John McCain urges action on Great Barrier Reef and Paris climate deal

The death of the Great Barrier Reef is one of the “great tragedies of our lives”, US senator John McCain has said, arguing America should uphold its commitment to the Paris climate agreement, or accede to it with minor modifications.

John McCain - the death of the Great Barrier Reef
is one of  the "great tragedies of our lives".

Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday night, the veteran politician and former Republican party presidential candidate said climate change was undeniably real and that it was incumbent upon world leaders to act now to halt and reverse global warming.

“I think that climate change is real. I think that one of the great tragedies of our lives is the Great Barrier Reef dying [and] the environmental consequences of that,” he said.

The position of the world’s second-largest carbon emitter on the Paris climate change agreement is uncertain and a subject of global speculation. US commitment to reducing emissions or otherwise could have significant ramifications for other countries upholding their promised reductions.

Read Ben Doherty’s story on The Guardian - “John McCain urges action on Great Barrier Reef and Paris climate deal.”

Fossil fuel burning was responsible 250 million years ago - Monbiot

I

t now looks as if the greatest mass extinction on Earth – 250 million years ago – was caused by fossil fuel burning, according to Guardian columnist, George Monbiot.

George Monbiot.

In “A Prehistory of Violence” he writes, “ Do you want to know the real reason for the advances by Isis in Iraq and Syria? Changing lightbulbs in America. This is the explanation given by John McCain, Republican chair of the Senate armed services committee.

“At the weekend he blamed Barack Obama’s inability to magic away Islamic State on the president’s belief that climate change is “the biggest enemy we have”. Never mind the role of the Iraq war – which Mr McCain supported – in destabilising the region, destroying the Iraqi army and creating the opportunities Isis has exploited,” Monbiot wrote.