Category: Climate Change
As climate change disrupts migration patterns, animals and the viruses they carry will come into unusual contact with each other — and inevitably with humans, unleashing new pandemics. The only thing that can stop this unfolding nightmare is a mass movement.
While Sky New’s unmade bed Rowan Dean and Andrew Bolt continue to deny any emergency is imminent due to man-made climate change the rest of the world suggests they are the fruit cakes. Murdoch media’s office windows were smashed in London for their refusal to even report on the global science in any balanced way simply for the sake of profit for their fossil fuel-based cash for comment denials,
The unprecedented heatwave and fires engulfing Europe might seem a long way away, but they are a frightening portent of what’s in store for Australia.
Britain has just experienced its highest temperature on record, extreme conditions and fires are sweeping Spain, Portugal, France and Greece. But this is just the latest in a string of extreme events globally. In March, scientists were shocked by record temperatures at both poles, including temperatures up to 40C above normal in the Antarctic and 30C above normal in the Arctic. In May, devastating heatwaves across India, Pakistan and surrounding countries led to weeks where temperatures in some regions repeatedly hit almost 50C. This year has also seen extreme heatwaves in south Asia, China and the US.
The Global Oceanic Environmental Survey, led by Edinburgh University marine biologist Howard Dryden at the university Roslin Innovation Centre had estimated that the plankton in the oceans had been halved in the past 40 years, and that all of it could be gone by 2040. Dryden and GOES were off by twenty years. Plankton is a blanket term for the billions of tiny sea organisms living close to the surface of the oceans, which are eaten by krill,
Source: Climate: Scientists Stunned to Find Atlantic Plankton 90% Gone; Marine Life, our Oxygen Imperiled
Meanwhile, Murdoch’s little Rowan Dean the unmade bed still keeps telling us it’s cold and wet outside.
The scorching temperatures have reached as far north as the UK, where its Met Office weather agency has issued its first-ever “red warning” of extreme heat for Monday and Tuesday, when temperatures in southern England may reach 40 degrees for the first time. That will still be relatively bearable compared with the 47 degrees recorded in Portugal’s northern town of Pinhao on Wednesday, establishing a new national record.
Source: Heatwave-related deaths soar in Europe amid France, Spain wildfires
Britain’s Met Office weather forecaster has declared a national emergency, with temperatures early next week predicted to approach – and possibly exceed – record highs.“Exceptional, perhaps record-breaking, temperatures are likely on Monday, then again on Tuesday,” the Met Office said on their website.
National emergency in Britain as the mercury soars to near-record levels | The New Daily
Australia’s women are recognized and welcomed around the world. Plibersek and Wong are making a world of difference
French President Emmanuel Macron has singled out Australia’s new environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, in front of a global audience in Portugal, declaring that Australia was back in action on climate change.
Source: Tanya Plibersek, Australia singled out by Emmanuel Macron at Lisbon climate talks
What happens when nearly 1 metre of rain falls on ‘the wettest place on Earth’?
Key points:
- Indian town Mawsynram has set a new June rainfall record of more than 990mm
- It comes amid warnings India will be one of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather events
- South Asian researchers are calling for countries like Australia to help with climate forecasting
South Asia’s record-breaking weather set to worsen as climate change brings more dangerous monsoon seasons – ABC News
South Asia’s record-breaking weather set to worsen as climate change brings more dangerous monsoon seasons – ABC News
No one laughs at God in a hospital but the LNP and Sky News After Dark do. Medicine like Climate science isn’t an exact but the Deniers appreciate and take advice from doctors if and when it suits their interests. When it doesn’t they become anti-vaxxers pout scream but still expect hospitals and doctors to take care of them and their children. Hospitals are dealing with more Covid now than ever before and now they blame Dan Andrews for giving them what they wanted. They check the weather forecasts and act accordingly but laugh at Climate science simply because it suits their interests to demand it to be exact not skeptical the very nature of the inquiry, research and it’s resulting predictions.
