Dr Ted Christie: Environmental Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Solutions

TAGS: Bushfires; Australia; climate change;   hazard reduction; fuel load; window of opportunity; ecology; habitat;  threatened species;  resilience; scientific round-table; royal commission; conflict resolution 1.0   The 2019-2020 bush fire season in Australia has been one of the worst fire seasons on record. The total area of land burned during the current bushfire season now exceeds 10.7 million hectares (26.4 million acres). 2.0    All Australian mainland States have been impacted. Thousands of homes have been destroyed; 27 people have been killed . There have been significant impacts on  native fauna and their habitat. The following issues are reviewed: - (a)   Preparedness: Drought Management and Bushfire Hazard Reduction (b)  Issues That Contribute to Fuel Load And Hazard Reduction (c)   The Wider Application for Resilience in the Australian Environment (d)   Climate Change, Fuel Build-...

TAGS : Drought; Impacts: paddock level - property level - regional level – State/National Level ; Impacts: ecology – economics – social ; living area; land degradation; sustainability; resilience; risk management; preparedness; self-reliance; long-term viability; unintended outcomes A severe drought now comparable with the big droughts of the past in Australia has developed across much of eastern and inland Australia. The scope of this article is to review key issues that must be effectively addressed if new drought policies are to resonate with the needs of the pastoral industry by building on the cumulative knowledge arising from reviews of past drought policies. Policy issues such as: living area standards, corporate and foreign investment, environmental impacts, unifying principles for drought policy, preparedness , self-reliance , risk management, resilience , unintended outcomes and meaningful involvement of pastoralists . READ MORE ...

TAGS : Paris Agreement; COP25; coal; future; risk; best available science; sustainable development; equity; scientific round-table; positions; interests 1.0    Any decision on this issue requires the Paris Agreement’s obligations to be implemented “on the basis of equity” - as well as “in accordance with the best available science ”. 2.0   The results from a Google Search on “ the future of coal ” highlight the contradictory global positions held on this issue : While an international consensus is emerging for the position of a fast and orderly phasing out of coal mining and coal-generated energy, new coal supply and demand infrastructure continues to be developed . 3.0    But has clean coal technology R&D reached the stage of being the “ best available science ” for a decision to be made to resolve this controversy? 4.0   The challenge for COP25 is to promote a problem-solving pathway that counterbalances the "n eed" ...

“Problem Solving, R&D, Equity  and the Paris Agreement” TAGS: UN climate change summit; Paris Agreement; emissions; global school strikes; Greta Thunberg; equity; coal; international trade; climate justice; R&D; carbon dioxide removal technologies; relevant and reliable science; Biodiversity Convention; CITES. A focus of the UN Climate Change Summit convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York in September 2019 was the urgency to address the global climate crisis . The Summit highlighted the need for greater ambition and accelerated action from the world’s largest emitting economies to reduce emissions; and to implement the goals of the  Paris   Agreement . A problem area identified for emission reductions related to the future use of fossil fuels and coal-generated energy.   Energy is an intrinsic component for a sustainable future. This article sets out a pathway for accelerated R&D  to evaluate whether the f...

3. E nvironmental Impact Statements & Scientific Uncertainty:  A Decision-Making Aid or the Decision End Point? TAGS:  Adani; coal mine; evaluation; EIS; environmental impact audit;  US 40 C.F.R. Section 1502.22 ;  US National Environmental Policy Act 1969 ; incomplete information; scientific uncertainty; scientific roundtable  1.    Any review and reform of the environmental evaluation and approval process of major development projects, like the Adani project, needs to be directed at a primary source of the problems created by scientific uncertainty in the EIS. 2.   Problems that not only caused conflict, litigation and inordinate delays for environmental evaluation and approval – but also confounded the integrity of the decision-making process . 3.    It would be prudent for Government to be aware of the US experience: That “no other strategy offers a more telling acknowledgement of the legitimacy of local concern...

2.    Scientific Uncertainty,  the Politicization of Science and Public Interest Environmental Conflicts TAGS:   Adani; coal mine; information conflict; science; politics; public interest; community consultation; silo science; Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.      Politicization of science means that the interpretat ion of scientific information is shaped for political gain in a way that  distorts its true meaning.    T his article reviews why public interest environmental conflicts, like the Adani project, can lead to politicization. And an understanding of what politicization of science means: How it arises and how it may be offset.  READ MORE … The next article in this series will review environmental decision-making, incomplete and unavailable information and the EIS.

Some form of objective review of the environmental evaluation and approval processes for the ‘Adani Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project’ is warranted to address the reasons the final approval was granted  in June 2019.  In a series of articles that follow, the scientific and public interest concerns that ignited the conflict, litigation and delay will be reviewed in a conflict resolution framework .  Must history repeat? 1.   Acceptance of Scientific Findings: Best Available Science ~v~ Relevant and Reliable Science TAGS:  Adani; coal mine; conflict; best available science; relevant and reliable science;  Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc               The focus of this article is on a source of information conflict that created scientific uncertainty for Adani: Different interpretations of the scientific information base as to what is “the best available science”. READ MORE … The next art...