Showing posts with label unnatural disasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unnatural disasters. Show all posts

Tuesday 21 November 2023

Clarence Valley Emergency Operations Centre and a new NSW Rural Fire Service Fire Control Centre to be built on council land at Grafton Regional Airport

 

A much needed response to the increased need for co-ordinated disaster planning due to the increasing scale and intensity of climate change impacts beginning to be experienced in the Northern Rivers region....

 

Aerial view of site of the proposed Clarence Valley Emergency Operations Centre, Grafton Regional Airport. IMAGE: Clarence Valley Council





 


Clarence Valley Independent, 15 November 2023:









Disaster responses in the region will be streamlined and managed from a new $13.569 million Emergency Operations Centre, co-located with a new Fire Control centre at the Clarence Valley Regional Airport, with council currently assessing a development application for the facility.


The NSW Government announced $8.9 million in funding toward the project in February as part of a $75.1 million investment to upgrade 13 fire control and emergency operations centres across the state.


The DA 2023/0627 for 419 Airport Road, Glenugie, on land owned by Clarence Valley Council proposes construction of a NSW Rural Fire Service Fire Control Centre within the airport precinct, 11 south-east of Grafton.


The Emergency Operations Centre will be located north of the current airport terminal and feature an operations room, a planning and logistics room, two training rooms, meeting rooms, general offices, IT room, storage rooms, meal room, outdoor undercover area, bathrooms and amenities, and be fronted by 12 undercover parking spaces.


North of the single storey Emergency Operations Centre, which features 75 rooftop solar panels, will be a regional Rural Fire Service stores building designed to house equipment for the Clarence Valley District and vehicles, if approved by council.


Surrounding the Emergency Operations Centre will be new adjoining sheds, a helipad, internal roads and parking, with the site having a footprint of 6,100 square metres.


In addition to the administration, training, and operations centre spaces of the Rural Fire Control Centre, the facility “will also be able to function as an emergency operations centre for State Government Agencies and Local Government to assist in managing bush-fire support and recovery functions.”....


Wednesday 9 August 2023

Federal parliamentary inquiry into insurer response to the 2022 floods & other matters gets the go ahead on 7 August 2023


Hon Stephen Jones MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, media release, 3 August 2023:


Insurance claims handling under the microscope in parliamentary inquiry into insurer responses to the 2022 floods


Today, the Assistant Treasurer will give notice to the House of Representatives tabling a motion to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into insurer responses to the 2022 floods. The motion will be presented to the house on the next day of sitting, Monday 7 August.


The inquiry will take a whole of economy view of the ongoing challenges faced by intense and frequent flood events.


It is consumer focussed - investigating land use planning, affordability of coverage, supply chain issues, labour shortages, claims handling, and dispute resolution processes.


The February-March 2022 floods in South‑East Queensland and NSW are the costliest natural disaster for insurance costs, totalling around $5.87 billion, in Australian history.


The Assistant Treasurer has visited the communities impacted by floods in Southeast Queensland with Graham Perrett MP and the Northern Rivers with Janelle Saffin MP; and following a visit to flood ravaged towns in Central West NSW last month announced the inquiry alongside Member for Calare, Andrew Gee MP.


Today, the Albanese Government has released the terms of reference.


The committee will hear directly from affected communities, holding public hearings across the country in regions affected by the 2022 floods. A final report will be handed down during the third quarter of 2024.


The Inquiry will inform the Albanese Government’s broader program of work to address insurance access and affordability. This includes up to $1 billion over five years from 2023-24 (up to $200 million per year) to invest in measures that better protect homes and communities from extreme weather through the flagship Disaster Ready Fund.


The Government is taking proactive steps to mitigate disaster risk and build climate resilient communities. Currently, 97% of disaster funding is going toward recovery and only 3% toward risk mitigation. We want to flip that on its head.


The terms of reference for the inquiry are below.


