Weeping figures commemorate 2022 flooding in the Clarence Valley

 

 

PICTURED: Nationally recognised local artist Al Stark painted four sentinels overlooking the Clarence River on the pylons under the new Harwood Bridge adjacent to Yamba Road. 

Photos by Clarence Valley Council, August 2023

History is Calling......

 

OUR NEW AD IS LIVE!

You’re the Voice that will make history.

On 14 October, we know we all can stand together with the power to be powerful.
#HistoryIsCalling, so #VoteYes. Are you in? John Farnham is.
#UluruStatement #StayTrue2Uluru #YoureTheVoice #VoteYes pic.twitter.com/4ujYd9gk0M

— ulurustatement (@ulurustatement) September 3, 2023

 

This next Southern Hemisphere Summer may bring more unwelcome news for Australia's coastal zone

 

“Climate breakdown has begun”

[U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, 6 September 2023]

NOAA Research, Global ocean roiled by marine heatwaves, with more on the way, 28 June 2023, excerpts:

This map depicts predicted marine heatwave conditions in September 2023 as generated by the Physical Sciences Laboratory’s experimental forecast model.

Credit: NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. *Click on image to enlarge*

The experimental forecast, which tracks the NOAA Climate Prediction Center’s official outlook, is based on a large ensemble of climate model predictions spanning June 2023 through May 2024….

A marine heatwave is defined as a monthly regional sea surface temperature anomaly that ranks in the top 10% of warmest months compared with the 1991–2020 average. Long-term ocean warming trends also contribute to unusually high ocean temperatures, but even with the effects of long-term warming removed, models predict 25% of the global ocean will experience sharp upward departures from more recent conditions by September…..

In this scenario it appears that the Southern Ocean waters are within a probability range of between 60-80 per cent for the occurrence of marine heatwave which might have also lead to a rise in Antarctic sea surface temperatures.

Which begs the questions:

How will the over 60km long Halloween Crack in west Antarctica react to any additional stressors on the Brunt Ice Shelf?

Will the East Coast Ice Sheet which is said to contain four fifths of the world’s ice again lose ice shelf through iceberg calving as it did with C-37 (144 sq.km) & C-38 (415 sq. km) in March 2022?

Just how big are these Anthropocene Age icebergs going to grow – given many are the size of cities already? and

How long does the Southern Hemisphere have before sea level rise beyond the Antarctic Circle increases exponentially past millimetres into metres?

BACKGROUND

NASA Earth Observatory, retrieved from website 7 September 2023:

Antarctica’sBrunt Ice Shelf Finally Breaks

January 24, 2023

In February 2019, a rift spanning most of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica appeared ready to spawn an iceberg about twice the size of New York City. The question among scientists was not if the growing rift would finish traversing the shelf and break, but when? Now, nearly four years later, it has done just that.

According to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the break occurred late on January 22, 2023, and produced a new iceberg with an area of 1550 square kilometers (about 600 square miles). The U.S. National Ice Center has named it Iceberg A-81. The berg is visible in this image, acquired on January 24, 2023, with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The glacial ice in the shelf flows away from the interior of Antarctica and floats on the eastern Weddell Sea. (For reference, the Antarctic Peninsula and its ice shelves are located on the opposite side of the Weddell.) The shelf has long been home to the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley Research Station, where scientists study Earth, atmospheric, and space weather processes. BAS reported that the station, which was relocated farther inland in 2016 as the chasm widened, was unaffected by the recent break.

January 12, 2021

The break occurred along a rift known as Chasm 1. This chasm started growing in the 1970s, followed by a period of dormancy, and then resumed growth in 2012. It continued to lengthen for almost a decade, extending by as much as 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) per year in early 2019. But even this growth spurt slowed. That is, until the 2022–2023 Antarctic summer when the chasm sped up and ultimately broke past the McDonald Ice Rumples—a submerged knob of bedrock that served as a pinning point for this part of the shelf. Several factors may have contributed to the completion of the break, including a lack of sea ice to help resist, or “push back,” against the stresses on the shelf ice in 2023.

The second image, acquired with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows the extent of Chasm 1 on January 12, 2021, about two years prior to the break. Notice several other cracks across the northeast part of the shelf. The “new crack” in that image ultimately separated in February 2021 and formed Iceberg A-74.

