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This one's for Seamus, Eliza and Thomas

29/8/2019

10 Comments

 
PictureCr Michael Whelan and grandson Thomas
By Cr Michael Whelan
 
THERE are three reasons why I’m passionate about action on climate change. Their names are Seamus, Eliza and Thomas, and they’re my grandchildren. Little Thomas and his peers around the world have got more at stake in this business than anyone in this room. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about trying to turn this around because we are heading to disaster if we don’t.

​This is an incredibly important issue because we are facing an existential crisis in the world. Business as usual won’t do it. We’re already seeing the consequences of 1 degree of global warming. Locally we’ve lost almost 50 metres of coastline at Inverloch. Cowes East is under attack. What’s happening at Jam Jerrup is scaring the hell out of the locals.


It’s not just a Bass Coast issue but we need to play our role. The Bass Coast Action Network has lodged a petition with over 1100 signatures calling for local action on climate change. It shows strong community support for this initiative.
 
Using the term ‘emergency’ signals that business as usual won’t do it any more. The strategy is to start with local governments because it’s easier to find innovative councils to be early movers than it is to get state and national governments to respond.
A global movement
Bass Coast Shire becomes the 31st council in Australia to declare a climate emergency, joining Melbourne, Sydney and regional councils with similar coastal issues, including Noosa and Byron.  Globally, more than 900 jurisdictions – including the UK Parliament – have declared a climate emergency, committing to a range of actions to reduce carbon emissions.  
We need to actually incorporate climate change governance in everything we do. We have to ask what are the impacts on climate change of everything we do. Our audit committee already does risk assessment for finance, we need to do it for climate change.
 
We can’t under-estimate the impacts. The severe heat waves are occurring every year. One of the big insurance issues is the drying of footings from prolonged drought. Our rainfall is becoming increasingly unreliable.
 
Bass Coast was quite early in developing a climate action plan – 2014 – but it’s been honoured more in the breach than the observance. I haven’t found evidence of the reporting of our annual emissions, which is required under the action plan, or the development of a carbon plan. We need to do that and we need to do it quickly.
 
I see this going forward under the leadership of our CEO but this is a community plan we’re talking about. This is about the council consulting the community. It’s engaging with the people who have taken a strong interest and are here tonight, it’s about engaging with business, it’s about engaging with our farmers and agriculture. Everyone has a part to play. It’s not about being adversarial, it’s about being co-operative.
 
I quote Noel Hutley, SC, a barrister from Sydney who points out that directors are under an obligation to inform themselves of the risks of climate change, to disclose the risks as part of their financial reports and to take practicable steps to mitigate the risks. It’s happening all round the world.
 
There’s been a view that we don’t need to do that in local government.  In February council was briefed by Sarah Barker, the special counsel from Minter Ellison, who made it very clear that there is a strong expectation that council will undertake strong climate change governance.
 
We talk about the cost of climate change action. As was pointed out by Nicholas Stern back in early 2000s, and by Ross Garnaut in 2007, the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of action. We need to act and we need to act quickly. We need to play our role.
 
We need to say there’s hope. Otherwise we just give up. That’s what I’m saying with this. We go out there and look at what we CAN do. Don’t call it a battle, don’t call it a war, because that sort of adversarial stuff doesn’t help. We sell the hope and we enlist people onto this campaign.

This is an edited transcript of Cr Whelan’s introduction to a notice of motion to declare a climate emergency in Bass Coast.

The motion was passed 7-0 at the meeting of August 21. 
For: Crs Whelan, Rothfield, Kent, Le Serve, Ellis, Tessari and Fullarton.
​Abstained: Crs Larke and Brown. 
​
Picture
Cr Pamela Rothfield
“Is it within council’s remit to make such a decision? … The Local Government Charter states ‘The primary objective of a council is to endeavour to achieve the best outcome for the community having regard to the long term, cumulative effects of its decisions.’ If this is not one of those instances where we have to make a decision for the best outcome, I don’t know what is.”

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Cr Clare Le Serve
“The science is clear. It’s plain and it’s devastating. We’ve seen and learnt about its impacts on council’s assets and infrastructure, the impact on farming and our coastal vulnerability. We need to show leadership as a council. To do nothing would be irresponsible.”

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Cr Julian Brown
"I recognise that climate change is real and an important issue and we all have a role to play in addressing it …. I will not be voting against this motion because I believe the issue is so important but I will not be voting for it either because I think it is so poorly worded. Therefore I will abstain."

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Cr Stephen Fullarton
"Seventy odd per cent of our boundary is beaches. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room who’s spent more time on beaches than I have …. I support the motion."