Climate change is slowing down the conveyor belt of ocean currents that brings warm water from the tropics up to the North Atlantic. Our research, published today in Nature Climate Change, looks at the profound consequences to global climate if this Atlantic conveyor collapses entirely.
The new federal MP for the Queensland seat of Flynn was a founding member of a club formed to promote climate science denial, and was a signatory to an international statement claiming “there is no climate emergency”.
Morrison, Taylor Frydenberg and tha LNP will godown as Australia’s greatest liars on Climate Change
Australia produced 4.04 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person from coal-fired power stations last year, according to a new report by energy think tank Ember. That’s roughly four times the global average, double the average per person in countries like the US and Japan, and more than any other country in the G20 or the OECD. University of Adelaide energy economist Dr Liam Wagner said he was unsurprised by the ranking, given Australia has long been one of the world’s most coal-dependent countries.
Source: Australians remain the world’s worst coal power polluters per capita
Meanwhile for the sake of money the LNP, IPA, and News Corp deny the urgency just as they did the pandemic. They say we just have to live with it.
Climate scientists and concerned citizens are sounding the alarm as daily, weekly, and monthly records for atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to be shattered while the fossil fuel-powered capitalist economic system responsible for skyrocketing greenhouse gas pollution plows ahead.
Source: Earth’s Atmospheric CO2 Hasn’t Been This High In Millions of Years
How would you rank the parties’ policies?
Peter Newman: 1. Labor 2. Greens 3. Coalition
Leslie Hughes: 1. Greens 2. Labor 3. Coalition
Nerilie Abram: 1. Greens 2. Labor 3. Coalition
Andy Pitman: 1. Greens 2. Labor 3. Coalition
The only way to stop climate change is to build a mass, working-class movement whose demands both resonate with average people and take on the billionaires who are profiteering from the climate crisis.
Source: A Successful Climate Movement Must Be a Working-Class Movement
Good morning, early birds. The Morrison government’s plan for climate action will lead to nearly 4 degrees of global heating according to analysis, and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and opponent Monique Ryan went head-to-head in a fiery debate yesterday. It’s the news you need to know, with Emma Elsworthy.
Source: Crikey Worm: A heated issue
The Morrison government’s climate change commitments are consistent with more than 3C of global heating, bordering on 4C, a level that would lead to catastrophic damage across the planet, according to a new analysis.
India’s governments– first the colonial British and since 1947 the independent state — have been keeping temperature records all over the country for at least 122 years. 2022 is crashing through many previous records.
This was the hottest March since records began being kept. Aniruddha Gosal at AP notes that a Lancet report last year foound that India’s vulnerability to extreme heat increased 15% from 1990 to 2019. India and Brazil are the two countries where most people die annually of heat exposure.
Scott Morrison has a problem with climate change which reflects his style of governing. He sees it as a political matter to be managed politically, not as an actual problem with the potential to cause severe problems in Australia in the relatively near term. He does not view climate change as a reality that must be dealt with now and with strong, far-reaching measures. Rather, it is something to be managed by the application of least-perturbation decision making aimed at short-term electoral success.
Source: Climate change: Scott Morrison’s Achilles heel – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“Last Tuesday, total U.S. wind generation exceeded 2,000 GWh, making wind the second largest producer of electricity in the United States after natural gas for that 24-hour period. Did a quick look at EIA’s numbers going back to 2018. Don’t think that’s ever happened before.” Storrow notes that wind power in the US has occasionally bested coal, but not both coal and nuclear.
