Carbon crash hits Europe's emission trading scheme

November 06, 2008
From The Australian


This is why we should have a straight carbon tax or carbon rationing instead of relying on the ETS Market system which is just capitalism which has caused the problems in the first place.

A Carbon Tax is where a GST / VAT / .. type tax at some percent is applied calculated on the cost it will take to repair that Carbon that has been emmitted in manufacturing, transporting etc... the product in question. It would be calculated and not a plucked figure.

Carbon rationing is even better where we work out how much carbon per person we're allowed to emit to remain sustainable. It will involve some credit card type arrangement. If you use more than your allocation you can buy from someone who didn't use as much.

Both are politically difficult to implement in our current capitalist societies.

WHILE you were distracted by crashing banks and clashing US senators, you may have missed a small environmental earthquake.

The price of carbon has collapsed.

In only three months, life has become a lot cheaper for polluters. The financial cost of warming the planet has plummeted in Europe's emissions trading system (ETS) and the effectiveness of such a volatile market mechanism in curbing carbon is being questioned.

You may recall that the ETS is a mechanism to encourage businesses to reduce their carbon output. Europe's larger companies are allocated permits to emit CO2, and these allowances, called EUAs, can be traded on exchanges.

Companies that emit less CO2 than their allocation can sell EUAs for cash, but inefficient polluters must buy EUAs or face financial penalties.

The idea is that a shortfall in EUAs allocated by governments will cause the carbon price to rise, stimulating investment in carbon reduction.

It's a market solution to pollution, but this carbon market is showing a distressing tendency to behave like most financial markets -- hysterically. In July, the right to spew out one tonne of CO2 from a chimney would have cost a power generator E29.33, but yesterday it could be bought for only E18.25 ($34.14).

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Walk Against Warming 2008 - 15th Nov

This event is happen around Australia on November 15 (except for Canberra's walk which is on Dec 6th). In Brisbane it will start at 12:30 in Queens Park (Corner of George and Elizabeth Streets) and we'll walk to Roma Street Parklands.

Find more information or for promotional posters or flyers see http://www.walkagainstwarming.org/ for all locations in Australia.

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The below information is not so relevant now though we could still do with some Marshalls.

If you'd like to be part of the organising committee then please shoot over to the CAB_Team group at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CAB_Team/ and click on Join.


We are meeting every Monday up until the day at:

• Monday 6th October and every Monday till 15/11, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
  
• QCC, Level 3 166 Ann Street, Brisbane City (Queensland, Australia).
  

Enter by the door on the right side of building. If it is locked, please call us on 3221 0188 and one of us will pop down.

Or take this as an invitation to join in the fun as we walk to highlight that climate change is a real problem and we need to change business as usual - keep coal in the ground and invest in renewables, efficiency measures and education.

Find photos of past WAWs in Brisbane at Tintuna's Environment photos collection.

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Community-led Tarong coal action & media

Hi all,



Loads of media from yesterday - just a glimpse (I love how the media
keeps calling us "Power Protesters").

We made ABC, 10 and 9 evening news :-) I think we made it into local and regional print media (Kingaroy, Nanoonga, etc) - we're visiting the State Library today to find out.

Check out www.enoughhotair.com for photos, videos and more links (coming soon).

Australia:

Two Charged Over Power Station Protest - Channel 9 News (with photo)
http://news.www22.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=661871&rss=yes

Tarong Power Plant Protesters Arrested - Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,24615621-952,00.html...

Protesters Arrested at Tarong - Brisbane Times
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/protesters-arrested-a...

Police Arrest Tarong Power Protesters - ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/07/2413600.htm

'Peaceful' activists chained at power plant - News.com.au
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24615589-1248,00.html?from=publi...

International:

...an excellent article from the BengaliTimes - compliments of Reuters.
http://www.banglalive.com/news/NonLeadNewsDetail137_11_2008.asp

Climate Activists Disrupt Australian Power Plant - The Standard, Hong
Kong (Reuters Feed!)
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=9228&icid=4...

3 Climate Protesters Chain themselves to Coal Equipment - News.uk.msn
http://news.uk.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=10751237

Syndicated at:

Sydney Morning Herald
http://news.smh.com.au/national/two-charged-over-power-station-protes...

The Mercury (Tasmania)
http://tools.themercury.com.au/stories/10008681-breaking-news.php

The West Australian
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=528523

The Age
http://news.theage.com.au/national/two-charged-over-power-station-pro...

Climate Ark
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=110000
Sunshine Coast Daily
http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008/nov/07/aap-protesters-chained-at...



--
Clare Towler
m: 0412 055 600
skp: clare_t
http://stepitupaustralia.wordpress.com

"If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us, who?"
www.enoughhotair.com
www.climatemovement.org.au

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World's monetry system and how it leads to social and environmental collapse

These sites, the first being a video description, are about how the world's monetary system works and how it will inevitably lead to societal and environmental collapse, although we see that happening already. The Environmental impact isn't till about 1/2 hr (it goes for 47 minutes). The video spends a quarter of the time discussing solutions.

