SEQ Climate Change Management Plan

The SEQ Climate Change Management Plan - Draft for Public Consultation was launched on 28 July 2009. It can be viewed on-line at http://www.dip.qld.gov.au/regional-planning/climate-change.html.

Engaging businesses and the unemployed

Hi all

Just wanted to share 2 particular viewpoints.

Firstly is an article by Fred Krupp, the president of the not-for-profit Environmental Defense Fund in the US.
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/16635507/08201
This echoes Fiona Waterhouse's discussion on aligning business incentives during the hypothetical discussion on Tuesday. It also outlines kind of the thinking behind why carbon emissions trading is now the predominant strategy around the world.

Second is an article about Van Jones, Time Magazine's Environmental Hero in 2008. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/12/090112fa_fact_kolbert?printable=true
This echoes Peta Ashworth's discussion on perhaps engaging the unemployed in green initiatives.

Hope you find them informative.

Ben

Badger enters the blogosphere

The badger has entered this strange world, a bold move for one of advancing years and few IT skills. Does this habitat change qualify as an increase in biodiversity I wonder?

Biodiversity: Changed Species Interactions

If you have been allocated Biodiversity: Changed Species Interactions, please post your response here. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Biodiversity: Climate And Atmospheric Change

If you have been allocated Biodiversity: Climate And Atmospheric Change, please post your response here. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Biodiversity: Biogeochemical Change

If you have been allocated Biodiversity: Biogeochemical Change, please post your response here. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Biodiversity: Habitat Change

If you have been allocated Biodiversity: Habitat Change, please post your response here. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Skepticism

I thoroughly enjoyed the session and discussion about skepticism today and would like to hear more comments if any of you would like to share!

For more information about the skeptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg I mentioned at the Hypothetical/discussion, please visit his website http://www.lomborg.com/

Cheers :)

Hi all!
I have just created a facebook group for all the delegates to keep in contact with each other.
You can either search U21 Summer School 2009 - University of Queensland, Brisbane
or go to this link http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101652884835
Ok, see you guys!

Response Planning

If you would like to report or comment on Response Planning, please add your comments here.

Energy Futures

If you would like to report or comment on Energy Futures, please add your comments here. Feel free to post pictures, text and video. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Social Implications

If you would like to report or comment on Social Implications, please add your comments here.Feel free to post pictures, text and video. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Water quality, quantity and waterways

To report or comment on Water quality, quantity and waterways, please post here. Feel free to post pictures, text and video. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Coasts & Marine

To comment or report on Coasts & Marine, please add your thoughts here. Feel free to post pictures, text and video. If you require any technical advice, do not hesitate to contact Alex Osuch on a.osuch@uq.edu.au or drop by her office in Building 35, Room 420.

Hello to all the delegates!

My name is Melissa Low. I am from Singapore and currently attend the National University of Singapore. I am really excited and looking forward to meeting everyone next week, to participate in lively discussion about climate change, to learn more about what other countries are doing to adapt to climate change.

I would like to share some photographs of Singapore just so everyone can get an idea of where we are geographically located and get a glimpse into our way of life here. :)

Singapore is located right below Malaysia and is one of the eleven ASEAN nations

Singapore is a very small island of only about 712km square and is a city-state on its own.

Because of our small size and unique island feature, we are especially susceptable to flooding and inundation due to sea level rise. Singapore will face significant challenges and policy makers must act to adapt quickly to the threat of climate change.

My team from NUS have prepared a presentation for about Singapore's vulnerabilities, challenges, mitigation efforts and adaptation that is to be shown when the conference begins. You will hear more of Singapore during the presentation. :)

For now, let me leave you with some pictures of Singapore.

Singapore's CBD and our national icon the Merlion

The Singapore Flyer and a scene of our "heartlands" or suburbs (high rise is the way to go due to land scarcity here)

Our national past time: Eating. Here we have the Singapore Chilli Crab and Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles.

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Brisbane soon.

Big action or token one-off show?

G'day guys.

So what are everyone’s thoughts on large-scale climate change rally’s or protests? Do these sort of actions get through to governments and the public or are they token events that just appear briefly in the public conscious then die away?

