This site has been inspired by the work of Dr David Korten who argues that capitalism is at a critical juncture due to environmental, economic and social breakdown. This site argues for alternatives to capitalism in order to create a better world.
Arctic
sea ice on August 26, the day the sea ice dipped to its smallest extent
ever recorded in more than three decades of satellite measurements Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The Arctic sea ice extent yesterday fell below its previous record
low and is currently losing frozen sea at the rate of about 29,000
square miles (roughly 75,000 square kilometers) a day. That's equivalent
to an area the size of South Carolina every 24 hours.
Here's what happened:
On August 26 sea ice extent fell to 1.58 million square miles (4.10 million square kilometers).
That's 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) below the previous record set on September 18, 2007.
The 2007 record low ice extent was 1.61 million square miles (4.17 million square kilometers).
Note that this year's record low was set more than three weeks
earlier than the 2007 record. And summer isn't over yet. There's more
melting to come.
Arctic
sea ice extent as of August 26, along with daily ice extent data for
2007, the previous record low year, and 1980, the record high year: National Snow and Ice Data Center courtesy Rutgers University Snow Lab.
What's alarming is that the 2007 record was set during a year of
near-perfect conditions for melting. This year didn't have anything like
perfect conditions. But even that couldn't stop the freight train
running down those Arctic tracks.
According to National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Director Mark Serreze: "The ice is so thin and weak now, it doesn't matter how the winds blow."
The six lowest ice extents in the satellite record have occurred in the last six years, from 2007 to 2012.
This trend is an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing, said NSIDC scientist Walt Meier.
"The Arctic used to be dominated by multiyear ice, or ice that stayed
around for several years. Now it's becoming more of a seasonal ice
cover and large areas are now prone to melting out in summer."
Scattered ice floes seen from the bridge of US Coast Guard icebreaker Healy on August 20, northwest of Barrow, Alaska: US Coast Guard.
The photo above shows the view from the US Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, a science research ship that runs north looking for ice. They've been having problems finding it the last few summers.
BTW, I'm headed out aboard Healy for their last Arctic run
of the year in October. I'll let you know what I see up there. And what
that might mean for the people and wildlife of the Arctic. Not to
mention all the rest of us who've kind of gotten used to the effects of
its frozenness on the planet.
The proposed Browse Liquefied Natural Gas Hub at James Price Point
(known locally as Walmadany), 50km north of Broome, has created one of
the most fiercely fought environmental and indigenous battles currently
occurring in Australia.
Despite the existence of alternative brown field
sites (such as Karratha), the State Government prefers James Price
Point even though it is likely to be a far more expensive option (an
estimated $15 billion) for joint venture partners Woodside, BP, BHP, Shell and Mitsui/Mistubishi, and tax payers.
The James Price Point option is also far more pristine, biodiverse
and ecologically significant, with a rich indigenous connection to
country. The area is abundant with indigenous songcycle pathways, burial
grounds, the Lurujarri Heritage Trail,
calving Humpback whales, dugongs, dolphins, abundant fishes, coral
reefs, seagrass, remnant rainforest, dinosaur trackways and breeding
bilbies.
The area is so ecologically and culturally rich that it was
recommended for National Park protection by the Australian Academy of
Sciences and the National Parks Board of WA in 1962; the WA
Environmental Protection Authority in 1977 and 1993; the WA Department
of Conservation and Land Management in 1991; the Broome Shire,
Department of Land Administration and WA State Cabinet in 2000; and the
Broome Planning Steering Committee in 2005.
This is all at odds with the state premier Colin Barnett’s description of the area as an “unremarkable” piece of coastline.
Despite all the recommendations for protection, James Price is the
state government’s preferred option. It therefore requires an
environmental impact assessment of whether the gas hub could proceed
without significant, severe and long lasting impacts on the local
environment.
The WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) recently completed an
initial assessment. A further assessment is due from the Federal
Environment Minister at the end of the year. The WA EPA based their
assessment on the Strategic Assessment Report (SAR) prepared by the state government for the project, giving the project the green light.
As the proposed gas hub is one of the largest industrial projects in
Australia’s history and will become the largest gas hub in the world,
one would expect the environmental impact assessment to be well
considered, comprehensive, robust and based on sound science.
Unfortunately the EPA’s assessment fell far below these expectations.
Major issues occurred in the assessment process itself. The state
government recognised that - due to the scale and complexity of the
project - they’d need a high level of confidence in the science
underpinning the SAR. They recommended establishing a peer review
process. This didn’t happen: only the minority of the science was
scrutinised and only when major inadequacies were revealed by independent and citizen scientists.
This leaves little confidence and much uncertainty in the quality of
the SAR’s science on which the EPA based their assessment. When the
assessment was undertaken, four out of five EPA board members had to be
excluded due to conflicts of interest, leaving a “quorum” of one.
As three of these conflicted members were excluded only months before
the completion of the five year assessment, there was ample opportunity
for their conflicts to influence the process.
Despite these procedural issues, how did the EPA justify impacts to
the significant ecological communities and species of James Price Point?
For brevity I will focus on two of the most significant ecological
features of the area.
One of the most striking and significant ecological features of the
James Price Point area is the monsoon vine thicket that occurs behind
the coastal dunes. This little-studied remnant rainforest is incredibly
diverse, containing 25% of all plant species from the Dampier Peninsula
and up to 70 species of ants.
This rainforest also contains one of the highest densities of bush
tucker and medicinal plants in Australia and is therefore critically
significant to the local indigenous people. Poor fire management, weeds
and land clearing have led to fragmentation and declines in these
communities. The communities are currently under assessment for federal
listing as a threatened ecological community.
