Recommended video & resources repository

This repository recommends and repeats thought provoking resources about poverty reduction, climate change, environmental sustainability and human justice issues. Many of these problems are global problems, but they are experienced at the local level. Videography can highlight local-level problems and solutions, showcase applicable best practices, communicate distant realities across time and space, and inspire coordinated policy interventions. Some resources were used in my university teaching.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions

Chevron, Exxon and BP among companies most responsible for climate change since dawn of industrial age, figures show

Interactive - which fossil fuel companies are most responsible?

Excerpt of article by Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, quoted verbatim from The Guardian, Thursday 21 November 2013 03.07 AEST. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change

The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.

The companies range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and government-run firms.

The analysis, which was welcomed by the former vice-president Al Gore as a "crucial step forward" found that the vast majority of the firms were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal, found the analysis, which has been published in the journal Climatic Change.

"There are thousands of oil, gas and coal producers in the world," climate researcher and author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute in Colorado said. "But the decision makers, the CEOs, or the ministers of coal and oil if you narrow it down to just one person, they could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two."

Half of the estimated emissions were produced just in the past 25 years – well past the date when governments and corporations became aware that rising greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal and oil were causing dangerous climate change.

Many of the same companies are also sitting on substantial reserves of fossil fuel which – if they are burned – puts the world at even greater risk of dangerous climate change.

Climate change experts said the data set was the most ambitious effort so far to hold individual carbon producers, rather than governments, to account. (... article continues ...)

Read entire article at: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change

Why We Don’t Care About Saving Our Grandchildren From Climate Change

A new study shows that human beings are too selfish to endure present pain to avert future climate change. That's why we need win-win solutions now

Carbon Policy; Intriguing article by Bryan Walsh 21 October 2013;

Excerpt below cited verbatim from Time, Science & Space: http://science.time.com/2013/10/21/why-we-dont-care-about-saving-our-grandchildren-from-climate-change/

You want to know what the biggest obstacle to dealing with climate change is? Simple: time. It will take decades before the carbon dioxide we emit now begins to have its full effect on the planet’s climate. And by the same token, it will take decades before we are able to enjoy the positive climate effects of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions now. (Even if we could stop emitting all CO₂ today, there’s already future warming that’s been baked into the system, thanks to past emission.) But we will feel the economic effects of either emitting or restricting CO₂ right now, in real time. While we can argue about the relative cost of reducing CO₂ emissions now — just as we can argue about the economic effects of climate change in the future — it should be clear that any attempt to restrict CO₂ emissions enough to make a dent in future climate change will cause some present-day economic pain. The global economy is still so dependent on relatively inexpensive fossil fuels that a quick transition to renewable sources would likely be costly in the short term. (See Naomi Klein’s 2011 piece in The Nation for a fairly clear-eyed view of what truly radical climate policy would mean.)

What that means, in effect, is that climate policy asks the present to sacrifice for the future. Human beings tend not to be very good at that kind of planning, even when their own future selves stand to benefit — a study this year found that...

Read entire article at: Study Shows That Human Beings Are Too Selfish to Fix Climate Change | TIME.com http://science.time.com/2013/10/21/why-we-dont-care-about-saving-our-grandchildren-from-climate-change/

Monday 18 November 2013

Five warning signs Tony Abbott is turning Australia into a reckless charco-state

By Alexander White: Is Australia a risk of becoming the coal equivalent of a petro-state. Here are five warning signs.

This short text excerpt and photo are quoted verbatim from The Guardian, 17 November 2013:

"Today, tens of thousands of people around Australia rallied for action on climate change.

The rallies were organised by a coalition of environmental and social advocacy groups, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the United Firefighters Union, and Get Up, in protest to the Abbott government's moves to scrap the carbon price, abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, cut funding for the CSIRO, ignoring the Climate Change Authority on carbon pollution emissions, and much more besides.

This week, federal parliament sat. We finally were able to see the shape of the Abbott-led Liberal-National government. The extent of their climate denialism is becoming more evident.

It seems that Abbott is intent on turning Australia into a charco-state — a nation that pursues economic riches from coal, gas and other fossil fuels no matter the social or environmental cost. A charco-state is the coal equivalent of a petro-state, a country where the economy is dominated by oil interests and where the government is both highly dependent on oil tax revenues and deeply infiltrated by oil-industry interests.