The Standing Committee on Economics for inquiry and report by quarter 3, 2024:


1. response of insurers to the claims resulting from major 2022 floods, including:

(i) south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales (NSW) floods of February and March 2022;

(ii) Hunter and greater Sydney floods of July 2022;

(iii)Victorian, NSW and Tasmanian floods of October 2022; and

(iv) central west NSW floods of November and December 2022;


2. the inquiry shall have regard to the following matters in respect of the aforementioned floods

(i) the experiences of policyholders before, during and after making claims;

(ii) the different types of insurance contracts offered by insurers and held by policy holders;

(iii) timeframes for resolving claims;

(iv) obstacles to resolving claims, including factors internal to insurers and external, such as access to disaster hit regions, temporary accommodation, labour market conditions and supply chains;

(v) insurer communication with policyholders;

(vi) accessibility and affordability of hydrology reports and assessments to policy holders;

(vii) affordability of insurance coverage to policy holders;

(viii) claimants’ and insurers’ experience of internal dispute resolution processes; and

(ix) the impact of land use planning decisions and disaster mitigation efforts on the availability and affordability of insurance.


3. the inquiry shall also have regard to insurer preparedness for future flood events


4. the inquiry will take into consideration findings from other reports such as Deloitte’s external review of insurers’ responses to the 2022 floods, and ASICs Claims Handling review. 


The House of Representatives agreed to the creation of this inquiry on the afternoon of Monday 7 August 2023.


Sunday 18 June 2023

The Great Koala National Park is no closer to becoming a reality than it was when Labor made a commitment to such a park in January 2015

 

IMAGE: Animal Justice Party NSW


"Of more than 458 000 hectares of Areas of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS) mapped in NSW, only 21% are inside a National Park.

"One of our most iconic species is being subjected to native forest logging and out of control land clearing, and the National Parks estate can't save it unless something big changes.

"Koalas now face extinction in our lifetimes without urgent action. Yet their habitat has virtually no protection from the logging and clearing that is driving this decline.”

[Nature Conservation Council (NCC) chief executive Jacqui Mumford, 28 February 2023]



This was NSW Labor eight years and five months ago….


AAP General News Wire, excerpt, 19 January 2015:


Labor has announced it will work with the Wilderness Society to help nature conservation in NSW.


The Great Koala National Park proposal would take in 315,000 hectares of hinterland forest between Macksville and Woolgoolga, north of Coffs Harbour, combining 176,000 hectares of state forest with 140,000 hectares of existing protected areas.


The park will provide a lifeline to the population of about 4500 koalas that live in the region……


This was NSW Labor in 2023 at Day 81 of its new term as state government – still no further ahead than the talking points of 2015, ignoring the fact that Koala numbers in New South Wales had fallen from est. 36,000 in 2016 to perhaps as few as 11,000 remaining in the wild by 2020 and, as a political party as deep in the pocket of Forestry NSW as the Liberal & National parties..




Excerpt from letter to the Clerk of the NSW Legislative Assembly from Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Heritage & Labor MLC Penny SharpeClick to enlarge


Wednesday 19 April 2023

Iluka community plans for emergency management during adverse weather events, including storm and flood, progressing thanks to local ICOPE



Clarence Valley Independent, 12 April 2023:


In a community first for the Clarence Valley, ICOPE – Iluka Community Organisation Planning for Emergencies has been approved to run a Community Managed Evacuation Centre in the event of wild weather or disasters isolating locals.


ICOPE President Cheryl Dimmock said the group had been working with the Clarence Valley Local Emergency Management Committee LEMC since October 2022 to have a Community Managed Evacuation Centre CMEC in Iluka, which would take in residents from Woody Head, The Freshwater, and if access is available, Woombah.


Ms Dimmock said the group was motivated to act to establish the CMEC by the predicted increase in wild weather induced by climate change and the fact Iluka can be isolated for several days in times of flood.


We had to put an action plan together to present to the LEMC and we’ve had it approved that we could have a Community Managed Evacuation Centre CMEC,” she said.


ICOPE will be allowed to run the CMEC if it is activated by the Local Emergency Operations Controller (high ranking local police officer).


The CMEC would be at the Iluka Community Hall in Spencer Street, in the event that it was safe to evacuate to the community hall.


The reason why we have been so proactive in doing this is because we get cut off, there is only one road in and one road out, we get cut off for days, and we don’t want to see the community in a situation like what has happened in Lismore.”


In addition to the CMEC, Ms Dimmock said ICOPE plans to transform the Iluka Community Hall over the next year.


