Dammit, Democrats! Organize a Climate Debate!

Nothing about the Democratic National Committee’s approach to organizing debates featuring the several dozen contenders for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination inspires confidence. But something about the party’s approach should inspire fury.

Jay Inslee speaks during a Columbia Climate
Strike rally at Columbia University in New York.

The DNC is refusing to organize a debate on climate change, and it is clinging to rules that could effectively block candidates from participating in independent debates on the issue. 

This is morally wrong and practically foolish. 

Most of the candidates acknowledge that, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says, climate change represents “an existential crisis that impacts not just you and me and our generation but our kids and our grandchildren, and we must accept the moral responsibility of leaving these kids, future generations, a planet that is healthy and habitable.” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says, “When it comes to climate change, our very existence is at stake. But Washington refuses to lift a finger without permission from the fossil fuel companies. That’s dangerous and it’s wrong!” Washington Governor Jay Inslee has staked his nomination bid on the issue, arguing that “We’re the first generation to feel the sting of climate change. And we’re the last that can do something about it. We went to the moon and created technologies that changed the world. Our country’s next mission must be to rise up to the most urgent challenge of our time: defeating climate change.” 

Read the story from The Nation by John Nichols - “Dammit, Democrats! Organize a Climate Debate!”

A ray of hope in the fight against unsustainable logging

Last week's injunction granted by the Federal Court stopping VicForests from logging certain areas in the Central Highlands until a court hearing next year is a ray of hope for those seeking an ecologically sustainable approach to native forest logging.

Mountain Ash forest.

The case – brought by Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum – is based on the failure by VicForests to abide by the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014, the regulations governing timber harvesting.

Yet the regulatory breaches cited to the court only scratch the surface. The Rubicon Forest Protection Group presented evidence to the current review of Victorian Regional Forest Agreements showing clear-felled areas far larger than permitted; blackberries rampant and unchecked; washouts on steep slopes that should not have been logged; the popular Rubicon Historic Area logged; tourist roads left with no buffers; retained trees killed in regeneration burns; springs and ephemeral watercourses logged and silted.

Read the story from The Age by Nick Legge - “A ray of hope in the fight against unsustainable logging.”

Queensland weather: Tropical Cyclone Linda downgraded as system tracks toward coast

Tropical Cyclone Linda has been downgraded to a subtropical low, but south-east Queensland residents are still bracing for gale-force winds, abnormally high tides and dangerous surf as the system continues to approach the coast.

Linda developed from a tropical low in the Coral Sea about 3:00pm AEST on Tuesday, despite the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) earlier saying a cyclone system was unlikely.

But by 10:00am on Wednesday, the BOM said Linda was no more.

Although the system is not expected to cross the coast, senior forecaster Rick Threlfall said it would still pack a punch.

Read the ABC News story - “Queensland weather: Tropical Cyclone Linda downgraded as system tracks toward coast.”