Covid-19 climate lessons

The novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has striking parallels with climate disruption. 

The threat was well known and catastrophic, even existential. History’s valuable lessons were ignored. Researchers were clear on what needed to be done, and how to respond. The UN had devoted a whole section to the issue, governments ran risk scenarios and national security analysts warned of the consequences. The developed world had the capacity to be ready. And to support less prosperous nations, or should have been.

When it became fatal, it was conceived by wealthy nations as a threat somewhere else, because they were insulated. Then there was the denial, the delay, wanting to avoid any economic dislocation. Modern society was good at research, solutions would appear, no need to panic. Humans had tamed nature.

Read the story from Climate Code Red by David Spratt and Alia Armsitead - “Covid-19 climate lessons.”

The fix is in: Make do and get it mended for nothing at Yarraville's repair cafe

Have you ever loved an appliance so much that you couldn't bear to part with it? 

Please help us: Konika Sadler, centre, and her
son Krishan, left, watch electrician James Enright,
a volunteer at the Melbourne Repair Cafe in
Yarraville, fix their 15-year-old toaster. 

The Sadler family feels that way about their Philips Comfort toaster. It's slim and it cooks four pieces at once, evenly on both sides. 

Konika Sadler bought it 15 years ago in Bangalore, India, soon after marrying her Australian husband, Peter.

In 2003 the devoted couple brought the toaster with them when they moved to Melbourne, and thousands of happy breakfasts ensued.

Read Carolyn Webb’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “The fix is in: Make do and get it mended for nothing at Yarraville's repair cafe.”

(Our energy-rich consumerist lifestyles are one of the ingredients that worsen climate change, and so we need to urgently change our behaviour and, as shown here in Carolyn Webb’s story, repair, reuse and refuse - Robert McLean)

It is fossil fuels, not renewable energy, most supported by US public policy

The coal industry and its allies in the Trump administration have recently devoted considerable energy to arguing that subsidies to renewable energy have distorted energy markets and helped drive coal out of business. “Certain regulations and subsidies,” says Rick Perry, “are having a large impact on the functioning of markets, and thereby challenging our power generation mix.” You can guess which regulations and subsidies he’s talking about.

This is nothing new, of course. It is in keeping with a long conservative tradition of challenging the economic wisdom and effectiveness of energy subsidies.

At least, uh, some energy subsidies.

Energy analysts have made the point again and again that fossil fuels, not renewable energy, most benefit from supportive public policy. Yet this fact, so inconvenient to the conservative worldview, never seems to sink in to the energy debate in a serious way. The supports offered to fossil fuels are so old and familiar, they fade into the background. It is support offered to challengers — typically temporary, fragmentary, and politically uncertain support — that is forever in the spotlight.

Read the VOX story by David Roberts - “It is fossil fuels, not renewable energy, most supported by US public policy.”