Source: Wind generation for First Time Outstrips both Coal and Nuclear in US
China is beating the pants off the United States in the burgeoning new energy vehicle market, out-producing and out-selling America with regard to plug-in vehicles by a massive margin. Whereas the Chinese government is supporting this new industry, the US government is still subsidizing fossil fuels and is spending $728.5 billion a year on the Pentagon at a time when the US is not even at war. The result is bloated and problematic engines of destruction like the failed F-35. In the first quarter of 2022, China is expected to take 65% of the global market in new-energy vehicles, according to Yang Yang at China Daily. China exported about 500,000 new-energy cars in 2021, 2.6 times more than the previous year,. China’s EV exports to Europe rose fivefold to 230,000 units write Akashi Kawakami, Yohei Muramatsu and Saki Shirai at Nikkei Asia.
However Australia sides with Russia and India fuck the world.
The world can still hope to stave off the worst ravages of climate breakdown but only through a “now or never” dash to a low-carbon economy and society, scientists have said in what is in effect a final warning for governments on the climate. Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, and can be nearly halved this decade, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to give the world a chance of limiting future heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The final cost of doing so will be minimal, amounting to just a few percent of global GDP by mid-century, though it will require a massive effort by governments, businesses and individuals.
Source: “Now or Never” to Avert Climate Disaster, UN Panel Says – Mother Jones
An election is due within a few months. A number of Australians have chosen to run for office as conservative independents in Coalition held seats. Most, if not all of these ‘teal’ independents are partially motivated by the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Collation Government’s complete and utter disregard for the environment that our children and grandchildren will have to endure. They seem to be confident of changing the voting habits of a reasonable number of formerly rusted on Coalition voters. We also know from history, that once an electorate chooses an independent candidate, it is difficult for the major parties to regain the seat. Poetic justice would be that when the next ‘unprecedented’ natural disaster hits Australia, Morrison is sitting on his couch and watching the rolling coverage of the unfolding disaster. with the Prime Minister of the day showing Morrison how the job is done and the media making the comparison for all to see. At the same time his daughters are telling him in no uncertain terms that he could have done something when he was PM to stop the tragedies of the future, and didn’t. What do you think?
Source: Fire and Rain – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Both of the Earth’s poles have been hit by freakishly hot weather that has stunned climate experts. Parts of the Arctic are around 30°C warmer than is normally expected at this time of year, while in Antarctica that figure jumped to more than 40°C hotter than average. The unprecedented heatwaves were branded ‘not a good sign’ as concerns continue to mount about the climate crisis worldwide.
Source: ‘Stunning’ heatwaves on both poles with Antarctica 40°C hotter than it should be | Metro News
Meanwhile, Murdoch media still promotes these events as “unprecedented” but no evidence of a warming planet due to human activity of burning fossil fuels. Is it coincidental that Murdoch is a heavy investor in Genie Oil?
While it made headlines because it is freakish, that parts of Antarctica are 70 degrees F. warmer than usual may just be a fluke. Climate is a trend line you can see over 50 years of changes. Weather is what happens for a day or a week. The more alarming number is one that is slightly lower, which is 50 degrees F. warmer than usual, and it concerns the Arctic, the north pole, not the south. You see the red areas of the map below? They are seriously not supposed to be there, especially at a time when the Arctic is still plunged into the long winter night:
Source: Arctic hits 50° F above normal, as Scientists predict it will soon have more Rain than Snow
Here’s how Australia could benefit
Source: Could Australian Green Steel help Save the World from the Climate Emergency?
To have these federally funded bodies respond to these emergencies far faster than this government and ADF have reacted to people in need in Lismore, Coraki, Girards Hill, Southgate, Mullumbimby, Picton and many others, we need one more change. We need a federal government that will not simply announce its intentions without any measurable, functional outcomes or run off overseas or hide from public scrutiny, but act promptly to produce results in infrastructure and finance in the towns that will preserve our communities. But, unfortunately, that government is not our current incumbent, whose leader only now, weeks after the start of the floods, while visiting Lismore, indicated an “intention” to declare a “State of Emergency”.