Australia is at risk of becoming a charco-state. Here are five warning signs" [...]

1. Ignoring the Climate Change Authority's recommendation on carbon pollution reductions
2. Australia "missing in action" at COP Warsaw climate negotiations
3. Starving Australia's renewable energy industries
4. Handing over environmental powers to the states
5. Demonising climate action as "socialism"

Short text excerpt and photo quoted verbatim from The Guardian, 17 November 2013:

Read entire article here:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2013/nov/17/tony-abbott-climate-denier-coal-socialism

Friday 15 November 2013

The Pacific Adventures of the Climate Crab

This film goes by the name "The Pacific Adventures of the Climate Crab".

The animation is part of a larger information-kit compiled to educate communities and NGO's in the Pacific regarding the threat of El Niño and La Niña and climate change. "The Pacific Adventures of the Climate Crab" aims to assist communities to better prepare for disasters in the region. The film focuses on El Nino and La Nina events in the region and how we influence rainfall, cyclone risk and sea levels especially in the Pacific region.

Produced by EyeSpy Films
Producer: Shannon Owen
Director & Principal Animator: Jamie Clennett
Assistant Animator: Lindy Lou
Mastering: Oliver Clifton
Sound Design & Mix: Mark Kellow
Additional Music: Mark Kellow
Concept Art: Jamie Clennett & Joe Siri
Additional Artwork: Bianca Tweed & Lindy Lou
Climate Crab Animation project team: Philip Malsale, Salesa Kaniaha, Rebecca McNaught, Jill Rischbieth, Brad Murphy, Christopher Bartlett and Ula Majewski.
Narrator: Pearson Vetuna

MUSIC
‘6925′
Written by Stanleyson Antas
Performed by Stan and the Earth Force
Courtesy of Easy Rock Steady, Vanuatu

Pentecost tamtam beat
Courtesy of the Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta, Port Vila

Cook Island Drumbeats
Courtesy of Te Korero Maori Cook Island Dance Troupe

http://vimeo.com/69598441

Thursday 14 November 2013

Send a Message to the UN: Haiyan is a Wake-Up Call

Last week, Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines — and left a path of destruction and tragedy in its wake; more than 10,000 people are feared dead.

Governments are meeting in Warsaw over the next two weeks for the annual UN climate negotiations. This ritual has dragged on for years without conclusion, largely because the great powers have done so little.

Let’s send a message to UN delegates to increase ambition and action. Our team will deliver your messages to UN delegates gathered in Poland.

And please do donate what you can to direct relief efforts to help those in need.

http://act.350.org/sign/haiyan

Monday 11 November 2013

Fighting the fuel giants for a fully renewable future

Tackling the world’s most powerful corporations, whose interest it is to continue consuming fossil fuels, is a formidable but essential task

Antony Loewenstein: theguardian.com, Friday 25 October 2013 15.50 AEST

The viability of a fossil fuel future is rarely connected to the human rights abuses required to sustain it. How often do we think about where oil and gas is obtained? Are the Europeans or Americans any more aware? This deliberate depoliticisation of our energy present, by the vast majority of politicians, journalists and self-described public intellectuals, is leading to an environment that is both unsustainable and dangerous for the planet.

Read whole article here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/25/climate-change-exxon-fossil-fuel

UK universities urged to pull cash from fossil fuel giants

Anti-carbon divestment campaign targets £5bn of British funds

Damian Carrington: The Observer, Sunday 27 October 2013 08.25 AEST

An international campaign to urge large institutions to dump fossil fuel investments reaches the UK this week, following rapid success in the US.

The year-old divestment campaign, Fossil Free, has grown even faster than similar efforts that once targeted apartheid, tobacco and arms manufacturers. It now aims to focus attention on the £5bn invested in coal, oil and gas by the endowment funds of UK universities. The move comes as financial giants such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are starting to take seriously the prospect that global action to reduce carbon emissions could leave two-thirds of the world's proven fossil fuel reserves unburnable and worthless. (... article continues ...)

Read whole article here: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/27/fossil-fuel-divestment-campaign-uk