On grief and climate change

I am the daughter of a father born on the floor of a displaced persons’ camp after a Holocaust that almost wiped out his entire community. I am also the daughter of a mother born in freedom, peace and civility whose privilege informed a deep gratitude and joy for life. The dual gift of these legacies inform me every day. I know that tragedy and trauma are often man-made. That showing up and personal fortitude are often forged in the fire of recovery and renewal. I take these lessons into account when I am wracked with grief about climate change.

Dumbo Feather’s publisher and editor-in-chief,  Berry Liberman.

The arctic ice shelf just cracked off, meaning a trillion ton of ice has now entered our oceans. We are in strange and frightening territory of our own making. The weather is our only compass and it is wild and vengeful in places where peoples are the most vulnerable. Issue 52 of Dumbo Feather, and the content we’ll be sharing online over the next eight weeks, is an attempt to have a purposeful conversation about how we can collectively remain engaged and active in campaigning for the renewal of our eco-systems which are crashing and destabilising all around us.

Read the piece by Dumbo Feather’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Berry Liberman - “On grief and climate change.”

First it was 'sleepwalking into disaster', now it's 'blindly into tragedy'

G

oulburn Valley people were warned in the lead-up to the city’s first ever climate change forum that they were “sleepwalking into disaster”.

And now nearly three years later a similar warning comes from the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs.

Sachs has written in The Guardian that in separating nature from economics, we now walk blindly into tragedy.

The story - “‘By separating nature from economics, we have walked blindly into tragedy’” – tells readers that economic policy must be combined with climate and technology if we are to stand any chance of saving ourselves.

Prof Michael Raupach's death a double tradgedy

The late Prof Michael Raupach - a loss.

Those who understand the climate change conversation, both scientifically and morally, are a rather rare commodity and so his or her death is a double tragedy.

And sadly the ranks of those knowledgeable about the finer aspects of climate change was further thinned with the recent death of 64-tear-old climate scientist, Professor Michael Rapach.

An ABC story headed: “Climate change scientist Professor Michael Raupach dies, colleagues hail dedicated researcher” tells of the loss.

Professor Raupach had a long career at CSIRO and was the inaugural co-chairman of the Global Carbon Project, an international project studying the natural and human influences on the global carbon cycle.