunshine Coast resident.

Australia’s world heritage listed Fraser Island is renowned for its beautiful dingoes but the country’s purest strain of dingo is now on the verge of extinction under the Queensland Government’s current management plan. Some of the Australia’s leading experts are speaking out on the sad plight facing the island’s dingoes.

The late Steve Irwin’s father, Bob, says the dingoes have become emaciated and weak since the electrification of grids and fences on the island. More than 100 dingoes live on the World Heritage-listed island but, since electrification began in 2001 after the attack and death of 9-year-old Clinton Gage, the animals now have limited food sources. A multitude of dingoes, including puppies have been shot and poisoned on the island in the wake of the boy’s killing.

Throughout Queensland, hundreds and possibly thousands may have been poisoned and shot in the week following his death.  Renowned scientist Alan Winton predicts the fate of the island’s dingoes is an inevitable one if the Government’s management plan is not changed.

Photographs show malnourished dingoes on the island, including one animal loitering around a rubbish bin at the Eurong dump looking for food. Can you imagine an Australia without the dingo?

Well, it’s something you may not have to imagine if this continues as Fraser has the countries purest strain, and scientists agree there will be no wild dingoes left except in dingo parks and sanctuaries.

Sustainability Minister Kate Jones and Premier Anna Bligh continue to take advice from their minions instead of visiting the island and need to be held accountable for the excruciating pain the dingoes are suffering daily and their ultimate demise, if nothing is done immediately.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service defended the dingoes’ wellbeing and say the animals are “not starving”.

“It is important to remember that dingoes in the wild are of a naturally lean build,” an EPA spokesperson said.

“The hierarchical population structure means the dominant animals are likely to prevent access to food by subordinates, and this means there will always be some animals that are in poorer condition than others.”

Residents of the island sighted the dingoes bringing rats to their pups before electrification of the fences and grids but now some of the dingo mothers are believed to be too weak to feed their young.

Bob Irwin  says the current laws are “heavy-handed”.

“Nobody should have to walk past an animal that’s starving and the Fraser Island dingos are emaciated,” he said.

Hervey Bay MP Ted Sorensen has spoken to Minister Jones to discuss the health and feeding of dingoes on the island .He says claims there is no evidence of dingoes on Fraser Island starving to death are “laughable”. Mr Sorensen says the minister is out of touch and she should visit the Island.

“To say that is absolute rubbish at the end of the day and I think Kate Jones should go over there and have a look at some of the dingoes on Fraser Island that are starving,” he said.

“If you had a dog like that in your backyard, the RSPCA would have you charged with animal cruelty for what’s happening on Fraser Island.”

But Ms Jones says there is a healthy number of dingoes on the island and a census is under way to confirm the population level. Ms Jones says she has seen no evidence the dingoes are starving. She says feeding stations are inappropriate because the dingoes are wild animals. She also says the government’s dingo strategy is working.

But Mr Sorensen says he fears the island’s management strategy is affecting the health of the dingo population.

“With the amount of animals that have been shot on Fraser Island I’m really concerned about the number of dingoes,” Mr Sorensen said.

On online petition being circulated has hundreds of people worldwide expressing their disgust at the way the dingoes are being mistreated with many saying they won’t return to the island until and when the dingoes are made a priority and protected.

Nicola Ziebarth is one such visitor and writes: “If you went to America would you let your kids run around the forest with wild bears? No you would hope to be smarter than that.  In saying that, dingoes are wild animals and we as Australians should respect that and be aware that if you are going to camp on Fraser that yes, there are wild animals there. I have camped there prior to the first culling after slack parents did not watch their children as they climbed over a fence that was clearly posted with signs to stay out as dingoes had young — we had no problems with the first lot of dingoes who were on our camp site. People just need to be smarter, watch their children and not interfere with the dingoes and keep their wits about them.”

It is not the dingoes that have created a problem on the island, it is people, and people need to rectify this abhorrent and shameful situation before these precious animals go the same way as the Tasmanian Devil.

