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Choosing Between Nothing and Worse-than-nothing
Today, 12 environmental organisations representing more than 400,000 Australians launched Plan B, calling for immediate action on climate change in the absence of an effective policy to price greenhouse pollution and cut emissions. Penny Wong once said that the Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, as a vehicle for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, was “no Ferrari”.…
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There Comes A Time When We Have To Act
How far would you go for what’s right? Would you risk arrest? How high you would climb to save a planet? In 2007, six volunteer activists scaled a 220-metre chimney at a UK coal power station to protest against government plans to build new coal plants. If the action wasn’t breathtaking enough (vertigo sufferers be…
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When Carbon Reduction Schemes Resemble Fad Diets
Forget the Atkins diet, here’s the ultimate new, pain-free weight-loss formula: instead of actually eating less, pay somebody else to go on a diet for you. What a plan! Swap cake for carbon and you have a major part of the government’s current scheme to deal with climate change. Instead of cutting emissions at home,…
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Climate Action Dates for Your Diary
Michelle Hunt is one of our new interns working on public engagement. She’s been busy organising a series of public talks on climate change lined up for June and July. I started my internship with Greenpeace six weeks ago wanting to make a real difference by being proactive in the environmental movement. To be honest,…
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The Future of Energy is Now
I’m going to say it. Ready? Here it comes … Solar power is ready to replace coal-fired electricity! OK, so we’ve been claiming this for a while, but a report released from Greenpeace and the solar industry this week leaves no doubt that solar power is able to provide electricity just as well as coal.…
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Labor & Coalition vs Climate
First posted on Crikey’s Rooted blog It seems as though Malcolm Turnbull has finally managed to align the coalition on climate change at least enough for them to stop kicking own goals and bridge their credibility gap with the ALP. With the coalition and ALP now supporting the same conditional emissions reduction target, the public…
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Simply Polluting – Energy retailers under pressure over new coal
With everything we know about climate change, and the role that coal is playing, it would seem fairly obvious that Australia shouldn’t be building any new coal power stations. We’re a smart country, right? A couple of weeks ago, Coolimba Power called for public comment into an environmental review of their proposal to build a…
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Who won Australia’s Dirtiest Energy Retailer Award?
At 9am this morning, 14 Greenpeace activists arrived at the offices of Simply Energy in Melbourne to present them with the award of Australia’s Dirtiest Energy Retailer. “There has been some tough competition over the past 12 months,” said head judge and Greenpeace campaign director Steve Campbell, “but Simply Energy’s steadfast commitment to powering climate…
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Activists Blockade Australia’s Dirtiest Power Station
Seven Greenpeace activists have occupied one of the massive coal excavators at the Hazelwood Power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. Hazelwood is a polluting dinosaur built with 1950s technology . It is the dirtiest power station in the developed world and was supposed to be closed this year. If we are going to have any…
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Budget Aftermath: Part 2, "A Turning Tide"
It’s a day on from my initial report back on the budget and I’ve been trying to make sure I’m not getting carried away with the size of the renewable energy funding. After years of budgets being handed down that do the square root of not much for real climate solutions, I’m naturally inclined to…
