Gippsland Climate News

Yesterday climate action groups across Gippsland ran a “Where are Darren and Russell on Climate Change?” covid safe protest. The protesters wore masks and practiced social distancing, whilst displaying signs and placards on various aspects of the issue. They were highlighting the silence of local members of the House of Reps Darren Chester of Gippsland and Russell Broadbent of Monash on climate change.

In Bairnsdale, a small group of EGCAN (East Gippsland Climate Action Network) activists worked at the rotunda in Main Street, photographing numerous individuals and their placards with a large colourful banner “Future Superpower” as backdrop. EGCAN organiser Angela Crunden praised the event and noted that images were received from 40 locations across Gippsland, including Churchill, Clifton Creek, Wonthaggi and Inverloch. Many of these images with their messages to our local politicians have been posted on the social media.

Angela stated that “A lot of fun was had by enthusiastic activists who wanted to drive home the serious message to Federal MPs Darren Chester and Russell Broadbent that they can do a whole lot better on climate” and added “Darren and Russell have access to leading scientific research and predictions for our climate future. They must know that emergency action on climate change is the single most important problem for human survival… and yet they are all but silent on this issue.”

Coincidentally Darren Chester has just appeared on the ABC’s Q&A program defending the government’s policies on climate and energy. His performance was roundly criticised by NSW Independent MP Zali Steggall who tweeted “Darren Chester spinning the Govt talking points on emissions reduction and lack of energy policy. For someone with an electorate devastated by bushfires, it beggars belief.”

Promoting the protest on the Yes 2 Renewables facebook page Pat Simons noted, “It’s a good opportunity to pressure the federal government to stop blocking offshore wind, and highlight renewable energy solutions in the region. While Darren Chester is generally supportive of the Star of the South, he hasn’t said anything about bringing on offshore clean energy laws needed to pave the way for the project.”

It is ironic that both our MPs are more ‘liberal’ in the true sense of the word than other members of their respective parties and are thus more likely to respect science, yet they seem unable to speak out on climate. They remain loyal to the party line rather than acting on behalf of their constituents or on what science has been saying for many years. Like Malcom Turnbull, they remain hostage to the fossil fuel lobby.

 

It appears as though the coming local elections in Victoria will give voters plenty of opportunities to ‘vote climate’. I am aware of a number of a number of climate and climate emergency candidates standing for office outside of Gippsland and in four of the six Gippsland shires. In East Gippsland the situation is both pleasing and favourable. When I stood in the last local election in 2016 I was the lone ‘climate emergency’ candidate amongst a long list of 39. 

Since then the local EGCAN (East Gippsland Climate Action Network) has been very active, as have been a number of similar groups across Gippsland. This time in East Gippsland there are only 21 candidates, greatly increasing the chances of a candidate being elected. Of those candidates 6 of them are members of EGCAN, including one of the founders and former mayor Mendy Urie, climate emergency organiser Sally Kendall and Tom Crook, who was the co-ordinator during the student strike last year.

Other EGCAN members standing include Dr Jane Greacen, Jeremy Schroeder, Kim Dutton (as Animal Justice Party candidate) and Akarna Bowers (as a Green in the Wellington shire). Regular readers will be aware of my preference for independents rather than party candidates.

The other chance advantage is that three of the EGCAN candidates (Mendy, Jane and Tom) are at the top of the ballot paper and though the percentage for the donkey vote remains a mystery, this must be some help. This also puts some the candidates in the middle of the ballot paper, like Sally, at a disadvantage. Hopefully the preferences of these candidates will be well co-ordinated and tight.

Statistically, with about a third of the candidates in East Gippsland as climate emergency supporters, they should win three seats. However winning one seat will be an achievement, two a bonus and a third bordering on a miracle.

Elsewhere in Gippsland, in Bass Coast there are at least two candidates opposing the sitting councillors who both voted against the climate emergency declaration. Also in Latrobe City former candidate in the last Federal election Antoinette Holm (ALP) has, in online tweets, declared for the climate emergency. I am not aware of what is happening in either Baw Baw Shire or South Gippsland but assume that there are some activists, or sympathisers, standing as candidates. Perhaps they have organised a comprehensive candidate survey on climate for all candidates, as has been done by EGCAN.