For more information visit Jaylene’s website – Eden Handmade Chocolates

A recent opinion poll commissioned by WWF of 4000 residents showed that 79 per cent of respondents believe Australia should either begin reducing carbon pollution before other countries, or start reducing regardless of when other countries choose to act.

Rudd has duped the electors by refusing to take action on climate change despite exit polls at the last election showing climate change was a major issue in electors dumping the coalition. It appears that Rudd and Abbott have come to a silent agreement to take climate change off the agenda for the upcoming election.

This is despite the science continuing to mount of the need to take urgent action and that the world needs a stabilisation by 2015 followed by significant reductions. Economic research has also continually shown that the longer we forgo action the greater will be the detrimental impacts on our economy.

“Australia’s carbon pollution keeps going up and up. The longer we delay setting a price on carbon, the more it is going to cost Australian households and Australian businesses,” said Mr Bourne, CEO of WWF.

The Australia government continues to ignore the wealth and job creation opportunities of embracing the “clean industrial revolution” in favour of opening up more coal mines and becoming increasingly more economically dependent on a risky carbon pollution based economy.

“Since October last year more than 150 new measures have been announced globally to reduce climate pollution and 32 countries now have emissions trading schemes. Around US$200 billion is expected to be invested in clean energy solutions, in 2010.” Mr Bourne said.

Barack Obama, said in his State of the Nation address: “Providing incentives for energy-efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future, because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”

The way government policy is going it is certainly not going to be Australia.

Even proposals to promote major energy efficiency initiatives also appear to be rejected by the Rudd government.

Greens Senator Christine Milne said: “Minister Ferguson and his government have rejected Greens’ proposals for mandatory efficiency programs for large energy users, and recommended that the Senate oppose the Greens’ bill for energy efficiency in office blocks, shopping centres, schools and hospitals.”

So what are some opportunities for a way forward?

Abbott and the coalition have successfully sidelined themselves from any credible solutions to the climate change debate.
This leaves the Greens trying to convince the government to support Professor Garnaut’s option of an interim fixed carbon price. The proposal would see a carbon levy of $20 a tonne growing at CPI plus 4 per cent each year. The levy would raise $10 billion annual revenue to support household, commercial, industrial and transport emissions reductions.

This is similar to another proposal by James Hansen, Director of the Goddard Institute for a flat fee collected from fossil fuel companies at their mines or wellheads. Obviously fossil fuel based energy costs would rise but householders would be compensated from the fund for those increases.

The issue has to be addressed now and with some goodwill and longer term vision solutions can be found to have climate policy aligned with the science and the economic opportunities that can be created.

Ian Christesen is Climate Change Policy Officer, Sunshine Coast Environment Council

Professor Ian Lowe

I urge everyone to get involved with the public population/growth forums taking place in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast in the lead-up to Anna Bligh’s ‘Growth Management Summit’ at the end of March.

The decisions being taken in the next few months will literally shape our future. If we want to protect and improve our quality of life, we have to get serious about the population debate.

There are real questions about our capacity to supply services to a rapidly growing population. Serious analysis of the economic issues shows that an increasing population causes the overall size of the economy to grow, but wealth per capita does not increase much at all or might even decline.

So the rapid growth might not even be producing economic benefits to offset the social strains and the environmental costs.

The issue has been forced onto the political agenda by the increasing problems of Australian cities.

Already, there is a voter backlash as transport, water and power infrastructure struggle to keep pace with growing populations. Federal MP Kelvin Thompson has tapped into the public mood with speeches urging a goal of stabilising the population.
At the same time as Bligh’s summit, the Australian Davos Connection will be convening a two-day meeting in Melbourne to consider sustainable cities.

For years, our politicians have actively encouraged an unusually high rate of population growth, seeing it in simplistic terms as good for the economy.

Howard and Costello introduced financial incentives for women to have more children; Rudd and Swan retained and then increased the ‘baby bonus’.

Costello encouraged us to reproduce by urging couples to have “one for the husband, one for the wife and one for the country”, while Rudd was equally facile with his statement that he believes in “a Big Australia”.

