Firefighters in New South Wales and Queensland are gearing up for a week of unseasonably warm weather as they continue to battle blazes across the two states.
Category: Climate Change
We let the Ramsay Center into our Universities, Abbott wanted a Climate denier control center in one who lost his Koch Bro funding, Dr Bjorn Lomborg. What funding doe Murdoch get from the Kocks of this world? (ODT)
“It is much more dangerous to be unaware of whom you’re taking money from, and what kind of politics they support,” Kellie McElhaney, a University of California, Berkeley professor, told McBride. “You sure as heck should have some core values you’re not going to compromise on,” she added.
When there is money of the magnitude that Koch Disruptive Technologies has at its disposal, you should probably bet on the money!
What’s next for Koch Industries? Will Chase Koch be setting up a pavilion at Burning Man?
via Koch Industries, Masters of Far Right-Wing Skullduggery, Target Silicon Valley | The Smirking Chimp
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Despite the heavy-handed presentation, if a viewer actually listens to what Ocasio-Cortez is saying, it’s quite clear she’s making a cogent and intelligent case, and understands the actual scientific evidence far better than her detractors.
Thunberg was also greeted by a wave of misogynist nastiness, largely coming from allegedly grown men in both Europe and the United States. The attacks on Thunberg were in the same vein as those on Ocasio-Cortez, accusing her of being too stupid to know what she’s talking about and denying that her voice is one worth honoring. A writer for the conservative Washington Examiner claimed that Thunberg is a victim of “child abuse” and that her mother “pimps their kid out,” explicitly drawing a line between forced sex work and climate activism.
Trump doesn’t even have a head of FEMA (ODT)
When once in 500 year events start happening several times a decade, then Something Big has Changed and they aren’t once in 500 year events any more.
Hurricane Dorian: DeSantis & Trump haven’t curbed CO2 Emissions & Should Resign
Jakarta was designed and influenced by the Dutch experts in water (ODT)
If there ever was an issue where erring on the side of caution is preferable to the alternative, it is global warming. Donald Trump, whether he and his sycophants want to acknowledge it or not, already has blood on his hands created by his racist rhetoric. Will his “grand finale” be a legacy that results in the deaths of millions?
GREED. Too many lifestyles, particularly of the wealthy, are driven not by what they can leave for the future, but how much profit they can make today; therefore, any laws that impede their greed are anathema.
And for those who believe that America’s so-called “leaders” will do what the greedy and corrupt will not: FORGET IT. In addition to Trump seeking to obliterate climate change from the nation’s, and world’s, consciousness, several rulings by America’s corrupt and politicized Supreme Court have ensured that, for decades to come, plutocrats and corporations will be able to buy and sell politicians like trading cards.
– July was the hottest month ever recorded, i.e. the hottest since about 1850 when scientific records began being kept around the world using modern thermometers. So writes Chelsea Harvey at Climate Wire via The Scientific American.
July was more than 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer than the late 20th century average. That is huge. Enormous. The surface temperature of the earth includes Antarctica and the oceans (which are deep and cold). To get an average rise of a whole degree means that some places on land are 15 degrees warmer. Some places on land were already 110 F. in July, so adding any increase at all is a severe health risk to people who live there.
We are in unexplored territory in predicting what is to come, because we have a welded-on belief that we can predict the future based on the past. But examination of weather patterns since the Industrial Revolution makes it quite obvious that the pattern is now continually and more rapidly changing as the years go by, with severe weather events occurring increasingly in both frequency and severity.
Anyone who cannot accept that the whole world needs to take action is living in a fool’s paradise – or doesn’t give a damn about future generations of life on earth!
via Destruction and disaster are the consequences of delay – » The Australian Independent Media Network
She also points to this recent science paper that finds a feedback loop. The white fluffy snow that used to cover Greenland reflects sunlight and keeps things cool. When the snow melts, the rock or ice underneath is duller and reflects less light, allowing for greater surface warmth. And more warmth means more snow melt, which means less reflection of sunlight, etc., etc.
via Be Afraid, Very Afraid: Greenland Ice Sheets Cascading into Ocean 50 Years Ahead of Schedule
Something as transformative as the Green New Deal — a democratically achieved Climate Leviathan — will not come about because the Democratic Party or Xi Jinping or the U.N. secretary general suddenly realizes that radical change is necessary, nor simply through ordinary parliamentary and congressional procedure. Major change of this sort could only come from a far more basic form of democracy: people in the streets engaged in actions like school strikes and coal mine blockades. This is the kind of pressure that progressive legislators could then use to push through a mutually agreed-upon Green New Deal capable of building a powerful administrative force that might convince or coerce everyone into preserving the global commons.
via Combatting the Climate Emergency: The Chinese Path or the Green New Deal?
