350 ppm, as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. We are currently at 390 ppm and, according to the science, we need to get back to 350 ppm as soon as possible to be able avoid runaway climate change.

In an interview with a German newspaper Stern endorsed the 350 ppm target saying he “think it’s a very sensible long-term target.” Bill McKibben, environmental writer and founder of 350.org, writes:

“I think it’s a very sensible long-term target.” He went on to explain: “People have to be aware that is a truly long-term target. We have already passed 350ppm, we are at 390 ppm of Co2 and at 435 ppm of Co2-equivalents right now. It is most important to stop the increase of flows of emissions short term and then start the decline of flows of annual emissions and get them down to levels which will move concentrations of CO2 back down towards 350ppm.

McKibben says “Stern is right” and that his endorsement will “help stiffen the push for real measures” at the climate talks in Copenhagen this December.

Stern is right, of course–even if we do everything right at Copenhagen, we won’t be back at 350 soon. But unless we do everything right we’ll be back at 350 never ever. His call will help stiffen the push for real measures at the conference.

Also read:
- Nicholas Stern: Climate change will create billions of refugees, extended world war
- Nicholas Stern: “I underestimated the threat”
- Green Quote of the Week: Nicholas Stern

Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter and a World leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, threatening billions of impoverished non-Europeans with climate genocide – but the pro-Coal Federal Government still refuses to rake effective action against man-made global warming that acutely threatens the Planet (see “Australia’s “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” endangers Australia, Humanity and Biosphere”) .

Perhaps this shocking heatwave (above 43 C for 3 days, and it will be in the 30s for the next week in Melbourne) will make Australians demand action from their Federal Government which chooses to IGNORE the advice of top Australian, UK and US climate scientists about the acute seriousness of the Climate Emergency.

I spent the hottest day (30 January 2009) writing to Australian media and Federal MPs about the extraordinary IGNORING of the Climate Emergency and asking for a Senate Inquiry to identify the people who are evidently falsely advising the Government and People in relation to (a) the seriousness of the situation, (b) the futility, expense and lack of practical proof of “carbon dioxide sequestration” and (c) the importance of biochar for bringing down atmospheric CO2 to a requisite safe level of about 300 ppm (as recommended by leading climate scientists).

It should be noted that both the Labor Federal Government and the Liberal-National Coalition Opposition are pro-Coal, fervently supporting Australia’s world leading coal exports and supporting fossil fuel burning-based power. However the Liberal-National Coalition Opposition have recently broken ranks with the Government and supported more investment in renewable energy and return of carbon as biochar (charcoal) to the soil.

The following LETTER was personally addressed to each Federal MP of Australia and sent to ALL Australia Federal MPs over FALSE Climate advice to Government and the Public.

Dear Senator, Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs,

The Liberal-National Party Coalition [Opposition] under Malcolm Turnbull must be congratulated for its sensible new approach to renewable energy and biochar – however an entrenched Culture of Ignoring and Denial in Australia means that it has a long way to go before it joins the informed and responsible Australian Greens in appreciating the urgent need for rapid, progressive cessation of fossil fuel burning and other greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution.

Top UK climate scientist Dr James Lovelock FRS (the Gaia hypothesis) (a) says that fewer than 1 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming; (b) says of carbon dioxide sequestration “That is a waste of time. It’s a crazy idea – and dangerous. It would take so long and use so much energy that it will not be done”; and (c) regards biochar as the last chance to save humanity and the biosphere: “There is one way we could save ourselves and that is through the massive burial of charcoal” (see New Scientist Environment, 23 January 2009).

However the Rudd Labor Australian Government (a) is remorselessly committed to an indefinite 2% annual increase in Australian Domestic and Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution (contrary to top expert UK advice that an annual 6-8% decrease in GHG pollution is urgently needed to avert an atmospheric CO2-e concentration of 450 ppm) and to Australia as the world’s biggest coal exporter and a World leader in annual per capita GHG pollution, threatening billions of impoverished non-Europeans with climate genocide; (b) is committed to carbon dioxide sequestration (as stated overseas recently by Her Excellency the Governor General); and (c) totally rejects biochar as a solution (as stated recently by Climate Minister Penny Wong).

Top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen (NASA GISS) says that “we face a climate emergency”, a view shared by Dr Lovelock, and by other eminent scientists including Victorian Governor Professor David de Kretser AC and Australian Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty who says: “We are in real danger”.