Howard increased immigration to unprecedented levels and allowed the expansion of low-level training courses as a back-door migration path.

The Rudd government expanded immigration still further at a time when we struggle to find work for young Australians, but finally cracked down on the training racket.

Here in southeast Queensland there is genuine concern about the erosion of our quality of life. When the community have been consulted, they have made their feelings clear.

But the the State Government’s ill-conceived Regional Plan, will impose further rapid population growth on the whole of southeast Queensland, including the Sunshine Coast.

We should be particularly concerned about the loss of natural areas, the continuing spread of housing onto good agricultural land and the improbability of meeting responsible targets to slow climate change if the population keeps growing rapidly.
More people means more houses, more services, probably more roads and certainly more clearing of native vegetation. In terms of our quality of life, it means that the beaches and bush tracks will be more crowded.

If we continue to provide inadequate public transport, the roads will become more congested, creating pressure to build still more roads or widen the existing transport corridors.

The really big issue is the impact on climate change. The Bali Roadmap, agreed in 2007 shortly after Australia finally ratified the Kyoto Protocol and rejoined the international community, set out targets for industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

It said we should aim to be 25 to 40 per cent below the 1990 level by 2020. More recent science suggests that the targets should probably be strengthened to more like 50 per cent.

In fact, we are well above the 1990 level and our emissions are still growing. The Rudd government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme has been seriously compromised by concessions to the big polluters, while the Coalition are critical of even those modest charges that survived, branding it as a “great big tax” when it provides almost no economic incentives    for change.

Successive governments have even said that it is particularly hard for us to reduce our greenhouse pollution because of our growing population.

If the population of southeast Queensland doubles, all other things being equal, our energy use will double and our greenhouse gas production will double.

A responsible target of 50 per cent reduction if the population doubles means reducing per capita pollution to a quarter of the present level.  It is difficult to see how that could be done in a decade. It would be difficult enough with a stable population. It looks impossible if we start by encouraging rapid growth.

The slogan used to be ‘Populate or perish’.  We can now see that it is more like ‘Populate and perish’. A sustainable future has to be based on stabilisation of both population and consumption.

Are you listening, Premier?

image: greghardwick.com.au

Anyone who has attended meetings will know — the greater the number of people, the less chance there is of obtaining an outcome.

Therefore the outcome of Copenhagen should come as no surprise. Governments from wealthy countries know that voters are easily swayed by economic arguments. Poorer countries want more for their people. While we all argue about money, man-made climate change will worsen.

As our planet’s human population increases we face a growing problem. The wealthier we all become, the more we want and the more we consume. More people consuming more of the earth’s finite ‘resources’ leads to only one outcome – less for everyone.

The science of climate change has taught us two things. Firstly, we need to be smarter, be prepared for change and focus upon cleaner, renewable energy sources. Our very short love affair with fossil fuels is over and is not worth one tear.

Secondly — many people do not like change, they use denial to avoid serious problems and know that many of us are swayed by fear. Radical politicians will seize on this and increasingly make promises they cannot deliver on.

The way forward is not something we are going to be given by our politicians. We are going to have to show our politicians what we are capable of. Great social changes have always been peaceful and well supported by the population. However, we will need to constantly remind our governments, and those seeking to be in government, that they serve us, and deceitful behaviour for the sake of claiming or clinging to power, will not be tolerated.

Now is not the time for blaming others for our woes or arguing whose way is best. It’s all too easy to point out the wrongs of someone from a distant nation or from a group who you do not associate with. Throwing stones over the fence is easy when you don’t see your victim, but stand face to face and it becomes so much harder.

In 2010 we need to stand face to face and unite everyone who wants a fairer, cleaner future. It is possible, if only we dare to try.

***

Do yourself a favour this Christmas. Turn the air conditioner off, put the mobile phone away and get outside and talk to someone new. See you at the Woodford Folk Festival!

Wishing you all the best over the Christmas break and we look forward to bringing you more eco news in 2010. Eco online will take a short break, before returning in mid-January.

Keep safe and look after one another.