Morrison the socialist made all Australia pay for the increased “risk insurance” companies charged after the last flood in Qld will he do the same again? He set up a $4.5 bn emergency fund back then and hasn’t spent a cent. Building permits for developments were freely handed out were handed out in wrong places, and Climate Change was fobbed off as a Left-Wing political ploy. An ICAC was promised and never delivered because we saw what happened in NSW when some 10 LNP politicians were caught taking backhanders. These floods are no longer an “unprecedented” event.
About half a million people in NSW are under evacuation orders or warnings as the wild weather system that has battered parts of eastern Australia for a week homes in on the greater Sydney region.
Commonwealth legislation on water market behaviour governance and integrity is still very much a ‘work in progress’, or perhaps even a twinkle in the Treasurer’s eye. Like so many other integrity issues, it is in the too-hard basket. But now is the time to act. Water is abundant, tempers have been cooled, and greater attention is being applied to the complex challenge of balancing the competing uses of water and our river system. Waiting till the next drought might seem easy, but it will make reform many times harder.
The US Republican Party may not believe in the menace of the climate emergency, but the animals are far less dumb. They are fleeing for the hills, literally. (Note that I have used “literally” correctly here.) That 50% of the tens of thousands of species surveyed by the iPCC have moved toward the poles to get away from the increasing extremes of heat is a remarkable, and alarming statistic.
Climate change is raising flood risks in neighborhoods across the U.S. much faster than many people realize. Over the next three decades, the cost of flood damage is on pace to rise 26% due to climate change alone, an analysis of our new flood risk maps shows.
Well Scott Morrison why are you trying to prevent this technology getting here? We have all the resources to be the world’s premium battery producer and accelerating the transition to global planet cleaner energy.
Stanford Professor Tony Seba foresees a double whammy for the petroleum industry, which he thinks will be dead by 2030, as Rick Kowalchuk at Energi Media reports. One is the rise of electric vehicles, which can use free sunlight and wind as their energy source, not dirty oil. The other is the likelihood that self-driving vehicles will replace ownership of passenger cars, offering “transportation as a service.” If tens of millions of drivers forego car ownership, and when they do order a car to get somewhere use an electric autonomous vehicle, petroleum is doomed. It can’t happen too soon to save the earth.
We don’t get this News in our MSM
James Murray at BusinessGreen reports that 17 new massive offshore wind projects have been authorized off Scotland that collectively would generate 25 gigawatts of power. Note that the total offshore wind capacity as of 2020 in the whole world was only 35 gigawatts, so this one set of “ScotWind” projects will almost double the global total. Some 75 percent of offshore wind-driven electricity is presently generated by the UK, China and Germany. England itself has many gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the pipeline, and just one of the planned projects will generate five percent of the country’s electricity needs.
Source: Scotland alone to nearly Double all the Offshore Wind in the World with new ScotWind Facilities
Yesterday though, the temperature peaked at 50.7℃ in Onslow, a small Western Australian town around 100km from Exmouth.Remarkably, the town sits right next to the ocean, which usually provides cooling. By contrast, the infamously hot WA town of Marble Bar has only reached 49.6℃ this summer, despite its inland location.If confirmed, the Onslow temperature would equal Australia’s hottest on record set in Oodnadatta, South Australia, in January 1960. It would also mark only the fourth day over 50℃ for an Australian location since reliable observations began.
Source: This WA town just topped 50℃ – a dangerous temperature many Australians will have to get used to
Remember when News Corp spent decades telling us the planet was actually cooling. Andrew Bolt was declared a world expert by the IPA in the book on Climate Change “Facts”. Today he calls the above a “New Religion” and promotes the denials of his cherry-picked anti- scientists who he gives voice on his Murdoch platform.
Climate change is not a matter of a dystopian future. We are living it. Now. And it is an increasing challenge. It is a challenge we can overcome, but the longer we burn fossil fuels the steeper the task will be.