Australia urgently needs a public Senate Inquiry to identify those who are LYING to Government, Her Excellency the Governor General and the people of Australia over these massively life-threatening issues.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Gideon Polya
Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria 3085, Australia

PS For what outstanding World and Australian scientists are saying about the Climate Emergency see What Top World Scientific Experts Say and What Outstanding Australian Scientists Say.

PPS Below is a concise 1-page summary of Climate Emergency Facts and Required Actions – please transmit this to everyone you can in the interests of Australia and Humanity.

Climate Emergency Facts and Required Actions
Just as we turn to top medical specialists for advice on life-threatening disease, so we turn to the opinions of top scientists and in particular top biological and climate scientists for Climate Change risk assessment and Climate Emergency Facts and requisite Actions as exampled below (for detailed documentation of everything below see the Yarra Valley Climate Action Group website).

Professor James Hansen (top US climate scientist, head, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies): “We face a climate emergency”.
Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty: “We are in real danger.”
Professor David de Kretser AC (eminent medical scientist and Governor of Victoria, Australia) “There is no doubt in my mind that this is the greatest problem confronting mankind at this time and that it has reached the level of a state of emergency.”
Dr Andrew Glikson (palaeo-climate scientist, ANU): “The continuing use of the atmosphere as an open sewer for industrial pollution has … raised CO2 levels to 387 ppm CO2 to date, leading toward conditions which existed on Earth about 3 million years (Ma) ago (mid-Pliocene), when CO2 levels rose to about 400 ppm, temperatures to about 2–3 degrees C and sea levels by about 25 +/- 12 metres.”

Major Climate Emergency Facts
1. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has increased to 387 parts per million (ppm) as compared to 280 ppm pre-industrial and is increasing at about 2.5 ppm per year with average global temperature about 0.8 degrees C above the pre-industrial.
2. Man-made global warming due to greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxides is already associated with major ecosystem damage (Arctic, ocean, coral reefs), melting of glaciers and Arctic sea ice, sea level rise, methane release from melting tundra and positive feed-back effects accelerating GHG pollution and warming.
3. Consequences of atmospheric CO2 concentration increase and warming to current 387 ppm: major ecosystem damage; current species extinction rates are 100-1,000 times greater than previously; to over 400 ppm: “new territory” not seen for millions of years with acute dangers from positive feedbacks; to over 450 ppm: major damage and death to coral reefs and associated fisheries; to over 500 ppm: major loss of ocean phytoplankton, ocean life, cloud seeding, the Greenland ice sheet and densely populated global coastal regions due to massive sea level rises.

Climate Emergency Actions URGENTLY Required
1. Change of societal philosophy to one of scientific risk management and biological sustainability with complete cessation of species extinctions and zero tolerance for lying.
2. Urgent reduction of atmospheric CO2 to a safe level of about 300 ppm as recommended by leading climate and biological scientists.
3. Rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as coal burning-based power) and to energy efficiency, public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar to soils coupled with correspondingly rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth.

END LETTER.

I would urge everyone around the world to similarly write to their Leaders and all their Government and Opposition MPs about the mounting Climate Emergency – and to distribute the above “Climate Emergency Facts and Required Actions” summary to everyone they can.

Unfortunately the Australian Federal Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) Green Paper is FATALLY FLAWED and if adopted globally would be a DEATH SENTENCE for the planet’s biosphere.

Australia is referred to as “Downunder” by people in the Northern Hemisphere but in so many things Australian mainstream media and politicians turn the truth upside-down as well – and this is outrageously so in relation to man-made climate change. The Liberal-National Party Coalition State and Federal Oppositions and the Labor Party State and Federal Governments (these major parties being referred to collectively as the Lib-Labs) pay public lip-service to the problem of global warming but their de facto policies support Australia’s world-leading coal exports and Australia’s 92% fossil fuel-based power generation.

An extraordinary “black is white”, “no means yes”, “2 plus 2 does not equal 4”, Orwellian culture is entrenched in Australian public life, this leading to the description of hot, fly-ridden Australia as the Land of Flies, Lies and Slies (spin-based untruths).

This Orwellian absurdity has reached globally-significant proportions with this Australian Government “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme” Green Paper which in REALITY means that Australia’s ACTUAL greenhouse gas pollution is set to DOUBLE by 2050.

