The following YouTube presentation is taken from the soon to be release book ‘Letters from 2030’
Leon Tolstoy once wrote – People were not inclined to take their situation with any degree of seriousness: on the contrary they became even more frivolous, as is always the case with people who see a great catastrophe approaching … they argue that it is too depressing to think of the danger since it is not in man’s power to foresee everything and avert the general march of events, and it is better therefore to shut one’s eyes to the disagreeable until it actually comes, and to think instead of what is pleasant.

The Reality is a future we must change for all who will inherit the future we have left them, my children, your children and theirs.

The Reality is that those with vested interests to protect (big oil and coal; amongst others) have the status quo to protect. They have successfully done this with misinformation about climate change, as others have done in the past. :– Smoking is not addictive or a heath hazard!

The Climate Reality Project is to raise awareness of a need for collective understanding that the single (multiple) ‘extreme weather events’ around the world over recent times are related to a change in climate, directly resulting from the pollution of our atmosphere by the burning of once safely stored carbon (fossil fuels ) along with the increase of other greenhouse gases resulting from positive feedbacks linked with these emissions. We have entered unknown and very dangerous territory with our giant chemical experiment with the atmosphere.

Join with us now on this global action day to ask those still sitting on the inactive fence of comfortable complacency, to demand action from our policy makers, to move to a future, safe, for those who will inherit what we are leaving behind; my children and yours.

Join us in the live discussion

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By then, Perth and the South-West would become solely reliant on water supplied from the already stressed Gnangara Mound aquifer and the Kwinana desalination plant, director Jorg Imberger said.

Even using an optimistic calculation that 35 gigalitres (35 billion litres) of rainwater would flow into the city’s dams – far greater than the 13 gigalitres last year – the dams would run dry.

“(Even) given recycled water, less water use, pumping the surface aquifer at Gnangara Mound a little bit more and hoping for rain, we’ll basically have no water left at the end of summer 2012,” Professor Imberger said.

The comments confer with the national Climate Commissioner’s first report released yesterday, which warns that water availability will be at great risk before the end of the century due to changing rainfall patterns.

WA’s South-West region was already “drying out” and all projections showed no improvement, the report by Professor Will Steffen said.

“Rainfall is the main driver of run-off, which is the direct link to water availability,” the report says.

“Hydrological modelling indicates that water availability will likely decline in south-west Western Australia.”

Perth’s dam capacity is already below 25 per cent and only 10 per cent of that is drinkable.

WA Water Commission figures show the average amount of rainfall flowing into the dams has dramatically declined since 1974:

1911 – 1974 – 338 gigalitres

1974 – 2000 – 117 gigalitres

2001 – 2005 – 92.4 gigalitres

2006 – 2010 – 57.7 gigalitres

“It’s raining less but the reduction into reservoirs has reduced even more because the vegetation is sucking up the rest (due to deforestation),” Professor Imberger said.

“Between 30-40 per cent of that reduction is due to climate change. The remainder is down to land clearing – trees are not (there to) recycle water the way they used to be.”

But a Water Corporation spokesman said it was too early too predict how much water would be left in the dams by early next year.

He said over the past 10 years the dams had averaged 100 billion litres of water per year, although last year only 13 billion litres flowed.

Rainfall flows into the dams had been getting later and later each year but it already started this year.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the Perth metropolitan area recorded only 59 per cent of its average annual rainfall last year.

A record hot summer brought no relief and so far this year, less than 50 millimetres of rain has fallen in Perth.

Professor Imberger said the state government’s only option to avoid running out of drinking water was to immediately bring other sources online.

That included expanding use of the Yarragadee aquifer in the South-West, doubling capacity of the second desalination plant at Binningup – due to come online by the end of the year to provide 45 gigalitres of water – to 100 gigalitres, and improving water recycling.

“Of this really serious situation nobody seems to be doing something about it,” Professor Imberger said. “Maybe they’re just hoping all this is going to go away.”

Several WA water experts have recommended tapping further into the Yarragadee aquifer to ease pressure on Gnangara Mound, which stretches from Gingin, north of Perth, to the Swan River.

The south-west aquifer stores about 1000 gigalitres and could provide three times as much drinking water as the Kwinana desalination plant, according to Professor Imberger, but the government has so far resisted using it due to opposition from locals.

Professor Imberger said planting thousands of new trees in south-west WA also would help boost future rainfalls.

The state government did not respond to inquiries about how it was managing Perth’s drinking water supply.

