Shell is not a green saviour. It’s a planetary death machine : The Guardian

Is the Shell oil company greenwashing?

"Don’t buy the greenwash. Shell’s initiatives, which have won over many conservation groups, are dwarfed by its investment in oil and gas"

"Shell’s “cash engines”, according to its annual report, are oil and gas. There is no sign that it plans to turn the engines off. Its “growth priorities” are chemical production and deep water oil extraction. It does list low-carbon energy among its “emerging opportunities” in future decades, but says it will develop them alongside fracking and liquefied fossil gas technologies. In the future, the company says, it will “sell more natural gas”. But as an analysis by Oil Change International explains, “there is no room for new fossil fuel development – gas included – within the Paris agreement goals”. Even existing gas and oil extraction is enough to push us past 1.5C of global heating. Shell is a company committed for the long term to fossil fuel production – which is another way of saying ecocide."

by George Monbiot

Read The Guardian article 


See also:

Meet the Money Behind The Climate Denial Movement: Smithsonian

UCSF Adds Fossil Fuels To Industry Documents Library: DESMOG

"Today, UCSF Library launched a new Fossil Fuel Industry Documents Archive featuring over 1,000 internal documents from the fossil fuel industry illustrating strategies to cast doubt on climate science and delay policy action. The documents were collected over two decades by the Climate Investigations Center.

UC San Francisco's Industry Documents Library (IDL) is a unique resource.  It gathers and organizes internal documents from companies that privatize profits and socialize costs, risks or damage to health or environment.

‘Climate apartheid’: Rich people to buy their way out of environmental crisis while poor suffer, warns UN: Independent

Millions forced to choose between starvation and migration under 'best-case' scenario of 1.5C of warming by 2100

Wealthy communities will be able to buy their way out of the unfolding climate crisis while the poorest will suffer most, a UN report has found.

Even under the unrealistic "best-case" scenario of 1.5C of warming by 2100, many millions of people will have to choose between starvation and migration, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights warned.

He predicted a split between those able to mitigate the worst effects of the warming planet and those with no means to avoid it, calling it a "climate apartheid". 

And he said the fallout from our rapidly warming climate would have dire implications for human rights and democracy.

"What was once considered catastrophic warming now seems like a best-case scenario," Mr Alston said.

Read complete Independent article

 

Climate change and sea-level rise in the Australian region

Characteristics of Australia’s future climate. Source: BoM, State of the Climate 2014, published by CSIRO and BoM.

"Future climate change over Australia will track global trends, causing warmer temperatures, changes to rainfall regimes, rising sea levels and more acidic ocean waters.

04 September 2018

At a glance

• Under a high greenhouse gas concentration scenario (RCP8.5), temperatures in Australia will increase by between 2.8 and 5.1°C by 2090 compared to 1986-2005.

• Rainfall trends are more uncertain, however rainfall amounts are expected to decrease over southern Australia, accompanied by more frequent and more severe droughts. 
• Global sea levels are expected to increase by 45 to 82 cm by 2090 for the high concentration scenario.  These levels may be higher if a tipping point is reached which commits one or more land-based ice sheets to irreversible melting. Projected increases around Australia are very similar.
• Extreme high sea-level events will occur more frequently in future, increasing the risks of flooding and erosion in coastal areas.
• In line with global trends, seawaters around Australia are becoming more acidic, as the oceans absorb some of the CO₂ released by human activities."

Go to CoastAdapt site 

Related:

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Climate Adaptation Isn’t Surrender. It’s Survival: WIRED

"Here’s an unpopular opinion in some circles: We are going to have to use technology to adapt to the worst effects of climate change." ........

..... "Those who invest in climate adaptation technology with the dream of scaling companies for massive returns will have to be wary that they don’t worsen the social and political problems that underlie so much of the climate conversation already: The rich spew pollution, the poor are suffering as a result, and a fancy new tech solution might only be available to the rich polluters anyway.

But that doesn’t mean tech can’t make a huge difference, or that adaptation shouldn’t be done. The change is here, the need is real, and the solutions can come from any entrepreneur, any investor, any scientists or would-be startup CEO. It’s time for tech to get in the game. There’s no more time to waste."

Read the WIRED article 

Related:

Their lands are becoming deserts but here is some hope.

