Beyond Coping: How to Find the Strength to Take on Climate Change

It’s hard to ignore not just the scientific reports, but also the on-the-ground reality of climate disruption. It’s getting hotter and drier, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates we have about 12 years to reverse this direct trend. It’s a challenge requiring us to come together as a mature and functional human family.

Finding the strength to take on climate change.

It’s a tall order because at its root, the climate crisis is also the crisis of human relationship—how we relate to our own emotional states, those of others, and, ultimately, conflict. To solve problems with—not for— human beings, which is what this crisis requires, we need to be conflict-literate. We need to be in touch with our own emotions and feelings, which can be as scary inwardly as climate change can feel outwardly. The situation is dire: Rising temperatures in just the United States and Mexico are predicted to increase the numbers of suicide by an extra 21,000 people per year by 2050, according to a study led by Marshall Burke at Stanford University. 

Unchecked strong emotions elicited by personal and environmental stress (sometimes this is called structural violence) can usurp the mental energy we  need for sustained nonviolent action. Yet healthy human relationships are full of what cultures of restorative justice and conflict resolution call “healthy conflict”: inner and outer processes of resolving disputes that promote clarity and growth and strengthen relationships in community.

Read the story from Yes! Magazine by Stephanie Van Hook - “Beyond Coping: How to Find the Strength to Take on Climate Change.”

Victoria in April 2018: very warm with below average rainfall

April was drier than average across most of Victoria, particularly in parts of East Gippsland where it was lowest on record. 

For the State as a whole this was the driest April since 1997. Victoria's daytime temperature was second-warmest on record.

Read Bureau of Meteorology report - “Victoria in April 2018: very warm with below average rainfall.”

Keep global warming under 1.5C or 'quarter of planet could become arid’

More than a quarter of the planet’s surface could become significantly drier if global temperatures rise 2C above pre-industrial levels, scientists predict.

Acidification is a serious threat – as well as leading to droughts and wildfires
it can also have an impact on agriculture, water quality, and biodiversity.

The study, which is one of the most detailed assessments to date of future aridity, suggests that many regions could face an increased threat of drought and wildfires.

Limiting global warming to under 1.5C would avoid extreme changes for two-thirds of these areas, the study suggested.

Chang-Eui Park, the first author from the Southern University of Science and Technology (Sustech) in Shenzhen China, said: “Aridification is a serious threat because it can critically impact areas such as agriculture, water quality, and biodiversity. It can also lead to more droughts and wildfires similar to those seen raging across California.”

Read Hannah Devlin’s story on The Guardian - “Keep global warming under 1.5C or 'quarter of planet could become arid’.”

Unusual climate mix has experts baffled as summer set for warmer, drier conditions

An unusual combination of climate conditions is confounding climate experts, with the possibility that Australia could post a warmer and drier than average summer even with a La Nina event being declared in the Pacific.

Conditions are tilting back towards favouring warmer than
 average conditions for much of the nation during summer.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday released its summer outlook, indicating the odds have shifted back from favouring cooler and wetter than average weather in the coming three months.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Unusual climate mix has experts baffled as summer set for warmer, drier conditions.”

Climate change impacts on Northern Victoria

Climate change will significantly alter the life and culture of human societies.

Australia is no exception. When we discuss climate change on the global level we begin to see overall trends but may lose sight of the local detail. For example, we know that, globally, 2015 was the hottest year on record but we must ask what this means for local communities.

It is clear that these global changes will play out locally. In central and northern Victoria, it is important that we understand how climate change will impact on our future, so we can plan for it. As a trend, annual rainfall has significantly decreased in the region and the average temperature since 1950 has already increased by between 1 and 1.5 degrees Celsius. Based on projections provided by the State of Victoria the regions of the Loddon and Mallee will be a hotter and drier place than it has already become. This will involve significant challenges for people living in the north of the state.

Read the report by the Friend of the Earth (Melbourne) - “Climate change impacts on Northern Victoria.”

Australian fire seasons to last longer as climate change worsens

A

ustralia has long been plagued by difficult to control bushfires and as global warming worsens and our climate becomes hotter and drier, those wildfires (as described in America) will become even more troublesome and costly in every sense.

ClimateProgress reports that all parts of the earth troubled by bushfires/wildfires will see an extension of the fire season as our climate continues to change.

“With 35 active large fires currently burning up and down the West Coast — and with dry, hot conditions sparking an unprecedented number of fires throughout Western Canada — the 2015 wildfire season has started strong, and shows no sign of slowing down.

“Now, a new report out in Nature Communications has a some more bad news for the West, and wildfire-prone regions around the world: In the last 35 years, wildfire season has gotten longer, and the global area affected by wildfire has doubled,” it reports.

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Across The Globe, Wildfire Season Is Lasting Longer”.