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Queensland Government’s Coal Protectionism
The latest evidence of the Queensland government’s blatant coal protectionism is a CSIRO report which has been sitting on Energy Minister Geoff Wilson’s desk for a year. The report finds that large-scale renewable energy plants could provide ALL of Queensland’s electricity needs, and recommends that the Queensland government start funding renewable technologies with some of…
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Coal Industry Stranglehold
It’s a balmy Saturday morning on the Esperanza and the sea is as calm as a lake. We are sliding past rugged southern Queensland islands and every so often a pod of whales breaches within a hundred metres of the ship. There’s a momentary illusion that all is well in the world. However, as we…
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Queensland Plans To Export MORE Climate Change
Premier Anna Bligh chose to announce plans for the massive expansion of Queensland’s export coal industry at the same time as the Rudd government was releasing its so-called Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme earlier this week. In hindsight, it was easy to see there was no contradiction between the two, because Penny Wong’s policy more closely…
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Wong announces Carbon Polluters' Reward Scheme
Yesterday Penny Wong released the government’s not-so-Green Paper outlining their intended emissions trading scheme (ETS), or so-called Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The ETS is the mechanism the Rudd government wants to hang its hat on as the mark of their commitment to climate change action. Although the signs so far have not been promising –…
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Why DOES the Esperanza have a diesel electric motor?
Once again the Esperanza is ‘fuelling’ debate about Greenpeace sustainability. It’s a question we’re often asked on open boat days: “why does the Esperanza run on diesel? Isn’t that hypocritical?” The question has stimulated a lively debate at the Herald Sun. There are a few important points to note here. First and foremost, the Esperanza…
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Community protest stops coal trains all day
10am Sunday 13th July: 1000 people gathered at Islington Park in Newcastle for a rally and march to the Carrington Coal Terminal. It was a colourful and eclectic crowd of local residents, parents and children, percussionists, clowns, students, and concerned citizens from every state in Australia. Their message was simple and clear: let’s see renewables…
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Time for climate change action
As dawn broke over Swanbank Power Station this morning, 4 Greenpeace activists stirred from their cold, uncomfortable resting place at the top of one of the smokestacks and started painting “Go Solar” down the side. Meanwhile, 800 kilometres to south, 250 people woke to a field of frost at the Camp for Climate Action and…
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Turning The Tide
An editorial in the Newcastle Herald yesterday suggested that demonstrations like Greenpeace’s action at Eraring last week and the Camp for Climate Action which kicked off in Newcastle today merely “state the obvious”, because “most Australians now appear to accept the inevitability of industrial and lifestyle change”. This is music to the ears of those…
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G8+ Summit: Will Kevin Rudd Show Global Climate Change Leadership?
Despite the G8 countries’ announcement this morning of their ‘vision’ to halve global emissions by 2050, there is a continuing reluctance on the part of the developed nations to take decisive action to reduce emissions and shift away from the global reliance on fossil fuels to renewable technologies. Kevin Rudd is speaking at the G8+…