Rising sea, erosion to wreak havoc in low-lying suburbs: The Age

Flooding in Melbourne

"Rising seas are threatening to encroach on low-lying parts of Melbourne within 20 years, causing flooding and erosion in suburbs including St Kilda, Point Cook, Mordialloc, Seaford and Frankston.

Other places at risk include areas around Queenscliff and Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula; the south-west Victorian towns of Port Fairy and Portland; and Tooradin, Lang Lang and Seaspray in the state's south-east.


Read the complete The Age article.

Related:

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Experts Raise Alarm Over Climate Change Threat to Cultural Heritage: The Youth Times

"Climate change is a threat to our future, but also to our heritage, natural and cultural"

 

"Athens - Climate change could wreak "irreversible damage" on the world's most precious ancient monuments and other cultural sites, experts warned Saturday as they pushed for UN protection for major global sites.

Academics and policy makers gathered in Athens for a meeting on the threats to world heritage called for an array of tools to predict, measure and counter the effects of climate change.

They are campaigning to have the issue included on the agenda at the UN Summit for Climate Change in New York in September."

Read the complete The Youth Times article 

Related: 

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Their lands are becoming deserts but here is some hope.

View this post on Instagram

How to farm in desert climates 🌵 🐫 We have so much to learn from those who have come before us 🔥💧 What ancient wisdom has enriched your life? Credit to @worldeconomicforum 🙏

A post shared by Brad | Permaculture Designer (@foodforestdesigner) on May 28, 2019 at 8:20am PDT

We’re All Responsible for Climate Change — and That’s a Good Thing: Medium

We're all responsible for climate change

".......  That brings us to the issue of population growth. In 2017, the American Institute of Biological Sciences published an open letter signed by over 15,000 scientists, including Jane Goodall and E.O. Wilson, titled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice.” It states, “We are jeopardizing our future by not reining in our intense but geographically and demographically uneven material consumption and by not perceiving continued rapid population growth as a primary driver behind many ecological and even societal threats.” It was the most scientists to ever co-sign a published journal article.

Climate breakdown to trigger debate over which cities to protect from rising sea levels:The Independent

New York

‘You realise we’re just not going to protect a lot of these places’

"As disaster costs keep rising across the United States, a troubling new debate has become urgent: if there’s not enough money to protect every coastal community from the effects of human-caused global warming, how should we decide which ones to save first?

After three years of brutal flooding and hurricanes, there is growing consensus among policymakers and scientists that coastal areas will require significant spending to ride out future storms and rising sea levels — not in decades but now and in the very near future.

There is also a growing realisation that some communities, even sizeable ones, will be left behind."

Read complete Independent article 

Related: 

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Sea level rise can no longer be stopped, so it is urgent that we commence intelligent adaptation as a high priority, argues John Englander.

The Royal Institution

May 29  2019


Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe

Canadian youth taking up the climate change fight

"When it comes to climate change, many Canadian youth are not leaving it up to politicians to solve the issue. A panel of young activists explains how they are taking up the fight themselves."

CBC NEWS  June 19  2019

Old spy satellite images show just how fast ice is melting from the glaciers in the Himalayas: USA Today

"Picture 3 million Olympic-size swimming pools full of water.

That's how much ice melts from glaciers in the Himalayas each year, a new study suggests, and climate change is the primary cause. 

Even more concerning is that the ice melt has doubled in recent years: Himalayan glaciers have been losing the equivalent of more than a foot and half of ice each year since 2000 – which is double the amount of melting that took place from 1975 to 2000. 

“This is the clearest picture yet of how fast Himalayan glaciers are melting over this time interval and why,” said study lead author Joshua Maurer, a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Overall, the Asian mountain range, which includes Mount Everest, has been losing ice at a rate of about 1% a year since 2000.

The big melt: Global warming predicted to melt massive Himalayan glaciers, disrupt food production"

Read the complete article

Related:
Polls Suggest the GOP's Climate and Environment Disinformation Efforts are Beginning to Falter : TGMO

Clean energy found to be a 'pathway to prosperity’ for Northern Territory : The Guardian

"Energy development in the Northern Territory is a typically Australian story: it is backing fossil fuels – in this case gas – when it could, as one of the sunniest places on Earth, be reaping economic and environmental benefits from renewable energy.
That is the message from a report that makes the alternative case, suggesting embracing clean energy could dramatically expand the electricity, mining and mineral processing industries while reducing living costs."

