Earth Hour is on again – tonight 28th March at 8.30pm. The event asks people and businesses to turn off lights and appliances for one hour. It ran for the first time in Sydney only a few years ago. Since then the idea has been picked up by many other major cities around the world.

But looking beyond all the hype, how useful is it really in helping to tackle the problem of climate change?

Last year I spoke with Andy Ridley, Executive Director of Earth Hour, to put him on the spot. Listen to the interview with Andy Ridley.

Check out their website. There’s heaps more information there – www.earthhour.org.

]]> http://theenvironmentshow.com/2009/03/earth-hour-is-it-a-waste-of-time/feed 1 http://theenvironmentshow.com/2008/12/first-world-polluters-could-save-third-world-trees-deforestation-proposal-at-poznan-climate-talks http://theenvironmentshow.com/2008/12/first-world-polluters-could-save-third-world-trees-deforestation-proposal-at-poznan-climate-talks#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 06:28:36 +0000 Phil Stubbs http://theenvironmentshow.com/?p=715

It’s less than a year until the major UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen – where the nations of the world are meant to settle on an agreement that will take us the next step on from the Kyoto Protocol. In the lead-up to Copenhagen, nations have been meeting at Poznan in Poland to prepare the ground.

One of the many issues in the climate debate has been how to halt rampant deforestation in developing countries. Destruction of forests is a significant contributor to global warming. It’s thought to be up to 20% of the problem.

But how do we get poor countries to stop chopping down their trees when they need money for the basics we take for granted – like food and education? And as some in the developing world would argue, why should they stop when the West has already done the deed on its own forests.

On the sidelines of Poznan green groups are pitching their own solutions. In the following interview, we examine an interesting proposal from Greenpeace on deforestation. It proposes that the money generated from auctioning pollution permits in Developed countries be used to encourage Developing countries to keep their trees.

Audio: Paul Winn is Greenpeace’s ‘Forests for Climate’ campaigner. He’s speaking with Carolin Wenzel about Greenpeace’s deforestation proposal . Paul is on the ground in Poznan Poland.

Useful links:
Official 2009 Copenhagen Meeting website
Background on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Greenpeace’s Forests for Climate Report “Preserving Paradise”
Greenpeace Poznan blog
Oxfam’s Climate Change Campaign

Video:
UNFCCC Exec Sec Yvo de Boer explains what the conference is meant to achieve. And MIA President Elect Obama gives us his thoughts on climate change.

Articles:
The spin sounds good in theory, but as we’re hearing from Poznan, the reality of these climate talks is somewhat different. Check out this recent article from The Age – ‘Hot air but little else at global climate talks’. No surprise really when you get that many bureaucrats and politicians in one place.

See also this BBC article ‘Peru says it can reach zero deforestation in 10 years with funds from the West’.

Photo:
Let the hot air begin. The UN Climate Change Conference opening. Shot by Piotr Fajfer from Oxfam International. And you can see the reality of third wild forest logging at Phil’s photo favourites.

So what will be the fate of the Greenpeace proposal? Maybe it will plant the seed.

It’s estimated governments have collectively found about $5 trillion to rescue banks and galvanize economies. Now the Head of the United Nations Environment Program and the leaders of some European countries are saying the time is right for the world to invest substantially in renewable energy. They’re calling for a “Green New Deal” to tackle our climate, oil and credit crisis together.

Audio:
Listen to our interview with Senator Christine Milne on the Green New Deal.

Leaders of the G20 countries recently met to discuss what can be done about the global financial crisis. Spending our way out of the crisis seems to be a big part of the solution. Already we’ve seen the Australian government promise to spend more than $10 billion to stimulate its economy.

But exactly how will such vast sums of money be spent?

The “Green New Deal” calls for a massive injection of funds to radically change our economies – to make them more sustainable. It’s an idea which draws inspiration from Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” 75 years ago. A plan which helped pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression.

Video:
Van Jones is the author of the bestseller “Green Collar Jobs”. Watch Van Jones spruik the Green New Deal.

Related articles:
Here’s some interesting articles on the Green New Deal:
‘How green technology can spark economic growth’ from Newsweek magazine.
‘A Green New Deal can save the world’s economy’ from The Independent.
‘Climate crisis: Roosevelt revisited’ from the BBC.
‘7 ways to fund a Green New Deal’ from Treehugger.
‘Green New Deal makes sense but unlikely’ – opinion piece from Reuters.

