A COP15 'secret' that never was

Each day seems to bring more bad news out of Copenhagen as the United Nations battles to get the world's leaders to commit to concrete measures to combat predicted catastrophic climate change.
Thursday's glum tidings came through The Guardian newspaper which said it has a leaked UN document, concerning shortfalls between international pledges and actions required to keep the global temperature rise at no more than two degrees Celsius.
Except of course that wasn't actually 'news'. The United Nations Environment Programme had a similar pledges shortfall all mapped out on its website for the world to see.
With everyone from heads of government through to the media repeating the same 'old' information is it any wonder that we are all becoming quite jaded and sometimes close to downright cynical about the COP15 process on its final working day.



The total height of the bars represents the global emissions in a Business As Usual (BAU) scenario. It is only possible to calculate the global BAU for 2020. Therefore, no number for 2050 is shown.
Light yellow sections illustrate the global emission reductions if current low reduction pledges are implemented.
Dark yellow sections illustrate the global emissions reductions if current high reduction pledges are implemented.
Red sections represent the remaining gap between the current pledges and the emission levels needed to reach the 2°C goal.
The emission levels needed to achieve the 2˚C goal are illustrated by the green sections.

Is this your retirement castle? Mapping predicted sea level rise (4)

Is this the home you worked so hard for?

Below is your home as a 1 metre sea level rise begins to cover the street.

The Rudd Government's recent report Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coasts contains a 1.1 metre predicted sea level rise as its worse case scenario for New South Wales sometime within the next ninety years. Google Earth mapping uses a 1 metre sea level rise.

Half of all ambulances will arrive within 10 minutes of a 000 call, but on the NSW North Coast.....

Ambulance response times from NSW Health

Half of all ambulances in New South Wales will arrive within 10 minutes of a Triple O call, but on the NSW North Coast 30 out of every 100 people taken to a public hospital will probably wait in that ambulance or on a stretcher in some open hallway for over 30 minutes before being transferred into the care of Accident & Emergency medical staff for treatment according to the last NSW Health Quarterly Hospital Performance Report July-September 2009.
North Coast Area Health Service needs to explain why there is a bottle neck.
Staff cuts beginning to bite perhaps?

Stephen Conroy - mass murderer?

Memo to the Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy: This is the type of publicity a censor-in-chief receives. You may ban this image as offensive but you will never be able to ban its Internet distribution.

Prime Minister, you're banned!

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd received this NSW North Coast email concerning mandatory national ISP-level Internet filtering via his online contact form on 16 December 2009:

Dear Prime Minister Rudd,

I have read the ENEX Test Lab "Internet Service Provider (ISP)Content Filtering Pilot Report" and the accompanying discussion paper.

I am sincerely concerned that your government intends to impose mandatory national ISP-level Internet filtering on Australian society.

I still consider this censorship scheme open to both bureaucratic and political abuse.

The scheme will considerably add to the end-user costs of a typical Internet connection home account and, these cost will be prohibitive for low-income households.

It is doubtful that unrestricted Internet surfing by any determined IT literate teenager would be stopped by such a filtering scheme (ditto for adults seeking unlawful or pornographic material online), but it will probably limit Internet access to a large number of citizens on the federal electoral roll who may not be as technologically savvy.

When it comes to imposing an Internet filtering scheme - this is very much a multiple player game.

So I have removed and blocked KevinRuddPM from my own Twitter account and I intend to place www.pm.gov.au on the restricted URL list created by Internet Explorer on my personal computer.

Needless to say I may become strangely blind to Labor candidates' names on the next federal ballot paper I am required to mark.

Sincerely,

[redacted]

Email your support for those little islands standing up to the big polluting nations at Copenhagen

Greens Senator Christine Milne is asking Australians to send emails supporting the stance taken by the smaller island states for strong and binding international greenhouse gas emissions targets and a meaningful climate treaty.

Please take a few minutes to email these leaders to give them your support:

• Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Mr Apisai Ielemia, can be reached via his personal secretary at mailto:%20ksaloa@gov.tv
• Prime Minister of Grenada, Mr Tillman Thomas, can be reached via mailto:%20pmoffice@gov.gd
• President Nasheed of the Maldives can be reached via mailto:%20info@presidencymaldives.gov.mv
• President Anote Tong of Kiribati can be reached via mailto:%20eni@parliament.gov.ki
• Premier of Niue, Toke Talagi, can be reached via Secretaty to Government Richarde Hipa at sog.hipa@mail.gov.nu

Or send a letter to the editor at:

• Adelaide Advertiser: submit letters at www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/news/opinion/sendletter
• The Age: email letters to letters@theage.com.au
• The Australian: email letters to letters@theaustralian.com.au
• Australian Financial Review: email letters to edletters@afr.com.au
• Canberra Times: email letters to letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au
• The Courier Mail: submit letters at www.news.com.au/couriermail/editorial/letter
• The Daily Telegraph: email letters to http://letters@dailytelegraph.com.au/
• The Herald Sun: submit letters at www.news.com.au/heraldsun/editorial/letter
• Hobart Mercury: email letters to mailto:%20mercuryedletter@dbl.newsltd.com.au
• Sydney Morning Herald: email letters to letters@smh.com.au
• The West Australian: email letters to letters@wanews.com.au

Best Oz MSM quote and image this week

Both views on Australian Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott and his faithfull sidekick Shadow Finance Minister Barnaby Joyce found at The Age on Monday 14th December 2009.

Hat tip tp Ross Gittens and Michael Mucci.











"Abbott is a phoney populist, using it to conceal his convictions; Joyce is a genuine populist, being as unthinking as the mob whose votes he seeks." Ross Gittens