Do these kinds of events happen in your country? Does it result in changes to policy or raise public awareness?

I recently attended this rally (see link below) in Melbourne (Australia), and the vibe was very positive and energetic. I think it was an important event, just to feel like you were part of a change and campaign for awareness.

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/crowd-spells-out-feeling-about-climate-change-20090517-b7dc.html

What are your thoughts?

Cheers

Anthony from Melbourne

Here are some of my thoughts...

Here is a response for you, Alex...

Climate change is definitely an urgent problem facing people in all countries. The ramifications of the potential impacts reach far and wide of one single country's borders. However, as an issue, the people in different countries all face climate change in a different light. To the western countries, the issue of climate change is one that taps into our conscience, because not only does it have the potential to disrupt our societies and way of life, but we also don’t have the more immediate problems and challenges that face developing countries. However, developing countries, while still facing potential ramifications of climate change, have other issues of greater priority for its citizens (for example reaching a higher quality of life for its citizens, growing wealth).

I have complete trust in the global scientific community's ability to have accurate data and reasonable predictions. I’m a firm believer that the only doubt surrounding global climate change in the scientific community is the extent of certain scenarios, climate patterns etc. I don’t believe there is any doubt among most scientists about whether this phenomenon is actually occurring. I think a lot of doubt is created in the community about climate change through the utilization of the fact that there are a variety of potential scenarios. So some parties, through mass media, try and use this as a reason for doing nothing about climate change, rather than even initiating preliminary measures to combat it.

I don’t think it is easy to label all ecosystems/countries in a rank of vulnerability as such. However, I do think that ecosystems that perform certain functions or services that humanity cannot possibly imitate require some preliminary attention. For example, deforestation interrupts multiple ecosystems services such as the carbon cycle (movement of carbon through the global environment in and out of sinks and sources), as well as damaging catchment water purifying mechanisms (where forests act as purifiers of water). I think we would be wise to pay attention to some of these ecosystem services relatively early on, before it becomes too late.

I would (will) very willingly change the way I live and work to try and make a difference to climate change. I think it would be a reasonable request, especially if we can initiate such changes at a society level. That way there would be no alienation, and less cause to fall back into old habits. I feel that the hardest thing for making a change at the moment is feeling like you are an isolated effort.

I think at this stage, the most effective way of us getting other people to change is awareness and knowledge building in general. I think this conference will be a great foundation building process for us, so that we can gain the skills and knowledge to be ambassadors for climate change.

I hope to gain a lot of knowledge and meet heaps of cool people from around the world at this years’ summer school. Looking forward to it guys.

Cheers

Anthony

Preliminary Expectations...

The Summer School is less than a month away now and all of us here at the University of Queensland are looking forward to welcoming you to the U21 Summer School.

Its a shame that no one has posted to the blog yet (thanks to those who posted comments though!). So, to get the ball rolling, I thought I'd ask a few preliminary questions about Climate Change, your attitudes to it and whether you think it is possible to make a difference. It will be interesting to see if your attitudes change following the Summer School.

Please post your answers to this site and I look forwarding to learning more about what you expect from U21 Summer School 2009!

Cheers
Alex

1. Do you think the effect of Climate Change is an urgent problem facing people in all countries?

2.Do you think the Science surrounding Climate Change is convincing and accurate?

3. Do you think that some countries/ecosystems are more vulnerable to the effects of Climate Change and deserve more of the worlds’ resources. If so, why?

4. Are you prepared to change the way you live and work to address the effects of Climate Change?

5. Are you able to change the way others live and work to address the effects of Climate Change? If so, how might you achieve this?

And finally,

6. What do you want to gain from attending this years' Summer School?

Happy Blogging!

Welcome to the U21 Summer School: Climate Change Adaptation blog site! We hope that you post to this forum regularly leading up to and during your stay here in Queensland.

The Summer School is less than two months away now and we want to know more about you; your background and experiences, your expectations of the Summer School and anything else you think your fellow delegates would like to know.

Post a picture too, if you like. What's it like where you live?

Happy Blogging!