Australian temperature records tumbled again in September this year, with the country experiencing the hottest day since records began, and New South Wales breaking that record twice within a few days.

As always, particular weather events caused the records to be broken. But in a special climate statement, the Bureau of Meteorology said climate change also played a role, and earlier research has shown global warming has massively increased the chance of these records being broken.

On 22 September 2017 Australia experienced its hottest September day since records began more than a century ago, reaching an average maximum temperature across the continent of 33.47C – smashing the record set nine years ago by more than 6C.

red more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/05/sweltering-septem...

For months/years we have been hearing about the corruption and incompetence of the Adani Company (Bailing out Adani is the definition of absurd", October 5). This week it has been the excellent Four Corners report on the ABC and the recent IEEFA Report discussed by Julien Vincent today. It seems obvious that neither the Queensland nor federal government have undertaken due diligence when approving Adani's applications. Why not? How is it that virtually the only supporters of Adani are these two governments? It's vote-losing for both. It smells of lurking corruption somewhere. Hope you're on to it ABC and Fairfax.

Kate Ravich Greenwich

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The cartoon drawn by Bill Leak and published in the merde-och press was a torrid complete misrepresentation of "aid" to India. In it, the concept was that "solar panels" were useless because THEY COULD NOT BE EATEN. As "we all know: Indians are starving... So we need to send them lumps of coal instead." This was the kind of rubbish supported by that athlete of deception Bjorn Lomborg... and the merde-och press... Mischief by Gus Leonisky above...

Here I am trying to salvage some of Bill Leak's memory... This cartoonist used by the merde-och press would have had to realise that the cartoon he drew of this matter was ridiculously false. Where I sully his memory is that Bill needed the cash and drew any rubbish for the merde-och press... When Bill died, the merde-och press praised him like the god of mayonnaise...

The last thing the Indians need is more coal. They need to be encouraged to use renewable energy as much as possible, far beyond what the pitifully retrograde Australian government of Abbott/Malcolm can offer to us. Global warming is real, not only in Australia, but in India too. 

See also: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6353/764.1

and: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33287

New polling shows the majority of Australians oppose Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine going ahead, and an even bigger number are against Queensland allowing the company to receive a $1bn federal loan.

The polling, commissioned by the Stop Adani Alliance, was released on Saturday as thousands of people are expected to attend rallies at dozens of locations around the country, expressing their opposition to the project.

The ReachTel survey of almost 2,200 people across Australia found 55.6% of respondents opposed the mine going ahead. That was more than twice the number who supported the mine, with 18.4% of respondents saying they were “undecided”.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/07/most-australians-opp...

I was having a casual conversation today with my gay married friends... I alluded to Malcolm Turnbull being an idiot... I nearly got punched. Malcolm is a DANGEROUS idiot was what I should have said. Of course as Devine of the Turdograph points out to the discrimination that the "NO vote" is getting from a few people and possibly a gambling house in Hobart, she forgets that the postal vote has stirred MUCH MUCH MORE anti-gay rhetoric, insult and other discriminatory actions against LGBTi from the said NO voters... 

Senior officials considering lending public money to develop Australia's biggest coal mine have known for months of environmental and financial concerns surrounding the proponent Adani, internal emails reveal.

The emails, obtained under freedom of information laws, have fuelled the mine's opponents, who say granting the $900 million loan would pose unacceptable risks to taxpayers and the Commonwealth.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/emails-reveal-offi...

A new alliance of 19 nations committed to quickly phasing out coal has been launched at the UN climate summit in Bonn, Germany. It was greeted as a “political watershed”, signalling the end of the dirtiest fossil fuel that currently provides 40% of global electricity.

New pledges were made on Thursday by Mexico, New Zealand, Denmark and Angola for the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which is led by the UK and Canada.

“The case against coal is unequivocal,” said UK climate minister Claire Perry, both on environmental and health grounds – air pollution from coal kills 800,000 people a year worldwide. “The alliance will signal to the world that the time of coal has passed.” The UK was the first nation to commit to ending coal use – by 2025 – but the electricity generated by coal has already fallen from 40% to 2% since 2012.

“There is a human cost and an environmental cost but we don’t need to pay that price when the price of renewables has plummeted,” said Catherine McKenna, Canada’s environment minister. “I’m thrilled to see so much global momentum for the transition to clean energy – and this is only the beginning.” The alliance aims to have 50 members by next year.

Asked about Donald Trump’s US administration, whose only event in Bonn was to promote coal, McKenna pointed out that renewable energy already employs 250,000 people in the US, compared to 50,000 in coal, and said this is the clean growth century: “The market has moved on coal.”

read more

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/16/political-watershed-...

Environmental groups have reacted with anger at Adani’s announcement that it will self-fund the construction of its controversial Carmichael mine and that work will begin soon.

The mining giant said a scaled-down mine and rail project would be 100 per cent financed through the Adani’s Group’s resources.

Adani Mining chief executive officer Lucas Dow made the announcement at the Bowen Basin Mining Club luncheon in Mackay, Queensland today. He also suggested work could begin this year.

Environmental groups have already vowed to continue the fight against the mine, saying it was not in Australia’s best interests.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society spokeswoman Imogen Zethoven said it defied belief that Adani was pushing ahead with the mine when “Queensland is experiencing record breaking heatwaves, bushfires are burning across the state and our beautiful Reef could suffer another major bleaching event this summer”.

“The world’s climate scientists have made it abundantly clear that to save our Great Barrier Reef we must have no new coal mines and shut all coal plants by 2030,” she said.

“The Morrison Government and the Labor Opposition must stop this dirty coal mine, which will accelerate dangerous climate change and risk a safe future for Australia.”

She said Adani was currently being prosecuted for illegally releasing coal-laden water near the Great Barrier Reef and the company could not be trusted with Australia’s reef and water.

Environmentalist Bob Brown said his foundation would organise a cavalcade of cars from Hobart to the Central Queensland mine site in time for the next federal election.

“Let the issue be decided in the ballot box,” he said. “Australians can choose between coal and coral.”

Read more:

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/adani-to-begin-construction-on-scaledback-carmichael-mine/news-story/

AMAZING! this article is in the Murdoch media!. 

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Lawyers for mining firm Adani proposed waging "war" on opponents of its controversial Queensland mine by using the legal system to pressure government, silence critics and financially cripple activists, according to documents obtained by the ABC.

• Law firm AJ & Co promised to be Adani's "trained attack dog"
• The firm launched bankruptcy proceedings against an Indigenous mine opponent
• Head of commercial litigation Alex Moriarty quit after a falling out over strategy

The draft copy of Adani's new law firm's aggressive strategy to bring the Carmichael mine to life is labelled "Taking the Gloves Off" and outlines a commercial proposal by AJ & Co to win a multi-million-dollar legal contract with the Indian mining giant. 

In the document, the Brisbane firm promised to be Adani's "trained attack dog".

The strategy recommended bankrupting individuals who unsuccessfully challenge Adani in court, using lawsuits to pressure the Queensland Government and social media "bias" as a tool to discredit decisionmakers.

In a section called "Play the Man", it recommended "where activists and commentators spread untruths, use the legal system to silence them".

It also urged Adani to hire private investigators to target activists and work "with police and a criminal lawyer to ensure appropriate police action is taken against protesters".

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-19/adani-law-firm-put-forward-traine...

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There is one truth: Coal is contributing to global warming. It is URGENT that no new coal mine be opened and that the old ones be phased out. Adani should shove out of this country. But this is a case of massive greed (nothing to do with feeding starving Indians), in which should Adani mine go ahead at full speed then Gina and Clive will come in also with their big super-shovels...

'Change is coming': Al Gore says economics will break fossil fuel dinosaurs

Former US vice-president says new coalmines make no commercial sense, and even Australian governments will have to change course

l Gore says Australia’s government, like his own, remains “enthralled’ by the fossil fuel industry. But the former US vice president has not lost hope, believing economic realities may ultimately force even the most obstinate of governments into creating policy capable of addressing the global climate emergency.

If anything was to break the spell of the “dinosaur” industries, Gore said, it was simple economics.

“The United States and Australia have some things in common,” he told Guardian Australia in Brisbane.

“Both have national governments that are enthralled to the dirty fossil industries of the past.

“Both have dynamic business communities which are impatient with the obsolete ideas of governments that are dominated by special interests in one sector of the economy and both are experiencing the benefits of the sustainability revolution.

“Electricity from solar and wind continues to drop rapidly [in price] and no lobbyist is going to be able to change that. They can’t make coal clean and they can’t make renewables go away.

“So, they are kind of in the position of Wily E Coyote whose legs are moving furiously, even as he goes off the cliff, waiting for the pull of gravity to pull him down into the canyon below. That is an oft-used visual metaphor but it is appropriate here.”

The renowned climate advocate arrived in Queensland to lead the Climate Reality Project’s training conference, an event aimed at training advocates on how to address the climate crisis, in what has proved somewhat awkward timing for the state Labor government.

Federal Labor’s poor showing in Queensland, which subsequently contributed to Bill Shorten losing an election he was widely tipped to win, resulted in a swift reversal of the Palaszczuk government’s attitude towards the Adani coalmine, which after years of delay, could now be approved as early as next week.

During a visit to Sydney in 2017, Gore said Australia and Queensland faced a choice – the Great Barrier Reef or coal – with Adani’s Carmichael mine project having become the symbol for Queensland’s future as a coal economy.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/07/change-is-coming-al-gore...

a 2014 letter from Gus to Al gore:

Dear Mr Gore...

Can I call you Al?...

Al, this could be your first visit to these weirdo shores. I don't know if this is so, but welcome anyway.

My first advice would be to be prepared. Of all the "Inglese" hegemony in the world — the USA, the UK and even New Zealand with its belching sheep, Australia is the most prone to bullshitting by its people for fun — and its right wing politicians for power... The left-wingers are often lost in space, looking at their own navels for sins past... or belly button lint.

After only a couple of hundred years of going troppo in isolation, plus celebrating some "glorious" defeat that defines the fighting spirit of this nation of bogans, the place is a weirdo haven with a few redeeming features like the Harbour Bridge and Collins Street Station... 

The weather here is fine, apart from a cyclone here and there, plus some droughts, bush fires and floods, all eventually becoming more severe under the effects of global warming.

By the way your "Inconvenient Truth" was a smasher that most of the Aussies would go along with, except for the coal which keeps this lazy-go-lucky economy going. 

Let me say that you fell in with the wrong crowd today... Palmer is the king of bullshit though he has a debonair cunning Aussie attitude that could melt the ice of the north pole had global warming not done so for the past few years. 

Palmer is a COAL MINER for krissake, and an industrialist — god bless him — who makes money by destroying the earth, slowly. He's a big investor in a new coal mine in Queensland, a place called Galilee that has nothing with the sacred ground Jesus walked upon, but is what could be the biggest coal mine in the world. Alleluya!

If Palmer is the king of bullshit, Tony Abbott is the emperor. And they work in a tandem. Today it looks as if you endorsed Palmer's devious scheme. I say devious because there is buckley's chance his second part of "his" proposal could get off the ground. Anyone worth their sarcasm would know that. So Palmer's PUP will vote for the repeal of the carbon pricing, THEN will try to get an ETS through the house of representatives... You're kidding me... It's like assaulting the Atlantic wall with a couple of old jeeps. Palmer knows this but he will claim the high moral ground because you were with him "on behalf of mankind"... (bugger the "womankind")... This is so silly it brings tears of laughter and pain to my eyes. 

Mr Gore, you have to restore your standing that suddenly was dipped in the mud by the art of Aussie bullshit. Please tell Mr Palmer to stop his repeal of the Carbon pricing, PLEASE. 