Source WA Today

Futher Reading – Perth’s Water Wars

Read the following and join her and the Foundation to demand the Grand Canyon is not exploited for destructive Uranium mining. -

Save the Grand Canyon from Uranium Mining

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Suzanne Sparling.  While I am a co-founder of SEN4Earth.org and the Greenhouse Neutral Foundation’s Executive Director of Operations, USA, I’m also a simple person, someone who cares and has a passion to make a difference.

After moving to Arizona almost 7 years ago, I immediately fell in love with the beauty of the area. Shortly afterward, I began searching for avenues to be able to make a difference with regard to environmental issues. While working with the Greenhouse Neutral Foundation, I became the U.S. Executive Director. My work with the Foundation led to a joint inspiration of SEN4Earth.org, co-Founded by Gregory Hilbert and myself.  We created it with the vision to help others to not only be further educated about issues but to also arm them with information, encouragement, and the ability to take action. Though I care deeply about many causes, my primarily concern is with environmental issues. My love of Arizona and passion for environmental activism sparked the Worldwide Campaign to Save the Grand Canyon.

Simply put, I want to make a difference in the world and help others see that they can make a difference too. Every change we make toward sustainability, conservation, and environmental awareness and implementation of changes to achieve those goals – no matter how large or small – matters.

I’m writing to you today to request your organization’s support and promotion of the Worldwide Campaign to Save the Grand Canyon. We are in a critical time crunch. The deadline for public comment is May 4, 2011. At that time, it will be decided whether a new 20 year ban will be enacted or if the mining companies will be permitted to move forward with the toxic contamination and destruction of one of the most incredible places in the world.

When Change.org contacted me directly about the petition I have on their site, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. With their assistance and emailing of their members, signatures skyrocketed from approximately 1100 as of April 4, to over 40,000 as of the writing of this message.

Change.org News Release:
http://news.change.org/stories/razing-arizona-citizens-fight-to-protect-the-grand-canyon-from-uranium-mining

SEN4Earth.org Blog Update:
http://sen4earth.org/articles/2011/04/06/will-the-grand-canyon-survive/

I implore you, please help us succeed with this campaign. I’ve been canvasing the petitions for signatures since August 2010. You may find the petitions here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/worldwide-campaign-to-save-the-grand-canyon
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/worldwide-campaign-to-save-the-grand-canyon-take-action/

If your organization is able to assist us with a news, blog or any other post, publication, or email campaign to your members, please don’t hesitate to send me a link and/or information so that I can show others your support and link back to your site.

Please help us save the Grand Canyon and all the millions of lives dependent upon it.

Thank you,
Suzanne Sparling

In the 60’s activists of the day changed the World. Today more than ever we have at our fingertips the tools to get the job done! We now have Twitter where we can network and get our messages for change out to thousands; and activism websites such as Care2.com where we can start petitions and network with like minded people from across the World. People who have said “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” People just like you that have started as a single voice in the wildness and shouted so that others can hear and join you in the call for change.

I too have become an activist and feel the need to inspire others to join us. Your story can reach and inspire others.

On December 22^nd 2008 the following story appeared in OpEdNews ‘Interview with an Activist – Are you one?’ Read the feature and then allow me to hear your story of your journey to Activism. It will then feature on the Greenhouse Neutral Foundations website to inspire others.

Send me an email to BobWilliamson@greenhouseneutralfoundation.org and I’ll be in touch to hear your story of changing the World to a better place.

Follow me on Twitter @ZEROGreenhouse

Along the isolated coastline of northern Tanzania there is a 90 kilometre strip between Moa, Kwale, Tanga, Tongoni, Kigombe and Pangani. Here there is something that can be done with your help, to save from extinction the Hawksbill Turtle. With your help the Tanzania Environmental Conservation and Social Economic Development Association (TECSEDA) can educate key team leaders to take the message into the broader community and eliminate many of the causes of death of these unique turtles.

The Hawksbill turtle is listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union. It is the only species in its genus, which makes it so much more important to save.

Justin Damian pictured here from TECSEDA made contact with the Greenhouse Neutral Foundation to raise much needed funds to run the education campaign

With your help and a small donation directly to TECSEDA at KCB Bank Tanzania Limited, Account no: 3300440998 Swift code: KCBLTZTZ You can make a difference or you can contact Justin at tecseda@rocketmail.com for further information.

Please give so that these local inhabitants can learn how to live and coexist with this unique and very special species. 

Press On

Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.

Talent will not.

Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not.

Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not.

The world is full of educated derelicts.

Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.

I look at that quotation almost every week at some point, when I take up a pen to put a note onto my desk pad to remind me to do something. So it’s a constant reminder to me why I keep pushing on the issues of climate change and a safe future, despite getting nowhere.

