Ecosystems are likely to collapse sooner and more abruptly than previously thought, which is not surprising considering Trump continues to destroy the environmental in the USA. We can do better: the post-COVID recovery can be used to promote environmental sustainability and we have the technology to halve greenhouse gas emissions every decade. You can do your bit – make a submission to the review of the EPBC Act in the next 5 days.
P&I readers know that climate change, and other forms of environmental degradation, are reducing biodiversity, and that species extinction rates are far higher than has been experienced in earlier geological times. You also know that the damaged, less resilient ecosystems are less able to provide the environmental ‘services’ upon which humans rely for clean water and air and healthy nutritious food. The assumption that the biodiversity losses will occur gradually has, however, been challenged. Past and predicted annual temperature and precipitation patterns from 1850-2100 were used to examine the exposure of over 30,000 land and marine species of animals and plants to dangerous climate conditions.
In ecosystems where some species are living close to their climatic or other environmental limits the loss of one of two key species can create a domino effect that results in the rapid collapse of the whole ecosystem; coral reefs and forests are particularly at risk. The research also shows that multiple species in multiple ecosystems may be affected almost simultaneously and abruptly, and that nowhere on earth will be spared. At current rates of warming tropical oceans will be affected by 2030 and tropical forests and higher latitudes by 2050. The slower the rate of warming and the lower we can keep maximum warming the better it will be for ecosystems and the more time it will give humanity to prevent and prepare. This is another study demonstrating that the changes induced by climate change are likely to be sooner, more abrupt, more widespread and more catastrophic than was believed as recently as the signing of the Paris Agreement in December 2015. (Not surprisingly, climate change and its effects on ecosystems also affects migratory species such as robins.)
If I covered all of Trump’s assaults on environmental regulations in the USA, I’d have a full-time job and you’d be bored. The World Resources Institute has slimmed it down to the seven most serious: disregarding the science about climate change and other environmental issues; dismantling Obama’s Clean Power Plan which was reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power stations; blocking Bush Jnr’s policy to phase out inefficient lightbulbs; opposing domestic legislation to implement a global agreement to eliminate hydrofluorocarbon use in air conditioners and fridges; rolling back rules to limit methane leakage from oil and gas supply chains; weakening rules to produce more fuel-efficient and less polluting vehicles; and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Apart from the damage done to the environment, two things stand out. First, many of the laws and regulations that Trump is destroying were introduced by Republican administrations. Second, the changes are harmful to people’s health, destroy existing or potential jobs, reduce exports, and cost families, businesses and governments more. Well done, Donald: lose, lose, lose, lose.
In contrast, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed six climate-related principles to shape the post-COVID recovery. The principles focus on a green transition to deliver new jobs and business opportunities in environmentally sustainable sectors; creating resilient communities; stimulating sustainable growth, particularly when public money is used; stopping all fossil fuel subsidies; polluters paying for their pollution; incorporating climate risks into policymaking, infrastructure development and financial systems; and international cooperation. Guterres concludes, ‘Greenhouse gases, just like viruses, do not respect national boundaries’.
Johan Rockstrom is one of the world’s leading and most vocal climate scientists – a veritable Rockstar! For his contribution to Earth Day celebrations, Rockstrom spoke (at 3.06-3-25 hours) lucidly about the current social, health and environmental crises. He stressed the need for humanity to create a new relationship with the planet and establish a safe and just operating space for humanity on earth. To achieve this, we need to halve greenhouse gas emissions every decade, which Rockstrom asserts is possible with existing technologies. Not one to mince his words, Rockstrom puts Australia in the same category as Trump, Putin Modi, Xi and Bolsinaro when it comes to taking the necessary climate action.
If you’ve been intending to make a submission to the 10-year review of the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity (EPBC) Act but thought you’d missed your chance, you’re in luck. The deadline has been extended to May 1st (next Friday). Go on, tell Graeme Samuel how strongly you feel about environmental protection, that the act has clearly been failing in recent years, and that you want a stronger act. If you need a hand, have a look at the Australian Conservation Foundation’s guide.
Stop. Just stop.
It is no longer a request. It is a mandate.
We will help you.
This is the start of a poem that coronaviruses have thoughtfully sent humanity to help us sort out our current problems. And they can speak English – well, what would you expect of such ruthless colonisers!
