[ad_1]
Disasters like the Kimberley floods ‘becoming less natural’, Bowen says
Peter Hannam
Climate change minister Chris Bowen says there was “absolutely” a link between the warming planet and the latest bout of record flooding to hit Australia, this time in the Kimberley in Western Australia.
“Natural disasters are increasingly frequent [and] more intense,” Bowen said at the Taronga Zoo media event we noted earlier today, “and natural disasters are increasingly less natural.
“They’re less natural because they’re caused by human-induced climate change. This is a statement of scientific fact.”
He noted that he wasn’t saying individual floods or bushfires were caused by global heating. Still, events such as floods in NSW that were once considered one-in-a-100-year-events were happening every 10 years, or more often.
“That is not a coincidence. Climate change increases the amount of precipitation and increases the amount of flooding,” he said. “Unless we’re going to engage in continuing 10 years of denial, we have to acknowledge that,” – a reference to the near-decade of Coalition government before Labor took office.
Climate scientists would likely back the minister on the science. For each degree of warming, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture. That’s more rainfall to dump when conditions are right.
The Bureau of Meteorology, meanwhile, identified some of that massive rain event over north-western WA as a threat before it fell. Ex-tropical cyclone Ellie weakened in terms of wind speeds, but forecasters could see it posed a risk – in this case churning over the Fitzroy River catchment.
We’ll get the full wrap of 2022 from the Bureau soon, but last year was a neat 0.5C above the 1961-90 average for mean temperatures. That made it the equal 22nd year on record (with the data going back to 1910), and one of the warmest La Niña years.
Nationally-averaged rainfall was 25% above that 1961-90 average at 582.2mm, which made 2022 the ninth-wettest year on record for the country, the BoM said.
Key events
Filters BETA
Disasters like the Kimberley floods ‘becoming less natural’, Bowen says
Peter Hannam
Climate change minister Chris Bowen says there was “absolutely” a link between the warming planet and the latest bout of record flooding to hit Australia, this time in the Kimberley in Western Australia.
“Natural disasters are increasingly frequent [and] more intense,” Bowen said at the Taronga Zoo media event we noted earlier today, “and natural disasters are increasingly less natural.
“They’re less natural because they’re caused by human-induced climate change. This is a statement of scientific fact.”
He noted that he wasn’t saying individual floods or bushfires were caused by global heating. Still, events such as floods in NSW that were once considered one-in-a-100-year-events were happening every 10 years, or more often.
“That is not a coincidence. Climate change increases the amount of precipitation and increases the amount of flooding,” he said. “Unless we’re going to engage in continuing 10 years of denial, we have to acknowledge that,” – a reference to the near-decade of Coalition government before Labor took office.
Climate scientists would likely back the minister on the science. For each degree of warming, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture. That’s more rainfall to dump when conditions are right.
The Bureau of Meteorology, meanwhile, identified some of that massive rain event over north-western WA as a threat before it fell. Ex-tropical cyclone Ellie weakened in terms of wind speeds, but forecasters could see it posed a risk – in this case churning over the Fitzroy River catchment.
We’ll get the full wrap of 2022 from the Bureau soon, but last year was a neat 0.5C above the 1961-90 average for mean temperatures. That made it the equal 22nd year on record (with the data going back to 1910), and one of the warmest La Niña years.
Nationally-averaged rainfall was 25% above that 1961-90 average at 582.2mm, which made 2022 the ninth-wettest year on record for the country, the BoM said.
Unconscious woman pulled from water in Sydney’s east
AAP is reporting that a woman in her 50s has been pulled from the water unconscious at Gordons Bay, in Sydney’s east.
Emergency services were administering CPR and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was circling the area about 2pm on Monday.
A spokeswoman for NSW Ambulance said resources were being diverted to the incident.
The bay is unattended by surf life savers, but is listed among the least hazardous beaches in Sydney by the BeachSafe website.
Novak Djokovic is back in Australia
And the former Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic has touched down in Melbourne today, after having been deported a year ago due to his vaccination status:
Adelaide bus drivers strike for better security and pay
Drivers began action at 3am today in the South Australian capital, with the strike impacting up to 80% of services across the city. The Transport Workers’ Union says it has been in negotiation with Torrens Transit, the company that operates a majority of the network, since October.
The union wants full screens to protect drivers, after a recent survey showed half of respondents had been assaulted on the job, and wanted more security on the network.
Transport Workers’ Union official Sam McIntosh was on ABC Radio Adelaide, where he apologised for any inconvenience caused, but said a “line in the sand” needed to be drawn:
We absolutely apologise for [the] inconvenience today and please know this decision to take industrial action … we never take lightly, and it’s a last resort – we need to draw a line in the sand for the future of the industry.
A fair deal for this industry is making sure, first off, that when drivers go to work, they know that at the end of the day they’re going to be able to go home to their family’s safely. Drivers are getting punched or attacked with a weapon around the screens.
Clearly it is not adequate and what it leads to is a job that is fundamentally unsafe, and no-one is allowed to be surprised that drivers are leaving in droves.
We also need conditions that mean the drivers actually want to do this job. This used to be a sought-after job, it used to be a really valued job and career.
