Australian government seen globally as climate 'denialist', UN summit observers say

Experts at the meeting say Australia is seen as ‘engaging in greenwashing’ and using accounting tricks to meet targets

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Greta Thunberg condemns world leaders in emotional speech at UN : The Guardian

Trump's failure to fight climate change is a crime against humanity: CNN

"(CNN)President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and others who oppose action to address human-induced climate change should be held accountable for climate crimes against humanity. They are the authors and agents of systematic policies that deny basic human rights to their own citizens and people around the world, including the rights to life, health, and property. These politicians have blood on their hands, and the death toll continues to rise.

'It doesn't feel justifiable': The couples not having children because of climate change: SMH

"Morgan and Adam have always wanted children but fears over climate change are making them reconsider.

The committed pair, aged 36 and 35, are part of a growing trend for young couples to abandon plans for a family because of the climate crisis.

Millions of people around the world rallied for climate action over the past two days, including 300,000 in Australia on Friday, ahead of a United Nations climate action summit on Monday."

' "I feel so sad, it's such a hard thing to let go of," says Morgan, who works in logistics. "My conscience says, 'I can't give this child what I've enjoyed, I can't give them the certainty of a future where they can be all that they can be ... or have the things they should have, like breathable air and drinkable water'."'

Read the complete SMH article 

Climate change sceptic Liberals let down Canberra’s most vulnerable say Rattenbury

The Canberra Liberals have no plan to address climate change, are waging a fearmongering campaign about the ACT’s climate change actions, and oppose measures to financially assist Canberra households as we transition to a sustainable future.

“The ACT is making nation-leading efforts to tackle climate change and make Canberra a modern, green, and highly liveable city. These initiatives are already bringing extensive environmental, social, and economic benefits to Canberra, and Canberrans are rightly proud of them,” ACT Greens leader and Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability Shane Rattenbury said today.

Australian PM says China must step up on climate change as 'newly developed' nation: The Guardian

"Scott Morrison uses keynote speech of US visit to say China should be doing more to combat the climate crisis"

 
"Scott Morrison has challenged China to do more heavy lifting on climate change, saying Australia welcomes its economic growth, but that prosperity and power also come with responsibility.
The Australian prime minister used the keynote speech of his US visit, at the Chicago Institute for Global Affairs on Monday, to praise China’s “economic maturity”. Morrison characterised China as a “newly developed” rather than a developing economy, and argued that status conferred developed-world obligations on the Chinese leadership."

BUT
 

"Guardian Australia revealed earlier this month Morrison was not attending the New York summit, despite the fact he will arrive at the UN later on Monday. Australia is deploying the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and the Australian ambassador for the environment, Patrick Suckling, instead. Only countries with new concrete commitments to announce were allocated speaking spots at the event."

...and Australia was not allocated a speaking spot!!!!!!

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Greta Thunberg condemns world leaders in emotional speech at UN : The Guardian

• Thunberg, 16, says governments have betrayed young people
• ‘You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us’

“The summit was designed to accelerate countries’ ambition to address the climate crisis amid increasingly urgent warnings by scientists. A new UN analysis has found that commitments to cut planet-warming gases must be at least tripled and increased by up to fivefold if the world is to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement of holding the temperature rise to at least 2C above the pre-industrial era.“

Read complete The Guardian story

It’s Time to Try Fossil-Fuel Executives for Crimes Against Humanity: Jacobin

"The fossil-fuel industry is lawyering up. 

To date, nine cities have sued the fossil industry for climate damages. California fisherman are going after oil companies for their role in warming the Pacific Ocean, a process that soaks the Dungeness crabs they harvest with a dangerous neurotoxin. 

Former acting New York state attorney general Barbara Underwood has opened an investigation into whether ExxonMobil has misled its shareholders about the risks it faces from climate change, a push current Attorney General Leticia James has said she is eager to keep up. Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey opened an earlier investigation into whether Exxon defrauded the public by spreading disinformation about climate change, which various courts — including the Supreme Court — have refused to block despite the company’s pleas. And in Juliana vs. U.S., young people have filed suit against the government for violating their constitutional rights by pursuing policies that intensify global warming, hitting the dense ties between Big Oil and the state.

These are welcome attempts to hold the industry responsible for its role in warming our earth. It’s time, however, to take this series of legal proceedings to the next level: we should try fossil-fuel executives for crimes against humanity."

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"Left unchecked, the death toll of climate change could easily creep up into the hundreds of millions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in turn unleashing chaos and suffering that’s simply impossible to project. An independent report commissioned by twenty governments in 2012 found that climate impacts are already causing an estimated four hundred thousand deaths per year.

Counting a wider range of casualties attributed to burning fossil fuels — air pollution, indoor smoke, occupational hazards, and skin cancer — that figure jumps to nearly 5 million a year. By 2030, annual climate and carbon-related deaths are expected to reach nearly 6 million. That’s the rough equivalent of one Holocaust every year, which in just a few short years could surpass the total number of people killed in World War II. All caused by the fossil-fuel industry."

Read the Jacobin article 

Related:

The destruction of the Earth is a crime. It should be prosecuted  George Monbiot