By Guest Writer, Lindsay Holt

When it comes to government spending, coal continues to eclipse solar and other renewables

Federal Environment and Climate Change Ministers jointly announced that there was less than 8 hours to submit solar rebate applications before they were stopped 3 weeks before schedule. Environment Minister, Peter Garrett is now clearly in the running as the most disappointing and underachieving environment minister in recent years.

The rationale for suddenly stopping the $8000 rebate was that it was so popular that the budget blew out to $700 million, which according to Garrett was four times its original commitment.

Contrast this with the government allocation of $2.4 billion of your taxes for so called “clean coal”.  So what do you get for this outlay?  By 2018 not even one commercial scale “clean coal” plant!  The reality is that “clean coal” is a big lie and an expensive excuse for keeping us stuck in the old dirty economy.

If $2.4 billion had gone into renewables instead, it would kick start a true green revolution creating new jobs and diversifying our economy.

Guest writer for Eco watch, Lindsay Holt

The Climate Change mafia that former Liberal Party advisor Guy Pearse exposed under Howard is obviously alive and well and prospering under the Rudd Government.

The Queensland Government is also keen on keeping the love affair with coal going.  In Professor Weller’s independent review of Queensland Statutory Bodies it recommended that the Queensland Government clean coal project, Zero Gen Pty Ltd “be wound up or handed over to the private sector.” Weller described the project as “highly technical if not speculative”.  The Queensland Government has refused to implement the recommendation. So what do Queensland taxpayers get for their $100 million investment – a goal to have a small scale clean coal demonstration plant operating by 2012.

Contrast this with the Western Australian State Liberal Government’s implementation of a 60 cents a kilowatt hour gross feed in tariff for renewable energy sent into the grid. Under the scheme all the solar electricity your panels generate gets paid at the higher rate of 60 cents and you purchase the balance you need at 16 cents a kilowatt hour.  The pay back is over 10 per cent and will drive WA’s green renewable industry.

It is about time we collectively told the Queensland and Federal Labor Governments to stop subsidising fossil fuels and invest in our future not our past.

From the makers of “Fargo”, “O Brother Where Art Thou” and “The Big Lebowski”.  Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen have directed a short video for The Reality Campaign dispelling the myth of clean coal with their advertisement “clean coal air freshener”. The Coen Brothers get the point across as only they can.

Capitalism was hailed as the victor after Gorbachev brought perestroika to the former Soviet Union in the late 80s. Since that time, the West’s confidence in its own economic system has grown. Confidence that, until recently, had bordered on arrogance. Capitalism has allowed greed to flourish, to such an extent, that we are now witnessing a meltdown of a system, with global consequences.

No doubt the economy will return to some sense of normality in the future, but the lessons should not be forgotten. Any system that requires constant growth to survive on a planet with finite resources, is surely doomed to fail time and time gain. Any system that promotes greed before common sense — before the well-being of people and our environment — cannot be sustained.

The residents of the Sunshine Coast have felt the impacts of greed for decades. The State Government has, and is, insisting on more growth, with developers cheering them on and as a result the Coast constantly fights to protect its biggest asset — the natural environment. The economy and lining the wallets of a select few, it seems, is more important than even the basic fundamentals of democracy. Even if the economy and its architects have been proven to be faulty and lacking in principle.

Residents on the Sunshine Coast want a focus on sustainability not development. Image Greg Hardwick

Residents of the Coast, and its elected council have made it clear that they want and need a sustainable future. The Sunshine Coast can lead by example and display to the rest of the country, that it is possible. We have the talent right here in our own backyards, as was on display at the recent Sunshine Coast Environment Awards. It’s time the government was reminded that it is the servant of the people. Voters already understand that growth must have its limits.

The hopes and wishes of residents in the Mary Valley have been blatantly ignored by a government determined to build a dam, regardless of the impacts — be they economic, social, environmental, or ethical. Recently, as our lead story displays, a victory was won with a delay in proceedings of the Traveston Crossing dam. It’s now time for common sense to return and for some human decency to be restored so that the entire idea is scrapped.

