climate change | Indymedia Australia

World Food Day: Global warming too hot for chocolate? Cocoa farming and climate change

Submitted by takver on Sun, 16/10/2011 - 6:36pm

Do you fancy a bit of chocolate every now and then? Perhaps a hot cup of drinking chocolate and milk before going to bed? or a few small pieces of a bar of chocolate while watching TV? Maybe a fancy imported Swiss or Belgium chocolate with coffee and liquers at the end of a dinner party? or maybe some cool chocolate icecream on a hot summer's day? This could all become a thing of the past as chocolate becomes an extreme luxury item due to global warming.

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Logging of Victorian mountain ash forests increases bushfire risk

Submitted by takver on Tue, 11/10/2011 - 8:31pm

New scientific research published in September 2011 highlights that logging in Victoria’s mountain ash forests is increasing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. The cycling of logging and wildfire is creating a landscape trap where the wet forest ecosystem is being permanently converted to a new landscape replaced by other species, particularly wattle, increasing the frequency and intensity of bushfire risk.

"These changes will significantly impair ecological functions like carbon storage, water production and biodiversity conservation," said Professor Lindenmayer. "This is historically unprecedented and is beginning to dominate the mountain ash landscapes we see today."

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Earth relay action on climate change entertains Sydney Road motorists

Submitted by takver on Sun, 09/10/2011 - 12:24am

Motorists, pedestrians and tram passengers were entertained by environmentalists from Climate Action Moreland during Saturday mid morning shopping traffic snarl on Sydney Road, Brunswick. Wielding a huge blow up planet earth, the activists asked motorist to honk for climate action, cyclists to ring their bell, and pedestrians to sign a petition against the proposed HRL coal fired power station. See Images on Flickr

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Abbott's 'Community Forum' in Bendigo neither open nor community focussed

Submitted by takver on Sat, 08/10/2011 - 10:03pm

On Wednesday October 5 Tony Abbott attended a 'community forum' at the Capital Theatre in Bendigo (See Report in Bendigo Advertiser - Bendigo forum a chance for some sticky questions). Attendance was by a selected audience of about 190 who attended by invite only. Unfortunately the 'community forum' was neither representative of the community nor very open.

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The Plan to put it all together.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/10/2011 - 10:01am

Foreword

The World Wide Movement is Great but needs to be tied to a working Policy. Politicians don't have the answers to your demands they are stuck in limbo. PlanQ can change all that energy, but can't do it without you. Need you to push it along loud and clear.

The following blog is in relation to several questions I have asked myself about the ongoing circumstances revolving the GFC for last year and any action that could or should be taken by our Governments.

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Global/International

Australia

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climate change

International news and opinion

Philippines calls for progress in climate talks in typhoon devastation aftermath

Submitted by takver on Fri, 07/10/2011 - 12:33am

Filipinos are fighting for survival amid worsening climate change according to the Philippine delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) round of talks in Panama. The main island of Luzon and the national capital Manila have been blasted and battered in late September and into early October by two consecutive typhoons which have killed at least 76 people and caused at least US$200 million in damage to infrastructure and agriculture.

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Countries with no water

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 06/10/2011 - 6:54pm

No Water.

Tokelau and Tuvala have no water. Parts of Samoa are also running out of water. Rising sea-levels and changing weather patterns have left some countries in the South Pacific with no fresh water. New Zealand and the US are sending bottled water and a tanker is sailing with a load of fresh water to Tuvalu. The Red Cross has donated two desalination machines.

States of Emergency have been declared in Tuvalu and Tokelau, and water rationing has been introduced in the parts of Samoa affected by the water crisis; they still have a few weeks supply left.

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Global/International

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climate change

environment

Flooding rains now burning plains - Bushfire risk and climate change

Submitted by takver on Thu, 06/10/2011 - 3:17am

Grass fires and bushfires are starting already, and it is only early October - with bushfire season officially still nearly a month away. The extremely wet season Australia had at the end of 2010 and start of 2011, brought on by one of the strongest La Niña on record, has stimulated vegetation growth and is set to cause great concern as it dries and cures in the summer heat with the onset of the summer bushfire season.

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Climate change, sea level rise and Australia

Submitted by takver on Tue, 04/10/2011 - 12:33am

Average global sea level is rising at the fastest rate in 2000 years according to scientists, and north and western Australia is copping more than double the global average in sea level rise. The rate of increase has accelerated in the last 20 years which has been attributed by scientists to thermal expansion, small glacier melt and accelerating ice sheet loss from the Greenland and West Antarctic ice caps caused by climate change and global warming. A peer reviewed scientific study published in June 2011 from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has shown the rate of Sea level rise is connected to global temperature rise.

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Rally for renewable energy, jobs and regional communities - Melbourne 29 September 2011

Submitted by peter on Sun, 02/10/2011 - 4:35pm

There were protests on Thursday 29 September in Melbourne,Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo at the Baillieu government's policies on renewable energy development in Victoria, with the slashing of the solar feed tariff and prohibitive restrictions on the location of new wind farms.

'The laws give landholders the right to veto any wind development within 2 km of a dwelling and ban them completely within 5km from regional cities. Other whole regions like the Macedon Ranges are excluded from any wind farm developments.

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