
In other news this week, the Budget. It holds some good news, some not so good. The carbon price will likely halve in the next two years. And in its Budget coverage the Business Specator’s Matt McDonald writes why Labor should fight for an election in September, on climate change.
On the matter of pricing carbon, our Climate Leader Peter Boyer writes in The Mercury that in his opinion, carbon critics who would ‘axe the tax’ does not seem to fit anywhere on the carbon trading scheme learning curve which is currently underway in countries with a price on carbon.
It has been widely reported that the build-up atmospheric of carbon dioxide has hit 400 parts per million. That is not great news for anyone. The new data has caused quite a bit of discussion.
However, if we keep working away and actually get somewhere on cutting carbon pollution, new research shows us that the faster the cuts are made to our emission levels, the more better the outlook for saving species loss.
Meantime experts looking at glacier melts, tell us that the rate of sea level rise from this impact is likely not to be as extreme as we had thought.
So if we carry on closing down coal terminals instead of opening them up – we will be heading in the right directions in terms of keeping the landmass of Australia at its current size. The new BHP boss has announced the mining behemoth has slashed its capital spending by a fifth as the demand for its products cool down. Interesting.
Not to be out done, Essential Services Commission of South Australia has called for its State’s the solar feed in tariff to be reduced. Luckily the Rockerfeller Foundation is here with some cash to help.
In the interim, a new effort titled Solar Citizens has launched this week, so the 2.5 million people who like in Australia with solar panels can join forces. I’m already signed up …
And in a first, scientist in Arizona have used crowd sourcing to fund a website which asks ordinary people to play an online game which asks people to pinpoint power plants and help citizens keep a track on global carbon pollution at the same time.
Look at this amazing time lapse technology which captures the beauty of the world –and some pretty intense images about what is happening in terms of climate change and the resource exploration. See you next week!