CLIMATE CHANGE DESPAIR & EMPOWERMENT
LINKS SITE
A PROJECT OF THE RAINFOREST INFORMATION CENTRE
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au
Please email us with additions

Heartfelt thanks to www.apeuk.org/ for granting us 4000 pounds for the Climate Change, Despair & Empowerment roadshow from the sales of their Rhythms del Mundo CD

PETITIONS

The Climate Movement
An online petition calling on the Australian Government to introduce laws that would put a price on greenhouse pollution, introduce a renewable energy target of 25% by 2020 and ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Citizen’s Climate Campaign believes that decision makers can be influenced by regularly writing short letters of concern. "If enough people do this, policies can change." Members of the campaign receive a monthly email with information about a particular climate change issue and contact details of a decision maker to write to. You can join the campaign by sending an email to climatez@aapt.net.au

GROUPS & COMMUNITIES

Climate Movement - Listing of Local Climate Action Groups across Australia

Rising Tide is a grassroots network of independent groups and individuals committed to taking action and building a movement against climate change.
The site includes news and reports about global days of action, resistances, and demonstrations from around the world. Also fact sheets, flyers, and things you can do yourself to reduce your impact.

Friends of the Earth
This website focuses on the link between global warming and human rights. The site includes briefing notes, a Citizens’ Guide to Climate Refugees, and actions you can take to join the campaign.

Yahoo Groups – Climate Oz
An Australian network against the root causes of climate change. You have to become a member to participate in the discussions.

Clean Energy for Eternity
We are a group of concerned individuals on the far south coast of New South Wales volunteering our time and effort to address climate change. Bega and Eurobodalla Shires have adopted local targets of 50% energy reduction and 50% renewable energy by 2020. Voluntary working groups will help us achieve these targets.

Relocalise
Relocalization is a strategy which aims to build societies based on the local production of food, energy and goods, and the local development of currency, governance and culture. So far 153 groups from around the world have signed up to this Post Carbon Society Network, an initiative of the America based Post Carbon Institute. Website contains forums, blogs and resources for local action and links to local groups.

Youth Climate Coalition
Building a Generation wide movement to stop dangerous climate change. Links to other youth climate change groups. Currently the AYCC steering committee is developing a training curriculum for all young Australians who want to get the skills, knowledge and inspiration to become effective climate advocates. The trainings will be in two sessions, 6 weeks apart, and cover topics including: Climate Science, Impacts and Solutions; The Politics of Climate Change; Developing a campaign strategy; Facilitating a meeting; Media Training; Developing a Theory of Change; and Public Speaking.

Global Climate Change Action
Hosted by 'Cyberactivist'. The website focuses on anti nuclear information dissemination, climate change activism, and aboriginal sovereignty. Sign the anti nuclear petition here, (one million signatures collected already) get information about Sovereignty Day 2007 Actions and the Palm Sunday Alliance (National Day of Action for a Peaceful and Nuclear-free Future, April 1st) Includes links and breaking media and chat forum.

Climate Change Balmain Rozelle Action Group - Good Example of what other local groups can do.
We are a non-partisan, apolitical group which is firmly rooted in the local community. We believe our greatest chance of success will come from inspiring people to act in their own backyard, more readily identifying with and owning both the problem and its solutions. We believe that small steps can lead to big changes and we hope to set an example for other communities.

Climate Action Network Australia
CANA is part of the global Climate Change Action Network. (CANA) is an alliance of over 30 regional, state and national environmental, health, community development, and research groups from throughout Australia. Includes many workable strategies for how Australia can reduce it's climate impact.

The Regeneration Project and Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) Campaign.
This is the website of an interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith. Their goal is to help people of faith recognize and fulfill their responsibility for the stewardship of creation. The IPL campaign is mobilizing a national religious response to global warming while promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation.

The Earth Ministry
Helping Individuals and Congregations Connect Christian Faith with Care for the Earth. Our mission is to inspire and mobilize the Christian Community to play a leadership role in building a just and sustainable future. resources for congregations and church leaders. American website.

Protecting Creation
People of faith acting together for climate justice. Advocacy campaigns, state campaigns, resources for congregations and individuals interested in a faith based approach to understanding and acting against climate change.

REPORTS

The Stern Review
Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economics Service and Adviser to the Government on the economics of climate change and development’s Report to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the Economics of Climate Change. He concludes that the scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change is a serious global threat, and it demands an urgent global response.

