13 Climate Justice Leaders Imagined as Comic Superheroes

The Earth could use some climate-change-fighting superheroes right about now. And according to a new comic series by the nonprofit Amplifier, there are a few real-life ones in our midst.

Thirteen of them, actually.

Artwork by Jeremy Packer

On Earth Day, April 22, Amplifier released the comic art series #MyClimateHero, portraying leaders of the modern climate justice movement. Amplifier is a Seattle-based art design lab that facilitates art aimed at “amplifying the voices of social change,” according to its website.

“#MyClimateHero tells the story of modern climate leaders building unprecedented cooperation, driving action, and creating space for those most impacted to share their knowledge and perspectives,” said Amplifier chief of staff Tamara Power-Drutis in a statement.

Read the Yes! Magazine story - “13 Climate Justice Leaders Imagined as Comic Superheroes.”

Dear Mr Adani 'invest in solar not coal'

Read this letter to "Mr Adani" - 

We are leaders from many faith traditions and communities across Australia. We are writing to you to ask you to abandon your proposed mine and instead use the same money to invest in solar energy in North Queensland.

As e-biking grows, U.S. cities consider easing rules on where the machines may be used

A surge in the use of electric bicycles throughout the United States is prompting cities to revise regulations that restrict their use, including bans against riding them on sidewalks and trails.

JUMP, one of five dockless bike operators in the
District, brought its e-bikes to the city last fall,
and it has become one of the most popular
services, officials said.

The nation’s capital and other Washington-area jurisdictions are among those taking steps to modernize and streamline policies advocates say are outdated, set unrealistic restrictions and confuse riders of bikes that can be run on electric power as well as by pedalling.

“The number of bicyclists in the U.S. is growing, in part because of the rise of e-bikes, but it is difficult for people to know where they are allowed to ride them,” said Morgan Lommele, with the cycling advocacy group PeopleForBikes. “The laws are all over the place for electric bicycles.”

Read The Washington Post story by Luz Lazo - “As e-biking grows, U.S. cities consider easing rules on where the machines may be used.”

Electric cars – we should be careful what we wish for.

With electric vehicles (EVs) we should be careful what we wish for. Recently 79 per cent of panellists surveyed for a newspaper said that more should be done to encourage their use, and the Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, is an owner and a notable advocate. However, the story is not all good.

Toyota Prius.

Let’s take greenhouse gas emissions. Dr Finkel pointed out that a Tesla, charged at the national average greenhouse intensity of the grid (910 kg CO2/MWh), is responsible for 168 grams of CO2 per km (emitted at the power station), and a Toyota Corolla for 178 grams per km (at the tailpipe). He also mentions one of the smallest EVs in the Australian Green Vehicle Guide, the Renault Zoe, at 121 grams per km.

Read the comment in The Age by George Wilkenfeld - “Electric cars – we should be careful what we wish for.”

(Still, we miss the point - the conversation should not be about the effectiveness of any sort of privately owned vehicle (electric or otherwise) as the energy-rich infrastructure such vehicles demand is prohibitively carbon-costly. We face an energy-scarce future and rather than spending time, effort and innovation on what can be easily shown to be a wasteful pursuit, we should be exploring, creating and building a public transport/transit system that through its sophistication will make the privately-owned car wholly irrelevant - Robert McLean) 

Energy transition in China and Australia

They expected the industrial era to end with the burning of the last coal.

Increasing awareness of the health implications
 of the carbon particles in the air, which can
cause heavy smog, is one of the internal drivers
 for China’s transition away from fossil fuels. 

Modern economic development has been built on intense use of fossil energy. Leading nineteenth and early twentieth century thinkers focusing on the future of human civilisation and the economy, from Jevons to Weber, thought that the benefits of the modern industrial economy depended on the availability of fossil energy to continue.

Australian pioneer of development economics Colin Clark noted in his seminal Conditions of Economic Progress in 1940 that we would need to find other sources of energy to allow modern economic development to continue after we had returned to the air as much fossil carbon as was consistent with stable atmospheric conditions.

Clark suggested that sustainable substitutes would be found for fossil energy, and that we seek them in the fast-growing Australian eucalypt or new technology built on recent developments in silicon physics.

Read the Pursuit story by Professor Ross Garnaut from the University of Melbourne - “Energy transition in China and Australia.”