To be totally honest I didn’t think world leaders would agree on global emissions reduction targets for the world at Copenhagen in 2009 or Cancun in 2010. I didn’t think they would because the vast majority of the world’s population don’t want them to. To reduce emissions means that you and I, and everyone else in the developed and fast developing world, will need to agree to reduce our own consumption. Even if I agree to do that, will you?

Now you are reading this most likely, because you are a person with an interest in the environment and where we are inevitably headed. But if your politicians tell you must stop buying, you must stop driving, you must stop using energy, you must reduce the amount of water you use, you must pay more so that we can fast track renewable energy, you must stop flying, you must not take that overseas holiday and you must stop asking that the world gives you more, will you support them? ……..Well?

So you voted them in and you can just as easily vote them out; if they hurt YOUR hip pocket. So will they go to these climate change conferences? Yes; and as they have done at all the conferences so far and all those that will follow on, they will agree on one thing only….. to disagree.

However with all things that took a global movement, or even a national movement to make change, perseverance and determination alone were omnipotent.

I fear though that time is fast running out for the decisions to remain in our hands on decarbonising our lives and that unless we agree to agree very soon, the shit will hit the fan.

What of the environmental movement; are we wrong to keep striving, keep fighting, keep persevering to make change, when it seems, all is against us? This is a question I don’t know the answer to. The reason I’m not sure is, that even though there is a growing awareness of the urgency we face, there is a bigger barrier we are up against. Complacency of the majority, overrides the perseverance and determination of the few. The environment movement itself has many amongst it that talk the talk, but refuse to walk the walk. Maybe you are amongst them. I wrote in the introduction to the book ZERO Greenhouse Emissions, which more than likely you haven’t bought and read, so I’ll put the excerpt here;

This book is a cautionary tale for an urgent call to arms, but also a message of hope—that with collective action, we can change our future. There is however one essential lead actor who will determine the success or failure of this book and our planet’s future: you—and without you, there will be no success or happy ending.

I was once told that although the powers that be (policy and decision makers) saw the value and importance of the message we were presenting to them, they failed to see it as significant. I was told that unless this situation were to change and the message were to move from important to significant, not much more could be expected to happen. As public and political agendas shift from one focus to another, from powerful nations to the poor and impoverished, from issues of fossil fuel/oil security to issues of terrorism, from pollution, ecosystem damage, and species extinction to climate change and global warming, from disaster and displacement to water scarcity, from rising sea levels to extreme storms to drought, we are diverted from the main serious, important and significant issue—us. The leaders of nations and industry pass on their myopic view to us. We have been preconditioned to have a preoccupation with self, and we prefer to see the issues involving others as important rather than significant.

We need not reinvent the wheel; we need to reinvent ourselves. I firmly believe man has the brilliance to solve each and every one of the many pressing, immediate, and significant challenges that are ahead. Unless we see these as self-imperatives and collectively take responsibility for our actions, they will be left up to a small band of others to solve. I doubt the solution will come from them alone. Feel no guilt for being part of the problem, but feel responsible and inspired to be part of a solution. A few great men and women may start out being the power of one, but no single great man, no single great woman, from the start of history or into the future, will make a change without collective will.

We need collective will, collective effort, and collective vision, for our collective future. You and yours. Me and mine. Them and theirs.

But it’s only your choice.

END Excerpt.

In closing this social commentary, here are some questions you may wish to answer.

Did equality for women start and finish with Emily Pankhurst?

Did segregation in South Africa finish when Mandela was imprisoned?

Did civil rights become achieved with the bill of rights?

Was slavery truly abolished with the vision of MLK?

Did the war on discrimination end with the JFK speech?

Will the fight for climate change end with Obama’s speeches?

Will the whaling stop in Antarctica when the Sea Sheppard sails?

Will the dolphin slaughter in the Cove end because we say it should?

Will the climate change because we stop protesting?

Will there be any change if we do?

Will there be any change if we don’t?

So …….Perseverance is why I am an activist

Unlike San Francisco’s landmark ban, which went into effect in November 2007, the Maui mandate includes both compostable and noncompostable plastic bags, presumably because the marine life that is at risk from swallowing or being tangled in them is not aware of the difference. The Kaua’i ordinance permits “biodegradable” plastic bags — which means they contain “no polymers derived from fossil fuels, and will decompose at a rate comparable to biodegradable material” — but the Web page of the county’s Public Works Department notes “there are currently no bags that meet the definition outlined in the law.” The Kaua’i department page also states:

Solid materials, typically waste, that has found its way to the marine environment is called marine debris. It is known to be the cause of injuries and deaths of numerous marine animals and birds, either because they become entangled in it or they mistake it for prey and eat it.