Useful links:
The New Economics Foundation is a leading economic think-tank in the UK and one of the pioneers of the Green New Deal idea. Their page’‘A Green New Deal will tackle the triple crunch of credit, oil and climate’ describes the idea further.
Here also is a link to the Greens website.

More audio:
Thomas Friedman is author of the book ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded: why we need a green revolution and how it can renew America’. Listen to the ‘Living on Earth’ interview with Thomas Friedman.

Hear Bob Brown on developing a new green economy. And there’s a good discussion on the ABC’s ‘Late Night Live’ program on the Green New Deal – which includes Ann Pettifor from the New Economics Foundation and Nick Nuttall, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program.

Photo:
Sparktography, Creative Commons, Flickr

Fresh from its gig in Paris, the Bicycle Film Festival is about to start the Australian leg of its world tour. First stop Sydney this Friday and Saturday night, 14 and 15 November. Then onto Melbourne from 21 to 23 November.

Video: Have a sneak peek at ‘Perfect Circle’ – featuring Matthew Modine. (Many of the films in the festival are shorts.)

Audio: Listen to a clip from the Bicycle Film Festival movie – Perfect Circle.

The humble bicycle is an amazing thing. It can get you from A to B, doesn’t use oil, doesn’t generate pollution, costs almost nothing to run, keeps you fit and makes you feel great. It also takes cars off the road and makes cities more human.

A growing number of people are buying and riding bikes. And with it there’s a growing number of hard-core proponents. A few them are even making movies about their big bike love.

Useful links: Bicycle Film Festival Sydney program, Bicycle Film Festival Melbourne program, BFF Sydney blog.

More videos: at the Bicycle Film Festival international website.

Theres one person whos been to every beach in Australia – all 12,000 of them. It’s Professor Andy Short, Director of the Coastal Studies Unit at the University of Sydney. In this interview Andy explains how he came to visit every one and why Australia has the world’s best beaches – by far.

Audio: Interview with Prof Andrew Short on why Australia’s beaches are best.

Useful link: How Australia got the world’s best beaches (Herald article)

Photo: Not bad for the middle of Australia’s largest city hey? The infamous ‘Bra’ – Maroubra Beach. My local. (Where I go to wake up in the morning.) Shot by betta design.

Not that long ago, surfing was seen as a renegade sport in Australia. In the early 60’s, surfers were even required to have a license to use some beaches. Just how far things have come can be seen in the establishment of a number of ‘National Surfing Reserves’ in recent years.

Audio: Interview with Andrew Short on Australia’s Surfing Reserves.

These reserves recognise the iconic nature of the sites and the special bond surfers have with them. In New South Wales they’ve been gazetted under state law.

The following places have been designated as Surfing Reserves so far: Maroubra, Angourie, Lennox Head, Crescent Head, Cronulla and Bell’s Beach.

Useful links: This article by Neil Lazarow goes into more detail. It’s entitled ‘What is a Surfing Reserve and why should surfers care about them?’ And here’s the official spiel from the NSW government on National Surfing Reserves.

Photo: Lennox Head locals and the National Surfing Reserves Australia committee. Lennox was recognised earlier in the year. (The point break, just below here, ‘goes off’ when there’s big swell.)

Lots of people dream of making a ’sea change’ to escape the rat race of the city. Some people even do it.

But how many leave with the intention of living sustainably? To live on the land, grow their own food, generate their own power and water, and even restore their new patch closer to its original, natural state. James Woodford and his family are working on just that.

Audio: Interview with James Woodford about his new book ‘Real Dirt’.

And no James, isn’t a hippy. He loves sushi as much as any inner-city dweller, and for a long time was an ambitious journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald.

Just how he came to be living on a beautiful stretch of the South Coast and slaughtering his own chooks is documented in his new book ‘Real Dirt: how I beat my grid-life crisis’. It’s a very personal account of “what you have to go through to get to where you want to be.”

I read it recently and got decidedly itchey feet myself. I then spoke with James by phone – at the place he now proudly calls home.