“The rapid formation of subsequent rifts—to long-standing Chasm 1 and 2—and recent calving to the northeast makes it clear that these shelf areas are dynamic with poorly understood stresses,” said Christopher Shuman, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County, glaciologist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The breaking (calving) of icebergs from ice shelves is part of a natural, cyclical process of growth and decay at the limits of Earth’s ice sheets. As glacial ice flows from land and spreads out over the sea, shelf areas farthest from shore grow thinner. These areas are stressed by storms and tides and thin as they are melted from above or below, ultimately making them more prone to forming rifts and breaking away.

As for the “new” Brunt, it remains to be seen how the complex floating glacial ice responds to the most recent calving event. According to Shuman: “We have no solid idea what ‘normal’ really is for this unusual ice shelf.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other large iceberg calvings

NASA Earth Observatory

Early on July 12, 2017, satellites captured imagery of the new, massive iceberg that broke away from Larsen C—an ice shelf on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula…..On July 13, the U.S. National Ice Center issued a press release confirming the new iceberg and officially naming it A-68.

February 22 - March 21, 2022

Collapse of the ice shelf in front of both the Glenzer Glacier (C-37) and Conger Glacier (C.38)commencing around 12 March 2022.

The pharmacists of Australia turned faces of naked entitlement towards Parliament and their own client base, jeering and yelling on Monday 4 September 2023

 

Financial Review, 4 September 2023:

Hundreds of pharmacists were in Canberra for a protest on Monday morning, and many pharmacists attended question time in white uniforms, jeering as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended Labor’s consultation over the plan.

In an already rowdy question time, Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick warned people in public galleries that they were present as observers, not participants, in parliamentary proceedings and should refrain from interjecting.

But hostilities escalated dramatically when members of the group loudly exited the chamber, with many yelling at MPs on the chamber floor below in a co-ordinated exit.

Some shouted “lies” and at least one pharmacist raised his middle fingers as he walked out. The sitting was disrupted for a few minutes…..

Pharmacists leaving House of Representatives visitor's gallery after disrupting Question Time and also allegedly abusing Parliament House staff. IMAGE: Canberra Times

MPs on the Opposition benches in the House of Representatives cat calling & encouraging pharmacists in the Visitor's Gallery during Question Time on 4 September 2023. It is believed that some of the pharmacists were signed in as visitors by one or more Liberal Party MPs. IMAGE: Daily Mail

Because the industry union, Pharmacy Guild of Australia, has run such a virulent campaign against the the federal government’s reduction of prescription medicine costs to eligible consumer/patients via the introduction of 60-day prescriptions for certain medicines and because Liberal & Nationals members of federal parliament are attempting to turn this issue into a political football, there may be a need to restate what the 60-day prescription scheme entails.

Australian Government, Dept. of Health and Aged Care, 4 September 2023:

60-day prescriptions of PBS medicines

Learn about the changes to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicine prescriptions.

From 1 September 2023, nearly 100 common medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) will have the option of a 60-day prescription. This means many patients can now receive twice the medication for the cost of a single prescription. To qualify, patients must be:

• living with an ongoing health condition

• assessed by their prescriber to be stable on their current medicine/medicines

• have discussed with their prescriber and obtained a new prescription for a 60-day quantity of medicine per dispensing.

The changes are happening in 3 stages over 12 months and will apply to more than 300 medicines once completed on 1 September 2024.

The changes follow advice from the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), which recommended it was clinically safe and suitable to allow 60-day prescriptions for eligible patients.

The full list of PBS medicines recommended by PBAC as suitable for dispensing in increased quantities includes some medicines for ongoing health conditions, such as:

• asthma

• breast cancer

• cardiovascular disease

• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

• constipation

• chronic renal failure

• Crohn’s disease

• depression

• diabetes

• endometriosis

• endometrial cancer

• epilepsy

• glaucoma and dry eyes

• gout

• heart failure

• high cholesterol

• hormonal replacement and modulation therapy

• hypertension

• osteoporosis

• Parkinson’s disease

• ulcerative colitis.

The full list of medicines recommended by the PBAC for 60-day prescribing is available on the medicine list for increased dispensing quantities.

Prescribers have the option to prescribe these medicines for either 30 or 60-day prescriptions, according to their professional clinical judgement.

