Save the Ales!!!

Prepare for apocalypse!! There will soon be no more beer on campus. WHAT???????

HOW?????? You see, hops the flowers used to make beer bitter, are threatened by global warming. The majority of hops produced in the Australia are grown in Tasmania and Victoria, where drier climate chaos summers would be disastrous for a plant that requires large amounts of water. Climate change could also lead to a population boom of aphids and Japanese beetles, which prey upon hops.

So what is this Climate Change I keep hearing about?

Well it’s pretty straightforward really – our climate is changing! The Earth is warming up due to people pumping ever more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act as a barrier known as the greenhouse effect which prevents heat (infrared radiation) escaping into space. Now without this barrier, the Earth would be uninhabitable, but the problem is we are increasing the barrier at a rate, which the Earth and its systems have never experienced before and it can’t keep up! The result of trapping more and more heat in the atmosphere is climate chaos!

Two hundred years of huge coal-fired power stations, widespread burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) and mass transit has left an environmental legacy that we are only beginning to understand. Our economy, society, and transport and food systems are all reliant on fossil fuels. Without energy from coal-powered power stations, this university, your house, your phone would not exist. Without oil and combustion engines, we wouldn’t have cars, you wouldn’t be able to have that international holiday as there would be no flights, and that delicious mango from South America wouldn’t be yours to eat. Imagine what the world would look like without fossil fuels. Pretty scary huh!

Impacts of Climate Change

Sea level rise, increased frequency and severity of freak weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, floods, storms… Poverty, climate refugees, melting polar ice caps, spread of diseases such as malaria, conflict, inequity, water scarcity, coral bleaching, extinction of species… and the list goes on. These are just some of the impacts that Climate Change is having on our planet. The problem is that humans have started something that is about to spiral out of control. For example, the average temperature increase of 1ºC due to human activity over the last 200 years has caused the permafrost in Siberia to start to thaw. This permafrost traps millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is now being released, further perpetuating climate change. YES Climate Change is real, it is happening now, and it will affect you! Oh and another thing – fossil fuels are non-renewable and they’re running out!! So not only will we be living on a planet that has an increasingly chaotic climate, but we will be

left without the perks of air conditioners, Belgian chocolate and iPods. So what can you do about it?

The first thing to do is realise that Climate Change isn’t this abstract thing, it is happening because of you and me and particularly Mr Howard. But don’t get too overwhelmed, there’s stuff we can do.

Newcastle University Environment Collective is fighting to save your beer and your lives. We are running a campaign to commit the university to purchasing 100% clean green non polluting sources of energy such as solar and wind and hydro.

Our campaign has already had huge success!! The University Council approved the student resolution to commit to purchasing 100% clean energy by 2020!!! Now we have to keep them to their word, build further student support for this campaign and plant lots of sunflowers around campus to celebrate!!!

The Environment Collective meet on THURSDAY at 1pm outside NUSA. ALLLL WELCOME.

Save the Ales, save the future!!!

Nissa and Dany