Global greenhouse gas emissions rose faster than ever last year and the market-based schemes set up to bring emissions down are in trouble. That鈥檚 the bad news from two recent reports by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank.
Simon Butler
Climate scientist Will Steffen told reporters at the May 23 launch of The Critical Decade 鈥 the first report from the federal government-appointed Climate Commission 鈥 that 鈥渨e don鈥檛 have the luxury anymore of climate denialism鈥 and 鈥渘eed to get beyond this fruitless, phoney debate in the media鈥.
Hundreds of Australian Tamils and supporters gathered for an evening vigil in Sydney鈥檚 Martin Place on May 18 to commemorate two years since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The LTTE had fought a 30-year-long battle for an independent Tamil homeland in the north-east of Sri Lanka.
In April, a leaked United Nations report said the Sri Lankan government had committed serious war crimes as the war came to a close, which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.
The melting of the Arctic ice cap is the surest sign that dangerous climate change is already upon us. But some of the world鈥檚 most powerful governments are not worrying about what to do about it, they鈥檙e scrambling to profit from it.
Refugees held inside Darwin鈥檚 Northern Immigration Detention Centre told members of the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network on May 3 of two recent suicide attempts by inmates.
Europe鈥檚 biggest polluters have made billions out of the European Emissions Trading System (ETS). But a new briefing by Carbon Trade Watch (CTW) says the scheme will ensure industry will not have to cut its emissions until at least 2017.
The ETS sets a cap, or upper limit, on total emissions for 11,000 power stations and industrial plants in 30 European countries. Each company receives permits to pollute, which can be traded with other companies.
The activists of the are angry, proud and determined to make change happen.
The group is organising a protest outside the federal parliament in Canberra on May 11. It will be Australia鈥檚 first rally for the rights of intersex, sex and/or gender diverse (ISGD) people.
On its website, Still Fierce says ISGD 鈥渋ncludes people who may be intersex, transexed, transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, androgynous, without sex and/or gender identity, and people with sex and gender culturally specific differences鈥.
In December 2008, Israel launched an all-out military assault on the 1.4 million people in the Gaza Strip. Twenty-two days later, about 1400 Gazans were dead, including 300 children.
In its 2009 report on the assault, titled Operation 鈥淐ast Lead鈥: 22 Days of Death and Destruction, : 鈥淭he scale and intensity of the attacks were unprecedented, even in the context of the increasingly lethal Israeli military campaigns in Gaza in previous years.
The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu is reputed to have said: 鈥淚f you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.鈥
This sums up the problem we face from human-caused climate change.
A 鈥渃limate scoreboard鈥 published by Climateinteractive.org calculates the impact of the current commitments by the world鈥檚 governments to cut carbon emissions.
It estimates that if the promised emissions cuts are carried out in full, the earth would still warm by about 4掳C by 2100 鈥 far above the maximum warming of 1.5掳C needed to maintain a safe planet.
Former ABC journalist Jeff McMullen attacked the federal government鈥檚 intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities as racist and harmful in a March 21 letter to indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin.
McMullen said Macklin had 鈥渘ot responded to the calls by an overwhelming majority of the Aboriginal leaders in 鈥 occupied communities to end the Intervention now鈥.
McMullen wrote in response to a letter Macklin sent him on March 2 that defended the intervention.
Two days before a March 23 rally against the government鈥檚 proposed carbon price took place in Canberra, Liberal MP Dennis Jensen gathered outside parliament house why he opposed the policy.
He held up a piece of charcoal and dropped it to the ground. 鈥淒oes anyone know what that is? Charcoal, also known as carbon,鈥 he said. 鈥淚f you notice when I let it go, it doesn't float into the air.鈥
Victorian police led government officials through a blockade set up by residents of the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust in eastern Victoria, the Age said on March 23.
Aboriginal women from the community set up the peaceful blockade on March 8 鈥 International Women鈥檚 Day.
Organisers have vowed to keep the blockade until Victoria鈥檚 Indigenous affairs minister, Jeanette Powell, agrees to meet with the community.
At the start of the blockade, the women released a statement that explained their demands.
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