The Earth plus 5% is a text version that is a simpler explanation of the same concepts of money as debt.

Money As Debt dot net

Thanks To Kim Bax for sending me the video link and to Helen Scutts for sending me the text version.

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Gary the Global Warming Goat

Its good to see someone can have some x-rated, tongue-in-cheek fun with global warming. Don't watch if you are offended by rude language!

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Step in to Step it Up on Climate Change!

In the first days of December, the Rudd Government will release the White Paper, outlining the Emissions Trading Scheme and emissions reduction targets for 2020 - the most important policy in contemporary Australia. I’m calling on you to do a similar action in your MP’s office in the first week of December – step in to your MP’s office and be part of stepping it up on climate change.

At our 'step in', five people went into Kevin Rudd’s office and asked to make an appointment with Rudd. I felt a bit nervous walking in, but having a group of us together made it a lot easier. After some discussion with a staff member and the office manager, we established that we weren’t going to get a meeting straight away. So we said, “That’s ok, we’ll wait” – and we sat down on the floor and pulled out our signs that we had prepared beforehand. With perfect timing, our other friends came around the corner with a banner that read ‘Great Barrier Reef – not negotiable’.

Soon, television crew from three different stations arrived. Our media spokesperson conducted a number of interviews while we continued to sit on the floor in the office. After two hours, the police hadn’t turned up. We felt we had succeeded in getting the media we wanted and decided to call it quits for the day… perhaps to return for a much longer sit-in in December!

I think the action was successful because we were really organised in advance. We’d had a couple of meetings before the day of the sit-in. On the day, we met up near Rudd’s office about an hour beforehand to go over what we wanted to do.

Another key part to the success of our action was having two excellent media people (one a media spokesperson and the other a media liaison) who sent our media release and made follow-up calls to key media outlets once we were in the office. They had practiced by roleplaying interviews and were feeling well-prepared before the action. Sending out a media release with high resolution photos was also important so media outlets that didn’t make it were still able to do stories with photos on the action.

You can see some of the media on our action here:
http://climateemergencyqueensland.blogspot.com/2008/09/climate-emergency-launch.html

It was great having supporters chanting and with colourful banners outside. They kept us entertained with chants of “Save our Reef, Mr Rudd, Garnaut’s targets are a dud!’ Their presence provided us with moral support for what we were doing.

I think the only problem we had on the day was when trains were suddenly cancelled – just before our train was due to head to Kevin Rudd’s office! We had to go and find a bus and we were running about half an hour late. Leaving plenty of time before the event was due to start definitely paid off for us!

I encourage you to do a similar action in your MP’s office in the first week of December. Now is the time to step in and step up community action on climate change!

To get you started, download the great information kit on how to do a Step In http://stepitupaustralia.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/step-in-to-step-it-up-on-climate-change.pdf

Next, get together with your climate action group or your friends and talk about what you would like your ‘Step In’ to be like. What will you do when you are there? What are the core messages you want to convey to your MP, to the public, and to media? What do people in your group need to feel prepared? Email hollycreenaune@gmail.com with any questions or for an experienced activist to visit your group to help you plan.

Then, a short time after the Federal Government releases their White Paper, step in to your MP’s office with a group of people from your community, and be part of stepping it up on climate change!

See the website for more information, tips and stories from a whole range of climate change groups who have ‘stepped in’ to their MP’s office already: http://stepitupaustralia.wordpress.com/ Get informed, inspired, and ready to STEP IN this December.

All the best in stepping in,
Emma Brindal

http://stepitupaustralia.wordpress.com/

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Chemical released by trees can help cool planet

October 31, 2008
From Climate Ark

Trees could be more important to the Earth's climate than previously thought, according to a new study that reveals forests help to block out the sun.



Scientists in the UK and Germany have discovered that trees release a chemical that thickens clouds above them, which reflects more sunlight and so cools the Earth. The research suggests that chopping down forests could accelerate global warming more than was thought, and that protecting existing trees could be one of the best ways to tackle the problem.

Dominick Spracklen, of the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science at Leeds University, said: "We think this could have quite a significant effect. You can think of forests as climate air conditioners."

The scientists looked at chemicals called terpenes that are released from boreal forests across northern regions such as Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. The chemicals give pine forests their distinctive smell, but their function has puzzled experts for years. Some believe the trees release them to communicate, while others say they could offer protection from air pollution.

The team found the terpenes react in the air to form tiny particles called aerosols. The particles help turn water vapour in the atmosphere into clouds.

Spracklen said the team's computer models showed that the pine particles doubled the thickness of clouds some 1,000m above the forests, and would reflect an extra 5% sunlight back into space.

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