Escaping extinction through paradigm shift

For the last month, as a journalist and academic, I’ve experienced a strange sensation of paralysis.

Drone footage of displaced family tents in one settlement
 in Badghis, Afghanistan, due to ongoing drought and
climate change. There are thousands of makeshift homes
 spread between mountain hills on the outskirt of Qala-i-naw city. 

I don’t usually experience this. Usually I find myself driven by the pressures of wanting to cover with due justice a full spectrum of intersecting crises and potential solutions.

But this month watching the spectacle of political madness unfolding across Washington, London and Brussels, while chaos and suffering continues to kick off across Venezuela, Yemen, Israel-Palestine, Syria, Nigeria and beyond, I experienced something I haven’t felt in a long-time. A sense of total burn-out. Of futility. Of tiredness.

Read the Medium story by Nafeez Ahmed - “Escaping extinction through paradigm shift.”

How Britain kicked coal

Despite the chaos of Brexit and the difficulty of expanding renewable generation in a country where sunshine is notoriously scarce, and despite strong opposition to wind turbines, Britain has just about ended its use of coal-fired electricity. The last coal-fired power stations are set to close by 2025, but the process is almost complete already. How was this achieved?

The answer can be found in this graph released by Ofgem, the British electricity regulator. As it shows, coal (shown in orange) supplied around 40 per cent of British electricity in 2006, yet by 2018 its contribution was negligible. (The graph on Ofgem’s site is interactive, so you can see the actual numbers there.)

Read the story by John Quiggan from Inside Story - “How Britain kicked coal.”

Beast from the East': Four dead in French avalanche as weather system causes chaos

Four skiers have been killed and another injured in an avalanche in the French Alps, as the deadly Siberian weather system nicknamed "Beast from the East" continued to cause chaos across Europe.

People were able to walk and skate on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht canal after it froze.

The group was on a ski touring expedition in an off-trail area near Entraunes, close to the Italian border in the southern Alps.

The identities of the skiers were not immediately released. Prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre of Nice said in remarks shown on French television that they were "seniors", all with experience in backcountry skiing.

Meanwhile, the extraordinary weather system, which has now claimed more than 50 lives, continued to bring disruption to many countries across Europe.

Read the ABC News story - “‘Beast from the East': Four dead in French avalanche as weather system causes chaos.”

Victoria, Tasmania and NSW to be hit with coldest snap of the year

A MONSTER storm is coming our way and expected to cause chaos as it moves through south eastern Australia.

A storm being described as a "monster" will move
through south-east Australia this weekend.

It will bring with it what is expected to be the biggest snow dump of the year.

A low-pressure system will move over the Western Australia and South Australia border later this week, pushing a cold front over Tasmania and Australia’s south-east this weekend.

South Australia will cop a chilly weekend, with just 6C expected in Adelaide on Saturday and Sunday.

Victoria, Tasmania and southern NSW will be hit on the weekend with damaging winds, rain, hail and blizzards.

Read the story by Olivia Lambert - “Victoria, Tasmania and NSW to be hit with coldest snap of the year.”

Climate energy appeasement does not work

The current chaos around climate and energy policy brings to mind George Santayana’s caution that: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. That is exactly what we are witnessing, albeit with far more profound implications even than the advent of the Second World War.

In November 1936, Winston Churchill, concerned at the dangers posed by the Third Reich, warned the House of Commons about the refusal of the British establishment to face up to reality:

“They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent……Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have now entered upon a period of great danger …..  The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close.  In it’s place we are entering a period of consequences….. We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now …..”

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was not to be diverted from the appeasement path, returning from Munich in September 1938 waving his “peace in our time” paper signed with Hitler.  The rest is history; the war started a year later.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Ian Dunlop - “Climate energy appeasement does not work.”

Capitulation on climate change ignores evidence and will come at a cost

The Hazelwood power station in Victoria -
it seems the sun is
setting on such energy suppliers.

In a world of post-fact politics, this is a doozy.

The government is armed with a raft of evidence – from government agencies, the energy industry, business groups – that the electricity sector is in chaos.

Ageing, failing coal plants are shutting down abruptly and haphazardly – nine in the past seven years, with the giant Hazelwood station in Victoria to join them in March. More will follow.

Wind farms are being built to meet a national renewable energy target that was only ever designed to be a policy add-on. The target has kept a growing industry alive – just, at times – but was never meant to drive the change to a modern electricity scheme.

Read Adam Morton comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Capitulation on climate change ignores evidence and will come at a cost.”

Putting our "collective heads" in the sand

The governments of the world appear to be shoving their collective heads in the sand.

A story in today Melbourne Age headed; “IPCC report summary censored by governments around the world” confirms that.

It’s a weird contradiction as many of the world’s governments that actually contributed to the report seem, it appears, to be uncomfortable with the findings of the report.

Finally, after years of talk and previous reports, we arrive at the “sharp end” of the conversation and governments are queuing up behind those in denial for, it seems, they are not at all prepared for drastic societal changes needed to avoid catastrophic climate change.

This appears to be just the beginning of the governance chaos that will engulf societies around the world as the reality climate change begins to unfold – the science will remain clear and our response will be cloudy, divisive and disruptive.

Hotter, wetter and more violent - a natural equation

As the climate worsens,
so does the violence.

Talk about climate change and its impact on just about anything, is complex in the extreme, but if the discussion is expanded to include violence, then conversational chaos results.

However, that has not deterred US scientist who have found that even small change in rainfall or temperatures correlate with an increase in assaults, rapes and murders, along with group conflicts or war.

The BBC reports about these weather induced changes in a story headed: “Rise in violence ‘linked to climate change’”.

Science reporter, Rebecca Morelle, notes the study illustrates that increases in violence around the world are strongly linked to climate change.

Brazil - a long way from here, but really right next door

A drought in Brazil seems an unimaginable distance from the reality of Australia.

Brazil

In a geographic sense that is partly true, but considered in relation to the damage we are doing to out atmosphere, it is really right next door.

Considering that, a story in today’s Melbourne Age deserves our attention.

The story, about a serious issue, headed “Drought sparks chaos” begins:

 RIO DE JANEIRO. Severe drought gripping north-eastern Brazil - the worst in a half-century - is taking its toll on more than 1100 towns, even triggering fighting in rural areas.