Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Empty Promises and Gridlock: Bjorn Lomborg Reflects on Earth Hour

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YESTERDAY the power failed in Sydney’s central business district and there was chaos.   The cross-city tunnel was closed and many people became trapped in lifts in high-rise buildings and in traffic gridlock.  This reminder of the importance of electricity came to the city that invented Earth Hour and just two days after Earth Hour 2009.   

The following piece written by Bjorn Lomborg reflects on the Earth Hour campaign and alternatives, he writes:   “A real danger is that Earth Hour convinced people we were making progress on climate change when we were not. And it let business and government off the hook. There is still no cheap replacement for the carbon that we burn. This is the reason many promises of drastic CO2 cuts remain just empty promises and why past global agreements to cut CO2 have gone unfulfilled.  A meaningful solution to global warming needs to focus on research into and development of clean energy, instead of fixating on empty promises of carbon emission reductions.”

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White Possum Back from Extinction, but Now Possum Man Has Gone Bush

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LATE last year academic Stephen Williams, from James Cook University, reported that a rare species of white possum was possibly extinct and that this was likely the first recorded mammalian extinction due to global warming.   Not surprisingly his claims attracted much media interest. 

Now Professor Williams has rediscovered the white possum and the media is reporting “Extinct possum back from the dead”. 

This morning I tried to phone the Professor to get more information and temperature records.   The phone went to message back, and there was a reassuring message letting me know he wasn’t far away.   I then sent the following detailed email and got the following reply a little while later: “I will be away in the field until 7th April with limited email access.”

I think the questions in my email to Professor Williams are relevant and hopefully he can answer them on his return.

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Make a Night of It – Earth Hour

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THE Carbon Sense Coalition today came out in support of Earth Hour, but said it should be renamed “Blackout Night” and be held outdoors, for the whole night, in mid-winter, on the shortest and coldest day of the year. 

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that spending just one night in the cold and the dark, with no hot coffee or beef on the barbecue, using no light, heat or vehicle energy from coal, gas, petrol or diesel, and without protection from metal or concrete structures, would be good practice for the blackouts and shortages to come if world rationing of carbon products and carbon energy is achieved.

“Winter nights are usually still and cold, so the candles crew can really experience what it will be like to depend on alternative energy when there is no sun and no wind. The back-to-nature brigade can also try living without iron roofs and concrete walls. And the eat-no-meat mob can experience a night without hamburgers and cappuccinos.

“To hold a candles-and-champagne party indoors, on the mildest night of the year, for just one hour, shows that the whole thing is tokenism. Moreover both candles and champagne emit carbon dioxide. Let the true believers try the real thing in one of the extreme seasons so they can appreciate the great benefits we take for granted when using all of our carbon fuels and foods.

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Save the Snake, Graze Some Bush?

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WHILE some armchair environmentalists believe that burning bush is bad for biodiversity, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting otherwise.

Ongoing research at Sydney University by a group lead by Rick Shine suggests Australia’s most endangered snake would benefit from more controlled burns.

Researcher David Pike, at his Sydney University home page, goes as far as to suggest that:

“Following European settlement of Australia, the amount of vegetation (i.e., canopy shading) in many habitats has increased. The most likely causes for this change are the prevention of natural disturbance events, such as wildfires, and the cessation of aboriginal fire-stick farming, which aboriginal peoples used to effectively managed habitat for wildlife and food plants. In more recent times vegetation has encroached upon crucial habitat for the broad-headed snake, which is already restricted in distribution. This has caused a decrease in the amount of suitable overwintering habitat, and potentially has contributed to a range-wide decline.”

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