Tennis Australia dismisses calls to move Australian Open to cooler months
The head of Tennis Australia has dismissed calls to move the Australian Open to cooler months, amid concerns at the impact the heat could have on players.
Craig Tiley said reports the competition should be moved to October to avoid the heat were “absolutely ridiculous”:
It was a bizarre claim. This is the season. It starts in January. It starts here in Australia.
Australia is the summer, Australia is January. This event is, from the player’s perspective, one of their favourite places to play.
They are coming here earlier. We are now seeing players here for six [to] seven weeks. The preparation for the Australian summer is very normalised, they know what they need to do.
Carbon question marks don’t undermine market’s integrity, Bowen says
Peter Hannam
As set out in earlier posts, the government has released its review into the carbon credit system, and tomorrow will release details of an upgrade to the safeguard mechanism upgrade that will rely, to a degree, on the success of the carbon credit market.
In short, if the carbon credits being issued by current and future projects – whether for avoided carbon emissions or activities that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere – are not doing what the packet says, then the market itself is suspect.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, told reporters the “entire review was set up to restore confidence in” the carbon credit system, and the panel “not only got the balance right, but they applied a rigorous process, based on all the evidence”.
He said the panel recommended “real and material improvements” on two of the four main methods used to create carbon credit projects. These were the devilishly complex “human-induced regeneration” projects – mostly involving mulga growth in arid outback settings – and ventures to capture emissions that leak from landfill gas.
A third method, known as avoided deforestation, would be discontinued as a credit generator after this review. The fourth method is carbon capture and storage.
But the report did not explain why the market was sound or address specific issues raised by critics such as ANU’s Prof Andrew Macintosh, who was formerly on the committee set up to review the credits. The CSIRO and the Australian Academy of Science both echoed some of Macintosh’s concerns.
The head of the review panel, the former chief scientist Prof Ian Chubb, said credits had to “be seen to be of high integrity”.
A basic test will be whether the price of credits rises or falls after the review. If it weeds out bad projects (or prevents more of them) then the price should rise, all other things being equal.
Asked about whether a more robust market would lead to the price of abatement rising, Bowen said he “didn’t speculate” on where carbon credit prices would go.
John Howard backs Perrottet’s ‘cashless gaming card’ proposal
The former prime minster John Howard has called the NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s cashless gaming card proposal “courageous and wise”. Howard threw his support behind the premier’s idea, and said there was “documented evidence that poker machines leave much wreckage in society”.
He was quoted in the Nine newspapers, adding that the Perrottet’s proposal was a “very measured reform”:
It takes courage to take on a difficult issue with high-profile concentrated opposition, but it is also wise because it is measured. He is not saying he is going to ban poker machines.
This is a very measured reform, and one where I think the silent majority will say ‘thank heavens someone had the courage to do this’. It shows both courage and wisdom because there are always exaggerated fears and suggestions about job losses, but Unions NSW, are absolutely correct in their assessment.
Some earlier reporting on that below:
Paul Karp
Albanese: government to announce ‘significant’ support for those affected by floods in WA
Anthony Albanese spoke to 6PR Radio about the floods in Fitzroy Crossing (WA), noting the “devastating impacts”, including on the couple of hundred people who had to stay at emergency accommodation.
Albanese said the federal government will announce “significant support” for emergency assistance, temporary living assistance, and $10,000 for housing repairs, and up to $10,000 for replacement of essential household items.
Albanese said the bill will be “substantial” but the government is committed to “make sure that the rebuilding occurs as quickly as possible”.
Asked if this would include compensation for farmers, Albanese said “one can expect there will be quite considerable losses” of cattle in the area. He said the government would look at what is required for primary producers, but noted existing programs included interest rate subsidies.
Albanese said:
We’re seeing far too much of it. I’m afraid, I’ve now been to Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and now WA in the relatively short time I’ve been prime minister looking at these events, talking about a 1-in-100 year event over and over again. Well, they’re happening more regularly.
Former chief scientist Ian Chubb delivers review on carbon market
Peter Hannam
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, and the former chief scientist, Ian Chubb, have just wrapped up a lengthy media conference in – it turns out – the mobile phone reception blackspot of Taronga Zoo in inner North Sydney.
Chubb, who led the six-month review of the carbon market, dismissed the criticisms that a large part of the multibillion dollar market was based on suspect carbon credits, and was therefore lacking integrity (as my colleague Adam Morton has noted earlier on this blog).
“It’s not as broken as has been suggested,” Chubb told reporters, as budgies and other desert birds chirped away in the background. “Our finding was (the market) was basically sound, with all the safeguards, the checks, the reviews and all of the things going on.”
“You’ve got a human-designed process, implemented by human beings, and it will be a bit frayed at the edges,” he said. As for how frayed the edges were, Chubb said “I don’t know, but not so large you would toss it out and stop doing all the good things that are happening because of that.
“You try to fix them up, so that they can’t occur, or occur with much more difficulty, because at the core, there are people doing good things.”
This seems to be the nub of the matter: did the review sufficiently identify the scale of the those “edges”, and do the recommendations address them in a meaningful manner? “Incandescent” was the response earlier from one critic.