Useful links: This and other books by James Woodford are available through Text Publishing. There’s more of his James’s writing on his blog – Real Dirt. And here’s an excerpt from the ‘Real Dirt’ book – recently published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo: James Woodford, environment journalist and “footprint changer”, at his true home on the South Coast of New South Wales.

You may know Adam Spencer as a presenter of ABC Radio in Sydney and from ABC TV. But did you know he cycles everywhere and hardly ever drives?

In the lead up to ‘Ride to Work Day’, Adam goes into bat for the bike. In fact, in this interview he says what he really thinks of the constant hoo-haa about building more roads and tunnels in our cities. And doing the traffic report when you don’t drive a car.

Audio: Listen to our interview with Adam Spencer on why the bike is better.

Video: Adam Spencer also has a gentle word about the price of petrol.

Adam initially started cycling to loose weight. (Do you remember the pudgey comedian of the nineties?) But once he started, he got hooked. Now he uses his bike as his vehicle of choice.

This coming Wednesday is National Ride to Work Day. The aim of the day is to raise the profile of the humble bicycle as a way of commuting and encourage newcomers to try it out.

On the eve of the day we thought we’d let Adam put the case.

Not convinced of the advantages? How about a free breakfast to encourage you to give it a go? There are free breakfasts all over the country for people who take part in Ride to Work Day. One of the Sydney ones is at Hyde Park South.

Useful links: The Ride to Work Day website has more information about the day. (They’re keen for people to register so they can keep track of the numbers.)

Photo: Adam Spencer, cycling advocate and sometime ABC presenter, at Live Earth. Shot by James Kirsop.

A decade ago Germanys uptake of solar energy was on par with Australia. But thanks to an innovative financial incentive, Germany has surged ahead. So much so, its renewable energy is now a mainstream industry and a leading employer in that country.

Audio: Markus Lambert explains the effect the electricity feed-in tariff has had in Germany.

A key driver of renewables in Germany has been the introduction of an electricity feed-in tariff. The scheme views households and businesses producing renewable energy as mini-power stations and pays them for the power they generate.

Here in Australia, Victoria and South Australia have recently introduced versions of the tariff, and one is about to launch in the ACT. New South Wales is yet to try the scheme, but the State Opposition has vowed to implement one if it’s elected in 2011.

Markus Lambert is a German now working for local renewable energy firm Energy Matters. In this podcast he explains the effect the feed-in tariff has had in Germany.

Useful link: The Energy Matters website explains the difference between a net feed-in tariff and a gross feed-in tariff. And what each of the state governments in Australia are offering. The renewables industry is pushing for a gross feed-in tariff.

The number of ’sustainable houses’ is growing worldwide. And if you’re interested in making your place more sustainable, the best way to get going is to see one in action.

But where are they? This weekend is Sustainable House Day (which in fact runs Saturday and Sunday) when some of Australia’s best sustainable houses will be open to the public.

Audio: Interview with Judy Celmins from Sustainable House Day.

Sustainable houses cleverly manage energy, water and waste. Some drawing no electricity from the grid, no water from the mains and generating next to no waste.

There’s not many around. But they’re certainly growing. There’s probably even one near you. So go and check them out.

Links: The Sustainable House Day website has the houses that’ll be open, where they are and their features.

Article: Recent story from the Sydney Morning Herald on sustainable housing.

At the recent Sydney Film Festival I saw a great new documentary called ‘The Cars That Ate China’. In this podcast the director Stefan Moore discusses the background to the film and we hear a clip with Joe White, China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.

Joe takes us to the Beijing car show and explains how foreign car makers are piling into China to make a killing in the last big score in car manufacturing.

Audio: Listen to The Cars That Ate China interview and movie podcast – part 1, Joe White and the Beijing Car Show.

Link: More about the film on the makers’ website Jumping Dog Productions.

Photo: Commutr, Creative Commons, Flickr

Western marketing has moved into China in a big way. In this podcast we hear a clip from the film ‘The Cars That Ate China’ with Tom Doctoroff from J Walter Thompson Advertising. He explains how marketers have tapped into Chinese thinking. And specifically why the Chinese have gone so nuts about getting a car.

Audio: Listen to The Cars that Ate China movie podcast – part 2, Tom Doctoroff on Chinese consumer behaviour.

