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Melbourne’s shrinking winter, expanding summer
Change in the season length with rising temperatures for Melbourne. Source: Australia Institute
The Australia Institute have researched the change in the season length for capital city and regional towns due to the rise in temperatures from Climate Change. Our winter seasons are shrinking, summer seasons are lengthening.
Just Transition: An Idea Whose Time has Finally Come?
Following the recent federal election, which suggested that the electorate is becoming more polarised about coal, everybody seems to be talking about “just transition”. Colin Long, the Just Transition Officer at Trades Hall, told us he has been inundated with calls. The National Union of Workers kicked off with a statement. The ABC is talking about it. Environment Victoria has released a blogpost, and has made it a focus of their Beyond Coal campaign. And some in Labor are talking about a Green New Deal.
Photo by Marc Kjerland / Flickr
Climate Action Moreland has long argued for just transition to be a key demand of the climate movement. But we need to do more. We can start by fleshing out what this means and how we should incorporate it into our campaigns.
Cooling the Upfield Corridor – Our Submission
Here is the submission that CAM has made to the Cooling the Upfield Corridor Action Plan 2018-29.
Climate Action Moreland (CAM) is pleased to provide a submission to the Cooling the Upfield Corridor Action Plan. CAM has long campaigned on addressing the Urban Heat Island Effect as a very effective way of adapting to the continuing and ever increasing effects of rising temperatures, drought and more intense rain events. Over the coming decades, Melbourne is expected to experience hotter temperatures, and more intense heat waves. This is likely to cause disruptions to public transport, energy supply failures, huge discomfort to Moreland residents and a considerable rise in deaths and co-morbidity. Local government plays a very important role in reducing this vulnerability and the Cooling Upfield Corridor Plan is a vital step in the right direction. (more…)
The Finkel Review: Not Just a CET – It’s Actually About Keeping the Lights on
On June 8, the much anticipated Finkel Review (Blueprint for the Future: Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market) was released. Much has already been written about the merits of the proposed emission reduction mechanism (a “Clean Energy Target”) and whether this would satisfy the Coalition, why it didn’t advocate a stronger emission reduction target, nor a swift end to coal.
But this was not the aim of the Finkel Review. It was about fixing up the National Electricity Market (NEM). The alternative to fixing the NEM may well be a return to public ownership and control. Although this could be a good thing, it is not on the governments’ agenda right now. Agreement on an emission reduction mechanism was regarded as an important step in getting new private sector investment, mainly in gas-fired power stations, so the market would operate as intended.
Summer time and heatwave management shows some cracks
SE Australian Heatwave
Melbourne sweltered through another heatwave, the first of 2017. Hope everyone survived the heat.
Temperature at Melbourne (Olympic Park) hit 36.1C at 3.30pm on Saturday. Of far greater concern, the overnight minimum temperature hovered at around 30C dipping down to 28.4C at 1.30am as the low point before rising to 30C at 9am Sunday. By early afternoon a cool change had moved through dropping temperatures to the mid 20s.
High night time temperatures disturb sleep and reduce physiological recovery for the next day. Night time is also when the Urban Heat Island effect is most pronounced as there is less atmospheric mixing, and zero vegetation transpiration to cool things down, unless there are stronger winds. The Bureau of Meteorology labelled the night as ‘oppressive’ citing both the higher than normal minimum temperature and higher humidity.
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Transitioning from Coal to Renewable Energy – CAM’s Submission to Senate Inquiry
Climate Action Moreland has made a submission to the Senate Inquiry on the Retirement of Coal-Fired Power Stations. It is reproduced below.
Our submission discusses and is guided by the following principles:
- Australia needs to rapidly transition to zero net emissions. The closure of coal fired power stations is an essential first step in this process.
- All of Australia’s communities need to plan a transition to a zero net emissions society based on 100% renewable energy and slashing energy wastage through energy efficiency and conservation.
- Communities that rely on coal power need a just transition plan that will not only mitigate the job losses experienced, but also help transform their economies to allow their communities to prosper in the future.
- In conjunction with the closure of coal-fired power, governments must complement these policies with strategies to ensure that our electricity systems are secure and reliable, and that electricity is affordable for all Australians.
- Rather than relying predominantly on market mechanisms, the transition will also require national planning, strong regulations and direct government investment and ownership.
Loy Yang Power Station – Photo by John Englart
Australia is still a climate fossil
The Fossil of the Day awards are given each day at the UN climate talks. They are a great way for climate activists to expose who has done their best that day to spoil the climate talks.
Fossil of the day trophy
At the 2014 climate talks, Australia won so many Fossil of the Day awards, that they were dubbed the Fossil of the Year (or the Colossal Fossil). And the same in 2013! Believe me, this is not an award that we should be winning.
This year, Australia is doing better. It took us 10 days to pick up a Fossil of the Day award (shared with Argentina).
Picture by John Englart from awards ceremony. (Yellow text added)
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Moreland cyclists at the Peoples’ Climate March
Greg Platt reports on the cyclists’ feeder event at the People’s Climate March
The Moreland Bicycle User Group met at the Brunswick Mechanics’ Institute to ride into the People’s Climate Rally on 27 November. Because it had been advertised as a feeder event by the PCM web site, the BUG was joined by people from across the north of Melbourne, from country Victoria and even a cyclist in town from Tasmania. Twenty cyclists set out at 4:45 pm and numbers increased as more joined on the way in. After collecting some of the lone cyclists from within the crowd, we had group of about 50 of us to form the rear of the march as we made our way through town. A good time was had by all.
Photo by Peter Campbell of some of the many cyclists at the People’s Climate March
Spread the word: People’s Climate March, Fri Nov 27
Update on People’s Climate March, Fri Nov 27 at 5.30pm
Please Spread the Word!
Invite friends using the Facebook event or forward this page.
People’s Climate March – Melbourne, Friday November 27 at 5.30pm. State Library of Victoria.
Sign up for the march so organisers can tell the media how many people are coming and send you important updates.
Come at 3.30pm for the rally to Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities.
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Meditation Action for the Planet
by Pauline Galvin
A group of people interested in the overlap of spiritual practice and environmental action who meet in Moreland are putting on Meditation Actions in the lead up the the People’s Climate March.
The group who came together as a study group working with One Earth Sanga (One Earth Community) and the Melbourne Insight Meditation Group are holding 30 minute nightly walking and sitting meditations outside the State Library from Friday 20th November to Thursday 26th November.
The actions are open for anyone to join in and “Slow down for the Planet”. The action is to remind us to slow down and connect back into what is important in life, slow down global warming, slow down consumption and slow down exploitation of Earth’s finite resources. The action also intends to raise awareness of the upcoming Peoples Climate March on Friday the 27th November. See Facebook event.
November 20, 2015 at 10:08 am Andrea Bunting Leave a comment
Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change 