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What Andrew Bolt laughs at but ignores (ODT)
Moreover, ADF Chief Angus Campbell has warned in a private speech that an ascendant China could potentially occupy islands in the Pacific following a massive exodus from the region should the harmful effects of climate change continue unabated.
Yes, our total carbon (CO2) emissions is a small percentage, but per capita, we are one of the largest emitters in the world. As Australians, we pride ourselves for punching above our weight internationally. Our armed forces are admired and respected, our diplomats are influential and respected by states bigger than our own.
Surely, we can punch above our weight against climate change too. Or at the very least, not continue to fall behind the pack.
This is not progressive “green” politics. This is about national security. This is actually protecting the borders. This is about the future and longevity of Australia and our place in the south Pacific.
New Jersey would have to pay almost $25 billion to build almost 2,700 miles of seawalls to protect its coastal communities from anticipated sea-level rise by 2040, according to the latest study on the state’s vulnerability to rising ocean levels.
via NJ could need 2,700 miles of sea walls to defend against rising waters – NJ Spotlight
Sydney join a variety of local and national governments around the world, in a movement that is increasingly gaining momentum. In total, some 658 local governments around the world have made the same declaration, with the UK and Canada committing their national governments to the global movement in just the past two months.
via Sydney declares a climate emergency – what does that mean in practice?
Except, despite what Taylor has claimed, investors are actually calling on governments to put in place policies that will support a transition away from fossil fuels, including the reintroduction of a carbon price, a phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies and an end to thermal coal.
A collection of 477 global investors have issued a joint statement ahead of a meeting of G20 leaders in Osaka, calling on governments to do more to tackle climate change and plan for a world without coal.
Specifically, investors have called on governments to “put a meaningful price on carbon” and to “phase out thermal coal power worldwide by set deadlines.”
The group of investors, that manage a combined $US34 trillion in investment assets, with signatories to the statement including Australian investment managers, including Australian Super, Cbus, Hesta, First State Super, IFM Investors and BT Financial Group.
During his tenure as federal energy minister, Angus Taylor has overseen a period of increasing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and has raised fears among members of the COAG energy council that he has no plans for reducing emissions in the electricity sector and may disengage with the council altogether on the issue of emissions policy.
Angus Taylor ignores investors when he passes the buck on climate policy failures | RenewEconomy
Minister for Hot Air
Angus Taylor’s handling of the latest emissions data is a lesson in spinThe emissions report was eventually released to the general public yesterday, and Taylor appeared on RN Breakfast this morning to continue making the case that up was down and down was up when it comes to Australia’s emissions. Furthermore, what was important, he said, was that the LNG and coal industries were creating jobs and investment opportunities.
Taylor, like his Coalition colleagues, is happy to count the earnings from resource companies, but refuses to calculate the cost of rising emissions and the effects of climate change on every other sector of the economy. The minister for energy and emissions reduction has a long history of promoting fossil-fuel industries and opposing support for renewables. He also has an ongoing scepticism of emissions reduction schemes generally, which, to be blunt, is probably why he was appointed to his current role.
MURDOCHIAN SPIN
Here’s the first paragraph, published in yesterday’s paper: “Australia is not given sufficient credit internationally for the carbon dioxide savings it helps other nations achieve, Energy Minister Angus Taylor says.”
Only in the fifth paragraph did Lloyd mention that Australia’s emissions were “0.8 per cent higher than the previous quarter and 0.7 per cent higher than last year”.
Angus Taylor’s claim LNG exports reduce global emissions ‘likely wrong’ – climate expert
Bill Hare says claim by emissions reduction minister is ‘grossly exaggerated’
Back to the future dirty power and profit fucks Atmosphere, Health, biodiversity the enviroment and the long term future of the planet left for the next generations. All for the sake of a few cents the rich can’t take with them anyway. (ODT
Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science – The New York Times
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‘this trial was about none of the above. Rather, this trial was purely and simply about the proper construction of a clause in an Enterprise Agreement.’
JCU has been at pains to point out that Ridd “was never gagged or silenced about his scientific views,” a matter that, Cocklin said, “was admitted during the court hearing.”
Why did Andrew Bolt say he knew more on Climate than this man (ODT)
David Attenborough Gives Stark Warning in New BBC Climate Change Special – EcoWatch
Humanity survived the cold war because no one pushed the button. On climate change, the button has been pushed again and again
