Children Change Their Parents’ Minds About Climate Change

Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg became famous this spring for launching a student movement to compel adults to take action on climate change. Instead of going to school, Greta has been spending her Fridays in front of the Swedish parliament with a sign reading: “School Strike for Climate.” Students in more than 70 countries have since followed her lead. But before she started trying to convince the world to take action, Thunberg worked on her parents. She showered them with facts and showed them documentaries. “After a while, they started listening to what I actually said,” Thunberg told the Guardian newspaper. “That’s when I realized I could make a difference.”

Swedish teenager, Gret Thunberg, she is changing attitudes around the world.

Thunberg is not alone. Other young people can be equally convincing, according to a paper published May 6 in Nature Climate Change. The team of social scientists and ecologists from North Carolina State University who authored the report found that children can increase their parents’ level of concern about climate change because, unlike adults, their views on the issue do not generally reflect any entrenched political ideology. Parents also really do care what their children think, even on socially charged issues like climate change or sexual orientation.

Read the story from Scientific American by Lydia Denworth - “Children Change Their Parents’ Minds About Climate Change.”

(Something’s afoot in Australia’s Shepparton as the kids, encouraged by the City of Greater Shepparton, are working on the “Shepparton Statement” - http://bit.ly/2PVT6eC)

Carbon capture offers a false hope that we can sustain our use of coal

Last week, the Andrews government announced it was launching a "world-first" project to produce hydrogen in the Latrobe Valley.

Australia's PM, Malcolm Turnbull.

The project is being developed by a consortium of Japanese energy and infrastructure companies led by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, with the support of the Victorian, Commonwealth and Japanese governments. It aims to convert brown coal into hydrogen, which will then be transported to Japan for use in fuel cell electric vehicles and power generation.

On face value this attempt to turn our remaining coal resource into new export opportunities might seem like a good idea. But once you drill into the issue it becomes complex very quickly.

Firstly, there is the awkward fact that this project won’t be able to be commercialised unless carbon capture and storage (CCS) becomes viable at a commercial scale. Despite absorbing more than $1.3 billion of taxpayer funds since 2007, no one can say with certainty when, or if, this technology might be ready. So we’re potentially funding dead-end research. Despite the fact that industry reps keep promising it's "almost ready", after spending $1.3 billion of our money on this technology, with very little to show, when do we say enough is enough?

Read Cam Walker’s comment from today’s Age - “Carbon capture offers a false hope that we can sustain our use of coal.”

Why do male climate change ‘sceptics’ have such a problem with women?

On 20 February, the Global Warming Policy Foundation will be launching a new pamphlet at the House of Lords, attacking the mainstream media for not giving more coverage to climate change ‘sceptics’.

The author, Christopher Booker, is a veteran male columnist for ‘The Sunday Telegraph’, and most, if not all, of his audience is likely to be male. Of the 65 pamphlets published by the Foundation since it was registered as an educational charity by Lord Lawson of Blaby in 2009, this is one of the 57 that have been written by men only.

However, male dominance of the Foundation’s other activities is even stronger. Of its 10 Trustees, all but one are men. All of the 25 members of its “Academic Advisory Council” are men. Its Chair, Director, Deputy Director, Science Editor, Energy Editor, Director of Development and Researcher are all men. And all seven of its annual lectures have been delivered by men.

Read the story by the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, BobWard - “Why do male climate change ‘sceptics’ have such a problem with women?”

Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change

The Lancet Countdown is launching its inaugural report about climate change and health late in October. 

It coincided with launches around the world including one at the University of Melbourne. 

The forum was hosted by the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute will mark the launch of this first progress report of the 5 key indices:

1 Health Impacts

2 Health Adaptation

3 Co-benefits of Mitigation

4 Finance an Economics, and

5 Broader Social Context

Listen to a discussion at the University of Melbourne launch late in October - “Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change”.