Source: We are so F*cked unless we act Now: The 7 Hottest Years on Record were the last 7 Years
Twenty-three scientists from around the world teamed up to analyze thousands of temperature measurements taken throughout the world’s oceans. The measurements, taken at least 2,000 meters (about 6,500ft) deep and spread across the globe, paint a clear picture: the Earth is warming, humans are the culprit, and the warming will continue indefinitely until we collectively take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
DON’T LOOK!!
December discussion at the American Geophysical Union suggested that the massive Thwaites glacier in Antarctica, the size of Florida, could plop into the ocean in the next 10 years, with the potential to set in train further collapses, raising sea level by as much as six feet. Thwaites itself could raise the level by two feet. A two meter sea level rise is half of everything the UN scientists in the IPCC report were expecting by the end of the century, which means they likely were way too conservative. One thing they could not foresee is that the South Pole has heated up 3 times as fast as other areas on earth in recent decades.
Australia has been ranked last among 60 countries on climate change policy in an annual report that dings the nation’s performance in every major category. Overall, Australia dropped four places to 55th in the 2022 Climate Change Performance Index report, which warned even the best-ranked countries in the world were still not doing enough to stave off dangerous climate change. Australia figured poorly in all four categories — greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy — but it was on both national and international policy that it copped the biggest battering.
Source: CCPI report COP26 climate summit: Australia ranked last on policy in major international report
Just how backward is Australia when it comes to Climate Change?
Germany is breaking with atomic energy once and for all, announcing the country’s last three operating nuclear power stations will be shut down over the next 12 months. The move draws the final curtain on its decades-long use of atomic power and stands as a testament to the national commitment to clean, green energy. The decision to phase out nuclear power and shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy was first taken by the centre-left government of Gerhard Schroeder in 2002.
Source: Germany pulls plug on nuclear energy once and for all
Increasingly dire ecological damage and severe impacts of the climate crisis are pushing the natural world towards a mass extinction event unparalleled since the age of the dinosaurs, conservationists in Germany warned this week, with humanity possibly facing self-annihilation if behaviors do not change.
Source: Within Decade, Planet’s Natural World Facing Largest Mass Extinction Event Since Dinosaurs
On Sunday, the town of Kodiak in southern Alaska hit 67°F—seven degrees warmer than the daytime high in San Diego—and shattering the December record for Alaska by nine degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The town also broke the local December record by more than 20 degrees.
Source: Hotter in Alaska Than San Diego This Week as Temperature Record ‘Pulverized’
Should all West Antarctica’s glaciers ever collapse, there is no coastal city in the world that would not, over time, be swamped at ruinous cost to life and economies. The consensus of glaciologists used to be that it would take centuries of global heating before glaciers the size of Thwaites shattered and collapsed, but so rapid and unexpected has been the loss of sea ice at the opposite end of the earth in the Arctic, and so sudden was the loss of Larsen B that it is now considered possible it could happen rapidly in Antarctica, too. Ice loss in the Arctic barely affects sea levels because it mostly forms at sea. Antarctic ice, however, is mostly on land so any melting adds to sea levels.
Source: Scientists watch giant ‘doomsday’ glacier in Antarctica with concern | Antarctica | The Guardian
Insurance companies not only offer coverage to fossil fuel projects, but also use millions of people’s premiums to invest in the fossil fuel industry’s expansion. We can’t stop climate change without reeling the insurers in.
Source: Insurance Companies Are Profiting Big Off of Climate Change
What their boards pledge and what they actually do needs examination,and transparency because past behavior has shown just how corrupt they are. It seems the LNP put on some Royal Comissions for show then do the Morrison nothing.
Despite pledging support for climate action, it’s possible one of Australia’s big four banks is coming to the financial rescue of pollution giant AGL, writes David Ritter. A REAL-TIME “whodunnit?” is playing out across the Australian banking industry. At least one of Australia’s big four banks is considering loaning $800 million to the nation’s worst domestic climate polluter, AGL. The question is, who is involved? And why?