The Stern Review: Critical Notes on its Abatement Optimism
Brief indications of the reasons why Ted Trainer thinks the Stern Review is grossly misleading re the economic cost of abatement. For an outline of Trainer's forthcoming book "Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain Consumer Society (Springer 2007), see http://socialwork.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/D100.RE.cant.save.25.7.o6.html

Exxon Smoke and Mirrors
A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.

Climate Denial
This blog explores the topic of our deep and profound denial of climate change. It exposes the contradictions and hypocrisies of big business and the media, who continue to promote doubt about the global warming crisis, despite irrefutable evidence from the world’s foremost climate scientists. If it doesn’t make you laugh it might make you want to cry!

SOLUTIONS

Natural Resources Defence Council
NRDC works to shift the perception of global warming from abstract threat to pressing reality, and promote online activism. Includes a great solutions page.

The Apollo Alliance
The Apollo Alliance’s ten point plan is a groundbreaking new report which describes successful USA state-based clean energy solutions. It chronicles scores of proven clean energy solutions that are working in states across America. The report documents dozens of existing state-level policies that could be combined to provide a blueprint to end America’s dependence on foreign oil, promote clean fuels and create millions of good jobs.

Subsidies to Fossil Fuels are Undermining a Sustainable Future
This paper details how the 6.5 billion dollars which is given annually as subsidies to the Australian fossil fuels industry could be better spent on building a renewable energy industry an improving public transport systems.

Oil Depletion Protocol
The transition to a future of reduced oil supply will require the development of clean, reliable, and renewable energy sources and reduced oil production and consumption. The Oil Depletion Protocol will allow us to accomplish both - simply, conservatively, and cooperatively. It is a plan for a sensible energy future. Here you can educate yourself more about oil depletion and sign the protocol.

Australian Conservation Foundation
Everything you ever wanted to know about solutions to climate change can probably be found here.
see also Comprehensive new research commissioned by the Clean Energy Future Group finds that Australia's greenhouse pollution can halve by 2040 through energy efficiency and switching to currently available clean energy technologies.

Does Nuclear Energy Produce no CO2?
An eye opener for anyone who argues that nuclear power is clean power and will reduce carbon emissions. The site illustrates that every step of the nuclear power cycle involves the expenditure of energy derived from fossil fuels, which nuclear electricity cannot replace.

Natural Strategies
The Natural Strategies Group site proposes actions that reduce our individual impact on the environment and helps guide us towards sustainable living.

Green Power
Choose Green Power to cut your household Greenhouse emissions. There are also some good books listed at http://www.greenpower.gov.au/pages/Eduaction-Library.php

2006 Green Electricity Watch The Scorecard ranks every GreenPower product available in Australia and warns against the purchase of unaccredited ‘green’ electricity products.

World Wildlife Fund Australia
WWF-Australia's Clean Energy Future for Australia study outlines how Australia can meet its electricity needs through a combination of wind, biomass, natural gas and greater energy efficiency.

The Energy Bulletin
How to cool food and houses using passive solar ie just the sun, no electricity.

An Inconvenient Truth
Includes excellent curriculum aligned teaching resources designed for American primary and high school students, a forum, achievable actions we can all take, and resources for promoting the film. Links to local chapters and presenters of Al Gore’s Slideshow.

Australian Greenhouse Office - Department of the Environment and Heritage
These case studies are provided as examples of the types of actions that can be taken at a local level to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Nottingham Declaration
The Climate Change Action Pack explains how your local authority can reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and adapt to the climate changes that are already underway. The Pack provides detailed guidance for each of the 5 stages required to develop an Action Plan and will help support you whether you decide to address climate change for your own estate/corporate functions, the services you provide or for your community as a whole. UK resource.

SCIENCE

Real Climate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists. Some big names are involved with this project. The site includes a forum and an index of global warming themes. If you want to research the science of global warming, this is a great place to start.

The Global Commons Institute (GCI)
GCI has devised a greenhouse gas abatement methodology based on "Equity and Survival". Called "Contraction and Convergence" (C&C), this model is a science-based, global climate-policy framework. C&C has been widely referenced in the debate about achieving the objectives of the UN’s Framework on Climate Convention, and numerous civil society and faith groups are now actively lobbying the UK Government to have C&C adopted as the constitutional basis for avoiding dangerous future climate change.

Dr James E Hansen
Webpage of Dr James E Hansen, climate change scholar. You can find many of his publications here, including his key note speech The Threat to the Planet: How Can We Avoid Dangerous Human-Made Climate Change? for receiving the WWF Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal 2006.

