Description:
Traditionally, the policing of protest has been a vexed and problematic issue. The contemporary policing of climate change protests and camps challenges police capability both to facilitate such protests and to maintain control and order. The case study of the policing of the September 2009 protest against the Hazelwood coal-fuelled power station in the Latrobe Valley presents a microcosm of the dilemmas faced by both police and protesters in negotiating effective and peaceful protest. The eclectic and disparate nature of the climate change protests based on affinity groups affronts the police bureaucratic structure. This article argues that police-protester dialogue and negotiation, although limited by traditional suspicions, polarised organisational structures and diverse mindsets, are vital for the successful facilitation of peaceful protest, especially in relation to ongoing climate change dissent against coal-fired power plants.
Description:
Traditionally, the policing of protest has been a vexed and problematic issue. The contemporary policing of climate change protests and camps challenges police capability both to facilitate such protests and to maintain control and order. The case study of the policing of the September 2009 protest against the Hazelwood coal-fuelled power station in the Latrobe Valley presents a microcosm of the dilemmas faced by both police and protesters in negotiating effective and peaceful protest. The eclectic and disparate nature of the climate change protests based on affinity groups affronts the police bureaucratic structure. This article argues that police-protester dialogue and negotiation, although limited by traditional suspicions, polarised organisational structures and diverse mindsets, are vital for the successful facilitation of peaceful protest, especially in relation to ongoing climate change dissent against coal-fired power plants.
Description:
On February 9, 2014, the town of Morwell in Victoria, Australia, was confronted with several bushfires, resulting in a blaze at the Morwell open cut coal mine adjacent to the Hazelwood power station. For 45 days, the local communities were impacted by smoke, ash, and reports of raised carbon monoxide levels. The duration of the crisis placed an unprecedented strain on the capacity of the community and the authorities to adequately respond. Many see Morwell as vulnerable to future events because it is surrounded by coal mines, power stations, forests, and pine plantations. Drawing on interviews from key stakeholders in the community and a detailed analysis of media reports and social media, this chapter examines the factors that both harm and promote community resilience. It emphasizes the complexity of resilience and the importance of communal narratives as community members react to and recover from traumatic experiences and unknown futures.
Description:
General Circulation Models (GCMs), based on the laws of physics, are regarded as the best tools available for the prediction of global climate, hundreds of years into future. However, the coarse spatial resolutions of present day GCMs do not allow the direct use of their outputs in hydrologic studies at the catchment level. The gap between coarse resolution GCM outputs and fine resolution hydroclimatic data needed at the catchment level, is bridged either by dynamic or statistical downscaling. Statistical downscaling has gained popularity owing to its simplicity and low computational cost. Although statistical downscaling possesses these advantages, there are shortcomings associated with both, the methods and also the GCM outputs used as the main input to the downscaling models. The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the issues associated with statistical downscaling of GCM outputs to hydroclimatic variables at the catchment scale. The following issues are discussed in detail in the paper: (1)outputs from GCMs offer a limited degree of certainty, due to the lack of theoretical robustness and incomplete understanding of various atmospheric processes; (2) the presence of a number of Greenhouse Gas emission scenarios with equal likelihood of occurrence leads to scenario uncertainty; (3) the incorporation of various climate indices, such as Southern Oscillation Index or Indian Ocean Dipole, may seem to be a way of improving the results of a downscaling model, but the unavailability of climate indices for the future and the presence of variants of indices due to different definitions and calculation procedures limit their use; and (4)outputs of downscaling studies can also vary with the statistical downscaling technique employed. Although statistical downscaling faces above issues, still it is regarded as a potential method for predicting future catchment hydroclimatology, under changing climate. However, the outputs of statistical downscaling studies should be used sensibly in any catchment scale studies.
Description:
The airline industry has been accused of being the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases, yet being environmentally friendly does not appear to be an issue very high on the current agenda of airlines, despite the extremely competitive industry they operate within. This exploratory study examined the existence of carbon offset schemes among airlines which operate into and within Australia and questioned the way in which customers are facilitated on these websites to purchase a carbon offset option for their flight. The study found that only four of the 59 airlines operating into and within Australia offer carbon offset schemes and those that do so provide low key promotion of the scheme, with the facilities to select the carbon offset flights located external to the airlines' Home Page. The paper suggests that airlines need to become more serious about carbon offset schemes as a means of capturing the current good-will among passengers and, if nothing else, to create a competitive edge. The paper also suggests that airlines could more effectively introduce carbon offset schemes by recognising them as new products being offered to existing markets. However, the paper also reflects on the responsibility of airlines to educate future customers about the environmental impacts of their air travel by suggesting ways to minimise their impact, including the need to reduce the frequency of flying.