Read The Guardian Story

Polls Suggest the GOP's Climate and Environment Disinformation Efforts are Beginning to Falter : TGMO

"As reported in the Atlantic, several recent polls reveal that there is a nearly 10-point surge in concern about climate change among Americans."

"We’ve not seen anything like that in the 10 years we’ve been conducting the study," Anthony Leiserowitz, a researcher at Yale, told the Atlantic's Robsinson Meyer.

Extreme weather events are driving concern about climate change. Depending on where you live, flooding, hurricanes, droughts, superstorms and Nor’easters are all making it hard for people to ignore climate change."

Climate crisis: CO2 levels rise to highest point since evolution of humans: Independent

“We don’t know a planet like this.”

" Levels of the damaging greenhouse gas carbon dioxide have reached an alarming new milestone at the world’s oldest measuring station in Hawaii.

The Mauna Loa Observatory, which has measured the parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere since 1958, took a reading of 415.26ppm in the air on 11 May – thought to be the highest concentration since humans evolved.

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography measures CO2 levels at Mauna Loa daily. The observatory, on Hawaii’s largest volcano, was built to test air quality on the remote Pacific islands because it is far from continents and pollution, while the area lacks vegetation, which can interfere with results.

The readings form the Keeling curve, which shows the rapid increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere as a result of human activity.

The 1958 readings showed the concentration of CO2 was 313ppm in March 1958, and that had risen to 400ppm by May 2013.

Meteorologist Eric Holthouse retweeted the Mauna Loa readings and said: “This is the first time in human history our planet’s atmosphere has had more than 415ppm CO2.

“Not just in recorded history, not just since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Since before modern humans existed millions of years ago.

Read Independent Story 

See also:

Climate Change and the Reinsurance Implications: Insurance Journal

Pope Francis declares 'climate emergency' and urges action : The Guardian

Pope Francis call for climate action

Addressing energy leaders, pope warns of ‘catastrophic’ effects of global heating.


Pope Francis has declared a global “climate emergency”, warning of the dangers of global heating and that a failure to act urgently to reduce greenhouse gases would be “a brutal act of injustice toward the poor and future generations”.

He also endorsed the 1.5C limit on temperature rises that some countries are now aiming for, referring to warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of “catastrophic” effects if we crossed such a threshold. He said a “radical energy transition” would be needed to stay within that limit, and urged young people and businesses to take a leading role.

Read The Guardian article 

See also:

Meet the Money Behind The Climate Denial Movement: Smithsonian

'Ice on Fire' Documentary Trailer Video

"Ice on Fire is a 2019 documentary which explores the potential extinction level event caused by arctic methane release, and the newly developed technologies that could reverse global warming by sequestering carbon out of the atmosphere.^[1] The film premiered to a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2019.^[2][3][4] and is slated for release on HBO on June 11, 2019.^{[5] [6] [7]}"

Wikipedia


Produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, George DiCaprio and Mathew Schmid and directed by Leila Conners, Ice on Fire is an eye-opening documentary that focuses on many never-before-seen solutions designed to slow down our escalating environmental crisis. Ice on Fire premieres June 11 at 8 PM.

 #HBO #HBODocs #IceOnFireHBO

Subscribe to the HBO YouTube Channel: https://goo.gl/wtFYd7

Climate Change and the Reinsurance Implications: Insurance Journal

Climate Crisis - Insurance Risks

"Climate change presents “high exposure risk” to insurers and their policyholders on many fronts:

General liability claims for third-party bodily injury and property damage, directors and officers claims for a company’s failure to properly disclose climate-related or failure to align its business model with a low-carbon future and first-party loss, including business interruption.

To date, there have been minimal coverage actions relating to climate change, but expect that to change given the increasing number of underlying lawsuits and related activity, “coupled with the staggering liability that is at stake."

Read all The Insurance Journal article

The Trump Administration's Ongoing Energy Insanity : The Green Market Oracle

"The Trump administration's irrational energy agenda is now infamous. This is an administration that in both word and deed has undermined clean energy and supported fossil fuels. Trump's contempt for renewables is bad for the nation and a threat to life on the planet. This is an administration that has eliminated vehicular emissions restrictions and made it easier for companies to spew methane into the atmosphere.
This energy agenda can only be described as insane and a new report makes it clear that there is every reason to believe it is getting even crazier."

