Speaking to a friend the other day, our conversation wound its way to the Australian drought. My side of the conversation consisted of imparting facts regarding the Indian Ocean Dipole’s effect on the La Nina, subsequently creating or worsening Australian drought conditions. Dave’s side of the conversation was to inform me that there are kids throughout the country – particularly on the eastern seaboard – that are for the first time in their lives seeing rain.
And these just aren’t 8-month old babies. Kids as old as 16 years old are witnessing rain fall on their very heads.
That rain, according to the National Climate Center (NCC), is an indicator of what might be called the end of our drought. And for this, the entire nation is beyond thankful. We’ve moved all the way through in to … well, whatever is past thankful!
“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together.” This phrase, from an activist Aboriginal group in Queensland, Australia, seems to sum up perfectly a solar energy movement led by women a world away from Queensland.
Barefoot College, in India, is training middle-aged women from rural villages in Bolivia, Afghanistan, Gambia, Ethiopia, Mali, Cameroon, and Sierra Lione to be solar engineers. After training, the women return to their homes to install solar electricity units with the support of the communities.
A interim report commissioned by now-Prime Minister Rudd prior to his appointment last year has announced that Australia must become a world leader in the fight against climate change if it is to survive. Released in Adelaide, last Thursday, and compiled by Garnaut Climate Change Review, the report focuses their recommendations on the fact that Australia is highly vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
“Australia would be a big loser – possibly the biggest loser among developed nations – from unmitigated climate change,” says report author Ross Garnaut, an economist at the Australian National University, and former Australian ambassador to China.
The report lays out three factors that contribute towards Australia’s sensitivity. First of all, and most obvious to the majority in the world, is our already notoriously hot, dry and crazy-assed variable weather.
With apologies to John Lennon, bicyclists in Australia may now be able to show the plans for a revolution in environmentally friendly transportation. They call it a bike bus.
Some environmentalists see palm oil, which makes up about one third of all vegetable oil, as a biodiesel blessing. Others blame palm biodiesel for deforestation and species extinction. The pros and cons make biodiesel one of the hottest environmental topics in Southeast Asia, where oil palms grow.
Together, the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia and Malaysia control about 85% of the world’s crude palm oil market. In Indonesia, the biodiesel industry employs 1.5 million people and Malaysia has already approved 91 new biodiesel plants. Currently, about 30% of Malaysia’s total oil production is biodiesel from palm oil.
The pros of palm oil for use in biodiesel have drawn interest from the international business community. Finnish biodiesel mogul, Neste Oil, is working on opening the world’s largest biodiesel plant in Singapore using a palm oil feedstock. The plant is set to go online in 2009 with a production capacity of 800,000 metric tons per year of biodiesel–16,000 barrels, in oil terms. Neste is followed by many other companies, including Australian Mission Biofuels, which opened a new Malaysian plant in December and will produce 100,000 tons a year.
My beloved home of Australia will be on show for the scientific community next week, as a deep-sea submersible descends to the depths to discover what the coral down there has to say about the planets climate change.
Australian and U.S. scientists will send the unmanned submersible some 2.5 kilometers down, off of the coast of Australian’s farthest point – Tasmania. Its target will be the coral that lies at these depths, depths which have hitherto been left alone by Australian and international scientists.
For those of you who have stuck with me for awhile, then you’ll be well aware of my love for my home country of Australia. You may also remember that Australia is currently in the midst of what can only be labeled abnormal weather conditions.
The world is currently being affected by a strong La Nina, bringing with it the normal mix of weird weather across the planet. However Australia has not been receiving the increased rainfall traditionally brought to our lands by the decrease in sea temperatures made possible by the regular La Nina.
But much to our discomfort, a simultaneous appearance of the Indian Ocean Dipole has negated all the effects that La Nina normally brings, and forced us to endure a seven year drought. Whether this is coming to an end, reports are unclear. Some believe that this year will see a cessation of the IOD, allowing the strong La Nina to envelop us in to her weathery bosom.
And if you were to visit the northeast and the west of Australia, you’d well be on your way to thinking that the drought has finally broken. But Australian’s have been tricked by that before, and we just don’t want to presume the end is nigh if it really isn’t.
As an Australian, it was a sad day indeed when the news of Steve Irwin’s death filtered through to us all. And though for some of us (myself included) he was just that bit too loud to be truly loved, his loss was no less saddening or dramatic.
Let me for a moment though just take a small detour. The continual use of the Irwin’s as advertising funding for everything from tourism to new zoos is abhorrent. And whether it is the family doing it, or people doing it to the family, death should not be a cash cow.
Needless to say, it is good to see that Terri Irwin – Steve’s widow – is continuing on where Steve left off. This differs too from what I just said above, because this isn’t about cashing in on his legacy.
Speaking to Australia’s channel 9, one of our 3 major television networks, today, Terri Irwin announced a collaborative effort with Oregon State University to extend the whale watching program that she started in honor of her late husband in to a scientific research project.
It’s summer in the Antarctic Ocean and many whale species have migrated to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, an important feeding ground. One would think that in an internationally recognized sanctuary at the ends of the Earth, these whales would be safe from the boating, fish netting, noise pollution, and other man-made hazards.
However, Japanese whaling fleets have already left harbor to hunt the whales for meat in this sanctuary as they have done increasingly since 1997 in defiance of international bans on whaling.
Each year, Japanese whalers slaughter more and more whales. This year, the Japanese whaling industry has vowed to kill the greatest number of whales yet, about 1000 in all. These numbers will be made up of near-threatened Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales.
But this year, they will not be alone on the rough seas against the Japanese whalers. Australia’s new government is joining Greenpeace in saying “enough is enough.” As Josh Hill writes, this pressure is already beginning to bear fruits. Japan has agreed to suspend–at least for the moment—its plans to kill an additional 50 threatened humpback whales.
Australia is sending ships usually reserved for tracking down marine poachers to monitor the whaling vessels. That’s not all. There will also be eyes in the sky as an Australian surveillance plane record the whaler’s every action from above. This is all just part of a larger effort that Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, hopes will help put an end to Japan’s horrible whale hunt once and for all.
In a day and age where many of us see the planet spiraling further and further in to an orgy of environmental devastation, it comes as a surprise to see a ray of light shining through. Granted, I may be on the pessimistic side of things, in fact, past evidence will prove such a point. But the point remains, we simply don’t get enough environmental wins.
So when I saw that Japan had been considering backing down from killing the humpback whales, and subsequently doing so, I was flabbergasted.
Never have I been so interested in Australian news. I do not like the news, as it is a harsh and unpleasant reminder of the crap world in which I live. (I’m really not a very sunny person.) But whenever I would hear our newsreaders mentioning something about the Japanese whale hunt, I would rush in to the room and watch.
EcoWorldly brings you news on sustainable successes and ecological failures in other countries that offer lessons for green progress in America. Find perspectives and news on the environmental movement from around the world.
Speaking to a friend the other day, our conversation wound its way to the Australian drought. My side of the conversation consisted of imparting facts regarding the Indian Ocean Dipole’s effect on the La Nina, subsequently creating or worsening Australian drought conditions. Dave’s side of the conversation was to inform me that there are kids throughout the country – particularly on the eastern seaboard – that are for the first time in their lives seeing rain.