Photo: decade_null, Creative Commons, Flickr.

Audio: Listen to The Cars That Ate China movie podcast – part 3, James Kyng on the implications for the world’s environment.

Audio: Listen to the final bit of the interview with Stefan Moore, director of the film The Cars That Ate China.

In this interview Fiona Wain, CEO of Environment Business Australia, tells us about the opportunities for business and some of the interesting green business innovations on the go – some we rarely hear about.

The proposal draws ideas from successful farms that have ready been established in places like Melbourne and London. And the site is a beautiful location right on the harbour and in the grounds of the now abandoned mental hospital.

It all sounds good, apart from the fact that the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority have not included the farm in their plans for the whole site and a final decision is going to be made on its future use soon.

Audio podcast
In this interview I speak with Rod Simpson and Andrew Jackson from Sydney City Farm. Andrew is the head of this non-profit organisation and Rod is the architect and designer behind the plan. You can listen here to the Sydney City Farm interview. It starts with Rod Simpson.

How to support the Sydney City Farm
If you think the farm is a good idea, there’s a couple of things you can do. Join the mailing list at www.sydneycityfarm.org and write to the New South Wales Planning Minister and to the Vice Chancellor of Sydney Uni to ask them to include the farm in their plans.

More info on Sydney City Farm
More on the farm in this article from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Do your own thing
If you want to join or start a community garden where you live, check out the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network.

It seems the two majors parties are heading for a showdown on the shape of it. And thrown into the mix is a newly configured senate. A strange assortment of new powerbrokers – The Greens, Family First and Mr X – may well determine the new scheme’s fate.

This segment came out of our regular review of key environment news. Each week we speak to one of the country’s leading environmental journalists to find out what’s happening. This week, we talk to Ben Cubby, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Chief Environment Reporter. Listen to The Environment Show’s interview on the latest carbon trading scheme news.

Watch the FuelWatch commercial.

Bruce says governments should be informing people and preparing our economies now for peak oil, the inevitable declining rate of oil production.
Listen to the podcast interview with Bruce Robinson (from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil.)

So what is happening with oil?

There’s no doubt the world’s demand for oil is increasing in a big way. What is in contention is the world’s supply.

A growing number of experts are saying we won’t be able to keep up with the world’s insatiable demand. And in fact, we’ve reached a tipping point. The term they’re using is ‘peak oil’.

In this interview, Michael Lardelli from the University of Adelaide sounds the alarm bells. Listen to the interview with Michael Lardelli on peak oil.

Rob Stewart, an underwater photographer, set out to show the beauty of sharks in his film ‘Sharkwater’, but stumbled instead onto the billion dollar shark fin industry. He found sharks having their fins cut off and their bodies thrown back in the ocean on a large scale. All to supply the demand for shark fin soup in Asia.

I went to see the film, then tracked down the director – who was in Paris on his way to Cannes – to flesh out the story. Click here to listen to the interview with the PR Manager for sharks, Rob Stewart.

Check out the trailer and the making of the Sharkwater film.

And if you want to help, you can adopt a shark through the Nature Conservation Council. They’re one of the few organisations campaigning to protect sharks in Australia.

But really, it’s a drop in the ocean compared to how much water goes into the products we consume.

Now an Australian academic has proposed that the amount of water used in making food and other items be clearly shown on product labeling. Listen to the interview with James Hazelton.

To see how much water goes into making different products, check out www.waterfootprint.org.

So is biofuel an important solution to our transport energy needs. Or is it creating problems the world doesn’t need?

To find out more about biofuels and the situation for biofuels in Australia, I spoke with the CSIRO’s biofuels expert Deborah O’Connell. I started by asking where biofuels come from.  Listen to the biofuels interview.

Josh reckons people have seen the light and are now using their backyards to grow food. In this interview, he talks about how to go about grow your own, making your garden sustainable and the role of permaculture in his work. Listen to the Josh Byrne Green Gardener interview.

I caught up with Josh at the Australian Permaculture Convergence.

It combines traditional farming techniques and thinking about nature with modern technology to enable people to live differently to how most of us live. To live in a truly sustainable way.

In this interview, I tracked down David Holmgren, the co-originator of permaculture, at the conference.