Wherever you live I urge you to ‘vote climate’ by casting your vote in favour of climate emergency candidates.

 

For several years I have been pushing for a ‘just transition’ in the Latrobe Valley. This involves creating new jobs in the community to compensate for the closure of the power stations and mines. To assist this process I have suggested that over full employment is necessary. Recently I have been spelling out one obvious way to achieve this – by creating a renewable energy zone in the Latrobe Valley.

I have not been alone in this advocacy, which has been carried on by others including Wendy Farmer and the Voices of the Valley team and by the Latrobe Valley Community Energy Hub. In April this year the latter organisation published a detailed paper on the subject called “Planning a Transition” by Chris Barfoot.

Amongst other things, Barfoot’s comprehensive paper emphasizes the advantage of the grid connection, and looks at various solar, floating solar, offshore wind and Thomson Dam pumped hydro proposals. He examines a number of other interesting energy possibilities including exploiting geothermal energy under the coal and recycling and reusing solar panels*. As an engineer and energy insider, Barfoot looks at the various means of achieving the ‘just transition’ as seamlessly as possible.

Chris and I have come to the task of a ‘just transition’ from opposite positions. He has spent most of his life working in the Valley power industry and recognised that change is needed, whilst I have been a renewable energy fan and user most of my life and recognised that this transition is needed as part of a large number of policies required to combat global warming.  

There are a number of differences between our approaches but they all revolve around the matter of urgency – how quickly we must get out of all burning fossil fuels. For instance, Chris includes both Carbon Capture and Storage and the coal to hydrogen project in his transition, both of which I oppose as, to me, they are part of the problem. His timetable for the phase out of generators is also a lot slower than I would hope with the end of Yallourn between 2025-30 and Loy Yangs A & B between 2030-2040 – my preference being for a complete phase-out by 2030 at the latest.

But generally we are in agreement. Chris concludes: “The Latrobe Valley has been a fading force in the power industry for many years however, the adoption of renewables has the potential to open a new chapter…we have the opportunity to make these changes on our terms. We need to embrace it and to start planning for [the just transition] …” I hope to examine Chris’s plan in more detail in a later post.

*also as advocated by John Hermans a contributor to this column

First published in the Bass Coast Post

WHERE are our elected representatives when we need them to speak out for urgent action on climate change, to stem the disastrous impacts on Gippsland? In the light of catastrophic bushfires, damaging sea level rises and drought affecting local farmers, Gippsland federal MPs Russell Broadbent and Darren Chester are noticeably absent from the dialogue on reducing our carbon emissions.

Both MPs have been silent on the climate emergency but vocal in their support for a gas-led economic recovery from the ravages of COVID-19. Gas is a polluting fossil fuel that will counter any chance of Australia meeting the internationally agreed Paris climate target. In response to this inaction by our democratically elected representatives, a community-led, COVID-19 restriction-compliant action is planned across Gippsland on October 3. Groups of up to 10 residents will meet at a key location in Gippsland towns. COVID principles will be observed, with social distancing, face-masks and hand sanitiser.

Each group will take photos, and record a short video to show Darren Chester and Russell Broadbent that we want climate action now. The day of action is and event of Gippsland Extinction Rebellion groups. Participants need to register for the action to support our planning and ensures a COVID-safe event.

One of the organisers, Lynn Atkinson, a grandmother of six school-aged children, says both MPs have supported policies that will destroy the futures of younger generations. “It is important for climate, sustainability and community groups across Gippsland to come together and show their MPs the extent of their concern about the climate crisis and the climate damaging impacts of a gas-led recovery. We need a climate and nature positive COVID-19 recovery program – not tax cuts and subsidies for fossil fuel businesses.”