The world’s “great garbage patch” can be found floating between Hawaii and San Francisco. This garbage patch is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and thousands of pounds of our discarded trash, mostly plastics.

Under the new laws, which include the islands of Lāna’i and Moloka’i (and technically Ni’ihau), vendors are allowed to give away or sell paper bags with high recycled content as well reusable bags. Some exceptions allow plastic bags for selling meat and other limited uses.

For visitors, it’s good to know that Long’s Drugs (as the chain is still called in Hawaii) and the islands’ major grocery stores all have brightly colored bags, many with Hawaiian-inspired designs, that make great souvenirs as well as more environmentally friendly totes. The Outrigger hospitality group was also one of the early adopters of dispensing free reusable bags, providing them to guests of Ohana Hotels and Outrigger-managed condos, creating a great stealth advertising campaign by those who take them home.

Plastic bags will remain in use in other parts of the state. According to Hawaii Health Guide, “Ex-Mayor Harry Kim vetoed the Big Island ban in 2008 after it was approved by Hawaii’s County Council, and Oahu deferred a ban in 2009, stating among the reasons that the plastics were converted to energy at Oahu’s power plant.”

Nevertheless, I’m hopeful this move to reduce plastics in the ocean and Hawai’i landfills becomes another of the top travel trends of 2011. Perhaps the islands will also follow San Francisco’s example in banning plastic foam (a/k/a Styrofoam) boxes and cups. I’d love to order more of the delicious plate lunches without worrying that I was adding to the landfill as well as my waistline.

Share your thoughts about what environmental iniatives you’d support as a visitor to Hawai’i in the comments field, or by e-mailing me at hawaii.insider@gmail.com, and I’ll include those in a future post. Mahalo!

Also you can follow the Hawaii Insider of Twitter!

STOPlasticBags is thrilled with this major step forward and calls on all other Islands of Hawaii to follow this great initiative. Follow STOPlasticBags on Twitter and sign the petition to Ban the Bag here……. SIGN NOW!

The scientific community has long agreed that our dependence on fossil fuels inflicts massive damage on the environment and our health, while warming the globe in the process. But beyond the damage these fuels cause to us now, what will happen when the world’s supply of oil runs out? In a new video series from The Nation magazine and On The Earth Productions, Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, Nicole Foss, Richard Heinberg and other scientists, researchers and writers explain.

Visit TheNation.com for more videos in this series

Clearly the water situation for those dependant solely on scheme water for their daily supply is unsustainable for the future.

Recently in a statement widely reported in the local press, the Water Minister Graham Jacobs said “I’m not into talking about semantics about climate change or whatever. What I’m about is the responsible management of the water resource.” This statement had come about when he was reported to have requested that the Water Corporation remove references to climate change in documents to him.

Last year the Water Corporation launched a campaign ‘Water Forever’ a 50 year strategic plan, heavily advertised. They clearly based their plan on data available at that time. Yet they also clearly didn’t get it right!

The question to be asked should be why not? As the graph shows for the period

1911 to 1974 the average is stated as 338 gigalitres (GL)

1975 to 2000 – 177 GL,

2000 to 2005 – 92.4 GL

2006 to 2010 – 57.7 GL.

Is this not a drying change for those dependant on water supplied by them?

The winter of 2010 will go down as the lowest winter rainfall on record with only 13 GL inflow into Perth’s dams which now stand at a mere 32% capacity. The Water Corporation have stated that even with a second desalination plant which they propose to build, Perth will still fall short on the required demand. They now have asked that everyone save 60 liters per person per day!

At the following ‘Perth has had its driest winter on record’ you’ll note the statement that “This year, we have had 13 gigalitres water flow into our dams – compared with the average of over 100 gigalitres each year over the past decade”

Again I find fault in their statement when looking at the average data from 2000 to 2010, (the past decade) the average would be only 75 gigalitres.

I will reproduce the remainder of their web statement.

“If next year is as bad, their simply won’t be any water left in our dams. And that could mean no water for our gardens at all. This situation is far worse than anything we could have predicted in our 50- year ‘Water Forever’ plan.

Clearly, action needs to be taken. And it needs to be taken now.

We urgently need to start ‘banking’ water for next year.

This is because even after next winter, even with a second desalination plant in full flow and our ground water plans in place, we will still need at least an additional 76 gigalitres to help avoid serious water restrictions next summer.”

Well clearly Perth’s taps will inevitable run dry – I would suggest that the Water Minister Graham Jacobs ‘responsible management of the water resource’ start taking into account CLIMATE CHANGE – it will only get far worse from here on in and the present system won’t work for those reliant on it for supply.

Further reading on this subject ‘Peak Water has come and gone’ and ‘Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink’