Lmst

The Beetaloo gas field is a climate bomb
How did CSIRO modelling make it look otherwise?

"If it is allowed to proceed, this single project could undo all of our efforts to cut emissions. Beetaloo and Middle Arm are a climate bomb. They will produce vast volumes of emissions which cannot be offset. The atmosphere doesn’t respond to clever accounting, overly optimistic projections and reliance on offsets – only on how many tonnes of emissions end up there."

"The International Energy Agency has shown we have to slash demand for fossil fuels 25% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 to keep heating under 1.5°C and limit the worst effects of climate change." >

https://theconversation.com/the-beetaloo-gas-field-is-a-climate-bomb-how-did-csiro-modelling-make-it-look-otherwise-215711
#FossilFuels #Australia #ExtremeHeatwaves #bushfires #Darwin #MiddleArm #Beetaloo #NT #offsets #CleverAccounting #ClimateEmergency

Headline quote says that the Australian #ALP government is "missing half the equation" when it comes to taking action to mitigate climate disruption.

While there is federal support for expanding cleaner forms of energy, the Australian government continues to approve new coal and gas projects, and even create new forms of indirect #DirtyEnergySubsidies (such as federal funding for the #MiddleArm industrial hub in #Darwin, representing a substantial gift to the #FossilGas industry). Hence, they are "missing half the equation".

But I would argue that they are missing *most* of the equation, because stopping the increase of climate-disrupting greenhouse gases from being emitted by winding down the #DirtyEnergy industry as rapidly and humanely as possible is the single biggest aspect of #ClimateAction. Doing so will require replacement forms of energy (and all kinds of shifts in how energy is used), yes, but this is actually a secondary goal required to achieve the main one: an end to humanity's dependence on dirty energy ASAP.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230921073629/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/missing-half-the-equation-scientists-criticise-australia-over-approach-to-fossil-fuels

#Auspol #ClimateStrategy #ClimatePolicy #DirtyEnergyDirtyPolitics #ALPClimatePolicy #ClimateCommunication

Political cartoon by Cathy Wilcox in which a boat called "ALP" (the Australian Labor Party, who are currently in government in Australia) is on a river and is rapidly approaching a waterfall. Beside the waterfall is a sign saying "Above 1.5ºC rise".

Two older men in suits are rowing with their backs to the danger.

At the rear of the rowboat, facing forwards, is a young woman holding a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC). She is pointing towards the waterfall they are all rapidly approaching.

One of the men says "Yes yes, that's all very well, but if we change course now, we risk political oblivion...".

#ALP #Auspol #ALPClimatePolicy #1.5ºC

Razing Darwin bush
Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate of any country in the world.

"The fringes of Darwin contain some of Northern Australia's most biodiverse habitat for mammals...What we've been seeing for at least 40 years is that native mammals have been declining seriously from Queensland through to Western Australia...If we lose the fragments of habitat in the Greater Darwin area, we lose those species"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-22/nt-darwin-developments-risk-extinction-lee-point-middle-arm/102751470
#EnvironmentalManagement #Australia #NT #MiddleArm #Darwin Harbour #extinction makers #biodiversity #wipeout

Adam Morton's article on Middlearm development at Darwin and the $1.5 billion from the Federal Government which is in essence a large subsidy for gas expansion, in the development of the Beetaloo basin fracking, pipeline and LNG terminal for export.

The Australian government admits its funding is supporting the gas industry. That’s politically risky

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/10/the-australian-government-admits-its-funding-is-supporting-the-gas-industry-thats-politically-risky

#FossilFuels #Australia #FossilGas #BeetalooBasin #ClimateCrisis #Middlearm #Fracking