Read the Green Market Oracle article 

Related:

10 biggest upcoming Oil & Gas developments in Australia - Fircroft.com

Meet the Money Behind The Climate Denial Movement: Smithsonian

Climate Criminals

Nearly a billion dollars a year is flowing into the organized climate change counter-movement

The overwhelming majority of climate scientists, international governmental bodies, relevant research institutes and scientific societies are in unison in saying that climate change is real, that it's a problem, and that we should probably do something about it now, not later. And yet, for some reason, the idea persists in some peoples' minds that climate change is up for debate, or that climate change is no big deal.
 
Actually, it's not “for some reason” that people are confused. 

There's a very obvious reason. There is a very well-funded, well-orchestrated climate change-denial movement, one funded by powerful people with very deep pockets. In a new and incredibly thorough study, Drexel University sociologist Robert Brulle took a deep dive into the financial structure of the climate deniers, to see who is holding the purse strings.

Go to original Smithsonian article

See also:

Climate impact must be measured in new major developments: Greens

Protesting Trump is Essential to the Survival of Life on the Planet : The Green Market Oracle

Global Heating Denying Trump

"The climate crisis and the rapid degradation of the Earth's biodiversity represent existential threats. In the face of these interrelated catastrophes the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth is exacerbating these realities.
Early in June, American President Donald Trump's visit to the UK was met by hundreds of thousands of protestors. In total the visit spawned more than two dozen anti-Trump protests across the UK. During his stay Trump also added more lies to the over 10,000 he has told since becoming president. Despite a protracted discussion on climate change with Prince Charles, Trump remains stubbornly resistant to the facts. During this visit the liar-and-chief used the occasion to once again deny the reality of global warming.

Towing a caravan with an electric car – can it be done? - THE DRIVEN

Towing with an electric vehicle

"So, we have bought a Kona Electric and are towing with it.
Hyundai couldn’t bring themselves to fit a towbar for us so we got an off-the-shelf one from an Australian manufacturer (the ones made for the petrol model fit perfectly).

The tow bar is rated for 1.3 tonnes but we only intend to use it for trailers up to 500kg.

We have considered the safety, warranty and legal issues and feel comfortable that there are negligible risks involved. Of course we take precautions and drive carefully when we are towing as anyone should.

The car is just brilliant by the way, and is doing a wonderful job of towing whenever we need to."

Read the RenewEconomy article

Brace for impact - climate change litigation is fast approaching : The Canberra Times

"Under the current legal regime, company directors may only be liable if found to be in breach of their duty of care or for failing to address a foreseeable risk. However, guidance from case law suggests that it is difficult to establish that the actions or omissions of a particular entity or director caused or contributed harm to be suffered by another. With the arrival of climate change litigation 2.0, this will all change. 

 

Supporters US federal courthouse, climate change lawsuit

There is a rising wave of climate change-related litigation globally which is headed for Australia ... it will sink Australia, unless drastic measures are implemented."

Read the Canberra Times article

Oil And Gas Giants Spend Millions Lobbying To Block Climate Change Policies [Infographic]: Forbes

By Niall McCarthy 

 

Every year, the world's five largest publicly owned oil and gas companies spend approximately $200 million on lobbying designed to control, delay or block binding climate-motivated policy. This has caused problems for governments seeking to implement policies in the wake of the Paris Agreement which are vital in meeting climate change targets. Companies are generally reluctant to disclose such lobbying expenditure and late last week, a report from InfluenceMap used a methodology focusing on the best available records along with intensive research of corporate messaging to gauge their level of influence on initiatives to halt climate change. 

Go to Forbes article

Latest data shows steep rises in CO2 for seventh year : The Guardian

US Earth System Research Laboratory, measurements from Mauna Loa, Hawaii

Readings from Hawaii observatory bring threshold of 450ppm closer sooner than had been anticipated.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by the second highest annual rise in the past six decades, according to new data.

Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas were 414.8 parts per million in May, which was 3.5ppm higher than the same time last year, according to readings from the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, where carbon dioxide has been monitored continuously since 1958.

