Or how governments are dragging with the information chain anchored in the past

ParraCAN will be working hard to host a Community Climate Network conference in Sydney, 28th-29th of April, 2012. Watch out for details. Government Agencies and politicians should be attending and taking up the call for Climate Action, and get their knowledge reasonably up to date.  Its looking like yet another record hot summer.

One thing that inhibits a frequent blog, apart from the usual procrastination, despair and having much more fun escapist things to do, is the time spent just keeping up with amounts of alarming, yet professional and well sourced information that is already available online. How could I possibly add to any of this, say anything at all useful. Surely everyone read it and passed it on before me. I am way behind in the stuff that I would like to read and write about.

There is a time lag before those that gather the raw information, process it and publish, for instance in the scientific fields, the peer review, editorial and publishing process can be lengthy. Then there is the time taken for those that search and read the literature to integrate and digest the implications, and tell us what it all means. it has to compete with all the information already published, including misinformation. Books and reviews that present the meaning and connections on one or several themes take longer. Film and video media in summary messages are perhaps further behind in the mainstream media, because of institutional and corporate conservatism, unless when presenting the raw footage of new disasters. The physical climate systems has significant time lags as well. Present time carbon dioxide concentrations could result in at least 4 degrees of warming by the end of the century. We are not in a stable situation.

The information lag, surprising in these days of fast communications and internet, means that too many people, who may even work in government and corporate positions that involve environment and energy, have not heard of Beyond Zero Emissions, and are at least five to ten years behind on tracking the accelaration of global warming, if they give its dangers credence at all. BZE activists often find that government officials in high positions have not heard of the BZE stationary energy plan. Engineering students near graduation from our top Univerities have not heard of it. I asked one of my acquintance, who it turns out had even done an assignment on Concentrated Solar Thermal power with storage a few years ago. The answer was "Whats BZE?". We have to fix that. Our Unversities are not fully equipping students for the future.  We have gone past the speed of future shock.

The most important barrier slowing action on global warming and renewable energy is that very slow learning interface, our brains trust of people with power and influence. Particularly how long it takes for facts to become linked up to other facts, to form realistic implications and policy. No matter how fast twitter, email and facebook whiz round the planet, people in Government positions have been trained to filter it out, take months, years and decades on reviews. Politicians have learned to hold centuries old ideology and corporate interest barriers against the assault of new information and reason, and give most credence to what has already been officially sanctioned.

Here are some realities yet to filter through the official brains trust, or at least concerning what they are prepared to reveal what they know and believe.

This one is not too hard to believe. Recent published graphs of the Berkeley study of decadal averaged land surface temperature, shows at least 1 degree of warming in the last 50 years.

A lot more extra heat has been stored in the oceans, and GW has been busy melting the north polar ice cap.

"Global temperature has already exceeded the upper target of a +2°C relative to pre-industrial levels set by the international community at both Copenhagen and Cancun." ( See http://theconversation.edu.au/an-orwellian-climate-3243 , its worth a read. )

Thus, atmospheric greenhouse gas-forced energy rise (solar heat trapped in the atmosphere) has now reached levels equivalent of +2.3°C. This figure is masked only by a short-lived -1.1°C cooling effect, caused mainly by industrially emitted sulphur dioxide . .

. . .

Incredibly the +2°C target is still discussed in political and economic reports as if it hasn’t already been reached.

. . .

For example the recent report by the International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2011 - JUST RELEASED 9 NOVEMBER 2011. Such an important document, is only available to those with the ready corporate cash, and since my depleted funds have to last well into climate crisis, I am limited to reporting on what others have said about it.

Climate Spectator reports this:- (http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/tipping-point-fossil-fuels)

. . .

The IEA said overnight that the world is effectively heading for disaster. If it continues with business as usual, then the world is hurtling towards a 6°C global warming scenario, and the runaway impacts of climate change.

. . .

So the IEA also paints its 450 scenario – which it says gives the world an even bet at limiting global warming to 2°C . . .

Wait a minute, they want to be paid good money for this report? I am glad I did not buy it. At least the BZE plan is downloadable for free. The IEA report assumes out of date models, that equate the 450 ppm target upper limit for green house gases with a stable 2 degree of warming. But we are already effectively going past this now, at a level of 390 ppm for carbon dioxide alone.  James Hansen et al, have already drawn the safe upper limit line at 350 ppm. So the 450 limit is a maximum, not a stable state, which must be rapidly pulled back down to safety.

Still, for an official report, it is flashing its sirens red and loud, according to Climate Spectator,

. . .

It gives the world 5 years to turn the threat around. If action was delayed until 2017, then the “lock-in” of existing plants would exceed the world’s carbon budget.

Effectively, the only option after 2017 is to build emissions-free generation – renewables and nuclear. And not just that; the IEA says any investment in appliances, buildings and passenger and commercial vehicles after 2017 will also have to be emissions free, or require the early retirement of some existing plant or facility to create headroom for the new investment.

According to the IEA, both our means of transport and our energy grids are completely transformed. Improved fuel efficiency plays the biggest role in transport, but by 2035, electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids will account for one third of all vehicle sales. Biofuels also are a major contributor. . . .

This sounds a great deal like the BZE plans to me.

Rapid investment has to be made in Big Solar Themal, renewables and energy efficiency.

So I am sharing references to this on my humble pass it on blog, in the hope it will increase the chance that some brain-cloistered politician or public servant might one day get hit on the head by it.

Our current Australian state government concerns with mining coal and coal seam gas infrasture are totally maladaptive. Global warming? Beyond Zero Emissions. What are they? Given any government that is reasonably to date, that has paid any attention at all to environment in the last 20 years, they should be shaking in their shoes, and putting every effort into a transition of our economic infrastructure towards a zero carbon emissions future.