Benefits and cost savings

Patients with a 60-day prescription for a PBS medicine may save up to:

$180 a year, per medicine for Medicare card holders who do not have a concession card

$43.80 a year, per medicine for concession cardholders….

Stage one – available from 1 September 2023

The first stage of medicines available for 60-day prescriptions will support patients stable on their current treatment and living with ongoing health conditions including:

• cardiovascular disease

• Crohn’s disease

• gout

• heart failure

• high cholesterol

• hypertension

• osteoporosis

• ulcerative colitis.

Stage one includes nearly 100 medicines and represents roughly one third of all the medicines available for 60-day prescriptions.

See the list of stage one medicines. The Department is finalising the order of medicines available in stage 2 and 3.

Medicine supply

The move to 60-day prescriptions won’t cause medicine shortages as patients will still buy the same amount of medicine annually. While eligible patients are able to buy double the medication on a single prescription, demand for medicines will remain unchanged.

Of the more than 300 medicines PBAC recommended for 60-day prescriptions, the vast majority have no shortage of supply in Australia. The Department is monitoring the 60-day dispensing medicine list and has ensured that medicines were only included in stage one if they were not in shortage or at risk of shortage.

Medicine shortages can occur for different reasons, like:

• shortages of raw material

• transport issues

• factory quality control issues

• temporary factory closures

• natural disasters.

Most shortages are short-term, temporary disruptions and often only limit some brands, strengths or formulations.

The introduction of 60-day prescriptions in three stages over 12 months reduces pharmacy disruption and let’s supply chains adapt, as eligible patients will use existing prescriptions first.

Helping to ensure good medicine supply

Pharmaceutical companies must tell the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of expected medicine shortages. This means any medicine supply not likely to meet normal or projected consumer demand at any point during the next 6 months.

The Australian Government has made changes to the Medicines Supply Security Guarantee. From 1 July 2023, medicine manufacturers must have more onshore stockholdings for chosen brands. This will help make sure there is stock onshore, ready for pharmacy delivery to meet any temporary increase in demand.

Wholesalers must deliver to any pharmacy in 24 hours (excluding weekends or public holidays) if they are running low on medicine. This applies for most medicines.

Reinvestments into pharmacy services

The government commits to supporting a thriving community pharmacy sector.

All money saved by the government from reductions in fees paid to pharmacy for supplying medication to patients will be reinvested into community pharmacy.

This is to support the ongoing vital role of the pharmacy sector and give new opportunities for expanding pharmacists scope of practice.

Note: All yellow highlighting is mine.

Read the full advice at:

https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/60-day-prescriptions

Today NSW SES launches the state's official Spring-Summer storm season awareness

 

The NSW State Emergency Service is reminding state residents and visitors that while storms can happen at any time of the year, peak season is between October 2023 and March 2024, when NSW sees increased chances of strong winds and heavy rain, which risks floods and flash floods, and that even in periods forecasting low rainfall these storms can remain destructive. 

As anyone who has seen bushfire initiated by ‘dry’ lightning strike or driven forward by strong winds can attest.

We all need to be aware and prepared for storms.

Go to https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/disaster-tabs-header/storm/ for further preparedness advice

SES Media, COMMUNITY URGED TO BE PREPARED AHEAD OF STORM SEASON

05/09/2023 10:46 AM

The NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) is urging residents to be prepared and have a plan in place, ahead of the 2023-24 storm season.

While this year’s weather forecast is set to bring dry and hot conditions, the threat of increased storm activity remains.

Minister for Emergency Services Jihad Dib said community preparation is key.

“While this year’s warmer months are expected to be vastly different to what we’ve experienced in recent years, we are still moving in to peak storm season across the state,” Minister Dib said.

“It is important to know the storm risk, have a plan in place, get your home ready, be aware of what you will do if disaster strikes, and look out for one another.

“I would like to thank the NSW SES in advance for everything they will do for the communities across NSW during the upcoming storm season.”

NSW SES Commissioner Carlene York APM said now is not the time for communities to be complacent.

“Throughout storm season severe weather, such as flooding due to isolated heavy rainfall, strong wind events and damaging hail, can all have significant impacts on communities,” Commissioner York said.

“Last storm season our volunteers responded to more than 14,000 storm-related jobs throughout NSW. We are urging the community to get prepared by undertaking some simple activities around the house.