Lynn says Gippsland has changed greatly since Mr Broadbent was elected in 1990, whereas his vision for the region has not. “Despite rising temperatures, drought and fires, he doesn’t publicly recognise the climate emergency and the need to act now. We can only assume Mr Broadbent and Mr Chester care more for their positions of power and the interests of party donors than ensuring a safe and liveable Gippsland for generations to come.”

A recent report from economic consultancy firm Ernst and Young found that a renewables-led economic recovery is jobs-rich and would create almost three times as many jobs as a fossil-fuel-led recovery. “They are leaving it too late:  this isn’t economic recovery, this is an economic disaster founded in an inability or reluctance to understand the risks of climate change,” she said. “I encourage everyone to get involved in this peaceful, upcoming Gippsland-wide, COVID-compliant action on Saturday 3rd October at 11 am in your own town. She says the day of action is an opportunity for Gippslanders to be heard. “Let’s make it very clear that we know our Federal members are being deliberately silent and we demand action now.”

Lauren Burns is a member of Extinction Rebellion. Participants in the Gippsland day of climate action need to register for the Action to support our planning and ensures a COVID-safe event. See here.

Media Release EGCAN

East Gippsland climate action campaigners are appealing to local MPs Darren Chester and Russell Broadbent to help reduce global warming. Angela Crunden of the East Gippsland Climate Action Network acknowledged the well-respected elected local representatives are bound by Coalition climate policy. But they say they believe in climate change and could work within the Coalition to help bring about climate policy change.

“It would be a titanic struggle,” she said. “Both of these politicians are popular in their electorates and are capable of providing the leadership required to get action. Look at Darren’s efforts on fire recovery and Russell’s recent comments on aged care. We know that as party members, they are under pressure to support Coalition policy to accept expansion of coal and greenhouse gas emitters. These are strategies that will raise global average temperatures 4C by 2100.”

“We the public can do our bit through actions such as recycling, Landcare participation, making our homes more energy efficient and using solar panels. But we can’t do it on our own. We need the MPs we elected to represent us to help change Canberra’s mind. We must have a federal plan to reach Net Zero emissions with support for acting urgently across the nation.”

“Covid 19 will seem like a walk in the park if we don’t act soon and decisively on climate. Bushfires here and in the USA, plummeting insect populations and powerful, destructive weather events are clear, terrifying warnings. We can’t afford these nightmares to continue”.

Gippsland Climate activists will gather on 3 October to send a message to the local MPs to join in helping to change Australia’s climate policy.

More information here.

Recently whilst discussing the coronavirus epidemic with my older sister she mentioned an article in the Australian given to her by one of her children. The article stated the death rate in aged care homes this year was less than the previous year. I was asked what I thought of this and, despite being extremely suspicious of anything published in the Murdoch media, for a moment was taken aback. Like so many arguments posited by these articles there may have been a kernel of truth in it. I expressed my suspicions but replied that because of social distancing, lockdown and flu vaccinations, the fatalities from influenza, normally about 500, had dropped to about 35, and that the figures quoted in the article may therefore be possible.

There are problems about writing about something that remains unsighted, but most of the pieces in the Murdoch media conform to a pattern and much of the commentary is an interpretation designed to push their various hidden agendas. Many of these agendas are obvious even to a casual examination. For instance, the continuous attacks on the ABC, or more recently those on google, facebook and twitter, are because these organisations threaten the News Corp business model – they provide their news free. Again, the anti-labour stance of the Murdoch media is merely the continuation of policy in such organs as the Sun Herald that they have been following for 100 years.

But it is the agendas relating to science, or objective truth, carried on by the Murdoch media that are the most bizarre, puzzling and possibly criminal. The unsighted coronavirus article possibly contains cherry-picked or misleading statistics, distortions of morbidity stats and unattributed, and therefore highly doubtful, sources, all supporting the agenda that the current Andrews government coronavirus lockdown in Victoria was a big mistake. Whilst it is evident that this government has made some mistakes it is also quite clear that they are following best science in the coronavirus lockdown, and the political ‘blame-game’ agenda they are playing is most unwelcome.