Tell him you know what he is up to... But be aware, this was only the beginning of a marathon of bullshit. You need to watch it coming thick and fast so you can duck... I know the Yanks are a bit naive, but you, Al, can do better than appear to sleep in the same bed as Mr Palmer, like Al Bundy would.

Read more:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28711

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Renowned climate change campaigner Al Gore came to Australia's coal capital on taxpayer money and lunched with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today. Neither of them mentioned Adani.

• Mr Gore said Australia needed to look past chasing "dinosaur projects of the past"
• His trip to Queensland was funded with $320,000 of Queensland Government money
• He dined with the Queensland Premier who also spoke and likewise avoided mentioning Adani

Mr Gore is a vocal advocate for a different climate future. He is pro-renewables and anti-coal.

His documentary An Inconvenient Truth, in which he voiced his concerns about the impacts of climate change, won an Academy Award in 2007.

But as he took to the stage in Brisbane, there was another inconvenient truth in the room.

At a climate change speech in the capital of Australia's resource state, Mr Gore said Queensland needed to move away from fossil fuel projects, but declined to say the A-word.

The former United States vice president had just met Ms Palaszczuk when he addressed a room of hundreds about the economics of climate change.

He spoke of a "sustainable revolution" involving solar and wind technology, but there was no discussion of Adani's proposed Carmichael coal mine in Central Queensland.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-07/adani-mine-not-mentioned-as-al-go...

Half-pregnant Al Gore... Read from top.

Four global insurers have agreed to underwrite work on the Adani coal mine in central Queensland despite local financial institutions shunning the project due to concerns about climate change.

Leaked invoices obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age reveal for the first time that insurers have agreed to cover work on the politically contentious coal mine. Liberty International Underwriters, HDI and XL Australia charged Adani for policies covering construction work for the mine and rail project in November last year, while reinsurance giant Aspen Re also covered work in January, the invoices show.

Indian conglomerate Adani employed the world's largest insurance broker, Marsh McLennan, in 2015 to secure cover for the Carmichael mine, a key component of the overall viability of the project. But a campaign led by climate and investor activists has pushed domestic financial institutions to rule out any involvement.

Australian insurers QBE, Suncorp and Allianz have each refused to underwrite work on the mine and have adopted climate policies that restrict exposure to companies that rely on fossil fuels. Australia's four major banks — ANZ, Westpac, the Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank — have also refused to lend to the project.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/kept-under-lock-and-...

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See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33343

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34034

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/36547

Adani has quietly begun planning to rebrand its Abbot Point coal terminal – removing all reference to Adani in its company name and branding – as financiers continue to abandon the business and a Queensland court orders it to pay $106.8m in damages.

The Queensland supreme court this week ordered Adani to pay four terminal users damages for “unconscionable conduct” in a judgement that was scathing of Adani’s actions to advantage its own financial interests over other coal companies.

In the 93-page decision, the supreme court justice Jean Dalton said Adani’s ports business “attempted to disguise its behaviour in complex transactions”, engaged in conduct outside the boundaries of normal commercial behaviour, and “pleaded matters which were false”.

Guardian Australia can reveal that Adani reserved two new company names with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on 18 August – eight days before the court judgement. The Asic documents flag its intention to rebrand Adani Abbot Point Terminal and its holding company as the “North Queensland Export Terminal”.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/28/adani-quietly-rebranding-abbot-point-terminal-as-company-hit-with-107m-damages-bill

Read from top.

Read also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34034

https://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/36547

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33343

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34034

and many more...

Australia’s coal industry is slowly dying, and without a transition plan taxpayers can expect to be slugged billions, a former president of BP has warned.

The warning comes at the end of a dark week for Australia’s coal industry, with China officially blocking coal imports from Australia after months of vague restrictions.

This was swiftly followed by the owners of Australia’s newest coal-fired power station announcing they had written down the value of the asset to zero, wiping out a $1.2 billion investment.

Climate Council energy expert and former President of BP Australasia Greg Bourne said the writing is clearly on the wall for coal.

