Blogs & Ecology

Photo credit: Panos / Stefan Boness

Several African countries, particularly in East Africa, are facing severe power shortages and declines in agricultural productivity due to drought that experts are linking to climate change. Drought has sharply reduced reservoirs that supply hydroelectric plants in countries like Tanzania, and we've already reported that overuse of water by two hydroelectric dams decreased the level of water in Lake Victoria by at least two meters between 2000 and 2006.

This was published in Crikey this afternoon. My release from today is here.

Professor Garnaut’s much-awaited Draft Report [huge file here if the Garnaut website is still down] is, in general, strong on the architecture but terribly weak on the big, over-riding issue – preventing runaway climate change. His policy prescriptions are completely out of step with his science.

An edited version of this piece appeared in today’s Crikey email.

Not long ago I wrote in Crikey giving the Climate Institute a very hard time over their positioning on geosequestration. While I still think they are utterly wrong on that, I write today to support their excellent report which the Federal Opposition yesterday dishonestly and disingenuously abused in Question Time.