Ruminations

The man who lost the Great Barrier Reef

Image source: www.abc.net.au

ABC news reports today why John Howard will go down as the most famous of Australian Prime Ministers. Paradoxically, having avoided making difficult decisions with spectacular consistency during his tenure as Prime Minster, he will surely have his wish to be remembered as one of the most readily identifiable of Australian leaders. Unfortunately for Howard, it will be for all the wrong reasons: all appalling record on the rights of indigenous Australians, an obsequious relationship with the imperialist US Bush administration and--to cap it all--a blatant disregard for the welfare of future generations of Australians on account of his refusal to manage environmental issues.

Beyond greenwash?

Image source: www.artnotoil.org.uk

The oil companies are invariably portrayed by the environmental movement as pariahs, and the root of all evil. Exxon, for example, does not make the slightest effort to do anything vaguely environmentally responsible, but others, like BP, do at least go through the motions. BP, now 'Beyond Petroleum' rather than 'British Petroleum' still spends billions drilling for oil, but there are signs that it is now seeking to do more than just invest in sleek ads that project a clean, green, image.

EDIE reports this week that BP has launched a carbon offset scheme for motorists. The targetneutral initiative 'will let motorists work out their emissions taking into account factors like the vehicle they drive, average mileage and fuel used and then pay to support carbon reduction schemes around the world in an attempt to cancel out their contribution to climate change.' According to BP, for the driver of an average car doing the average 10,000 miles per year, this is likely to cost somewhere in the region of £20. The EDIE article goes on to say that:

Participating projects will initially include a wind farm in Karnataka, India, and biogas schemes in several other Indian states as well as plans to extract methane from Mexican pig farms and burn it to produce electricity.

The scheme has been developed in consultation with leading NGOs and will be advised and monitored by an independent advisory and assurance panel chaired by Jonathon Porritt, founding director of Forum for the Future."

Apparently, the Green Party isn't impressed and has written the initiative off as 'greenwash', and not without some justification given that BP is listed as the second largest corporate emitter of carbon dioxide in the Carbon 100 Index, a study published by Trucost in June 2005 looking at the emissions of FTSE 100 listed companies.

A 'feel-good' scheme it may be, but if it raises community ecological consciousness, it's a step in the right direction at least.

Google hegemony

Image source: www.battellemedia.com

I learnt this week that the Google company motto is: "Don't Be Evil" (perhaps a thinly disguised jibe at Microsoft!). I personally use this search engine many times each day and would be lost without it, but I can't help but be a little concerned by the juggernaut nature of this company, and its apparent preparedness to collaborate with 'evil empires'.

After listening to a podcast by Background Briefing the other day entitled Googlemania [transcript is located here], my wariness has increased. The most useful item in this podcast was the reference to EPIC -- a 'must see' film produced by the Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson. It runs for 8 minutes and describes the state of the media industry in the lead up to the year 2014.

Carbon trading has arrived

Image source: www.wri.org

I listened to an excellent podcast from ABC's Background Briefing the other day. Entitled: 'The rise of the carbon traders', it gives an excellent overview of the current state of play in this rapidly emerging market, created to address the growing problem of global warming. The audio runs for 49 minutes, and the program also comes with a transcript. The essence of the story is that companies could find themselves financially exposed unless they start generating carbon credits (e.g. planting trees, building wind farms). As the pressure to reduce emissions becomes more intense, and as other countries join with the Europeans in introducing a carbon trading scheme, the market will vote with its feet and it is only a matter of time before a large pension fund announces that it has sold stock in a company because of the risk associated with its poor carbon performance.

The fact is that, some day soon, even the climate change recalcitrants like the US and Australia will have no choice but to regulate, and all of a sudden the atmosphere can't be used for free any more. Some large companies are already operating in the carbon trading market without being compelled to as part of a risk management strategy. They see the writing on the wall, and they don't want to see their share price fall as fund managers start offloading their stock. Interestingly, the state governments in Australia are not waiting for Fossil Fuel Howard to act, just as the Governator is not waiting for Dubya.

Climate porn

Image source: BBC news

Apocalyptic visions of climate change used by newspapers, environmental groups and the UK government amount to "climate porn" according to the (left-leaning) Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Apparently, the over-use of alarming images is a "counsel of despair" making people feel helpless, but more sinisterly, they (the newspapers, I suppose) are using cataclysmic imagery partly for commercial gain. How very quintessentially British, old chap! I say, let's not be too bold, after all, we don't want to worry anyone. As for scare-mongering to sell newspapers ... well, I'd hardly put the Independent and the Financial Times in the gutter press category. If this is porn, give me more of it. It beats standing naked baying at the moon trying to convince people the planet is in trouble.