Scientists have warned for more than a decade that concentrations of more than 450ppm risk triggering extreme weather events and temperature rises as high as 2C, beyond which the effects of global heating are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.

Read The Guardian article

Updated - Top 10 Worst Anti-Science Web Sites :Skeptoid

"You've seen it on Facebook or other places a million times: Someone makes some untrue medical or science or conspiracy claim, and to give it the appearance of authority, attach a web link to it. And where is that web link from? As often as not, it turns out to be a site that specializes in terrible misinformation; and such sites are, all too often, far more popular than sites dedicated to correcting the record or presenting data. Pseudoscience is, unfortunately, more sensational, compelling, and fun.

A few years ago on this show, I gave a list of the top ten websites that promoted the worst bad science, as a resource for those hoping to stand up to such web links. Times change, sites come and go, rise and ebb, and we're ready for an update. And so here are this year's winners, my picks for the worst sites on the Internet to which your friends are likely to link you, organized by their Alexa popularity rating, tweaked a bit by me for how bad their information really is. Let's begin with:


10. Heartland.org

The Heartland Institute is a free-market think tank, preparing research and reports for whatever clients want it. That's an important role in society and I respect the freedoms of every think tank no matter where they are on the political spectrum. Promoting the policies that support an ideology is a right, but denying hard science in support of that ideology is a no-no. And that's what you'll find on Heartland.org, one of the web's best funded and most comprehensive attacks on climate science. Resources like this are a very real problem for science, because they have the expertise and the means to change people's minds, but lack the ethics to change those minds for the better. This year they held their 10th annual "International Conference on Climate Change" in Washington DC, which they describe as the "the largest gathering of global warming 'skeptics' in the world," and strangely they put quotes around the word skeptics, which I would have done if they hadn't, since their process is certainly not one of skeptically interrogating the climate models. Instead, they start from their preferred conclusion, then work backwards collecting cherrypicked bits of information to build a path to get there.

For a healthy alternative to Heartland.org, try SkepticalScience.com, a site dedicated to combatting global warming misinformation. It will equip the layman with the tools needed to rebut the type of misinformation Heartland publishes."

Go to Skeptoid article

2040 film starts June 6 in Sawtell

Spread the word. This "climate change/global heating awareness" film starts June 6 at the Majestic Cinema in Sawtell.

2040

In Cinemas Now

"Documentarian Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) explores what the future would look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Gameau blends traditional documentary footage with dramatised sequences to create a vision board for his daughter and the planet."

2040

Opening 06 June 2019
Rated G (General), 92 mins
Starring Damon Gameau, Eva Lazzaro, Zoe Gameau.

Award-winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentary with dramatised sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board of how these solutions could regenerate the world for future generations.

Session Times

Thursday, 6 June 2019

12:10pm  

4:30pm  

Friday, 7 June 2019

12:10pm  

Saturday, 8 June 2019

12:00pm LS

Monday, 10 June 2019

12:00pm LS

Tuesday, 11 June 2019

12:10pm  

4:30pm  

Wednesday, 12 June 2019

12:10pm LS

4:30pm LS

The climate renegade What happens when someone wants to go it alone on fixing the climate? Vox

 "Deep in the ocean west of British Columbia, salmon eat fish and plankton before they head inland to spawn. Well-fed enough to make it upriver, they swim back toward the coast and past the islands of Haida Gwaii, where the area’s indigenous population fishes them. 

That’s how it was for decades. But in the 2000s, fish populations were declining, and unemployment among the Haida was high. 

Enter an eccentric San Francisco-based entrepreneur named Russ George. He had spent much of his career bouncing between ambitious environmental projects: cold fusion, reforestation, and, most recently at the time, a startup called Planktos, which focused on something called “ocean restoration.”

In 2011, George told the Haida residents of the village of Old Massett that he could bring back the salmon. The plan? To drop a hundred tons of iron dust in the middle of the ocean, a few hundred nautical miles west of the islands. The method had been tried before, but George was attempting it at a larger scale."

Read the Vox article 

#geoengineering   #fish  #oceans  #globalheating  #climatechange

See also

Sea levels may rise much faster than previously predicted, swamping coastal cities such as Shanghai, study finds: CNN