Econews has long been an opponent of the dam, based on the wishes of the people, sound scientific facts, and the rule of law. We can no longer stand by and let an elected government sustain an ideology of growth at all costs. A government that has stopped listening to the very people that fund its wages.

The solution to ozone depletion was delivered via governments around the world. A ban on the offending chemicals resulted in a relatively quick adaptation by industry, and the public. Simply using your finger to pump the spray pack was deemed palatable.

Enter climate change and things have taken a strange and somewhat insidious turn. People calling out for change are being labelled hair-shirted activists in some of our nation’s newspapers. One or two dubious reports hit the streets and we have a wave of ill-informed statements such as the ‘unproven hypothesis of man-made global warming’.

Scientists and economists, supported by their respective governments, have presented a very clear message. Do something now, or else. Jobs will not be lost if we adapt and develop local businesses, manufacturers and community organisations, now.

Contradictory to their own reports, governments now appear enslaved by opinion polls and the revenue earned from the big greenhouse-gas offenders. Coal and oil are rapidly becoming the CFCs of the 21st century, but this time the politicians have selected hearing. This time the solutions are more complex.

Turning a light off that is powered by a coal-fired power station, is like asking someone to use a CFC-based spray can sparingly. It certainly helps and most certainly should be encouraged, but the only long-term fix is for governments to ban the harmful substance.

The Prime Minister recognises climate-change-induced coral bleaching is killing the Barrier Reef. At the same time we witness an expansion of coal infrastructure to accommodate increased Queensland exports.

As for oil, the Queensland Government in one instance leads the way in recognising it as a finite resource (Queensland’s vulnerability to rising oil prices – taskforce report), whilst it continues to encourage more roads and urban sprawl.

Reducing fuel tax, or protecting the coal industry is irresponsible and will not help Australians prepare for the aftermath of peak oil and the problems of climate change.

Southeast Queenslanders are acutely aware of finite resources such as drinking water. Other than its absurd insistence on spending tax-payer dollars on a shallow body of water masquerading as a dam at Traveston Crossing, the Government correctly recognised the need to use our existing water supplies more efficiently and sparingly. Why are we not seeing large-scale public projects aimed at reducing oil dependence? Why aren’t we witnessing the rapid birth of an array of renewable energy sources as a viable coal alternative?

Reports on climate change and peak oil are not hypotheses that require further debate. They arose from sound, scientific theory. Our politicians need to stand up and meet community expectations. More importantly, they need to have the courage to lead the way and take action just as they did with CFCs.

Continued rapid population growth and the call for a population cap was a popular theme from many of the elected candidates. The people have sent a clear message that they have had enough of their environment and lifestyle being destroyed for short-term profits.

The challenge to prepare a combined plan for the new council area, which reflects the community’s wishes, is potentially going to set the new Council on a collision course with the pro-development State Government.

Eco is calling on the new Council to use technologies, such as three-dimensional modelling, which can demonstrate what the Sunshine Coast will look like in 2026 and beyond, if the predicted population of 500,000 is reached.

Residents could view images that clearly show what areas like Sippy Downs, Palmview and Caloundra South will look like. Maroochy spent over $1 million on their Local Growth Management Strategy and Caloundra over $3 million, so surely a tool like this is an important and smart planning device.

If we want to be the most sustainable region in Australia we will need to truly diversify our economy. The Coast must move towards smart development, which enhances and protects our unique environment.  The new councillors will clearly have a tough challenge ahead of them.

The potential impacts for rapidly growing regions such as the Sunshine Coast, should not be under estimated. That’s why we will present the topic again and discuss not only the consequences of not listening to expert advice, but also local solutions.

There are many inspirational stories out there and Brett Robb’s, of Noosaville’s Roundabout Coffee and Fuel, is certainly one of them.

“Imagine if one small local business can find a way to fund the education of over 700 local school children on how to live sustainably. What could we achieve if we can co-operate and combine our efforts?”, said Mr Robb.

Read more about Brett’s story and his unique blend of fuel, schools and permacuture, as well as many other stories in our next edition.