While petrol head Morrison was at Bathurst having his photo taken. The Corporate boards that he has handballed the emission reduction problem to solve have been scratching their heads saying they don’t know what to do. Yes, the Morrison plan simply said “you fix it” as he walked out of the room.
Many Australian boards are struggling to prepare their companies or organizations for climate change, with almost half the country’s directors saying they don’t know how to tackle the issue. A first-of-its-kind study by the Australian Institute of Company Directors into how boards are approaching climate change reveals that 77 per cent of directors are concerned about how it will affect their organization, but often failed to act.
Source: Where to start?: Boards struggle with climate change risks, fail to act
Lomborg is willingly the man paid to twist what scientists aren’t saying as if it’s what they are. Where does he get the media space and the platform Murdoch Media naturally and the Fossil Fuel Industry gladly pays? The scientists without the clout of that platform have insisted that what claims they have said insist he correct his bullshit but are ignored. Lomborg is practiced in the art of deception omission and cherry picking his biggest tool. Tony Abbott tried to bribe universities in Australia with $4M to give his CCC, which Denmark no longer recognises, Department space on an Australian campus. None took up the bribe. Andrew Bolt whose mouth has cost Murdoch a mountain of money being defended but found guilty in our courts was an avid supporter of his. Bolt also touted as an expert on Climate facts by the API spent almost 2 decades telling us the planet was cooling is also a cherry picker was a voice, but without Dr or even a BA to his name a waste of space.
Not a net zero plan In the words of Angus Taylor, Australia’s emissions reduction minister, this week: “The Government’s Long-Term Emissions Reduction Plan outlines how Australia will harness low emissions technologies to meet its 2050 net zero goal.” The Morrison government keeps saying this. But its own report on the modelling into its “technology not taxes” plan to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 shows it won’t get Australia to net zero. According to that report, the technology plan will leave the government about 226m tonnes short of net zero. That’s almost half Australia’s current annual footprint. To make up for that huge shortfall, the government’s modelling report says Australia will buy 94 megatonnes from international offsets, save an unlikely 38Mt from controversial negative-emissions technology not mentioned in its plan, and then reach into the unknown to find another 94Mt from other future technological breakthroughs. So the government’s plan outlines how it will get a little over halfway to net zero.
Global green bond issuance grew for the ninth straight year, climbing to a record high of $269.5 billion at the end of last year, up from $266.5 billion in 2019, according to the nonprofit organization Climate Bonds Initiative. The United States had the largest issuance of green bonds with $51.1 billion, followed by Germany with $40.2 billion and France with $32.1 billion. China and the Netherlands rounded out the top five with $17.2 billion and $17 billion, respectively. Green bonds involve money borrowed to invest in environmentally-friendly projects, and can be issued by central and local governments as well as banks or corporations. According to the Climate Bonds Initiative, the green bond market has been accelerating sharply over the past five years, with 60 percent average annual growth since 2015. It also predicted that 2021 could be another record year, with issuance rising to as high as $450 billion. Let’s take a look at the top 10 countries leading the way in green bond issuance last year.
Source: World’s top 10 countries in green bond issuance – Chinadaily.com.cn
After two hard-fought weeks of negotiations, the Glasgow climate change summit is, at last, over. All 197 participating countries adopted the so-called Glasgow Climate Pact, despite an 11th hour intervention by India in which the final agreement was watered down from “phasing out” coal to “phasing down”.
The US will have 300 gigawatts of wind and solar by the end of 2022. We also have about 100 gigawatts of hydroelectric power. That is 400 gigawatts. If we can get enough battery storage to make full use of the sun and of strong winds, that would amount to a third of the 1200 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity in the US.
Source: Good Climate News: US will increase Solar Power by nearly 50% in 2022, and add 29 Gigawatts of Wind
Scott Morrison has openly shown he is intent protecting the rich with his top down policies on fossil fuels.
Rich people have a carbon footprint 25 times the size of even the typical American. To tackle climate change, we need to start with fossil capital and the most affluent.
olddogthoughts 
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