Which brings us to the anti-science climate agendas of News Corp. They have been recently exposed by the NSW bushfires Royal Commission and critically in the ABC’s Media Watch in relation to their “bushfires are caused by arsonists not climate change” campaign. Anyone living in or near the fire zones in East Gippsland could tell you instantly that this was a fabrication and that the source of all our fires was lightning strikes, which in turn, were heavily influenced by climate change. The Murdoch media in their war against climate science is both Machiavellian (whatever it takes to get what you want) and Marxist (the end justifies the means) with their “lies, damned lies, and statistics” and is certainly criminal. It hardly varies from some of the Goebbels Nazi propaganda methods of the 1930s – that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. 

A simple definition of ‘risk’ is “the avoiding of harm or danger” but it is much more complicated than that. One implication is that the risk of many of the threats we face occurring are of minor or no importance. The question of the probability of any threat occurring is also involved. To assess risk clearly, as the insurance industry does all the time, requires clear and reliable information.

As individuals, we assess risk continually. For example, when we are crossing a busy road we look to see whether there is any oncoming traffic and whether it is safe to cross, we are analysing the risk of being hit by a car. To analyse the risk we need accurate and reliable information – whether the road is busy or there are no vehicles heading towards me. We then make a decision based on that risk assessment whether to cross the road or wait. If we make a mistake in this, the decision to cross can be catastrophic.

The matrix above enables a clear analysis of specific threats, with the probability of the threat occurring on the vertical axis and the result of that risk occurring on the horizontal axis. In a recent U3A class it was pointed out that climate change is ‘almost certain’ and the consequences of this are leaning towards the extreme and catastrophic. The climate risk can also be assessed in a variety of ways – in terms of numbers, geographically and its immediacy.

Further, the risk assessment of various aspects of climate change may different. For example, sea level rise is certain, as it is being measured now, but the rise is small and in terms of human lifespan the threat is seen as distant and negligible. On the other hand, a number of the more immediate consequences of climate change – drought, heatwaves and bushfires – are with us now. Gippslanders have experienced all of these extreme weather events this century and whilst bushfire threat may be geographically restricted to south-east Australia and California, the heatwaves occur anywhere.

Climate activists often pose the question of risks involved with climate change in terms of ‘russian roulette’ and whether the ‘possible’ outcome ‘catastrophic’ (ie death) is acceptable. Some have posed a similar question as to whether you would fly in a plane that had a 10% chance of crashing. The answer to these questions is obvious. Yet the near criminal activities of those in politics and the media that mislead, deny, or obscure the evidence on which we can base a reliable risk assessment, continue. They are playing ‘russian roulette’ with you, your children and grandchildren, and unless there is grand scale urgent action, the consequences will be ‘catastrophic’.

Online journalist Michael West recently predicted the demise of News Corp in a critical online article. He noted that both local and national media was in a state of rapid transformation and News Corp was in diabolical trouble. This was partly because “Rupert’s proliferation of online rivals distribute their content for free via email, Twitter, Facebook and other social media while his newspaper business model relies on chopping down thousands of trees, buying ink, sustaining presses and newsrooms, and carting the newspapers around the country on the back of trucks.”

West noted: “Most of the newspapers will have to shut at some point. They have been losing money for years. Same deal for Nine Entertainment.” Further, that now “Investors are valuing Rupert’s Australian media assets at zero, so unless he and his successors somehow stage a corporate recovery, News Corp is destined for oblivion, along with its grip over government.”

We hope West’s predictions are accurate and from the point of view on climate change that they happen soon. There are some signs that the climate-denying mogul’s grip on governments across Australia is weakening. I have written at length on the criminal opinions of News Corp columnists on a numerous occasions. Also there is the failure of all our mainstream media, including the ABC, to treat global warming as the emergency it is.

Local media is expanding online as the mainstream media falters, and News Corp and Nine are slowly divesting themselves of regional titles or putting them online behind paywalls. Locally ‘Gippsnews’ is on board and doing a similar job to the media giants, but selecting and promoting news of local interest. Likewise, with excellent local content, is the Bass Coast Post, which has been publishing for some time, and the more recent Just Community in South Gippsland. No doubt there are others I am not aware of.