We urgently need an energy transformation, Mr Bourne told The New Daily.

“Transition carries that sense of smooth and gentle. We’re looking at a desperate need to transform our energy systems,” he said.

There are currently 24 coal-fired power stations operating in Australia, according to the federal government, and without a plan to phase them out Australians could be left to pick up the bill, Mr Bourne said.

The remediation of coal plants – cleaning up the hazardous materials to meet federal and state requirements – can cost upwards of $100 million dollars, depending on the site.

If the company can’t cover the cost, it falls to the taxpayer.

Some sites are simply abandoned. Australia has at least 60,000 abandoned mines, some of them dating back to the gold rush. But others closer to inhabited areas need to be cleaned up.

In 2016 a report by the ABC revealed in Queensland alone, taxpayers are exposed to a $3.2-billion black hole in funding for the future environmental clean-up of the state’s coal mines.

At the start of this month, mining giant Peabody announced it would temporarily close its Metropolitan Mine at Helensburgh on the NSW Illawarra Coast for eight weeks from January 4.

The announcement sparked fears the company will soon fold and leave taxpayers to foot the bill.

The Queensland government and the NSW minister for natural resources have been named as insurance obligees – to the tune of a combined $35 million.

But they have both said they will not be picking up the bill.

It’s not just coal – federally taxpayers are about to fork out for an estimated $200 million to clean up the Northern Endeavour floating production, storage and offtake facility.

The federal government has been responsible for maintaining the Northern Endeavour and associated subsea facilities since February 2020 after its owners, the Northern Oil and Gas Australia (NOGA) group of companies, were placed in liquidation.

The coal industry employs 50,000 Australians. For context, plumbers are number around 80,000. But the coal industry has made money.

In 2018, the value of coal exports was $67 billion, equivalent to 3.5 per cent of nominal GDP. Mining companies paid $12 billion in royalties to state governments in 2017-18.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/12/20/coal-dying-australia-bp/

And we want to start another huge coal mine (Adani's) that will raise Australian CO2 emissions through the roof (even if it is burnt in India), as well as being "subsidised" by secret means... Make Adani pay for all the clean ups, then tell Adani that there will be no more coal mining... Yet, see: 

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The Queensland government will not make any inquiries about Adani’s water plans for the Carmichael coalmine, despite the company’s public claims it has an undisclosed new source of water that is “commercial in confidence”.

Guardian Australia reported on Friday Adani had obscured details about its plans to source large volumes of water for the controversial coal project, raising concern among environmental groups and water experts about how the miner intends to cover an 8bn-litre annual shortfall.

Asked about the Guardian’s reporting on ABC Radio National on Friday, the Adani Australia chief executive, Lucas Dow, said the company was transparent and that its water sources were “legitimate, legal [and] regulated”.

“In addition to that we’ve got alternate water sources that are commercial in confidence,” Dow said.

“It’s just like any organisation, there’s elements that have to remain commercial in confidence, they go to competition, they go to ensuring the project is being developed in the appropriate manner.”

But Tom Crothers, a former general manager of water allocation and planning for the Queensland government, said water rights in Queensland were vested in the state and not confidential.

“If you’re taking large quantities of surface water or even large quantities of groundwater you require an authorisation,” Crothers said.

“They are not commercial in confidence, they can be searched [on public registers]. It’s a state resource, the state has a responsibility to manage it sustainably.”

Adani’s initial water plans were thrown into turmoil last month, when the federal court overturned federal approval for the company’s North Galilee Water Scheme– a pipeline project that would have pumped up to 12.5bn litres a year from Queensland’s Suttor River.

Water supply is becoming increasingly urgent for Adani, which announced on Thursday its excavation of the Carmichael mine had struck the coal seam.

Dow told Radio National it was possible Adani would appeal the federal court decision about the North Galilee Water Scheme, but said that “represents one of many options we have for water sources”.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/26/queensland-government-wont-look-into-adanis-undisclosed-new-water-source

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