Biofuelwatch
Biofuelwatch highlight the environmental impacts of the global biofuel market, especially the vast releases of greenhouse gases and considerable biodiversity losses they can cause. They campaign for regulation to ensure only sustainably-sourced biofuels can be sold in the EU.

Global Warming Greenhouse Effect
There is a lot of information on this site and links to everything you ever needed to know about the science of climate change.

JOURNALISM

Heat is Online
Ross Gelbspan is an investigative journalist and author of Heat - Solutions for a Burning Planet.
His homepage is an excellent resource. It includes articles, news, climate updates, and solutions to climate change.

The Climate Institute
Since the Climate Institute's creation it has been instrumental in moving climate change to the top of the international agenda. It has helped catalyze the US and global public, private and media interest in the climate change issue and assisted in identifying practical ways of achieving significant emissions reductions. Great source of facts and breaking news.

Global Public Media
Alternative media service broadcasting for a post carbon world.

The Climate Crisis Coalition
This website is like a noticeboard of what’s happening in the world of global warming activism. It includes breaking news, and some great links to audio and video files, including Ross Gelbspan, author of Boiling Point, speaking on Lateline. Compulsory viewing.

The Grist Mill
"How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic," a series by Coby Beck containing responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming.

The Thirteenth Tipping Point
Mother Jones is a legendary alternative magazine. History shows we are not born with wisdom, but that we evolve into it. Scientists have identified 12 tipping points of climate change, the Amazon Rainforest, North Atlantic Current, Greenland Ice Sheet, Ozone Hole, and so on. Each of these tipping points, if triggered, will initiate sudden catastrophic changes across the planet. From coral seas to vampire bats, the human condition, the scientific facts. Deep holistic thinking, and a question: what will it take to trigger the 13th tipping point, the shift in human perception from personal denial to personal responsibility?

Climate Indymedia
Climate Indymedia is a topic based independent media website established to spread news and grass roots activism on global warming. Includes forum topics and breaking news.

Rising Tide (RT) Aggregator
RT is a grassroots group of Newcastle (Australia) residents campaigning against the causes of human-induced climate change. Newcastle is the largest coal port (by export volume) in the world. The Rising Tide website has an awesome news aggregator.

Coal Mining Causing Earthquakes, Study Says
The most damaging earthquake in Australia's history was caused by humans, new research says. The magnitude-5.6 quake that struck Newcastle, in New South Wales, on December 28, 1989, killed 13 people, injured 160, and caused 3.5 billion U.S. dollars worth of damage
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070103-mine-quake.html

Source Watch
A project of the centre for Media and Democracy
The nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism, media "of, by and for the people." Our programs include PR Watch, a quarterly investigative journal; six books by CMD staff; Spin of the Day; the Weekly Spin listserv; and, Congresspedia and SourceWatch, part of our wiki-based investigative journalism collaborative to which anyone, including you, can contribute.

Greenpeace Australia
Campaign Successes and The Top Stories of 2006
2006 was the year in which climate change went mainstream and Australia's politicians struggled to rewrite policies and catch up with voter demands.
www.greenpeace.org.au (issues > climate change and clean energy > what we're doing > successes)

Clear the Air
An excellent American website with breaking news, reports, fact sheets, solutions. great resource.

Green Left Weekly - "Australia's leading weekly environmental and social justice newspaper - a progressive alternative to the corporate media."

POLITICS

Anthony Albanese
The website of the Federal Member for Grayndler, Shadow Minister for Environment and Heritage, Shadow Minister for Water. Includes the Labor Party’s Blueprint for Climate Change Reduction, Mandated Emission Reduction Targets, and arguments against nuclear power.

The Simultaneous Policy (SP)
SP is a peaceful political strategy to democratically drive all the world's nations to apply global solutions to global problems, including combating global warming and environmental destruction, regulating economic globalization for the good of all, and delivering social justice, peace and security, and sustainable prosperity.

EDUCATION RESOURCES

Climate Change Videos (and PowerPoints)
http://climatechangevideos.blogspot.com/
This is a "Theme Blog" which showcases videos (and PowerPoints) related to climate change from around the internet, many of these will play directly in your web-browser.
The Blog also allows visitors to leave comments or reviews about each video and suggest others. Visitors are also able to subscribe to the RSS feed so that they are automatically notified about new additions (in the same way as most standard Blogs)
This Blog compliments the "Climate Change" webpage on Shambles at http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/GeogP/climate/