Essentially this news is generated from below and content and control is also in the ‘grass roots’, hence the prominence of climate and climate action in their pages. I have become increasingly reliant on these particular media outlets – one as promoter of my blog and the other two as regular sources of relevant news on climate and renewable energy in our backyard.

Catherine Watson of the Bass Coast Post has written an interesting account of the Bass Coast Shire Council plans for climate action following their declaration of the climate emergency last year. She noted: “It has been a little more than 12 months since BC CAN (Bass Coast Climate Action Network) submitted a petition to the Shire Council demanding action on the global climate crisis. The petition gained more than 1,000 signatures and initiated a climate emergency declaration at the Council meeting on August 22, 2019.”

“At that meeting; seven out of the nine Councillors supported a 2030 target of net zero emissions from both Council operations and the community. Last week Council approved a detailed action plan to ensure that the target is achieved. The Community Reference Group that participated in developing the Plan included four BC CAN members: Bhavani Rooks, Isabel Rooks, Michael Nugent and Naomi Coleman.”

It is often forgotten (or not realised) that signing on to the climate emergency is just the beginning of a long and arduous road. Following the declaration of intent there is the need for planning and implementing a program of action. Michael Nugent noted “A year ago we asked Council for leadership in the face of inaction from other levels of government. This Plan delivers that leadership. It’s the roadmap we need to face what the climate has in store for us all.” Michael is a climate candidate in the upcoming local elections.

The plan is looking at net zero shire emissions by 2030. Amongst council actions to achieve this includes energy efficiency, a power purchase agreement for 100% renewable energy, transition of vehicles to low emissions, presumably electric, and to offset “residual emissions through the Biolinks project.”

The plan outlines a wide range of actions and practices for the whole community including Households (switch to all-electric and zero carbon energy) Business and Industry (switch to more sustainable transport) and Farming (advocate for stronger climate change action by state and federal governments) communities. The full report is here.

Thanks to the Bass Coast Council and the committed community activists for their work so far and to Catherine Watson and the Bass Coast Post for keeping us up to date.

Excerpts from an article in Just Community No. 8

Even with its inherent problems, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) has something worthwhile to tell us about the current crisis in the legitimacy of representative democracy and the remedies available to address it.

Almost immediately the ideological and structural shortcomings of Morrison’s approach started to become evident, with his appointees to the NCCC being heavily weighted towards the fossil fuel industry, and particularly the gas industry. It was hardly a surprise then when the commission’s first recommendations were for “a gas-fuelled recovery” and massive subsidies and public investment that would guarantee profits to the industry, along with the removal of environmental protections and the abolition of state-government bans on unconventional gas development…

If the Prime Minister had sought advice from a wide range of expert opinion there would have been more options for action across the economy and society, less contention and more common vision, which means less conflict and more constructive outcomes.

Morrison’s strategy to lead Australia forward is deeply flawed, because what the country needs right now is the opposite of the NCCC’s recommendations. Our economy needs to be remade, not just repaired. Instead, the government ignored the opportunity to listen to diverse views and looks likely to back a single strategy – investment in gas – at a time when a majority of Australians think otherwise.

Doesn’t it seem far more beneficial to address the challenges of the pandemic-induced recession and severe climate change by pursuing recovery strategies that capitalise on the emerging opportunities offered by renewable energy technology? This is what a Just Transition, also sometimes referred to as a Green New Deal, offers us. And it’s not just about transitioning away from a carbon economy, but also addressing other critical matters facing us all. We can reduce the energy and carbon intensity of our economy and society, stop environmental degradation and deal with resource limitations, whilst creating new jobs, achieving biodiversity in the environment and delivering socially just and equitable outcomes.

But if vested interests and vision-impaired politicians are able to get their own way at the national level despite what citizens might want, does that mean there aren’t any opportunities for people to engage with these issues in different ways and work towards better outcomes for all rather than just a few?

The Just Community website is here.

The Author is from Fish Creek