Friday, 11 July 2008

Food or Fuel for thought? The CSIRO, Australia's leading scientific and industrial reasearch organisation has published its "Fuel for Thought" paper which was a direct result of the November 2007 'Future Fuels Forum". The forum's purpose and the focus of the organisations and governments present, was to .. "to explore sceanrios, conduct quantitative modelling and share ideas as a group so as to inform policy and investment decision making within their own organisations and within the broader Australian Community". The report: The future of transport fuels: challenges and opportunities was compiled by the Future Fuels Forum, an initiative led by the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship. The Forum brought together 18 leading representatives from Australia’s community, industry and government to share ideas. Let's play "spot the trend".......   Hmmm... Getting warmer? The report is the result of a year’s deliberations by the Future Fuels Forum (FFF) which was convened by CSIRO to engage leading community, industry and government bodies in discussions about a range of plausible scenarios for establishing a secure and sustainable transport fuel mix to 2050. I know I sound like a broken record but: John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil, USA, speaks about Shell's position on energy conservation and Global Warming. The speech was made at the Washington University, St. Louis, USA in September 2006. MP3 version here.       4:25:02 PM

	Tuesday, 8 July 2008

Garnaut Climate Change Review The Garnaut Climate Change Review has been commissioned by Australia's Commonwealth, state and territory governments to examine the impacts, challenges and opportunities of climate change for Australia. A Draft Report was released on 4 July 2008, and the Final Report is due by 30 September 2008. A Supplementary Draft Report will also be released in late August 2008 http://www.garnautreview.org.au 5:36:59 PM

	Friday, 30 May 2008

Climate Engineers - Who are the Architects? Listening to the current debate about fuel prices, excise, GST on fuel, pricewatching, etc etc, I wonder [and hope] when the conversation will really turn to the mid [let alone] the long-term future? Where are those who are often ready to tell us about the power of markets and the signals they send? What signals are we seeing now? Is there anything more depressing than being part of this appallingly low-level of debate? Are we really capable of grasping the extent of the global processes, begun generations ago, that will have severe ramifications for our way of life for generations to come? An update on these discussions can also be informed by work fo the Council for Foreign Relation [ CFR.org ] and their recent workshop on Unilateral Planetary-Scale Geoengineering: The Science and Technology of Geoengineering. Yes, you read that correctly, Unilateral, Planetary-Scale Geoengineering........ Our Australian public broadcaster, the ABC, [bless their cotton socks!] covered this topic in their April 2008 broadcast - The Climate Engineers. I wrote the following [nearly two years ago]in October 2006.... I wonder what has changed?     From 2006... In 1991, I was working with students who produced an international online student magazine called "Icarus". It looked at the emerging science behind what was then a new topic, the Ozone Layer and Global Warming. These were High School students who managed to interview and document the work of scientists in the CSIRO and United Nations Climate research centres. It was apparent then, listening to half of the world's Nobel Prize Winning scientists and the Union of Concerned Scientists, that real strategic action needed to be taken. This action, by governments and people alike, has yet to occur. Perhaps the word of the President of one of the largest Oil companies in the world may lend more weight to convincing those that the overwhelming majority of the world's scientific community appear unable to do. John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil, USA, speaks about Shell's position on energy conservation and Global Warming. The speech was made at the Washington University, St. Louis, USA in September 2006. If you are having trouble with the enhanced file, try this MP3 version here. Edit: 4th of October 2006 If this is not enough, please listen to this excerpt from the ABC's "The Science Show". Gary Meyers, Senior Principle Research Scientist from CSIRO Marine Research Hobart Tasmania and Chris Thomas, Professor of conservation biology University of York UK are interviewed by Robyn Williams. The full version can be found on the science show website. Edit 5th of October 2006 One more... The BBC reports : World 'warmest for 12,000 years' The world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of rapid warming over the past 30 years, a study has suggested. Nasa climatologists said the Earth had warmed by about 0.2C (0.4F) in each of the last three decades. Pollution from human activity was pushing the world towards dangerous levels of climate change, they warned. As a result, plant and animal species were struggling to migrate fast enough to cooler regions, they said. "The evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made pollution," warned James Hansen, head of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York. [Source: BBC] Related Links Albedo Enhancement by Stratospheric Sulfur Injections [PDF] Climate Change: The Uncertainties, the Certainties, and what they Imply About Action Policy [PDF] Implications of Greenhouse Warming [PDF] 12:08:05 PM

	Tuesday, 18 December 2007

S H I F T - H A P P E N S     S h i f t - H a p p e n s www.centralrangesllen.org.au/shifthappens       10:05:31 AM

	Friday, 7 December 2007

Australia to be 'climate bridge'. Australia's PM Kevin Rudd offers to act as a bridge between China and other nations on climate change. [BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition] 6:12:58 PM

	Saturday, 13 October 2007

Why Climate Change Can't Be Stopped Environmental advocates have finally managed to put the issue of global warming at the top of the world's agenda. But the scientific, economic, and political realities may mean that their efforts are too little, too late.... [Source: Foreign Policy.com] 3:01:13 PM

	Sunday, 7 October 2007

Future of Schooling in Australia. The members and stakeholders of the Central Ranges LLEN were represented today at the Future of Schools in Australia Conference. Today, the Premier of Victoria, The Hon. John Brumby, launched the Federalist Paper No 2, The Future of Schooling in Australia. This is a report by the council for Australian Federation. Professor Peter Dawkins is the Chair of the review committee. Following the release of the report on The Future of Schooling in Australia in April this year, there has been extensive discussion of its contents, especially the commitment by the States and Territories to work together on the development of core national curriculum standards in Maths, Science and English, and the idea that the time is ripe to renew and refresh the 1999 Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling. Ministers for Education, senior officials from State and Territory education departments and the Catholic and Independent education sectors, business and selected education stakeholders were invited to hear a range of Australian and international speakers at this one-day event, discussing the future of schooling in Australia. During his speech to launch the report, The Premier indicated his interest in looking for further ways to link schools and their communities, with such things as shared community facilities, also indicating that key infrastructure initiatives, combined with improvement in teaching and learning outcomes, were central to the future prosperity of not only Victorians, but all Australians. The Premier remarked that a series of public-private partnerships have proven beneficial to securing future infrastructure needs for the state [such as the new Royal Children's Hospital]. Mr. Brumby indicated that he was interested to what degree such arrangements may benefit schools and their communities in the future. The Premier outlined that he had asked Treasurer Lenders and Minister Pike to report on such possibilities by the end of this year. Full details of the report and conference can be found at:   www.education.vic.gov.au/futureofschooling Update: 26th Sept. The Editor-at-Large of The Australian Newspaper, Paul Kelly, attended the conference yesterday and has published an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper. Labor plan is modest progress on education The Age Newspaper also reports: State looks to school partnerships   [Central Ranges LLEN News] 9:19:35 AM