We are hoping to work with council to get grants and make improvements to the hall and we’re hoping to have Iluka Community Hall as a hub where the community can actually come…say on a Saturday morning where they can come and have cuppa and a chat about disaster preparedness and community events,” she said.


We want to encourage the community to prepare for disasters, we don’t want it to be scary, but we want them to prepare and be ready in the event that something happens, that they will know what to do, where to go, and the communication they receive comes from one central place, so they are getting information that is current and from a reliable source.”…..


Saturday 25 March 2023

New words and phrases entering the Northern Rivers lexicon

 

The first phrase in this occasional segment is:


disaster investor” [origin unknown, circa 2023]  a person who deliberately seeks out homeowners whose properties have been flood damaged and offers these homeowners as little as 10 cents on the dollar of the pre-flood value of a freestanding house.


Friday 3 March 2023

CLIMATE COUNCIL, February 2023: “There is no doubt that the consequences of climate change are now playing out in real time across Australia"

 

There is no doubt that the consequences of climate change are now playing out in real time across Australia.

Every Australian is being impacted by climate

change. Whether we’ve paid exorbitant prices

for produce at the supermarket, choked our

way through bushfire smoke blanketing our

communities, faced evacuations during

dangerous extreme weather events or lost our

homes in a bushfire or flood, life as we know

it is being disrupted in many ways.”


[Opening lines to Introduction, Climate Trauma: The Growing Toll Of Climate Change On The Mental Health Of Australians”, February 2023]



Foreward to Climate Council’s report, Climate Trauma: The Growing Toll Of Climate Change On The Mental Health Of Australians, 28 February 2023:


On the last day of summer 2022, an ominous mass of red and blue was on the radar, showing a massive, slow moving low-pressure system headed straight for Lismore.


Like everyone else, I worked all day and into the night to prepare for the deluge. Our community went to sleep ready, everything was lifted and packed and we felt strong as we braced for a ‘normal’ flood. But the rain kept coming.


More than a metre of rain fell and the water poured down out of the hills. At 3am the flood warning was revised to a height we had never seen before and I knew that we were about to experience something unimaginable.


The flood inundated our city. Thousands of people were displaced and it left destruction so intense, even members of the Australian Defence Force described it as looking like a war zone.


The wounds this disaster has left on the Northern Rivers are a very long way from healed. our CBD is only at about 20% occupancy; hundreds of homes are still in ruins and houses in the hills have been totally swept away by landslides. We still don’t have common community facilities like a cinema or an indoor kids play centre.


Our major civic buildings are still out of action: our library, our City Hall and our town pool are all still shut. 

We don’t have many places where we can gather and be together as a community.


Twelve months on and we still cannot live ordinary lives.


As shocking as it is seeing the physical damage to our homes, our city, and our landscape - the level of trauma and suffering across our community is even more significant.


The full report can be found at:

https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Report-Climate-Change-and-Mental-Health.pdf (58 pages)


According to the report:


  • A national poll of over 2,000 people conducted by the Climate Council shows that the majority (80%) of Australians have experienced some form of extreme weather disaster since 2019.


  • Communities across Australia are reporting mental health challenges as a result of worsening extreme weather events. The situation is particularly tough for rural and regional Australians


  • People living in rural and regional areas are significantly more likely to have been affected by flooding at least once since 2019 (61%) than people living in urban areas (38%), and significantly more likely to have been affected by bushfires (49%) than people in urban areas (36%).


  • People outside of metropolitan areas are also more likely to have difficulty accessing mental health support and more likely to feel that their state emergency services and state governments are poorly equipped to deal with climate disasters.


  • People in Queensland and New South Wales are the most likely to have experienced multiple disasters since 2019. Specifically, 38% of Queenslanders and 34% of people in New South Wales reported experiencing flooding more than once since 2019. (National average of 24%.)


  • One in 12 (8%) of the nearly 500 Australians who shared their recent experiences of an extreme weather disaster said the event had severely impacted their home – leaving it destroyed or deemed uninhabitable.


  • Among the more than 2,000 respondents to our national poll, one in five (21%) reported having no insurance. Of those who did have insurance, nearly two thirds (64%) reported that their premiums had increased in the last two years. Most (81%) said “climate disasters” were part of the reason why.


