Thousands of Tech Workers Join Global Climate Change Strike

Thousands of workers from Amazon, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Square, and other tech companies are expected to walk out today as part of a worldwide climate change strike led by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg. After Amazon workers announced they were joining the demonstration last week, employees from other Silicon Valley firms began joining in. The same group of Amazon employees have been pushing the company to reduce its carbon footprint for nearly a year. Now, over 1,700 of them and counting have said they will join Friday’s walkout, which is expected to draw millions of participants in cities around the world.

Swedish teenager, Greta Thunburg, marches with tech workers in the U.S.

The tech workers participating in the strike are part of a wider wave of employee activism that has spread across Silicon Valley over the past year. Many of those demonstrations concerned workplace issues at individual companies, such as sexual harassment or controversial government contracts. Friday's walkout represents a broader coalition across different corporations, focused on an issue facing the entire planet. Many of these employees make up one of the more privileged and highly visible labor forces in the world, working for innovative and resource-rich companies. If their efforts on climate change keep gaining momentum, they may have a significant impact, especially as the Trump administration continues to roll back environmental initiatives.

Read the story from Wired by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP -  “Thousands of Tech Workers Join Global Climate Change Strike.”

‘Missing in action': hunt goes on for Coalition's invisible environment minister

Hours after the release of a UN report on the dire state of the planet’s ecosystems, the environment minister, Melissa Price, posted a photo of herself on Facebook at the opening of a miniature railway in her electorate.

 Melissa Price speaks in parliament house before the
 election was called and she stopped giving interviews. 

It wasn’t until more than 12 hours after the Facebook post that the West Australian MP issued a statement responding to the analysis by 450 scientists and diplomats that warned the decline of the natural world was accelerating, and a million species were at risk of extinction.

There was no interview. The written statement referenced Coalition programs, including a $100m fund announced in the federal budget, aimed at tackling biodiversity loss. It was the most that had been heard of Price so far in the election campaign.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “‘Missing in action': hunt goes on for Coalition's invisible environment minister.”

Coming soon: the Amazon of energy

What platforms like Amazon, WhatsApp, Spotify and Facebook have taught us over the last few years is that size matters. Once such a business reaches a certain scale, it produces customer benefits that cannot be matched by smaller platforms. This is often described as “network effects”.

These businesses then have almost monopoly power. Their access to huge amounts of data about their customers and their value chain enables them to continuously improve the user experience and/or extract more revenue from those users which, in turn, increases their market penetration and competitive advantage.

To date, we have not seen any platform businesses in energy, but my view is that we will see them soon. All that is needed is two things: a trusted customer-facing platform and a back-office platform that combines the purchasing and trading of energy together with the management of customer demand.

Read the EnergyPost story - “Coming soon: the Amazon of energy.”

Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change

Washington: Russian trolls used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inflame US political debate over energy policy and climate change, a finding that underscores how the Russian campaign of social media manipulation went beyond the 2016 president election, congressional investigators reported on Thursday.

Military veterans huddle together to hold a United States flag
against strong winds during a march to a closed bridge outside
the Oceti Sakowin camp to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline
 in Cannon Ball, ND.

The new report from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee includes previously unreleased social media posts that Russians created on such contentious political issues as the Dakota Access Pipeline, government efforts to curb global warming and hydraulic fracturing, a gas mining technique often called “fracking."

One Facebook post created by a Russian-controlled group called "Native Americans United" shows what appears to be a young girl in a braid peering out over an unspoiled prairie. "Love Water Not Oil, Protect Our Mother, Stand With Standing Rock," a reference to an Indian tribe that opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline. The post also said, "No Pipelines. No Fracking. No Tar Sands.”

Read the story in today’s Age - “Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change.”

Can Facebook help you make your home more sustainable?

Facebook has always been controversial, with many users worrying about how the information they post might be used. Lately, the social media behemoth has also been criticised for facilitating the spread of fake news.

But over the past 18 months I have learned that the technology of Facebook groups offers an effective way for people to collaborate on common interests – in my case, on enhancing the criticised of our homes and lifestyles.

As part of a research project, I created a public Facebook group where members initially discussed and decoded a particularly sophisticated space-heating heat pump (otherwise known on mainland Australia as a reverse-cycle air conditioner). Predictably, our discussions quickly expanded to include other aspects of home economics, aesthetics, comfort and sustainability.

Today the group is called My Efficient Electric Home. Membership has doubled over the past two months. It now includes more than 550 people, from every state and territory of Australia as well as New Zealand and other countries.

Read what an Energy Advisor from Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne, Tim Forcey, has to say on The Conversation - “Can Facebook help you make your home more sustainable?”

