climate change hope

Climate Activists to escalate Resistance

Activists spread their message: “Crimes Climatique – Stop!” © Gary Braasch 2015

By Ben Adler on 12 Dec 2015

protest in front of Eiffel Tower — Takver

PARIS, France — While U.N. negotiations dragged on at the official conference site in the suburb of Le Bourget, thousands of activists came out in force in downtown Paris on Saturday afternoon. Their message: The deal being finalized wasn’t even close to strong enough.

Climate activists have faced big obstacles as they’ve tried to stage rallies and marches in Paris over the past two weeks. The terrorist attacks in the city last month spurred the French government to impose a state of emergency and ban public demonstrations. Originally, environmental groups had planned to hold big events, including a huge march, on the weekend before COP21, to put pressure on leaders to come up with a strong deal. But those plans had to be cancelled and replaced by more quiet, stationary events: a human chain and a shoe display that were held on Sunday, Nov. 29. Continue reading “Climate Activists to escalate Resistance”

Australian Activists Target Three Coal Ports

from ABC

Climate change activists have staged operations at three coal ports and in the centre of Melbourne, chaining themselves to equipment and calling on industry to “connect the dots” in the fight against global warming. Continue reading “Australian Activists Target Three Coal Ports”

CO2 Tax in Australia..Hope at last!

AUSTRALIA
Renewable Energy Wins, Controversially
By Stephen de Tarczynski

MELBOURNE, Jul 14, 2011 (IPS) – Australia has taken a major step in reducing its future greenhouse gas output with the announcement of a plan that will initially place a tax on every tonne of carbon pollution produced by hundreds of the country’s major emitters.

“Most Australians now agree our climate is changing. This is caused by carbon pollution. This has harmful effects on our environment and on the economy and the government should act,” said Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a televised address to the nation on Jul.10, just hours after the full details of the carbon scheme had been revealed.

The tax is the first step in the design that proponents say will see Australia reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent on 2000 levels, an increase from the previous target of a 60 percent cut.

Australia is responsible for around 1.47 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, similar to Iran and France, according to 2005 data from the World Resources Institute, the latest year for which statistics are available. Yet on a per capita basis, Australians are the biggest polluters among developed nations.

Despite this, there remains heated debate about how – and even if – Australia should reduce its carbon output.

Protests against implementing a carbon price and questioning human-induced global warming have been held in numerous Australian cities over the past few months – albeit often opposed in other areas by larger rallies calling for far-reaching government action. Climate scientists at leading universities have reported receiving death threats and abusive telephone calls.

Coal is big business here, where around ten percent of the world’s reserves are located.

Australia is the fourth largest coal producer in the world – behind China, the United States and India – yet the most prolific exporter, supplying about 27 percent of global demand. The burning of coal at power stations also accounts for more than 83 percent of this country’s own electricity generation.

The carbon tax plan includes a commitment to close the larger coal-fired power plants by 2020