How Environmental Concerns Impact on Disciplinary Research

Water Wind Art and Debate How environmental concerns impact on disciplinary research Edited by Gavin Birch Contents Foreword v Part 1 Legal and political issues 1 1 A slow burn: the emergence of climate change law in Australia 3 2 Global warming and discourses of uncertainty: buying time, buying business and engendering risk 21 3 State of the environment reporting by local government: Australian evidence on compliance and content 58 4 Framing responsibility: global firms’ environmental motivations 79 5 Economising water: the changing status of water in the political economy 123 Part 2 Scientific viewpoints 153 6 Management of water resources under uncertainty: what does the future hold? 155 7 A short geological and environmental history of the Sydney estuary, Australia 183 8 Energy from offshore wind: an overview 208 9 Household environmental pressure from consumption: an Australian environmental atlas 241 Part 3 Community issues 273 10 Civilising nature: museums and the environment 275 11 Not just a pretty picture: art as ecological communication 297 12 Framing the debate: an analysis of the Australian Government’s 2006 nuclear energy campaign 342 Appendix A 369 Contributors 371 iv Foreword The Australian community has become increasingly concerned about environmental issues, resulting in the Australian Government placing a higher priority on dealing with global warming and climate change. Water Wind Art and Debate highlights current research across a variety of humanities and science disciplines. In August 2006 a new publications initiative to produce books covering multidisciplinary research on topical areas was suggested by Kerrie Legge in the Research Office at the University of Sydney. Extensive collaboration followed between Sydney University Press and the Research Office, resulting in this book. Through this collaboration the University of Sydney hopes to publish a new se- ries of multidisciplinary books highlighting the breadth of new ideas and insights coming from our researchers. Timothy Stephen’s chapter, ‘A Slow Burn’ critically examines the patchwork of existing legislation having a bearing upon climate change policy in Australia. It also speculates on the future shape and content of Australian climate change law as negotiations on a strengthened international climate regime gather pace. Stuart Rosewarne’s ‘Global warming and discourses of uncertainty’ exposes some of the fundamental contradictions of and risks associated with the government’s procrastination under the guise of a discourse of uncertainty. The Australian Government’s longstanding reluctance to accept the science of global warming, or to acknowledge that there is any pressing need to implement policies designed to abate greenhouse gas emissions is discussed. The chapter of Mladenovic Rosina and Sandra van der Laan, ‘State of the Environment Reporting by Local Government’ examines Councils’ critical role at the micro-level of accountability and reporting processes in activities as di- verse as social development through to environmental management, including waste management, land development and use which has consequences for water resources, soil degradation, biodiversity and sewerage. Renewable energy has attracted great attention among governments, industries, academics and societies in the world. In ‘Framing Responsibility’ John Mikler finds that the institutional v Foreword basis of capitalist relations in firms’ home states is a key determiner of their environmental motivations. Danielle Spruyt’s chapter on the changing status of water suggests that the rights to use water are increasingly linked to the imperative to use water for pro- ductive gain, an approach that does not provide a final resolution to the contest between commercial and environmental interests in water use. This shift in policy emphasis challenges us to evaluate our rights to water. Willem Vervoort’s ‘Management of Water Resources under Uncertainty’ reports that forecasting of stream flows and soil moisture balances will be crucial for planning and policy making in agriculture and natural resource management and that a radical rethink of the way simulation models are used to underpin policy and management deci- sions is needed. In the chapter ‘Energy from Offshore Wind’ Dong-Sheng Jeng and Yun Zheng examine the design of offshore wind energy generators and evaluate the selection of potential sites for offshore wind energy in Australia. Gavin Birch in his chapter, “A short geological and environmental history of the Sydney estuary’ traces the recent geological development of Sydney’s river system and illustrates how a pristine environment has changed due to human activities. Christopher Dey, Manfred Lenzen and their colleagues report on household environmental pressure from consumption, illustrating the impact of the average Australian’s consumption and use of goods and services on the environment. Through detailed census and environmental data, combined with an economy-wide model, they have calculated the total household environmental pressure for over 1300 Australian Statistical Local Areas (SLAs). Jennifer Barrett’s and Phil McManus’s chapter on ‘Civilising nature: Muse- ums and the environment’ considers some of the key discourses in natural history and science museums to reveal a rich legacy of engagement with the environment – arguing that museums shape and reflect environmental attitudes. Catriona Moore’s ‘Not Just a Pretty Picture: Art as Ecological Communication’ traces how the western landscape tradition has been modified by Indigenous concepts of country that combine traditional and inter-disciplinary knowledge within a spec- ulative framework of ecological aesthetics. The chapter from Gabrielle Higgins, Catherine Maggs, Mathew McKenzie, Eike Christian Meuter, and Erin Semon about the Australian Government’s 2006 Nuclear Energy Campaign examines the issue of nuclear energy in Australia from a public relations perspective and within a framework of political communication theory. The resulting volume provides a unique insight into how concerns about the environment are influencing every facet of life. Professor Merlin Crossley Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research University of Sydney vi Part 1 Legal and political issues 1 A slow burn: the emergence of climate change law in Australia Tim Stephens ABSTRACT Following more than a decade of intransigence on climate change policy, the Australian Government is beginning to yield to sustained pressure from the community and business to enact comprehensive climate change legislation. As the environmental, economic and security implications of global warming are better understood, there are growing calls to place emissions reduction targets within a binding legislative regime that contains both market-based measures (such as emissions trading) and regulatory interventions (such as mandatory efficiency standards). Adding impetus for national climate law reform are initiatives by other governments (including several Australian states) to enshrine emissions reduction targets in law. This chapter critically examines the patchwork of existing legislation having a bearing upon climate change policy in Australia. It also speculates on the future shape and content of Australian climate change law as negotiations on a strengthened international climate regime gather pace. INTRODUCTION After a decade of opposition to binding national and international measures to address climate change,1 the Australian Government is under sustained pressure to participate constructively in international climate change negotiations and to enact comprehensive national climate change legislation. The pressure points for national law reform have been numerous, and have included better understanding 1 See Clive Hamilton, Scorcher: The dirty politics of climate change Black Inc, 2007. Hamilton argues that the Howard government has not been content to refuse to take measures on climate change, but has actively set out to sabotage the Kyoto Proto- col. (at p. 221). See also Guy Pearse, High and dry: John Howard, climate change and the selling of Australia’s future Viking, 2007. 3 Water Wind Art and Debate of the threat of climatic change;2 growing public awareness and concern;3 business advocacy for investment certainty; fuller appreciation of likely impacts on Australia’s environment, economy and security;4 the rapid increase in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions; and legislative initiatives by the states and territories.5 As in many other areas of environmental management, in addressing climate change there appears no substitute for clear and enforceable goals set within a statutory scheme.6 Indeed the Australian Government now appears to recognise that its voluntary industry and consumer programs have failed to deliver any sub- stantial emissions reductions. In July 2007 the Howard government announced that it would set a long-term ‘aspirational’ target for reducing Australia’s emis- sion in 2008 and would implement a national carbon trading scheme by 2012.7 For its part, the federal opposition has committed a Labor government to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, to emissions cuts of 60 per cent below 2000 levels by 2050, and to establishing, as soon as possible, an internationally-consistent emissions trading scheme. Against this background, this chapter offers a critical assessment of the limited efforts that have been made to devise and implement an effective Aus- tralian climate change law. The first section examines the current

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