Peter Sainsbury is a retired public health worker with a long interest in social policy, particularly social justice, and now focusing on climate change and environmental sustainability. He is extremely pessimistic about the world avoiding catastrophic global warming.
Comments
7 responses to “PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 26 April 2020”
For an interesting perspective on the curse of the atomic bomb and nuclear power check out the book titled Atomic Suicide by Walter and Lao Russell.
Thank you Peter for the update.At times so much comes into my mail box I just don’t have time to read it all and I am supposedly retired! ( from paid work anyway).I will put in a submission myself ASAP.
Phil, we are doomed anyway if we continue to live at the present level of consumption- that is pre Virus, even if we were to reduce fossil fuel use to zero tomorrow. The incredibly complex ecosystems we depend on for our very existence are still adjusting to emissions from decades ago, let alone the pre virus levels. Nuclear energy is not the solution since it has its own problems as we have seen in the Ukraine and Japan when it goes “pear shaped”.
We have to adapt to a much less energy intensive lifestyle. Might be a bit hard for us ‘westerners’ who want all the latest energy using mod cons and “Mac Mansions” but it is the only solution. I am not too confident that we will adjust in time though.(“Frog in beaker” experiment anyone?)
Gavin A. O’Brien,FRMetS.
Given the abrupt change in state of the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere-land system, accelerating since the mid-20ᵗʰ century, the terms climate change and global warming no longer reflect the nature of the climate extremes consequent on this shift. Global CO₂ rise and warming rates have reached a large factor to an order of magnitude higher than those of the past geological and mass extinction events, with major implications for the shift in climate zones and the nature and speed of current extreme weather events. Further to NASA’s reported mean land-ocean temperature rise to +1.18°C for March 2020, relative to the 1951-1980 baseline, large parts of the continents, including Siberia, central Asia, Canada, parts of west Africa, eastern South America and Australia are warming toward mean temperatures of +2°C and higher. The rate exceeds that of the Last Glacial Termination (LGT) (21–8 kyr), the Paleocene-Eocene hyperthermal event (PETM) (55.9 Ma) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (K-T) (64.98 Ma) impact event. A principal question arises regarding the relationships between the warming rate and the nature and progression of the current migration climate zones toward the poles, including changes in the atmosphere and ocean current systems. Significant transient cooling pauses, or stadials, are projected as a consequence of the flow of cold ice melt water from Greenland and Antarctica into the oceans.
My apologies, I accidentally removed the link to the first article about abrupt biodiversity losses. The article can be found at https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07042020/global-warming-ecosystem-biodiversity-rising-heat-species?utm_source=InsideClimate+News&utm_campaign=f01507c3c0-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-f01507c3c0-327928653
Please add my name to any submission. Simply reprint this article with my name and e-address from here and forward it!
James KABLE
shouin529@gmail.com
Caves Beach NSW 2281
We are doomed so long as we have an environment movement dedicated to promoting ridiculous alternatives to fossil fuel use. Intermittency in supply can never be coped with and batteries that can replace baseload will never exist
We need nuclear power working with renewables, with nuclear power supplying the baseload required to run industrial societies and electrify transport
We are wasting time on silly dreams of non existent alternatives
1. Just about every country which has developed nuclear power for allegedly peaceful purposes, ended up producing nuclear weapons which, alongside the climate catastrophe, poses the biggest danger for humanity and nature.
2. No solution has been found for nuclear waste. About 95 % of all the radioactivity created, from all sources including nuclear 1. weapons production, is contained in the irradiated fuel – or high-level radioactive waste – from commercial nuclear power reactors. Yet even “low-level” nuclear waste can contain lethally-radioactive and long-lived elements, such as Plutonium-239, Strontium-90 and many others. The storage – permanent and temporary – and transport of radioactive waste is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the nuclear power issue. No nation has yet solved the problem of what to do with this material, which must be shielded from the environment for millennia.
https://wiseinternational.org/nuclear-energy/nuclear-waste?gclid=CjwKCAjw4pT1BRBUEiwAm5QuR0VwE0_71tXZLIy48oxYhTqVY3YeePOpEYZtJgmWH6TjOPCBKZ3V-BoCnSUQAvD_BwE