For us to tackle climate change, companies need to pay their tax

It’s been a year of natural disasters. After Irma, Maria, Harvey, hurricane Florence left a devastating landscape in the Caribbean. Extreme temperatures across the northern hemisphere have caused devastating fires from Europe to the US. Dozens have been killed in the Philippines after typhoon Mangkhut triggered landslides.

‘The IMF reports that the revenue lost from tax
evasion in developing countries is 1.3 times larger,
 as a share of GDP, than it is in advanced economies.’

And the worst consequences of climate change are yet to come.

It is a huge challenge for rich countries and for developing nations, a sisyphean task: how to collect enough revenue to respond to major catastrophes, while at the same time trying to lift billions of people out of poverty?

Look at Indonesia. Disasters are a familiar tragedy in the world’s fourth most populous nation, with its thousands of islands across hundreds of miles of ocean. This should make disaster risk planning crucial. It is not the case, as the latest earthquake and tsunami showed. Reports revealed that parts of the tsunami alert system didn’t work. In some areas, there were no sirens at all. The death toll is still climbing.

Read the opinion piece by Wayne Swan from The Guardian - “For us to tackle climate change, companies need to pay their tax.”

Weather disasters cost the US a record $390 billion in 2017

Washington: Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria combined with devastating Western wildfires and other natural catastrophes to make 2017 the most expensive year on record for disasters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Monday.

Firefighter Ryan Spencer battles a wildfire as it burns
along a hillside toward homes in La Conchita, California in December. 

The disasters caused $US306 billion ($390 billion) in total damage in 2017, with 16 separate events that caused more than $1 billion in damage each. The bulk of the damage, at $265 billion, came from hurricanes in particular.

Read Chris Mooney’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Weather disasters cost the US a record $390 billion in 2017.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson says it might be 'too late' to recover from climate change.

Scientist and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said Sunday that, in the wake of devastating floods and damage caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, climate change had become so severe that the country "might not be able to recover.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson.

In an interview on CNN's "GPS," Tyson got emotional when Fareed Zakaria asked what he made of Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert's refusal to say whether climate change had been a factor in Hurricanes Harvey or Irma's strength -- despite scientific evidence pointing to the fact that it had made the storms more destructive.

"Fifty inches of rain in Houston!" Tyson exclaimed, adding, "This is a shot across our bow, a hurricane the width of Florida going up the center of Florida!"

Read the CNN story - “Neil deGrasse Tyson says it might be 'too late' to recover from climate change."

Hurricane Irma shaping to be a perfect - but 'potentially catastrophic' - storm

One of the most powerful hurricanes to develop in the Atlantic basin is shaping up to be a perfect but "potentially catastrophic" storm as it remains on course to hit the US state of Florida by Sunday.

Latest imagery of super hurricane Irma
as it neared the island of Barbuda.

Phil Klotzbach, an atmospheric research scientist at Colorado State University said the descriptor of Hurricane Irma as perfect was "fair" given its huge size and shape.

"Storms don't get much more impressive on satellite than Irma right now," Dr Klotzback told Fairfax Media. "That's the hurricane paradox - so amazingly beautiful from afar and so terrorising if you're in one.”

Irma has already begun to challenge the record books as it intensified on Tuesday, local time, into a category 5 hurricane with sustained winds reaching 185 miles per hour (297 km/h).

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Hurricane Irma shaping to be a perfect - but 'potentially catastrophic' - storm.”