All articles
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President Obama must do more
Yesterday afternoon at Georgetown University, President Obama plans to announce a series of "steady, responsible steps" to tackle climate change. It appears that the president will finally begin to make good on his climate promises, but to truly meet his obligation to future generations, this must be the foundation -- not the final act --…
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The climate change guilt trip
The battle against global warming should not be about judging people’s every choice. Originally posted on Los Angeles Times, 2 June 2013 A friend recently returned from a camping trip in the Sierra Nevada. His eyes shone as he described the opalescent sky, the vitality of wildlife in spring and the fun he’d had playing…
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Australian coal exports: a climate change boomerang
The Australian continent might be about 4,000 km wide from east to west, but even the far west coast cannot escape the winds of Cyclone Rusty and the alarming impacts of climate change caused by coal mining, such as the planned Galilee Basin project, in the nation's east.
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Munmorah made me the criminal I am today
This week saw a small step taken towards the energy revolution in Australia as Munmorah, one of the oldest and dirtiest coal power stations in the country, announced its closure. Munmorah is near the New South Wales central coast and has been burning black coal since 1967, before Greenpeace was even founded. It had already…
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Macken Sense: How change happens…..
Everyone from the fossil fuel industry to Greenpeace’s own Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, has conceded Rio + 20 was a total waste of space. Naidoo’s take on it was pretty simple: ”Rio has turned into an epic failure. It has failed on equity, failed on ecology and failed on economy.” Apart from that it was…
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Launching Changing Climates: a Greenpeace photo exhibition
We couldn’t have picked a better summers evening to launch our Changing Climates photo exhibition. The backdrop was Sydney’s beautiful Botanical Gardens and by sunset the food and wine were flowing. The speakers were Julian Burnside AO QC and our very own climate campaigner John Hepburn. Never mind the race that stopped the nation, this…
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Pip on P.O.P (price on pollution)
My name’s Patricia Penn (or Pip, if you like) and I’ve been a Greenpeace volunteer for about 5 years. Perhaps you’ve seen the current “Australia Says Yes” TV commercials calling for urgent support of a carbon tax. I’m the ‘grannie’ retiree in that! I’m in my eighties now and an ex-freelance radio journalist. Now I…
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Friday the 13th a horror day for solar
It’s Friday the 13th and the New South Wales Government has just managed to come out with an announcement that perfectly captures the date’s reputation for doom and misfortune. Today, the newly elected O’Farrell Government announced that it was immediately ending the main policy that had supported the solar panel industry for the past two…
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We must embrace a clean energy future
Between 2000 and 2002, I was part of a Greenpeace team that mounted a global campaign to stop the transport of mixed oxide (MOX) plutonium based nuclear fuel and radioactive waste across the world, and through the Pacific. Protests against various transports happened in the UK, France, South America, South Africa, in the Tasman Sea…
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3 billion reasons to be hopeful
We’re getting into the meaty end of Professor Ross Garnaut’s papers and presentations on carbon pricing. Today he released the seventh of eight papers, after which he will report to Prime Minister Gillard with recommendations about how to structure a carbon price policy. Today’s presentation was all about low-carbon technology innovation: basically, how we should…