“Clean your gutters, downpipes and drains, secure and put away any loose items around your backyard and balcony, and trim trees and branches that could fall onto your home.”

Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Hugh McDowell said the long-range forecast shows that NSW can expect much less rainfall than last year and lower than median rainfall through Spring.

"There is also a very high chance of daytime maximum and overnight minimum temperatures being higher than usual," Mr McDowell said.

"Spring rainfall is likely to be suppressed across NSW by a developing El Nino and Positive Indian Ocean Dipole.

"Whilst these two climate drivers can reduce overall rainfall their influence on severe storms is less pronounced. We can expect the number of severe storms to be close to historical averages this year."

Spring is the peak time for severe thunderstorms along Australia's east coast. East Coast Lows can also bring storms in early spring, increasing the risk of hail, damaging winds and flash flooding.

Mr McDowell said the overall flood risk has been assessed as close to average.

"Whilst the Spring outlook is drier and warming, severe storms can bring significant rainfall in short periods, so flood risks remain for some catchments.”

Commissioner York said the NSW SES is ready and able to respond to storm activity.

“The NSW SES and Bureau of Meteorology recently signed a five-year partnership agreement that results in dedicated meteorology and hydrology services embedded within the NSW SES,” Commissioner York said.

“These roles provide direct access to decision support for all severe weather warnings from the Bureau as well as the ability to run and analyse flood modelling on any catchment at any time.

“This partnership with the Bureau puts NSW SES in a strong position to plan, prepare and respond to this year's severe weather season and spring flood risks."

Between October 2022 and March 2023, the NSW SES responded to more than 14,000 storm-related incidents. These incidents were not related to the widespread campaign flooding that took place across the state. Of these incidents, 544 occurred in the Port Macquarie-Hastings area, 544 in Ku-ring-gai, 469 in Hornsby, 377 in Sutherland, 373 in Dubbo and 650 in the Central Coast (Gosford and Wyong).

For more information on how to get ready ahead of this year’s storm season, visit www.ses.nsw.gov.au/getready

Everyone is hoping that the Reserve Bank of Australia continues to restrain the urge to raise interest rates today

IMAGE: Depositphotos

By late August 2023 mainstream media was reporting that in the 2022-23 financial year supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths recorded profits in excess of $1 billion representing around a 5% increase on the previous year - withy Woolworth’s recording a nearly 20% rise in grocery sector earnings while Coles recorded a 2.9% rise.

These grocery earnings being an almost direct cash transfer from dwindling household piggy banks to supermarket chain bank accounts.

In August the major banks were also reporting fat financial year profits, with the Commonwealth Bank coming in with a personal record breaking best of $10.2 billion in 2022-23.

None of the big banks being slow in coming forward to pass on increasing Reserve Bank of Australia cash rates onto customers, including those with home mortgages.

According to the ABS latest monthly consumer price index indicator, rent prices increased 7.6% in the twelve months to July 2023, up from 7.3% in June, reflecting strong demand for rental properties and tight rental markets.

Electricity prices rose 15.7% in the twelve months to July 2023, reflecting annual price reviews in July.

Annual prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 5.6%, down from the rise of 7.0% in June, with dairy and related products rising12.7% and bread & cereal products rising 9.9% even if fruit & vegetables fell by -2.9%.

The actual pain of cost of living pressures are of course rarely mentioned by the Reserve Bank of Australia or the statisticians.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), media release, 4 September 2023:

Household spending was 0.7 per cent lower when compared to July last year, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said households have curbed their spending over the past 12 months amid higher interest rates and inflation.

“This is the first time since February 2021 that the spending indicator has fallen.

“Spending on discretionary goods and services was down for the fourth straight month. It fell 3.3 per cent over the year, as households adapt to cost of living pressures.

“Non-discretionary spending rose 1.7 per cent, which is the lowest growth rate since early 2021.”

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 September 2023:

The largest fall in spending on goods including clothing, footwear and home furnishings since the start of the Delta wave of the pandemic has bolstered the case for the Reserve Bank to hold interest rates steady for a third consecutive month.

Outgoing RBA governor Philip Lowe will on Tuesday helm his last meeting of the board, which is widely expected by economists to keep the official cash rate at 4.1 per cent as the economy continues to show signs of slowing and inflation pressures ease.

