Morrison a 'bad dad' for denigrating young climate protesters

Scott Morrison failed an entire generation last week. He dismissed the 300,000 young people and their parents who filled our city streets in the School Strike 4 Climate, as lacking “context and perspective”.

Steve Biddulph.

It was an outrageously insensitive response, and if young Australians were anxious before, they will be doubly so now. They are the most science literate generation in history, and the science says this is the most dangerous time our world has ever faced. But the leaders of the nation think everything is fine.

I was out among those young people. They are the generation raised while I was this country’s leading voice on child-rearing, and I was so proud of them it brought me to tears. They struck me as the mature ones in the whole picture, their speeches were wonderful, their manner dignified and their demands (no new coal, cutting exports and fair treatment of workers) were moderate and thoughtful. They were the prefects, sports kids, and the thoughtful nerdy ones who get their facts right. And their parents and grandparents were supporting them.

And here is the thing - many of their placards referenced Scott Morrison in person, as the one they were asking desperately to help. In response, Morrison accused them of being stooges for the unspecified aims of others. That’s hugely disrespectful, and it doesn’t begin to understand the nature of teenagers, which is in every generation to ask awkward questions we really need to answer.

Read the opinion piece by Steve Biddulph from The Sydney Morning Herald - “Morrison a 'bad dad' for denigrating young climate protesters.”

Parents around the world mobilise behind youth climate strikes

Parents and grandparents around the world are mobilising in support of the youth strikes for climate movement that has swept the globe.

 Eve White and her children join climate protests in Tasmania.

Under the banner Parents for the Future, 34 groups from 16 countries on four continents have issued an open letter. It demands urgent action to fight climate change and prevent temperatures rising by more than 1.5C, beyond which scientists say droughts, floods and heatwaves will get significantly worse.

“What our kids are telling us is what science has been telling us for many years – there is no time left,” the letter says. “We now owe it to them to act.”

Read the story from The Guardian by Damian  Carrington - “Parents around the world mobilise behind youth climate strikes.”

Birds are dropping dead off Australia's coast, and it's all our fault

Deep in their burrows, hungry shearwater chicks on Lord Howe Island await a meal. Their parents have been scouring the sea in search of fish and squid. Instead, they return to feed their babies clothes pegs, bottle tops and Lego pieces.

Helium balloon clips are removed from the stomach
 of a young Shearwater on Lord Howe Island.

After 90 days the fledglings emerge from their burrows, stomachs bulging with plastic. They prepare for their first flight. Many are so malnourished they die outside the nest. Others make it to the beach, but their undeveloped wings flap in vain and waves engulf them.

Ian Hutton, a naturalist and museum curator on Lord Howe Island, pulls the bodies off the beach. Researchers slice open their stomachs to confirm the cause of death. Once, they found 274 plastic fragments.

“It’s so upsetting to think this bird has been reared by its parents, it’s been fed and it should have a chance to go to sea but it’s died,” he said.

Read the story by Nicole Hasham from The Age - “Birds are dropping dead off Australia's coast, and it's all our fault.”

Ecokit's modular prefab cabins are sustainable and arrive flat packed

U.S. cities aren’t the only ones with an affordable housing crisis. Take Australia, whose major metros are routinely some of the most unaffordable in the world and where a growing number of young people are renting and living longer with parents.

Flat pack, affordable and sustainable.

Just as how skyrocketing housing costs have fueled interest in alternative dwellings like tiny houses and prefabs stateside, they’ve also inspired designers Down Under to find new solutions through architecture. One such idea currently under development is Ecokit, an energy-efficient prefab kit house that can be built by two people in a few weeks.

Three years in the making, the Ecokit house is a modular, flat-packed design built from thermal-insulated panels and eco-friendly materials. The exterior looks something like a small, modern barn with a gabled roof, slanted side walls, covered deck, and solar roof system that the company claims can generate both electricity and hot water. Renderings for the interior show an open-plan living and dining area, with a bedroom on the ground level and another in the mezzanine.

Read Jenny Xie’s Curbed story “Ecokit's modular prefab cabins are sustainable and arrive flat packed.”

Call to fine parents who idle car engines near school and childcare zones

Increasing traffic and school and childcare
 drop-offs risk exposing children to
high levels of pollution, experts say.

Parents who park the car but leave the engine running while picking up and dropping off their children would be penalised under anti-idling laws proposed to cut harmful vehicle emissions.

The call to crack down on idling near schools and childcare centres follows a Turnbull government discussion paper on improving Australia's air quality by switching to cleaner fuels.

Read Adam Carey’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Call to fine parents who idle car engines near school and childcare zones.”