  • One in 20 (6%) of those surveyed said they had cancelled their insurance coverage due to the increase in their premium.



Need support for your mental health?


HERE ARE SOME ORGANISATIONS AND RESOURCES


General information


Psychology for a Safe Climate

www.psychologyforasafeclimate.org


For advice on looking after your mental health following a disaster


Natural Disasters and Your Mental Health (Beyond Blue)

www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/natural-disasters-and-yourmental-health


For children and young people


I’m Worried About the Environment (Kids Helpline)

kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/worried-about-environment


Understanding Anxiety About Climate Change (Headspace)

headspace.org.au/explore-topics/for-young-people/understandinganxiety-about-climate-change



Thursday 2 March 2023

Boosting disaster preparedness and resilience in Iluka on the Clarence River flood plain

 

Australian Rural and Regional News, 22 February 2023:


A new not-for-profit community organisation has been launched in Iluka with the mission of empowering and educating our community to proactively prepare for and effectively respond to emergencies, while fostering a strong sense of connectedness and resilience.


Iluka Community Organisation Planning for Emergencies ICOPE was formed in September 2022 by 15 Iluka residents concerned about the isolation Iluka had experienced during past fires and floods, particularly the 2022 floods.


ICOPE President Cheryl Dimmock said the organisation strives to create a safer and more prepared community through collaborative efforts and innovative solutions.


Iluka RFS Secretary Tony Belton, who is also an ICOPE member, applied for and received a grant to equip an evacuation centre in Iluka and this was the real impetus that necessitated ICOPE,” she said.


ICOPE is aware of the isolation experienced during fire and flood and are working to ensure that a suitable evacuation centre is established in the village.”


Mrs Dimmock said while disaster preparedness was central to ICOPE’s formation, the organisation also understands the importance of community connectedness.


ICOPE is in the process of applying for grants to host a series of community parties throughout 2023 and 2024,” she said.


However, due to the generosity of Resilient Clarence, ICOPE’s first community event which will be totally free to all that attend, will take place on April 1 at Club Iluka with a screening of Up Armidale Road.


This international award-winning feature film documents the journey of a song that originates from the aftermath of the firestorm that decimated Nymboida in November 2019.”…..


ICOPE will be firing up a fundraising BBQ from 5pm for a small charge and the Rotary Club of Iluka Woombah will be providing tea and coffee for a small cost at intermission,” she said.


Everyone is welcome.”


Mrs Dimmock said ICOPE has also been working with the Red Cross to establish Community-led Resilience Teams (CRTs) in Iluka and we want everyone in Iluka to be a part of the CRT network.


The CRT network will ensure that everyone in Iluka receives the same information during a disaster event,” she said.


This will guarantee a coordinated approach during emergencies.


ICOPE needs Iluka residents to join the CRT network and we also need street coordinators.”


Mrs Dimmock said ICOPE looks forward to welcoming everyone in Iluka, The Freshwater, Woody Head and Woombah to our community meetings.


Meetings take place on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at Iluka Community Hall at 10am and everyone is welcome, both members and non-members.


For more information about joining ICOPE and becoming part of the CRT network email icope2466@gmail.com.



Tuesday 31 January 2023

Climate Change & Putin's aggression see the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight in January 2023


The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a media organization, publishing a free-access website and a bimonthly magazine. It began as an emergency action, created by scientists who saw an immediate need for a public reckoning in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Since 1947 it has published the Doomsday Clock, which to date has been updated a total of 24 times. “The closer the clocks’ hands move toward midnight, the closer humanity supposedly moves toward self-inflicted destruction. As well as assessing risks from nuclear war, the scientists incorporate dangers from climate change, bioweapons and more.” [Time Magazine, 24 January 2023]


Science and Security Board, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2023 Doomsday Clock Statement, 24 January 2023:


A time of unprecedented danger: It is 90 seconds to midnight


This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.


The war in Ukraine may enter a second horrifying year, with both sides convinced they can win. Ukraine’s sovereignty and broader European security arrangements that have largely held since the end of World War II are at stake. Also, Russia’s war on Ukraine has raised profound questions about how states interact, eroding norms of international conduct that underpin successful responses to a variety of global risks.


