Month: July 2022

Here’s something else to be added to the list of clean-up jobs after the 9 negative years of the LNP. We need some compelling regulations/laws that research/reports/financial allocations are released in a timely manner. No more sitting on bad news reports until an election, Friday evening data dumps, cash doled out to dodgy foundations and shonky religious groups. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7825644/the-dirty-rats-nest-the-coalition-kept-hidden-now-in-plain-sight/?cs=1424

Is there a time, an event or some evidence that will prompt Angus, Bolt and Canavani – and the rest of the alphabet of climate deniers – to accept that ‘we wuz wrong’? Europe is sweltering and burning simultaneously, the west coast of the US is in drought, the NSW north coast is under flood. The Paris Agreement that is still the height of global ambition will see Australia at 50 degrees. Things aren’t looking flash and you’d think it would be a case of all hands to the pump and certainly not the time for wrecking it.https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/the-uk-has-had-its-hottest-day-on-record-as-global-extreme-weather-events-rise-what-can-be-done/0r06ytzwm

The LNP government sat on the State of the Environment Report for months prior to the election to hide the very bad news it contains. This is absolutely unconscionable, as is their neglect of the environment that the report so comprehensively describes. We are in danger of losing the Australia we grew up with.https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2022/07/19/australia-environment-sick-climate-change/

I suppose that this, profiteering off the nation’s resources, is what you get when the robber barons embed their people in the bureaucracy. No reasonable level of royalties, laughable payment of taxes and no super-profit or windfall profit taxes – we are being dudded by the fossil fools.https://michaelwest.com.au/robbing-australia-profits-soar-for-gas-giants-royalties-and-tax-languish/

Noam Chomsky, one of the great public intellectuals to serve the world, traces the end of our living in harmony with nature to August 6, 1945. This is when it was demonstrated that (1) Human capacity reached a level to destroy everything and (2) Very few seemed to care. It has been a case of careering downhill from there.https://johnmenadue.com/noam-chomsky-and-the-united-nations-warn-of-collapsepp-text-with-credit-jm/

So Albo, Chris Bowen, Madeleine King and other Labo(u)r MPs, you cannot be serious about opening the Betaloo or Scarborough developments, the world just cannot take any more. Check the heatwaves in Europe, the droughts in the western states of the US, the floods in NSW and Qld. Then there’s the hits to agriculture and food production, disease vectors spreading, coral bleaching, insurance becoming out of reach, and and and … . This is not a low-grade political problem, this is a species survival problem.https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-s-2030-emissions-target-rejected-by-climate-experts-20220715-p5b1xz.html

And if they don’t resign, They … Must … Go! This should just be the start, either whisper in their shell-pinks or just stare them down. Either way, we have to have independent advisers rather than fossil-fool shills providing evidence-based advice. We’ll look back on these last nine years and ask in embarrassment, “how did we allow it to happen?”https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/14/labor-to-reshape-carbon-credit-committee-as-coalition-appointed-members-resign

So many of the problems in national governance stem from a lack of transparency and a muzzled media. Mark Dreyfus can do something about this and while he’s at it, he could clear out the political appointees from the Boards of agencies. We want evidence and intelligence to guide our politics, not ideology.https://johnmenadue.com/jonathan-holmes-pressing-for-freedom/

While it has been weaponised as a political issue here in Australia, the ineffectual response to climate change is an existential threat to Pacific nations. Issues to consider include financial aid for adaptation, possible legal proceedings at The Hague and our position on climate refugees from inundated island nations.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-12/pacific-youth-need-action-on-climate-change-vanuatu-pm-says/101232054