PBS News: IPCC report a dire warning of climate heating

 
Unless we immediately reduce the burning of coal and oil and gas that drive up global temperatures, a new UN report warns the world will suffer tremendous consequences as early as 2040.

October 8, 2018

The Guardian article: Australia urged to model economic effects of 1.5C and 2C climate increases

"Progressive thinktanks and investor groups want the Australian government to model the economic effects climate change will have on Australia under 1.5C and 2C warming scenarios.

This week the new Treasury secretary, Phil Gaetjens, told a Senate estimates hearing the department had done no modelling that compared the difference in economic impacts of 1.5C of warming and 2C.

“We do not do modelling on that,” Gaetjens said. “There wouldn’t be any information in a quantitative sense that I could provide at the moment.”

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Global Research Article: Who Is Guilty of Climate Crimes?

Climate Crime Exposed

" ..... Not surprisingly, the authors’ focus is primarily on the fossil fuel corporations–who are engaged in an elaborate, multi-billion dollar misinformation campaign — and on the governments who have subsidized them and colluded with them through inaction. These are the key perpetrators of the largest human rights violation in history.

It was fascinating, and sickening, to learn more about how the climate-denial machine actually works, such as the Heartland Institute mailing a climate-denying DVD to 200,000  high school science teachers. The description of the Koch brothers’ activities was particularly staggering:

IPD Article: Is Anthropogenic Climate Change the Reason Wildfires Are Getting Worse?

wildfire

"Studies have shown for years now that wildfires are only becoming more common over time. It’s been a difficult thing to research, historically speaking, because of the myriad of variables and influences that conspire to create situations like the ongoing Mendocino Complex Fire in California. This fire is already the worst in the state’s recorded history and has consumed more than 305,000 acres, adding to a seasonal total of well over 820,000 acres lost to fires."

07 Sep 2018

"But there is, unfortunately, a stubborn misunderstanding in the collective unconsciousness when it comes to just how vulnerable the environment’s patterns are to human activities. There is also an almost total lack of a common understanding of how wildfires relate to climate change." 

IPD Article: Denials Down Under: Climate Change and Health

Who are the climate criminals?

 "The Morrison Government, hived off from such concerns, is more focused on immediate, existential goals." ....

...  "The note of the (IPCC) report is one of manageable mitigation, shot through with a measured fatalism: “Limiting global warming to 1.5ºC would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” While admitting that, “Some impacts may be long-lasting and irreversible, such as the loss of some ecosystems (high confidence)” stabilising temperatures at 1.5ºC would at least draw a ring around the catastrophe. “The avoided climate change impacts on sustainable development, eradication of poverty and reducing inequalities would be greater if global warming were limited to 1.5ºC rather than 2ºC, if mitigation and adaptation synergies were maximised while trade-offs are minimised (high confidence).”

For the Morrison government, these words, admittedly technical and dry, are the stuff another galaxy, pressed to the outer reaches of the cosmos. The IPCC report did not, according to the prime minister, “provide recommendations to Australia,” leaving his government to pursue policies to “ensure electricity prices are lower.”

25 Oct 2018

IPD Article: The Criminal Dimension of Climate Change

A new book titled Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival, by Dr. Peter Carter and Dr. Elizabeth Woodworth, with a forward by the leading climate scientist Professor James Hansen outlines the criminality of those who actively promote the continuing emission of carbon gases into the atmosphere with full knowledge of the consequences, including the breakdown of the large ice sheets, sea level rise and intensification of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods and fires around the world.

The book highlights the collusion of a large part of the media with climate change denial and cover ups, stating: “There is no benign explanation for a full media blackout of a significant global development that was heralded by the United Nations Secretary-General. This blackout goes far beyond ignorance or negligence. It is a willful obstruction of public knowledge of the extraordinary extent of global efforts to combat the greatest existential threat of all time by changing business-as-usual. We define this willful, methodical blocking of vital survival information as an unprecedented crime against life on the planet.”

03 Jan 2018

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Greens Slam NSW for Voting Against Developing a Climate Plan at COAG

NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin has voted against an ACT Government motion at the COAG Energy Council for a national emissions reduction scheme for the electricity sector, despite State Parliament debating numerous motions criticising the government for its lack of energy policy and emissions reduction strategy this week.