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Cr Bruce Kent
“Last year I went diving in the Maldives. Every year the temperature shoots up by one degree in January. A couple of years ago it went up by one and a half degrees and it did it for six or seven weeks. The coral’s dead. It was so devastated. It is recovering, and I mention that because it shows that we’ve got hope. The earth can recover if we give it a chance.”

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Cr Les Larke
"In my opinion this motion fails on several grounds. It fails the smell test, which is an informal method of determining whether something is authentic, credible or ethical by using one’s common sense or sense of propriety. And it fails sections of the Local Government Act … We need to do something about climate change but we need to do it in a very strategic way, bringing with us the whole community not just 1000 people."

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Cr Geoff Ellis
"I believe this declaration will pass the pub test in any coastal town in this shire and the region. It’s an opportunity for us all to come together as we do in an emergency. If there’s a bushfire everyone runs to get a bucket. ... I think this is a good opportunity for us to come together as a community and do something for the good of humanity. It isn’t us and them, it’s just us. We’ve only got one planet."

10 Comments
Bron Dahlstrom
31/8/2019 02:39:04 pm

Thanks, Michael Whelan. Yes, the future of our planet is so important. Good article, but can you explain, please, how the Surf Parade concrete path takes the emergency into account. Sorry, I wasn't able to be at the council meeting, so maybe you voted against it.

Reply
Cr Geoff Ellis
31/8/2019 06:41:01 pm

Hi Bron,

The detail of the vote on the pathway is on page 67 of the draft minutes which are on the BCSC website at

https://www.basscoast.vic.gov.au/about-council/council-meetings

Reply
michael
31/8/2019 06:51:25 pm

Hi Bron Yes I did.

Reply
Samiro Douglas
31/8/2019 05:11:13 pm

Great work Michael and thank you to the councillors who supported. Proud of this decision.

Reply
Tricia O'Brien
31/8/2019 07:33:23 pm

Thank you to all those councillors who can see what we need really need for our future. Thank you also for being courageous and taking a stand on beginning to set standards for a more sustainable future. It is heartening to see enlightenment in council.

Reply
Daryl Hook
31/8/2019 09:28:01 pm

you led the way and other valuable Councilors joined in.We are lucky

Reply
John Coldebella
2/9/2019 07:32:39 pm

I would be interested to hear Cr Julian Brown's thoughts on how the wording of this motion might be amended and improved in order to bring it closer to something that his conscience would enable him to embrace. I would also be interested to hear Cr Les Larke expand on his concerns regarding the authenticity, credibility and ethics of this motion, as well as an explanation of how the motion fails sections of the Local Government Act.

Reply
phil
11/9/2019 01:39:27 pm

English Summer Failing To Meet Alarmist Expectations (Again)

Date: 02/08/19
Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That

After all of the fuss about a couple of days of sunshine in Britain, reality brings us back down to earth with the monthly CET figures:
image

Average mean temperatures for July ended up at 17.5C, meaning that last month was an unremarkable 45th warmest since 1660, tying with years like 1847, 1870 and 1923. It was also 1.3C cooler than July 1783.

This is known as CLIMATE CHANGE.

Taking both June and July together, this year’s ranking drops even further, to 82nd, in a tie with 1706 and 1878.

Top ranking goes to 1976, followed by 2006 and 1826:
image

With disappointing numbers like these, it is no surprise that the Met Office were so desperate to trumpet one day’s weather.

Reply
Phil
12/9/2019 07:27:49 am

By Dr Roy Spencer
Whether humans are the cause of 100% of the observed warming or not, the conclusion is that global warming isn’t as bad as was predicted. That should have major policy implications…assuming policy is still informed by facts more than emotions and political aspirations.

And if humans are the cause of only, say, 50% of the warming (e.g. our published paper), then there is even less reason to force expensive and prosperity-destroying energy policies down our throats.

I am growing weary of the variety of emotional, misleading, and policy-useless statements like “most warming since the 1950s is human caused” or “97% of climate scientists agree humans are contributing to warming”, neither of which leads to the conclusion we need to substantially increase energy prices and freeze and starve more poor people to death for the greater good.

Yet, that is the direction we are heading.

And even if the extra energy is being stored in the deep ocean (if you have faith in long-term measured warming trends of thousandths or hundredths of a degree), I say “great!”. Because that extra heat is in the form of a tiny temperature change spread throughout an unimaginably large heat sink, which can never have an appreciable effect on future surface climate.

If the deep ocean ends up averaging 4.1 deg. C, rather than 4.0 deg. C, it won’t really matter.

Reply
Ontario Goth Scene link
14/11/2022 06:10:48 pm

Greatt blog I enjoyed reading

Reply



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