And worst of all, Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict—by accident, intention, or miscalculation—is a terrible risk. The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone’s control remains high.


Russia’s recent actions contravene decades of commitments by Moscow. In 1994, Russia joined the United States and United Kingdom in Budapest, Hungary, to solemnly declare that it would "respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine" and "refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine..." These assurances were made explicitly on the understanding that Ukraine would relinquish nuclear weapons on its soil and sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—both of which Ukraine did.


Russia has also brought its war to the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor sites, violating international protocols and risking widespread release of radioactive materials. Efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency to secure these plants so far have been rebuffed.


As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, the last remaining nuclear weapons treaty between Russia and the United States, New START, stands in jeopardy. Unless the two parties resume negotiations and find a basis for further reductions, the treaty will expire in February 2026. This would eliminate mutual inspections, deepen mistrust, spur a nuclear arms race, and heighten the possibility of a nuclear exchange.


As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in August, the world has entered “a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.”


The war’s effects are not limited to an increase in nuclear danger; they also undermine global efforts to combat climate change. Countries dependent on Russian oil and gas have sought to diversify their supplies and suppliers, leading to expanded investment in natural gas exactly when such investment should have been shrinking.


In the context of a hot war and against the backdrop of nuclear threats, Russia’s false accusations that Ukraine planned to use radiological dispersal devices, chemical weapons, and biological weapons take on new meaning as well. The continuing stream of disinformation about bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine raises concerns that Russia itself may be thinking of deploying such weapons, which many experts believe it continues to develop.


Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has increased the risk of nuclear weapons use, raised the specter of biological and chemical weapons use, hamstrung the world’s response to climate change, and hampered international efforts to deal with other global concerns. The invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory have also violated international norms in ways that may embolden others to take actions that challenge previous understandings and threaten stability.


There is no clear pathway for forging a just peace that discourages future aggression under the shadow of nuclear weapons. But at a minimum, the United States must keep the door open to principled engagement with Moscow that reduces the dangerous increase in nuclear risk the war has fostered. One element of risk reduction could involve sustained, high-level US military-to-military contacts with Russia to reduce the likelihood of miscalculation. The US government, its NATO allies, and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; they all should be explored. Finding a path to serious peace negotiations could go a long way toward reducing the risk of escalation. In this time of unprecedented global danger, concerted action is required, and every second counts.


Countervailing dynamics: Addressing climate change during the invasion of Ukraine


Addressing climate change requires faith in institutions of multilateral governance. The geopolitical fissure opened by the invasion of Ukraine has weakened the global will to cooperate while undermining confidence in the durability, or even the feasibility, of broad-based multilateral collaboration.


With Russia second only to the United States in global production of both natural gas and oil, the invasion of Ukraine sparked a rush to establish independence from Russian energy supplies, particularly in the European Union. From the standpoint of climate change, this has contributed to two countervailing dynamics.


First, the elevated energy prices have spurred investment in renewables and motivated countries to implement policies that support renewables development. With this rise in deployment, the International Energy Agency now projects that wind and solar energy combined will approach 20 percent of global power generation five years from now, with China installing nearly half of the new renewable power capacity.


At the same time, however, high natural gas prices have driven a quest to develop new gas supplies, spurring investment in natural gas production and export infrastructure in the United States, the EU, Africa, and elsewhere, largely financed by major oil and gas transnationals and investment firms. This private capital continues to flow into developing new fossil fuel resources, even while public finance is facing pressure to pull out. All G7 countries have pledged to end public financing of international fossil fuel projects this year, and the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, a group of eight countries, has formally committed to end new concessions, licensing or leasing rounds for oil and gas production and exploration, and to set a timeline for ending production that is consistent with their Paris agreement pledges.


Notwithstanding these two processes, both of which should in principle reduce demand for Russian gas, Russia was on course in 2022 to earn as much as the previous year from oil and gas exports, largely owing to continued European demand.


As a consequence, global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, after having rebounded from the COVID economic decline to an all-time high in 2021, continued to rise in 2022 and hit another record high. A decline in Chinese emissions was overshadowed by a rise in the United States, India, and elsewhere….