Because someone has to say it: By Dec 2023 it's likely converging & merging weather and climatic conditions will see not only cost of fruit, vege, eggs, dairy products, meat & basic foodstuffs rising - it will see availability & supply become issue to varying degrees across Oz.

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) September 1, 2023

 

In the space of three days state-owned Forestry NSW has apparently thumbed its nose at the Land & Environment Court and exposed itself to the international community as an environmental vandal

 

Echo, 1 September 2023:

Aunty Alison and Aunty Lauren on Gumbaynggirr Country at Newry State Forest. Photo supplied

Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Micklo and the oldest and most senior Gumbaynggirr Elder living on Gumbaynggirr Country Uncle Bud Marshall brought a successful application to the Land and Environment Court (L&EC) that halted logging at the Newry State Forest on 22 August. They were supported by Gumbaynggirr elders Aunty Alison and Aunty Lauren.

The Judge accepted an undertaking from Forestry to stop all logging in the forest to allow for a site inspection by Gumbaynggirr Elders of sacred and significant sites in the forest that the NSW Forestry had been logging. It had been arranged for the elders to go for the inspection on Friday, 1 September, however, at the last minute they were contacted by NSW Forestry to cancel the site inspection.

The Judge also accepted an undertaking that the stop on logging should extend to the substantial hearing set down for November 14, 16 and 17 in the L&EC.

‘Last night (31 August) Forestry said they were going to call off the site inspection, then they said they wanted to delay for another two weeks. They are due back in court on Tuesday (5 September) and the site inspection is supposed to have taken place,’ said Al Oshlack, from the Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network who helped organise the stop work order. [my yellow highlighting]

‘We had a driver organised and they were going to go out to a number of sites in Newry Forest today (Friday, 1 September). Everyone is really upset because they have been locked out for a long time by Forestry with fences and cameras etc in place.’

Mr Oshlack told The Echo that Forestry appears to use a person named Mr Potter to sign off on their cultural heritage requirements. However, Mr Oshlack said they have been unable to find any Gumbaynggirr people who either know Mr Potter or who have been consulted about sacred and cultural sites in the area by Forestry NSW.

‘We have been asking around to find out if anyone knows who Mr Potter is but we haven’t been able to find anyone who knows this person so far,’ Mr Oshlack said.

‘I spoke to Gumbaynggirr people who have been looking for him and they said “We went to five different Gumbaynggirr families and no one has heard of him.”….

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 2023:

Professor Helge Bruelheide, professor of botany at the University of Helle in Germany, was stunned by what he has seen exploring the forests in and around the promised Great Koala National Park on the state’s North Coast this week.

“It is spectacular. All the variants of this Gondwana rainforest – cool and warm, temperate rainforest and also the subtropical rainforest – is something that is so unique globally that you wouldn’t find it in this particular combination elsewhere,” said Breulheide, one of the leading scientists in his field, who visited with 30 of his colleagues from around the world as they prepared for a conference on forest preservation to be held in Coffs Harbour next week.

Professor Helge Bruelheide at Border Ranges National Park, north of the proposed Great Koala National Park.

“It’s incredible walking through the forest and seeing a different tree every 5 meters. It is unique in the world. And it is also ancient, what we have seen remnants of a vegetation that is long gone on Earth. Australia is a bit of an ark conserving this fantastic biodiversity.

“I mean, I knew that from the books but touching it and seeing these wonderful trees is something different. We were completely shocked that this was being logged for paper pulp and timber. Particularly this type of forest, we really couldn’t understand that.” [my yellow highlighting]

It was not just the fact of the logging that stunned, but Bruelheide, but the nature of it. Rather than so-called single-stem logging that is common in places like Germany, where single trees are targeted and removed, loggers here take out whole sections, leaving behind a few trees in compartments (a section of forest identified for logging) that have been identified as critical feed or habitat trees for some endangered species.

“I feel like I was time travelling back to the 60s when this was all over the place,” says Breulheide of what he saw inside a patch of the Moonpar State Forest identified on the Forestry Corporation website as Section 345…..

Overview of a Moonpar State Forest Section 345 in May 2023

Moonpar State Forest Section 345
IMAGE: via @CloudsCreek, 7 May 2023

Closer view of segment of Moonpar State Forest Section 345, May 2023, showing felled native trees. SNAPSHOT: Google Earth Pro

Click on images to enlarge