Sydney IMC

The Whitehaven coal mine at Maule's Creek near Boggabri in north Western NSW involves the destruction of a substantial part of the ecologically distinct Leard Forest. One of the requirements for approval was the provision of environmental offsets to balance 'like for like' against the destruction of high biodiversity habitat. But the latest environmental report by Dr John Hunter advises the offsets for critically endangered ecological communities are "vastly overstated".

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - thestringer.com.au - Last year, I aggregated Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) hospital collated data on reported suicides of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – 996 suicides from 2001 to 2010. That is 1 in 24 of all deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – by suicide.

Petitioning the Australian Government, To the Prime Minister, To the Attorney-General
TREATY

Go the change.org petition site to read and sign the petition - here: http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/to-the-australian-government-to-th...

TREATY is the justice - when TREATY is here, "that'd be the justice" said a Central Desert Elder to me.

When we settle for less, in general we are left with 'the less', period.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) confirmed on 3 January 2014 in the annual climate statement that 2013 was the hottest year on record for Australia. This was all the more concerning considering the neutral ENSO conditions. 2013 also ranks as the sixth-warmest year since global records commenced in 1880, according to the WMO. In the first week of 2014 Australia is again in the grip of heatwave conditions approaching 50C in some towns.

Related: Sea surface temperatures unusually warm around Australia in 2013 | Climate IMC: 2013 was Australia's hottest year, warm for much of the world say Bureau of Meteorology scientists | SMH: Climate change: It's hot - and not just in the kitchens of bickering MPs | Alex White (Guardian): Australia swelters under a sham climate change policy after hottest year on record

By Gerry Georgatos - courtesty of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - (December 27, 2013 - PART ONE - SCHAPELLE CORBY IS INNOCENT) Schapelle Corby is innocent. Ms Corby has been let down by the Indonesian legal system, by the Australian Government, by the Australian Federal Police and by Australia’s Customs Service. During the last few years it became my personal witness how broken justice is in this nation when I came across Indonesian children in Australian adult jails.

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - A million litres of radioactive slurry has contaminated Kakadu National Park from a burst tank at Ranger uranium mine. It is a significant toxic accident but it has surprisingly generated relatively minimal news coverage. It took the local Traditional Owners to break the news to Australia.

Civil society organisations abandoned the COP19 climate change negotiations in Warsaw on mass. Members from Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, Actionaid, Friends of the Earth, the International Trade Union Confederation (statement) and 350.org all started leaving the conference at 2pm. This is an unprecedented action, the first time several major civil society groups have staged a mass walkout.

Friends of the Earth International highlighted that the Warsaw Climate Change negotiations were failing, with Tension high in Warsaw talks as G77+China walk out. The role of Australia and reduced ambition of Japan  have been widely mentioned. Australia and Canada are seen as the major wreckers, but there has been substantial intransigence from much of the developed world to progressing the negotiations forward on finance, ambition, and a loss and damage mechanism. Poland's Coal Summit has shown the fossil fuel corporatism entwined in this COP with widespread dismay at the coal powered negotiations of COP19 and at UNFCCC official Christiania Figueres who gave the keynote speech at the coal summit 

Related: Democracy Now: "Nature Does Not Negotiate": Environmentalists Walk Out of U.N. Climate Summit in Warsaw | "Polluters Talk, We Walk": Civil Society Groups Abandon Warsaw Talks over Inaction on Global Warming | "We Have to Consume Less": Scientists Call For Radical Economic Overhaul to Avert Climate Crisis
Analysis: The Warsaw walkout and the Climate Movement

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Recently in Western Australia, an 86-year-old grandmother, an Aboriginal lady, was threatened with eviction for non-payment of a state-housing water bill. Her eviction has only been stalled by the intervention of Kimberley parliamentarian, Kija woman Josie Farrer. Recently, two Perth families, once again Aboriginal, with 9 children and 11 children were evicted from their homes.

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - photo, Palm Island kids, courtesy of NACCHO - http://thestringer.com.au/ - Last week we revealed the lie of $25 billion spent on Indigenous disadvantage, and several weeks ago we revealed that almost 1000 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders died from suicide throughout Australia between 2001 to 2010, and that we estimate this national epidemic is probably twice the reported numbers.

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/ - The amendments sought to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 by the Australian Government will give rise to the advent of public race hate, foment racial tensions and solidify rampant racism according to the majority of non-Anglocentric cultures in Australia.

More than 60,000 people are estimated to have rallied or marched for climate action across Australia in a demonstration that a significant number of people view climate change as a serious issue requiring substantive action from all levels of Government, including the Federal Government lead by cinservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The rallies were organised by GetUp, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The protest comes as the bills to dismantle Australia's carbon price and funding subsidies for renewable energy are introduced

Australia had the dubious priveledge of earning the first Fossil of the Day award at the United Nations climate talks in Warsaw, Poland. Civil society organisations confer the awards each day of the climate talks, and have been doing so since 1999.

Related: The Verb - Australia won't be missed | Australia the empty chair at the climate talks in Warsaw | Greenpeace protests at coal power stations as Warsaw Climate talks start | Dismay At The Coal Powered Negotiations of COP19 | Read more reports from COP19 Warsaw at Climate IMC

In a radio interview with Neil Mitchell, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that the Head of the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres, is "talking through her hat" for connecting the NSW bushfires with climate change and that "these fires are certainly not a function of climate change, they are just a function of life in Australia." It seems Mr Abbott is in denial on all the wildfire research done on the increase in fireweather and increase in frequency and intensity in bushfires both in Australia and globally.

Related: Raging Bushfires surround Sydney with early start to Fire season | Mega bushfire feared as State of Emergency declared in NSW | Guardian Australia: Australian prime minister denies 25 years of research linking climate change to bushfires.

Widespread October bushfires in NSW are unusual, but have happened before, such as in 1991. This year there was an Early start to Australian bushfires, record temperatures in early September.

It is now the 7th time this bushfire season a total fire ban has been declared in Sydney. Very Unusual. If the fire weather is this bad so early in the season, it can get worse over the coming months as Summer heats up, especially if we have extreme summer heatwaves similar to 2013.

Update: Sunday 20 October: Premier Barrie O'Farrell has declared A State of Emergency across NSW for 30 days as weather conditions are now forecast to be worse than anticipated. Indefinite Total fire bans, and increased powers for emergency personnel. The State Mine fire in the Blue Mountains has burnt 38,000 hectares and is burning on a broad front from Lithgow to west of Bilpin.