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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (103579)	3/31/2007 8:15:42 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 361417

Sydney in climate change blackout Lights have been turned off across Australia's largest city, Sydney, in a hour-long event aimed at raising awareness of global warming. At 1930 (0930 GMT) the city's skyline dimmed and normally bright landmarks like the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge went dark. The so-called Earth Hour is supported by the New South Wales government, environmental groups and businesses. Sydney hopes the event will make a very big statement on climate change. The city of four million people is aiming to become the first anywhere to achieve a blackout on this scale. The BBC's Phil Mercer, in Sydney, says by and large Sydney had never been this dark. He says lights were off in the majority of the central business district's office blocks and large parts of the suburbs were also in darkness. Co-operation Greg Bourne of environmental group WWF, one of the driving forces behind Earth Hour, said the big switch off took months to plan. "The logistics is really quite amazing in the sense every tower block is owned by one company, maybe leased by another company, have 10 tenants in and a manager and working through all of these people has been fantastic." Many restaurants signed up and planned to serve diners by candlelight. The owner of the Newtown Hotel, which says it is Australia's oldest gay bar, told the BBC before the blackout that they would have fun while trying to send a serious message. "Sometimes drag queens [female impersonators] do look better in the dark anyway," said Roger Zee. "It's up to the patrons. They'll actually have their own torches so they'll be able to light up the drag queens on the stage themselves." Organisers want to encourage Australians to conserve energy and to think carefully about what they can do to cut pollution. Every day millions of lights and computers are left on in deserted office blocks as well as in apartments and houses. Campaigners have said that simply switching them off could reduce Sydney's greenhouse gas emissions by 5% over the next year. Australia is one of the world's largest per capita producers of carbon dioxide and other gases that many scientists believe are helping to warm the earth's atmosphere. Were you in Sydney for the event? Send us your comments and photos using the forms below: Name: Email address: Town and Country: Phone number (optional): Comments: You can send your pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 07725 100 100 Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2007/03/31 10:41:06 GMT © BBC MMVII

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (103579)	3/31/2007 10:19:50 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 361417

Australia faces extreme weather rise, says leaked UN report Fri Mar 30, 2:33 AM ET AFP Australia will suffer more droughts, fires, floods and storms due to global warming and its famous Great Barrier Reef will be devastated by 2030, according to leaked extracts Friday of a UN report. The draft UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warns that temperatures in Australia would rise by 6.7 degrees Celsius before the end of the century, the ABC and Sydney Morning Herald reported. The report, due to be released on April 6, said rising temperatures would cause more intense bushfires and lead to deaths from heatwaves. It also predicted rising sea levels would push the coast back 110 metres (yards) in some Sydney beachside suburbs, swamping some of the city's most exclusive real estate. It said tropical cyclones would become more common on Australia's east coast, where most of the population lives, while 80 percent of the Great Barrier Reef would be bleached by 2030. Australia's conservative government played down the report, saying it was based on previously published scientific research and represented nothing new. "Everything in there is well known to us, we know that there is the possibility or the probability of a hotter and drier future in southern Australia," Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull told ABC radio. "We have a whole climate change adaptation framework under way, we are very focused on adapting to climate change." The UN report is the second in a series of three addressing climate change that has been prepared by a panel of more than 2,000 scientists. The first, released in February, linked the rise in global temperatures to human activities, the second examines inpacts in individual countries and the third looks at how the problem can be addressed.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (103579)	4/2/2007 10:26:45 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 361417

Tree Quotes No shade tree? Blame not the sun but yourself. ~Chinese Proverb The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness. ~John Muir In the woods we return to reason and faith. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson He that plants trees loves others besides himself. ~Thomas Fuller The cultivation of trees is the cultivation of the good, the beautiful, and the ennobling in man. ~J. Sterling Morton Plant Trees ~J. Sterling Morton The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is today. ~African proverb