Anna Migdal
From November 28 to December 9, the first meeting of the 154 signatories to the Kyoto Protocol will take place in Montreal, Canada. Prime Minister John Howard and US President George Bush, who will not commit to reducing fossil fuel consumption, will not be there.
The US and Australia continue to burn huge quantities of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which releases massive amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. This pollution traps heat and is warming the planet at an unprecedented speed. This climate change has been declared the most serious environmental issue facing humanity. Despite this, world leaders are doing very little to safeguard our common future.
Global protests on December 3 will demand that Australia and the US ratify the Kyoto Protocol immediately, and that the entire world move as rapidly as possible to a stronger emissions reductions treaty that will stabilise greenhouse gases and prevent dangerous climate change. Walk Against Warming is being organised in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Cairns.
While environment minister Senator Ian Campbell said that climate change "is a very serious threat to Australia", the Howard government remains behind international standards on energy efficiency and mandatory renewable energy. It has failed to include an assessment of greenhouse gas emissions or climate change in the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Evidence of the adverse impacts of climate change on biodiversity is detailed in "Extinction Risk from Climate Change", from the January 2005 journal Nature. It says that 37% of Australia's species are threatened with extinction by 2050 because of the increase in planetary temperature.
The government's shortsighted concern about economic growth and future industrial expansion is inhibiting the development of constructive or creative solutions. This argument has no weight when there are cleaner and economically viable alternatives to coal. Some 70% of Queensland's tourism income depends on the Great Barrier Reef, but 1000 metres of reef — from Bundaberg to Cooktown — was lost in 1998 as a result of a 1 degree increase in sea temperature.
Right now the Coalition government subsidises the coal industry to the tune of $8.6 billion per year. By contrast, just $253 million is invested in solar and wind power even though Australia is a world leader in the research and development of solar technology.
Walk Against Warming will demand the government cease its dependency on dirty fossil fuels, and invest in a clean, renewable energy. Our future depends on it.
[Walk Against Warming on December 3 in Sydney begins at 11am at Town Hall and will march to Hyde Park North for speakers, and bands. See for more details.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, November 23, 2005.
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