As it was the Zoo, there were the odd animal encounters, such as this cute one with Billy the bilby:
Climate change and energy Minister @Bowenchris reaching out to ‘Billy’, a Bilby, in an arid educational centre at Taronga Zoo (after releasing the Chubb Review into carbon markets). pic.twitter.com/TXsyNUwf7w
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) January 9, 2023
(Billy, it seems, was formerly a breeder, now put out to pasture. Apropos of nothing.)
Mostafa Rachwani
Good afternoon, Mostafa Rachwani with you once again, this time to take you through the afternoon’s news, and beginning with a quick thanks to Natasha May for her stellar job as always.
Natasha May
That’s it from me today. I am handing you over to the wonderful Mostafa Rachwani!
Finding Afghanistan in the Australian outback
If you’re looking to spice up your lunch break, would definitely recommend today’s Full Story summer series episode. Our producer Joey Watson has followed the journey of Hazara refugee and photographer Muzafar Ali. In his quest to find belonging in Australia, Ali goes back in time to the Afghan cameleers, who migrated to Australia 160 years ago and whose camel trains became the foundation of the rural economy. Have a listen!
Week of showers and thunderstorms ahead for Queensland
Narramore says the remnant circulation from ex-tropical cyclone Ellie is still being felt across much of northern Australia:
We’re going to see that the remnant circulation is still going across southern NT and it is finally weakening out today and into tomorrow and should wash out completely as we get to midweek.
But that moisture is still lingering through central and then into eastern Australia particularly Queensland. So we can see showers and thunderstorms continuing through western Queensland and southern Northern Territory today. We are seeing those big falls near 100mm around the Alice area that is bringing a bit of water into the Todd river and also dirt roads are becoming impassible through there.
Then the focus shifts to Queensland where we are looking at a week of widespread shower and thunderstorm activity – not south-east Queensland but pretty very much everywhere else in the state. Kind of north of Fraser and all the inland areas, the North Coast, Central Coast and central inland are all looking at multiple days of shower and thunderstorm activity becoming widespread later this week. A wet week on the way for Queensland.
Broome floodplains ‘like an ocean right now’: BoM
Narramore is giving more details about the rainfall in the Kimberley which has brought record flooding at the Fitzroy Crossing and up to 600mm around Broome. He says the floodplains inland from Broome “look like an ocean right now”.
He says the peaks moving down the lower region of the Fitzroy River are very big:
There’s a very big river and some parts [are anything] from 25 to 50km wide, so it is an incredible amount of water in the system at the moment.
On the impact on Fitzroy Crossing in the Diamond Gorge area, Narramore says widespread rain of up to 500mm, as well as huge isolated falls, possibly up to 850mm, has triggered flooding.
… when you get a very large area experiencing these huge falls, that’s what leads to so much water making its way into the river systems. Like we are seeing in the Murray and Darling a few weeks ago and now we’re seeing the Fitzroy River as well.
He goes on to acknowledge the impact of Derby’s bridge being washed out will have on getting supplies to the region, saying it will be a “big issue in the coming weeks, and possibly longer than that”.
BoM says ex-cyclone Ellie hung around for ‘unusually’ long period
Dean Narramore, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, has told ABC News that ex-tropical cyclone Ellie has been unusual in how long the weather system has been producing rain in northern Australia.
It’s definitely taken an impressive and very long duration path. We saw it cross over the 23 December and that it moved through central part of the Northern Territory, almost making it down to the southern parts of the NT.
Then it returned back north into the Kimberley where it sat for almost a week, and then hovered over Broome for a few days, and then it has gone back eastwards to sit over Alice Springs last night where we saw 80mm … now [it’s] back in the Todd River, through southern parts [of] the NT. That’s well over two weeks now.
Sometimes we do have these ex-cyclones, they can hang around [the] northern parts or western parts of the country for about a week or so but once you get to that two or three week period – and to maintain that circulation as long as it has – that’s definitely getting into more unusual territory.
Police seize drugs and $1.5m in Sydney raids
Police have charged four men and seized $1.5m in cash and more than five kilograms of cocaine and meth in Sydney’s inner west. The bust is the product of a NSW police money laundering investigation that saw raids and arrests across the city.
Police pulled over a sedan on Sunday afternoon and found 2.3 kilograms of cocaine and $24,000 in cash. A search of a nearby hatchback uncovered 550g of cocaine and 140g of MDMA.
The two men in the sedan, one aged 23 and another 28, were arrested and taken to Burwood police station. Later, search warrants were executed at two properties on Hunter Street in Strathfield where they arrested two men, an 18-year-old and another aged 35.
Between the two raided homes, police found $1.5m in cash, two kilograms of methylamphetamine and two litres of methylamphetamine oil. Two hydraulic press machines, two ballistic vests and multiple driver’s licences were also found.
All four men were charged with large commercial drug supply.
The men arrested at the Strathfield properties were also charged with participating in a criminal group and knowingly dealing with crime proceeds. They were refused bail to appear at Burwood local court on Monday.
Investigations continue.
– AAP
[ad_2]
Source link
