Australia’s 20 biggest polluters will be able to significantly increase their greenhouse gas output despite being covered by the Abbott government’s so-called “safeguard mechanism” and will wipe out most of the emission reductions the government intends to buy from other sectors, according to new analysis which brands theCoalition policy “untenable”.

The environment minister, Greg Hunt, says the “safeguard mechanism” – to be imposed on 150 big emitters and announced in detail later this month – will ensure that emissions reductions purchased through the $2.55bn emissions reduction fund (ERF) from things like avoided land clearing or energy efficiency are not displaced by a significant rise in emissions elsewhere in the economy.

But the RepuTex market analysis firm has found the proposed curb on electricity generation and industrial emissions is so “lenient” that only about 30 companies, such as airlines and transport firms, will be forced to reduce their emissions at all, and then only by a relatively modest 29m tonnes between 2016 and 2025.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/03/biggest-polluters-able-to-increase-emissions-under-direct-action-study

Six years after first promising to “roll back the spectre of a warming planet”, Barack Obama finally committed the US to unprecedented action against climate change on Monday, with sweeping new curbs on carbon emissions from power plants that are equivalent to taking 70% of American cars off the road.

The culmination of his long-fought battle against coal industry lobbyists and climate change sceptics in Congress was greeted with jubilation by many environmentalists who described the tougher-than-expected regulations as a “game-changer”.

Describing it as “the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against climate change”, Obama warned it was almost too late: pointing out that 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have already fallen in the first 15 years of this century.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/03/obama-epa-carbon-emissions-cuts-power-plants-climate-change

WASHINGTON — In the early months of 2014, a group of about 30 corporate lawyers, coal lobbyists and Republican political strategists began meeting regularly in the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, often, according to some of the participants, in a conference room overlooking the White House. Their task was to start devising a legal strategy for dismantling the climate change regulations they feared were coming from President Obama.

The group — headed in part by Roger R. Martella Jr., a top environmental official in the George W. Bush administration, and Peter Glazer, a prominent Washington lobbyist — was getting an early start.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/obama-unveils-plan-to-sharply-limit-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html?_r=0

A point to make is the role of the media in Australia, which is so dominated by the Murdoch press. That played a key role, in a sense that as the 90s rolled on it was so much easier to get out a consistent narrative if you don’t have a really diverse press. From what I saw – and what the documentary evidence showed – the ABC did have a leadership role for a long time in informing the public about climate change, but it really drew back in the late 90s. There was no other story being told.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2015/aug/06/how-australians-were-ready-to-act-on-climate-science-25-years-ago-and-what-happened-next

According to my good German Friend, Gewähr FürdenSieg, the world economy is about to tank... There are so many US junk packages (about US$5 trillion worth) floating around between banks that they will make the last GFC look like a picnic. The world debt (to itself minus the US) could increase by 20 per cent overnight. When? Good question. It's all depend on the way the banks (mostly US banks) have edged their bets on the timing. Some banks will win a bit, most banks will loose and central banks will come to the rescue by printing more cash, devaluing currencies. But since most would be doing it, it won't mean much, except many people will end up on the scrap heap. 

Meanwhile as the US economy is "improving" (frothing up like a meringue), its central bank interest rates will be lifted by 25 points, sucking all the cash to the US. It's going to be ugly. 

If you've seen stockbrokers cry with the latest Chinese "correction", you are going to see rivers of tears (Ströme von Tränen)... So When? Two weeks from today...

Remember, you've read here first.

David Dredge of global hedge fund Fortress has built a career studying, predicting and protecting against the world's major financial crises. The recent convulsions in global share markets are "just the beginning" of a painful adjustment as money drains from the emerging market economies, he says. 

"August 2015 will go down in the record books much like July 2007 or July 1997 as the beginning of the coming contractionary cycle," says Dredge who is the co-chief investment officer of Fortress Convex Asia  Fund.

He's a believer that markets move in long cycles "that despite all efforts to the contrary, central bankers have not by any means gotten anywhere close to eliminating."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/fortress-hedge-fund-manager-david-dredge-says-new-gfc-is-in-the-works-20150901-gjcoge.html#ixzz3kY8xqbRJ 
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

I passed on the information from Germania in the comment above posted end of August. According to some people the dice have been cast as the derivative market has been busy betting on the date of the financial catastrophe... Some people are going to swim in cash others will jump from building windows... but most of us will find our Turdy government is TOTALLY ILL-EQUIPPED to deal with it. You better be sitting down when the shit hits the fan...

While Australia may have dodged major impacts of the El Nino so far, fire authorities are bracing for elevated fire risks over the summer in most of the populated regions of southern Australia.

Other countries, such as the island nations of the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea are already experiencing drought conditions.

With such a large area of the Pacific much warmer than average, surface temperatures globally are running at record levels as the El Nino combines with background warming from climate change.

Climatologists say 2015 is now highly likely to exceed 2014 as the hottest year on record and 2016 could be warmer again given the momentum in the world's oceans.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/el-nino-strongest-since-super-event-of-199798-and-intensifying-bom-says-20150901-gjcmdi.html#ixzz3kYNjUorr 
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

We don't shy of telling you GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL (and can be devastating for an increasing number of people).