Does Australia's government take climate change seriously: Sky News UK

Dec 21, 2019

Australia's prime minister, Scott Morrison, has arrived back in the country as bushfires continue to rage, creating "catastrophic" conditions. 

After apologising for being on holiday in Hawaii while large areas of New South Wales burned, he was due to visit the fire service's HQ on Sunday. As the blazes spread across almost 100,000 acres, 

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack admitted there "absolutely" needed to be more action on climate change. 

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bushfire, #wildfire, #climatechange, #cambio-climatico, PM Morrison, #Australia, #jailclimatecriminals, 

Parents Share Emotional Bushfire Stories from Australian Black Summer 2019-20: Video

Australian Parents for Climate Action

Australian parents share heartbreaking experiences from the 2019-20 Black Summer, and demand government climate action to protect our children. 

 

 Ask your elected reps to support climate-positive COVID-19 recovery projects: www.ap4ca.org/the_covid_recovery 

 

Read our bushfire inquiry submissions: www.ap4ca.org/bushfires

 

See also: Preparing for catastrophic fire seasons

Climate change talk has been around for 30 years. Where's the action? / ABC Radio National Excerpt

 "Since 2015, the world has seen its five hottest years on record. Much of the eastern part of the country has been gripped by drought.

A few summers ago, fires burnt parts of alpine Tasmania that hadn't burnt in a thousand years. Last year was the hottest year in Australia since records began — and we had the biggest bushfires in history."

Scientists have repeatedly warned that the effects of climate change would include more extreme weather.(Supplied: Gena Dray)

Scientists have warned us about the dangers of 2 degrees of warming — at the moment, we're heading for more than that.(ABC News: Jordan Hayne)

'Scientists have spelt out this out repeatedly for 30 years, and environmental groups have championed the cause. But both made mistakes.

 For too long, scientists believed that the facts spoke for themselves, that all they had to do was get them out there. And the NGOs had a tendency come across as self-righteous, or guilt-trippy.

I was already on board — with me they were preaching to the choir — but I don't think they pulled in enough other people.

Climate Action Now

But here we are. After years of drought at home, and increasingly extreme weather all over the world, polling shows that most of us get it enough to think climate change is a problem and that we should do something about it.

And yet we've done very little. I want to know why. That's why I've made this series.

And yes, part of it turns out to be the fossil fuel industry. Part of it turns out to be that change is hard, and that it's been easier for politicians to do little, especially when they are themselves divided.

But part of it turns out to be you and me — our own psychology, the stuff that makes us human, means acting on climate change is hard to do.

Not that it can't be done — and there is hope. We'll get to that too. I hope you'll join me for Hot Mess."'

 By Richard Aedy for Hot Mess 

Richard Aedy has been a journalist for more than 30 years. He's been concerned about climate change for most of that time. He's been at Radio National since 1998. 

Read the complete ABC article 

Related: Climate change is deadlier than the Coronavirus: CAA

#drought, #wildfire, droughts, bushfire, science, climate science, Australia, #Australia, fossil fuel subsidies,  #climatejustice

Australia had more supersized bushfires creating their own storms last summer than in previous 30 years : The Guardian

A pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCB) cloud generated by the Orroral Valley bushfire south of Canberra.
 During the 2019-20 summer there was a record number of these events. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

There was a near doubling of the record of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCB) storms, royal commission hears

Tue 16 Jun 2020

Australia experienced more supersized weather-generating fires in the 2019-20 bushfire season than in the previous 30 years, the royal commission into national natural disaster arrangements has heard.

Huge thunderstorm-type clouds called pyrocumulonimbus form over fires in particularly hot, dry and dangerous conditions and are capable of generating their own winds and lightning.

They were once considered “bushfire oddities” but last summer there was a “near doubling of the record of these events, in one event,” Prof David Bowman told the royal commission on Tuesday.

Read The Guardian story

'Some things were out of bounds': Fire chiefs 'gagged' on climate change warnings to government, inquiry told: SMH

LINK

Decorated former firefighter and climate action advocate Greg Mullins says current fire chiefs have been effectively gagged from raising the bushfire risks created by global warming with politicians.

Mr Mullins said he had "deep concerns over climate change", which was fuelling "unprecedented" bushfires in evidence to a Senate inquiry into the 2019-20 bushfire season on Wednesday.

Asked by Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson if he thought

Climate change key to cause of wildfires

"the current serving fire chiefs are gagged in some way", Mr Mullins replied: "yes".

Mr Mullins, a former Fire and Rescue NSW commissioner, said when he was in the role "some things were out of bounds and often climate change was one of those issues, even to the point of having to work around it when preparing documents, and I think that is a tragedy".

Greens senator Janet Rice asked Mr Mullins if it was "still the case" that fire chiefs were discouraged from raising the effect of climate change on bushfire risks with politicians.


"I know it's the case," Mr Mullins said. "I’ve had a number of discussions and it's clear."

Mr Mullins had a 39-year career in NSW Fire and Rescue, and was appointed commissioner in 2003. He retired in 2017.

Mr Mullins was representing the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action group, which comprises 33 former fire and emergency service leaders from around the country.

Mr Mullins said he was pressured not to speak out on climate change when he was a public servant.

"We self-censored because we knew what would be acceptable, and what would not, for certain political masters and if you went outside those bounds life could be made very unpleasant for you," he said.

The Emergency Leaders for Climate Action unsuccessfully sought meetings with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in April and again in May last year, ahead of the long 2019-20 summer bushfire season about the looming "catastrophic" fire season.

Significantly less property may be have been lost to the fires if the government had heeded their warnings, and moved to secure lease agreements for an expanded fleet of water bombing aircraft ahead of the most recent fire season, Mr Mullins said.

"These aircraft weren’t available and arrived too late," he said.

Read the complete SMH article