Change is possible: Australia needs a Green New Deal

When I dropped my kids off at childcare just a few weeks ago, the air was so dangerous that the warning on my phone showed someone in a gas mask.

Australians are angry and anxious because the government
clearly doesn’t have the climate emergency under control and
 has no plan to get it under control.’

As I stood on the burned-out property of Nick Hopkins in Malua Bay last month, he summed it up perfectly, feeling two parts shattered and three parts angry.

Australians are angry and anxious because the government clearly doesn’t have the climate emergency under control and has no plan to get it under control. But people are also angry and anxious because the basics of life are no longer guaranteed.

Study hard and do Tafe or university and you get underemployed in an insecure job with low pay. You get a job and then find you can’t afford a house because the government has rigged the housing market against you.

Read the opinion piece from The Guardian by Adam Brandt - “Change is possible: Australia needs a Green New Deal.” 

Trump’s New Climate Plan Involves a Guy Who Compared Pollution to ‘Jews Under Hitler’

Withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement was only the beginning. According to a new report from the New York Times, the Trump administration is poised to enter a dangerous, politically motivated new front of its war on climate science. “It reminds me of the Soviet Union,” Philip Duffey, an expert who served on the National Academy of Sciences, told the paper.

Vehicles move along the the New Jersey Turnpike in 2017
while a factory emits smoke. The United States is still c
ontributing to the global greenhouse gas emissions as
the Trump administration has dismantled the U.S.
foreign policy to reduce carbon pollution.

In the coming months, the White House is expected to officially vanquish what’s left of Obama-era regulations to curb emissions from tailpipes and power plants. Though the scientific community agrees that to pumping carbon dioxide into the environment will be catastrophic for future generations, the administration isn’t very concerned with the state of the planet beyond the president’s potential lifespan. According to the Times, U.S. Geological Survey Director James Reilly — a former petroleum geologist appointed by Trump — has ordered his office to only study the effects of climate change up to 2040. Doing so would paint a relatively rosy picture of the effects of climate change, as the rate of warming isn’t expected to increase precipitously until the middle of the century.

Read the story from Rolling Stone by Ryan Bort - “Trump’s New Climate Plan Involves a Guy Who Compared Pollution to ‘Jews Under Hitler’.”

‘Harder and riskier': Carbon removal needed if Paris goals don't rise

Greenhouse gas emission cuts must be at least 20 per cent deeper than pledged under the Paris climate accord or the world will have to begin the costly direct removal of atmospheric carbon to avoid dangerous climate change, a new study argues.

Emissions impossible? Delays in cutting emissions make it
 more likely that carbon will have to be directly captured
if dangerous climate change is to be avoided.

The Germany-based researchers examined the action needed if nations failed to deliver greater carbon curbs by 2030 but still kept global warming to under 2 degrees, compared with pre-industrial levels.

"Each tonne of CO2 we don't emit, we don't have to remove from the atmosphere afterwards in an expensive and strenuous way," said Jessica Strefler from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the lead author of the paper published on Thursday in Environmental Research Letters.

Read Peter Hannam’s story from The Age - “‘Harder and riskier': Carbon removal needed if Paris goals don't rise.”

Green-again Turnbull starts down a familiar path

For Malcolm Turnbull, attempting to be "green-again" is a dangerous but necessary risk.

Australia's PM Malcolm Turnbull, attempting to
be green again is a dangerous by necessary risk.

Avoiding it for so long has hastened his popular descent. Avoiding it indefinitely was unthinkable.

All too aware of the sceptical right-wing eyes burning a hole in his back, the Prime Minister had attempted to slow the policy process down, to gather the evidence and build the support within his party for a gentle, non-ideological return to remedial action on climate change. 

Action that many within his party room do not believe is needed, and to which some remain implacably opposed.

Read Mark Kenny’s analysis in today Melbourne Age - “Green-again Turnbull starts down a familiar path.”

NSW weather: Fire warning as extreme heat and dangerous winds forecast for weekend.

The NSW Rural Fire Service says
 temperatures and winds will
 pick up on Saturday.

Firefighters are warning of dangerous conditions across many parts of New South Wales, with extreme heat forecast over the next few days.

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Olenka Duma said there would be widespread heatwave conditions with temperatures reaching the mid 40s over many inland areas and high 30s along the coast on the weekend.

"It is going to be very hot, particularly over the next couple of days," she said.

The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) said the state would experience the worst bushfire conditions in four years with severe and extreme fire dangers in widespread areas.

Read the ABC story - “NSW weather: Fire warning as extreme heat and dangerous winds forecast for weekend.”

Devastating global warming is inevitable due to in action of international community, says leading economist

William Nordhaus would be known to
 many climate activists through his
 book, "The Climate Casino."

The world can no longer avoid dangerous global warming because countries have done little to tackle the problem apart from spout “rhetoric”, a leading economist has warned.

Professor William Nordhaus, of Yale University in the US, said it was no longer practicably feasible to keep the level of warming to within two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the point at which climatologists believe the world will start to experience particularly dangerous climate change.

This would see devastating storms, droughts, deadly heat waves and floods all become significantly more common, making some areas of the planet increasingly difficult for humans to inhabit.

The US military, among others, has expressed concern about the security implications of the mass movements of people that such scenarios would likely bring about.

Read Ian Johnston’s story on the Independent - “Devastating global warming is inevitable due to in action of international community, says leading economist.”