Australian CEOs must rupture the political stagnation to lead the charge on climate action

The unprecedented, devastating bushfires that engulfed Australia – from even before our summer began – have forever disrupted our usually laconic and relaxed memories of Christmas and New Year.

Zali Steggall (right) with members of the crossbench 
Helen Haines (left) and Rebekha Sharkie who are
introducing a climate change bill that provides an
internationally proven framework to help manage climate risk.

Those memories are instead marked by anguish, anxiety, grief and consternation about our future.

We turned to fire and emergency chiefs, tireless local volunteers, our national broadcaster and the spirit of community to find leadership in this crisis. And very late, but at last, we turned to scientists; fire, flood and climate experts; and vitally, Indigenous knowledge, to start to rebuild a sense of a path forward for our nation.

Read the opinion piece from The Guardian by Sam Mostyn - “Australian CEOs must rupture the political stagnation to lead the charge on climate action.” 

Australian voters have every reason to be cynical

The summer period comes with many different traditions. For our family Christmas, breakfast is the main event with everyone gathering together for platters of fruit, Christmas ham, fried eggs, croissants, juice and sparkling wine and secret santa. It’s political fights with my dad. It’s trips to the beach, prawn sandwiches on the veranda as the sun sets, it’s a time for recharging your batteries and reflecting on the year that’s been before looking ahead to the year to come.

Steam billows from the cooling towers at TRUenergy
 Holdings Pty's Yallourn coal-fired power station in
Yallourn, Australia. 

Every year, most people I know feel like they’ve just managed to scrape through until they get a break at Christmas. This year it feels like government barely scraped through.

Read the story from The Canberra Times by Ebony Bennett - “Australian voters have every reason to be cynicall.”

Five ways to talk to your family and friends about the climate crisis this Christmas

Climate marches, raging and unseasonal bushfires, the Adani coal mine. It seems like climate change and global warming is a conversation that’s going to be hard to avoid this Christmas.

‘This is about all of our futures – our lives, our
quality of life, and that of our children. Keep it
in that frame and you’re a lot closer to changing minds’ 

But some ways of talking are better than others. To help you prepare for difficult conversations here are five different ways you can try to talk about climate change, or anything else difficult and controversial, this holidays.

Read the story from The Guardian by Simon Black - “Five ways to talk to your family and friends about the climate crisis this Christmas.”

Record-setting Christmas storm buries Pennsylvania's fourth largest city under more than 4 feet of snow

Lake-effect snow buried Pennsylvania’s fourth largest city under more than four feet of snow over Christmas, smashing both local and state snowfall records while hampering holiday travel around the Great Lakes.

Erie, Pa. is blanketed under more than 4 feet of
snow, which fell over 30 hours on Monday and Tuesday.

With snow falling at a rate of up to three inches per hour, the National Weather Service reported Erie, Pa., picked up 56.5 inches of snow since the storm began on Christmas Eve. The bulk of that fell in a 30-hour period from Christmas morning into Tuesday.

Erie officials have declared a state of emergency and are pleading with motorists to stay off city streets and nearby highways, including Interstates 90 and 79. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) was also expected to call up some national guardsmen because so much snow has fallen there is concern ambulances will not able to reach some patients.

Read The Washington Post story by Tim Craig - “Record-setting Christmas storm buries Pennsylvania's fourth largest city under more than 4 feet of snow.”

Christmas, like climate change, is a human construct

Christmas in Australia is quite unlike
that of the northern hemisphere.

Christmas, like climate change, is a human construct.

The latter is based on unassailable evidence, the former, on a myth.

Yes, both are things that we have created.

Christmas has evolved from superstition and fanciful thinking to become a myth that has been enthusiastically embraced by many people who place great stock in the emotional warmth and security provided by such beliefs.

Our consumerist, profit driven, economic growth at any costs society has purloined the idea of gifts from the three wise men for the mythical baby-Jesus, to create an annual institution of the idea of gift-giving.

Climate change has many causes, among them our profligate use of energy and our extractive practices; both of which worsen climate change.

Personally, the annual reaffirmation of positive human values that surrounds Christmas is welcome, but it saddens me to see them fade as our brutal market-driven economy forces its way back onto centre stage (although the consumerism of Christmas suggests it had never been off stage), bringing with it a return to our behaviours that are diametrically opposed to mitigating the causes of climate change.  

Keeping the good news under wraps, even though it is Christmas

Governments of all persuasions release information they don’t want the public to know about on the eve major events, such as Christmas.

And so as the latest information showing that Australia’s carbon prices is working, doing what it was set up to do, has only just been released.

A Sydney Morning Herald story reports: “Environment Minister Greg Hunt has quietly published data, just two days before Christmas, showing the second year of operation of Australia's carbon price was more successful at reducing emissions than the first.”

The story; ”New data shows record fall in carbon emissions” reports that Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory figure show emissions declined across Australia by 1.4 per cent over the 12 months to June.

Tackling the myths at Christmas festivities

Climate change myths abound.

Few are more aware of this than Australia’s Climate Council and so it has produced this easy to read chart that will help you counteract the skeptics/doubters you encounter at Christmas celebrations.

Using the “Mythbusting Guide for Christmas BBQs.” the council wants us to be on the front foot as we enjoy our Christmas festivities.

Conflicting advice from scientists and politicians

Joe Hockey - he doesn't
want us to let Santa
down and so
 shop for Christmas.

Australians face stark differences in advice about how they should behave.

A leading Australian climate scientist argues that we should restrain our consumptive behaviours and yet this morning our Treasurer Mr Joe Hockey encouraged exactly the opposite.

The Melbourne-based scientist said population was not the fundamental problem, rather our seemingly insatiable desire to consume more and more energy-intensive products.

This morning on Radio National Mr Hockey urged Australians to “Go out there and spend for Christmas, don’t let Santa down.”

The contradiction is obvious – science tells us, unequivocally, that climate change can only be addressed if we spend and consume less , while our politicians are encouraging quite the reverse,

You can hear the Joe Hockey interview with Fran Kelly here on Radio National.

Enjoy Christmas, but be conscious of the cost

Atheism and Christmas are uncomfortable bedfellows, but in one sense the latter is about values important to combatting climate change.

A powerful sense of family and community emerges from the annual Christian celebration, both of which will be critical as abatement becomes increasingly important.

Maybe Christmas has some positive attributes, but in an energy sense it is incredibly expensive with most of the food scoffed down being the product of fossil fuels, and the supporting infrastructure, travel, toys, gadgets, and the hierarchy of buildings all being energy intensive.

So although we all need to enjoy Christmas, whatever our views on the annual moment are, we do need to be conscious that it is integral to a lifestyle that is worsening climate change.

-       Robert McLean.

Enjoy Christmas, however you see it

by Robert McLean

 

Christmas means many things to many people, but it is among the reasons we gather Beneath the Wisteria to consider our response to climate change.

There is a certain consumerist fervour about Christmas; a fervour that erupts as a disconnect between what we need and what we want.

Consumerism, in all its forms, is what has worsened humanity’s carbon dioxide emissions demanding that each of us has a considered response to climate change.

Personally, Christmas brings sentiments I enjoy and promotes values, beyond the insistence that we consume more, that are important to the welfare and wellbeing of mankind, but beyond that I am offended, or at least my intelligence is, by the fundamental beliefs upon which this annual event is founded.

Celebrate Christmas as you choose, be kind to those around you (that doesn’t necessarily mean showering them with gifts they don’t want or need, to impress people they don’t know), be kind to yourself and consider our place on earth, and importantly, take care.