Category: Climate

Two stories from India: creating environmentally sustainable, healthy cities for the post-COVID world and the installation of cheap solar energy signals the end of coal. Plus, Joseph Stiglitz summarises some principles the Australian government should adopt post-COVID, a literary interlude and a summary of carbon capture and storage.

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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.

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A rational response from Australia’s leaders to the unprecedented and disastrous 2019-20 megafires would have recognised, first, that they are another warning— and the strongest yet — that the catastrophic impacts of human-induced climate change are here now as lives are lost and livelihoods destroyed. Second, it would accept the need for emergency action. (more…)

Biodiversity features heavily this week: a distressing update on bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef but good news that the right action now could restore the Earth’s oceans to good health by 2050; the Tasmanian government hellbent on logging native forests; and the decline of Spotted Frogs in the USA heralding bad news for humans. Finally, a cause and effect conundrum.

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As nearly everybody now understands, the changes that have occurred in public policy in
the last few weeks are without precedent, at least since the Second World War. They tell
us in the most straightforward possible way that only government finance and organisation can support the people in a national emergency. (more…)

Coronavirus is yet another serious disruption to daily life in Africa, while the Brazilian President prefers clearing the Amazon to managing the epidemic. Two reports from WWF highlight the contributions that nature-based solutions can make to solving global problems but not everyone agrees. Coal no longer ‘cheap’.

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If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. How will a coronavirus-led recession affect CO₂ emissions? Will health improve from cleaner air with fewer vehicles on the road? How can governments use stimulus packages to protect the vulnerable and hasten the transition to a low carbon, environmentally sustainable, just world? And good news for Torres Strait Islanders: $25m to cope with sea level rise.

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Marine and coastal environments are the focus this week: how ‘The Blue Acceleration’ poses threats to natural environments, economies, lives and homes through ocean warming, melting ice caps, changes in ocean currents, sea level rise and even bushfires. And some early attempts to protect flood-prone areas in the USA.

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We are part of nature and the most important lesson of COVID-19 is that it reminds us of our sheer vulnerability. (more…)

Teck Resources withdraws from an oil sands mining project in Alberta Canada and Equinor oil company pulls out of drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight, even though the project has already received Australian government approval. Coronavirus is just one of a string of dangerous new infections caused by the clearing of forests by multinational agribusinesses. Ongoing coal mining in India is causing extreme human suffering as well as warming the planet.

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Three articles from the USA, all with relevance for Australia. Economist Jeffrey Sachs analyses the costs and timelines for decarbonisation; activist and writer Bill McKibben provides an overview of climate change and climate action at the start of the decade; and essayist Mary Annaise Heglar discusses the relationship between climate change and racism and oppression. Finally reports from the Victorian and NSW governments about their responses to the bush fires.

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Without the ‘services’ provided by nature, humanity could not exist – so why do we keep destroying nature? Financial institutions have cold feet about investing in Alberta’s oil sands and the Premier directs a blow torch at their bellies. A follow up to last month’s Siemens story and hints for environmentally sustainable alcohol intake. Finally, a reminder that the Great Barrier Reef is still in danger.

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A disturbing report about how climate change exposes women and girls to violence, abuse and exploitation. Calls for a treaty to protect the Arctic from militarisation and commercialisation. Concerns that some people are more concerned about preserving pictures of animals than animals themselves, and increasing covering of climate change in the media.

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The first Australian National Climate Emergency Summit was in Melbourne Town Hall, 14-15 February 2020 – there will be many more. (more…)

Migration is the focus this week, particularly within country migration, with stories about human migrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the USA, bird migrations in Australia and bee migrations in the USA.

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In the clouded eyes of government, scientific facts, which have guided our technologically advanced civilisation are now simply an opinion which can be discarded in favour of their own. (more…)