Promoting solutions and empowering people to act

L

aunched by the World Bank and the Italian Ministry of Environment, Connect4Climate (C4C) is a global community that takes on climate change by promoting solutions and empowering people to act.

The Connect4Climate community connects more than 200 partners around the world including civil society groups, media networks, international organizations, academic institutions, youth groups, and the private sector.

Connect4Climate interacts with a global audience of more than a million individuals who participate on C4C's social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr, and Instagram.

Learn more about the project here - “Connect4Climate is connecting to take on climate change.”

Oh yes! It is only in America, and maybe Australia and Canada

T

his is one of those “only in America type things”.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) took to Facebook on Tuesday to recast California’s worst drought in 1200 years as a “man-made water shortage” — not worsened by climate change, but by President Obama himself.

He also asserted that, in the midst of the historic Dust Bowl conditions, Americans still have a God-given right to green lawns.

Boehner, of course, famously said in May that he is “not qualified to debate the science over climate change.” That just affirmed what was clear from his bizarre 2009 assertion: “The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical.”

But admitted scientific ignorance doesn’t slow the Speaker down. What has sparked his blinkered outrage this time is this photo he posted on Facebook:

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Boehner Blames California Drought On Obama”.

Wind is the 'new' energy source and Facebook's choice

W

ind appears to be one of earth’s major free and renewable energy sources.

Facebook has announced that it will power a new data centre in Texas with 100 percent wind energy.

According to EcoWatch, “Facebook has also committed to setting a new goal of powering its operations with 50 percent renewable energy by the end of 2018.

“Thanks to our continued focus on efficiency and our investments in renewables in recent years, the carbon impact of one person’s use of Facebook for an entire year is the same as the carbon impact of a medium latte,” according to Tom Furlong, vice president of infrastructure at Facebook.

“Facebook’s new goal of using 50 percent renewable energy and commitment to powering its Texas data center with clean wind power demonstrates the kind of transparency needed to show that it is making steady progress toward its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy,” said David Pomerantz, Greenpeace senior climate and energy campaigner.”

Read the Ecowatch story - “Facebook to Power New Data Center With 100% Wind Energy”.

Controversial view fails scientific tests, but engenders controversy

Climate Code Red by David
Spratt and Philip Sutton.

The idea that climate change could end the human race is provocative, an extremity some endorse and for others a concept that defies scientific realities, extinguishes hope and not helpful in building any mitigation processes.

The article: “Dahr Jamail | Are Humans Going Extinct?” published on truthout refers to and quotes a professor emeritus of natural resources, and ecology and evolutionary biology, with the University of Arizona, who has been studying anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) for nearly 30 years, Guy McPherson.

The Victorian Climate Action Network group has been alive with thoughts about McPherson’s views when Alastair Leith asked whether or not this “Pretty heavy reading” should be posted to Facebook?

“Will it just encourage the uninitiated to disengage even more on climate change?” he asked.

 

Trent Hawkins ponder similar questions.

Among those who responded was the fellow behind Safe Climate Science, Philip Sutton, who said: “I personally think it doesn't do any good at all to spread this sort of material.  For two reasons: first, because I think it's very unlikely to be correct; and two, because it is massively disempowering.

“I think that the chance that humans (as a species) will be driven extinct by climate change (no matter how bad the climate change is) is just about zero.  “Lots of humans could die (billions) but the rich/powerful/technically savvy will find ways to live in the Polar Regions and along the coastal fringes of the continents and perhaps on the oceans themselves - even in the worst case scenarios.

“But what this sort of material does also is that it chooses to put a zero probability of success on the actions of people who are trying to prevent climate change from causing fully blown catastrophe.  That is not a scientifically valid approach in my view.  It's more like a projection of personal depressive feelings. 

“And spreading one's personal depression to others is not likely to be helpful for effective action,” Philip said.

Fellow co-author of Climate Code Red, David Spratt, said, “This article has serious scientific mistakes, such as: average global temperatures could rise by 6 degrees Celsius by 2050, leading to devastating climate change; and at this level is simply not credible, so why waste time on it?”

David said there is plenty of credible, startling material around for this sort of conversation, such as that by Kevin Anderson, which would be a better focus for conversation.

Creeping desertification illustrated in NCCARF poster

Prof. Kate Auty.

Victoria’s creeping desertification brought on by climate change is illustrated through a poster submitted to the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility annual conference by the State’s Commissioner for Sustainability, Professor Kate Auty.

The poster shows climate change modelling for Victoria through to 2050 and the detail on which the poster is based is now on the CES Facebook page.

The poster shows the creep of the desert region into north-west Victoria and the drying around Geelong (amongst other things).

Prof. Auty said detail on the poster was all peer reviewed by both the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.