In addition to this Orwellian absurdity of a “pollution reduction” scheme that actually DOUBLES greenhouse gas pollution by 2050, the Australian Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) “looks the other way” and “ignores the elephant the corner” in numerous other ways. The Australian Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme:

(a) massively ignores leading scientific and economic advice on the urgent need stop greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution and indeed to REDUCE atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from 387 ppm (parts per million) to a safe level of no more than 350 ppm;

(b) ignores two thirds of Australia-responsible greenhouse gas emission sources, notably coal exports (43% of the total Domestic plus Exported emissions), agriculture (9%), land-use and forestry (4%) and (effectively, via subsidies) transport (8%);

(c) adopts a “cap and trade” Emissions Trading Scheme with an atmospheric CO2 concentration “cap” above 450 ppm (450-500 ppm will kill world coral reefs including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef);

(d) ignores the reality that the “true cost” of coal burning-based power generation (taking the environmental and human impacts into account) is about 4-5 times the “market cost”;

(e) ignores the reality that coal burning kills about 5,000 Australians every year at a risk avoidance-based valuation (EU) of $5 million per person x 5,000 persons = $25 billion per year;

(f) ignores the horrendous realities that Australia’s annual per capita CO2 pollution (27 tonnes CO2 per person per year domestically but 47 tonnes CO2 per person per year including CO2 from coal exports) is 10 times worse than that of China and the World and 40 times worse than that of India;

(g) hands nearly all of the collected pollution licence fees back to polluters, “dirty energy” users and the poor – rather than using it to urgently construct clean energy power stations using current technologies that can ALREADY provide power at a cost LOWER than the “true cost” of coal-based electricity (taking environmental and human costs into account).

Using US Energy Information Administration data, and ignoring huge new Australian coal export infrastructure developments, Australia’s total Domestic and Exported CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning in millions of tonnes (Mt) are expected to climb from 698 Mt (2000) and 910 Mt (2007) to 1,277 Mt (2020, no mitigation) or 1,165 Mt (2020, based on the Australian Government’s promised “20% renewable by 2020”; an INCREASE of 67% over 2000) and thence to 1,371 Mt (2050, based on the Australian Government’s promised “60% reduction of 2000 Domestic pollution by 2050”; an INCREASE of 96% over 2000 CO2 pollution ).

Read the rest of this entry!

Did you know that about 90% of the world’s goods are shipped the water way? About one billion ton of CO2 is emitted by ships, every year. The ships energy demands are expected to rise by 75% in about 15-20 years.

Did you also know that 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from ships? This can be compared to the aviation industry that emits about 2%.

According to a leaked UN study, the annual emissions from the world’s merchant fleet have reached 1.12 billion tonnes of CO2. That is nearly 4.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Image credit: Angelrays. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Since 1959 enormous quantities of radioactive waste have been thrown into the Arctic Ocean, including nuclear reactors, while another million of chemical weapons decay onto the sea floor in 400-4500 metres depth. Moreover, Spain has stored 100.000 barrels containing slight radiocative waste, from scientific laboratories. Plutonium from the nuclear trials is detected in the southern seas of the Atlantic ocean. Britain has recorded 57.435 shipwrecks, including nuclear submarines.

The highly dangerous poison DDT harms the marine organisms more than the others, and thanks to the marine currents it is transfered to all seas, affecting every organism. PBDE, a substance used for computer and television construction, has been detected in whales’ fat!

90% of all fish are polluted by mercury and another 25% by PCB.

Every oil drilling pollutes the sea bed in an area of 20 square kilometres and at the one third of this area all forms of life die.

Wordwide algies increase dramatically while fish population reduces. Since the day Israel didn’t sign the ban about chemical depositions in the seas, the Haifa Chemicals company only has thrown into the sea 60.000 tones of toxic waste. On daily basis 12.800 tones of acids reach Tinisia’s bay, results of the production of chemical fertilizers.

70 of the 200 most important fish species are endangered, according to FAO (world organisation of food and agriculture). However, fishermen’s number increases and the recent method of bottom trawling destroys whole marine ecosystems.

Ocean researchers discovered that the increasing air pollution prevents the coral reefs from growing.When CO2 reaches the water surface, it reacts,turning the water more acidic and harming corals. And as if this didn’t happen, scientists want to channel directly under the sea bed enormous quantities of CO2 to ease the atmosphere…

All this was only a part of the annual research of environmental organisations. And it doesn’t even mention domestic nor hospital waste. For those who haven’t understand how much we pollute our seas…

Image credit: Tres. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.