Interestingly, having originally developed the idea in response to the oil crisis of the 70’s, David reckons permaculture is the answer to our looming energy crisis. With peak oil, permaculture is more relevant than ever.

More on permaculture on David’s site.

The Cartaret Islands, north east of PNG, are only a metre above sea level. Each year tidal surges on the island get bigger.

The tides have damaged the islands’ fresh water sources and food growing areas. To the point where the people of The Cartarets are now planning to evacuate to nearby Bougainville. It’s estimated their island will be unihabitable by 2015.

Phil spoke with Charlotte Sterrett, Climate Campaigner for Oxfam Australia, to find out more about the situation and what can be done. Listen to the interview.

But the Japanese deny the claim. Read more.

For more on whaling and Watson, check out past Environment Show stories.

Meanwhile, there’s talk of Japan halting its “scientific” whaling in the Antarctic in return for a resumption of commercial whaling off its own coast. Read more.

He also tells us about the transformation of the Melbourne CBD (thanks to his plans.)

More common sense and dry Scandinavian humour from the urban planning rock star.

Professor Gehl was commissioned by the City of Sydney to re-think its centre. He’s proposed to divert cars and give streets back to the people. Sound radical? His plans have been implemented in other cities like Copenhagen and Melbourne, and surprise, they’ve made life heaps better. And, interestingly, not just for people. Businesses have thrived too.

Check this interview out – Jan’s quite a character. No wonder he’s been called an ‘urban planning rock star’.

His next commission, by the way, is to develop a plan for New York City.

Listen to this independent rating of our political parties.

The interview was just prior to the election last year. Following the success of Labor in the election, Peter Garrett has become Australia’s Environment Minister.

(If you’re reading this from outside Australia, you may know Garrett as the lead singer of the band Midnight Oil. After many years of activism on environmental issues, including a stint as head of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Garrett re-invented himself as a politician.)

It’s called ‘community supported agriculture’ and it’s rapidly growing in the U.S. Under the scheme, you pay the CSA farmer up front for a season. Not only do you get a regular box of produce, you can also get involved in the farm, help pick the fruit and vegies, and take your kids out there to show them where their food comes from.

Many of these farms also use organic practices and some biodynamics.

John Peterson has a successful organic CSA farm in the Mid-West of the U.S.. He had quite a ride with his family farm, almost losing the lot before he switched to CSA farming some years ago. John has documented his life and struggles in a great film entitled ‘The Real Dirt on Farmer John’.

I interviewed Farmer John about community supported agriculture when he came out to promote his doco. Listen to the Farmer John interview. You can find out more about the farm and find the film at: http://www.angelicorganics.com/ The film is worth tracking down. Margaret Pomeranz gave it 4 stars.

I spoke with Kate Noble, sustainable cities campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, to find out. Listen to the desalination interview with Kate Noble.

Many state governments in Australia are well on the way to building desalination plants. The New South Wales and Victorian governments are forging ahead and the Western Australian government already has its plant in operation.

I spoke to Sam McGuiness from the Nature Conservation Council to find out why governments won’t seriously get behind rainwater tanks. I mean so we’ve all got one and we stop loosing good water we’re going to need in the near future. Listen to the water tank interview with Sam McGuiness.

The day of the election at the end of 2007, I went to a polling both to gauge the mood of the people – for change generally and to check the importance of the environment in their decision making. Listen here to what they had to say: election day vox pops.

The booth was at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in the contentious seat of Wentworth. Wentworth was held by Malcolm Turnbull – who was at that stage Environment Minister.

But most visitors would be oblivious to the fact nature hasn’t quite finished its work there. And with climate change, it may be working overtime to bring some changes which may be a tad unwelcome – particularly for the rich folk who’ve built their designer houses right on the sand dunes. I spoke to Australia’s leading coastal expert Professor Bruce Thom (of the Wentworth Group of Scientists) to explore what nature has in store for Byron. Listen to the Byron Bay – Bruce Thom interview.

An important listen if you’re going to spent some time at Byron in the future.

Listen to the ‘Into the Wild’ film review.

Both Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd argue the Japanese whalers are carrying out commercial operations in what has been designated by Australia as a whale sanctuary. But the Japanese don’t recognise Australia’s territorial claim or the sanctuary and continue to argue strongly their culling of whales is for scientific purposes, a line that’s hotly contested by the green groups.

