Political heads in the sand: Denial and inaction as the planet burns

You've no doubt heard about how the ostrich will stick its head in the sand when it's in danger, thinking that it can't be seen? It turns out that it's not true. Ostriches aren't that stupid. They'd suffocate. It can't happen in the real world. Only in politics.

Only political parties could be so deluded as to think that they can refuse to engage with reality and yet, somehow, improve their odds of survival. The remarkable truth, however, is that they can. Australian politics is a leading example.

Read the story from The Age by Peter Hartcher  - “Political heads in the sand: Denial and inaction as the planet burns.”

Climate and economic risks 'threaten 2008-style systemic collapse

The gathering storm of human-caused threats to climate, nature and economy pose a danger of systemic collapse comparable to the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new report that calls for urgent and radical reform to protect political and social systems.

Hurricane Florence in North Carolina in 2018. The report
 fears relentless floods and fires in the US could threaten
financial institutions.

The study says the combination of global warming, soil infertility, pollinator loss, chemical leaching and ocean acidification is creating a “new domain of risk”, which is hugely underestimated by policymakers even though it may pose the greatest threat in human history.

“A new, highly complex and destabilised ‘domain of risk’ is emerging – which includes the risk of the collapse of key social and economic systems, at local and potentially even global levels,” warns the paper from the Institute for Public Policy Research. “This new risk domain affects virtually all areas of policy and politics, and it is doubtful that societies around the world are adequately prepared to manage this risk.”

Until recently, most studies of environmental risk tended to examine threats in isolation: climate scientists examined disruption to weather systems, biologists focused on ecosystem loss and economists calculated potential damages from intensifying storms and droughts. But a growing body of research is assessing how the interplay of these factors can create a cascade of tipping points in human society as well as the natural world.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathon Watts - “Climate and economic risks 'threaten 2008-style systemic collapse.”

Exxon deliberately misled public on climate science, say researchers

ExxonMobil has knowingly misled the public for decades about the danger climate change poses to a warming world and the oil giant’s long-term viability, according to a peer-reviewed study.

 An activist protests outside Exxon Mobil’s
annual shareholder meeting in Dallas in 2016.

An analysis of nearly 200 documents spanning decades found that four-fifths of scientific studies and internal memos acknowledged global warming was real and caused by humans.

Read The Guardian story - “Exxon deliberately misled public on climate science, say researchers.”

(Listening to a panel discussion last night at the RMIT University about climate change and the law, it became obvious that it was rather difficult to prosecute someone, or a corporation, for the outcome of a damaged climate, but it was viable to initiate legal action on the basis that an organization had failed to acknowledge a difficulty, had not been honest in its dealings with shareholders or the public, and so had failed in its fiduciary responsibilities - Robert McLean)

Short video clarifies danger, risks and costs of fossil fuels

T

his three minute YouTube from Carbon Tracker Initiative - “Fossil Fuels: A Risky Business?” – helps us understand a little about the danger, risks, and costs, associated with fossil fuels.