I’ve been following the whaling story for awhile and have been intrigued by the sheer determination of the Japanese fishing fleet to continue whaling despite strong opposition from many quarters, including Australia, a nation that would normally be an ally of Japan.

I spoke to Junichi Sato, Oceans Project Leader for Greenpeace Japan, to get a better understanding of why these Japanese are so hell-bent on whaling.

Whaling interview – with Junichi Sato Greenpeace Japan

Paul Watson is a man on a mission. He has played a leading role in alerting the world to what he calls the illegal actvities of Japanese whalers. In 2007 I spoke by satellite phone to Paul in the Antarctic, the day after his ship the Farley Mowatt had chased down and collided with a Japanese whaling vessel. Click on the link above to play this podcast.

Following is a link to an emotive video posted by Watson’s organisation Sea Shepherd on YouTube. It explains where he’s coming from:

Wikipedia sums up some opposing views on Watson:

“Paul Watson has been denounced as an ecoterrorist. Some former colleagues in Greenpeace have distanced themselves from him. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jim Bohlen, one of the founders of Greenpeace, said: ‘I’ve known the guy for 15 years, and he’s absolutely insane’.”

“Thus far, all attempts at prosecuting Watson have failed. Watson defends his actions as falling within international law and Sea Shepherd’s right to enforce maritime regulations against illegal whalers.”

What’s the latest? Well, the new Rudd government in Australia appears to be taking Watson’s outcries more seriously, recently sending a large Australian Customs vessel to monitor the Japanese whalers and gather evidence which may be used in international courts against them.

There’s more on the new Australian government’s stance in this ABC story just prior to Christmas. Click here.

Expect to see Paul’s ship tangling again with the Japanese on a TV screen near you. They’re down there now. How he finds them, I don’t know. Next interview.

Late last year the Australian government gave the go-ahead to building what will be one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest pulp mills. The Gunns Pulp Miill is planned for the state of Tasmania, the scene of many epic environmental battles due to its pristine nature. Prior to the recent election, both major parties in Australia supported the mill.

The previous Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, emphasized his decision to approve the mill was based on science. What the minister didn’t emphasize was the limited terms of reference of the review by the Commonwealth’s Chief Scientist.

His review concentrated on threatened and migratory animal species and the effect on marine environment. According to critics such as The Wilderness Society, important issues remain untested. These include the impact of the mill on Tasmania’s wild forests (the source of timber for the mill), emissions from the plant and the impact of the mill on local business. And many still have doubts about the mill’s effect on the marine environment

Following is a link to the video ‘Pulp Friction’ which was posted on YouTube. It attempts to address both sides of the argument.

And this is a link to The Wilderness Society video on Gunns, also on YouTube:

All of which begs the question, what will the new environment minister do? (For our international readers, that’s the bald bloke who formerly fronted the band Midnight Oil.) Peter Garrett ‘played the game’ during the recent federal election in order to win power, but now he’s there what will he do with it? The Gunns story has gone quiet now the election is over, but for how long?

Phil Stubbs spoke to Matt Dever from Emit Environmental Brokers to find out.

For a fuller explanation, I’ve added this link to a video interview with Dr Andrew Sentance who was formerly the Head of Environment for British Airways. It was produced by Warwick iCAST and can be found on YouTube.

And for more on the European carbon trading system (which is well down the track), there’s a link below to a video prepared by European channel EUX.TVand loaded to YouTube.

Castrission speaks by satellite phone in an exclusive interview about the expedition to be the first to cross the Tasman Sea – from Australia to New Zeland with kayaking partner Justin Jones. At the time of the interview, James and Justin were out on the Tasman, 115 kilmetres short of NZ. A few kilometres later, they were to sight Mt Taranaki in New Zealand and paddle non-stop, flat out to reach their goal. This was their last interview in the midst of their journey.

The U.S. government under George Bush has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol and refused to commit to binding carbon emission targets. Following the change of government, Australia with Kevin Rudd now at the helm, is still being coy about specifying a target, despite having signed the Protocol.

Phil Stubbs spoke with Julien Gronbach from Greenpeace to clear the air on binding emission targets. Click on the following link to play this podcast. (To come.)