The Liberal National Parties and Australian Labor Party take millions of dollars in donations from public subsidized corporations that don't even get taxed. How is that for self interest?
Are the political parties just extensions of the foreign corporations, or are these corporations vehicles for private interests of the politicians. I cannot say, it can be both at the same time.
Adam Bandt speech youtube excepts - "We don't have time left. ...This is not just a climate crime, this is state sanctioned corruption".
Probably our political corruption has to be typical of all nations in late industrial civilisation.
Tune: I'm just a girl who can't say no.
Solists in lip sync synchrony: Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.
It ain't so much a question of not knowing what do,
Climate Science told us long ago.
We know what soon will happen as we play the fossil fool,
The end of everything we love and know.
Author of this article acknowledges the recent CounterPunch article on this same topic, "Planet Earth is Heating Up Faster" by Manuel Garcia, Jr. A good article, but I want to do my own version using the original referred science article, "Satellite and Ocean Data Reveal Marked Increase in Earth's Heating Rate". It deserves as much political attention as possible.
A civilization shrink is required, so let us start with some serious psychiatric therapy.
Talking about ambitious goals of reducing carbon emissions by another industrial revolution, might help our bad case of multiple double-thinks.
From the recent IEA report overview, the current state of the global art of global emissions reduction is "promises, promises", while global energy demand and carbon emissions continue to grow. CO2 emissions are in rebound to catchup to normal growth rates after the global COVID impact. Adding more renewable energy just results in more growth by Jevon's Effect. Renewable energy brings down the total energy bill. Renewable energy makes it easier to increase total energy consumption, with more coal and gas. The IEA has a separate report, no doubt incompatible with the regular general progress report. "Net zero by 2050" It asks for dramatic overall changes. Global civilization shows no inclination to change its inherent cancerous nature and will never make a big voluntary effort to even slow growth. Technology change is promoted as the path forwards, while behavior change has the least scope.
It is our feelings and deeper understandings that should motivate us to take our best survival actions for our life here and now. These come down to the personal level. Can we can recognize the same conciousness in other people? This film screening requires another 23 tickets to be bought before April 26th, in order to go ahead. There is also to be a Q & A discussion after the screening.
A new analysis of energy finance, available online at RethinkX, shows that Conventional Power Plants (CPP) have been losing out rapidly to renewable energy, and are now seriously over-priced. Convential energy overvaluations have created a large and rapidly expanding global financial bubble. The total lifetime energy production minus their total costs for conventional coal, gas, nuclear and hydro power assets has been grossly over-estimated.
Professor Mark Howden from ANU zoom broadcasted this excellent hour and a half presentation. It is an expert and comprehensive overall view of the current global warming processes, and what we should be doing now. Three other speakers followed, giving valuable insights into the responses of government, people and environment in NSW. This was all recorded along with responses and questions. My summary of the points made is not verbatim, and my own personal response below this, is what I feel are implications for everyone. The pictures and graphics shown in the youtube video can tell us much more than mere words.
There has been news of a large backlog of ships full of Australian coal waiting in line to unload at Chinese ports. This has been mentioned in the news a while ago. It is now officially acknowledged, since Scott Morrison has spoken up with umbrage. What ever he said was not very interesting. The claim that other nations coal is "50% dirtier" than Australian coal could only come direct from the Minerals Council of Australia, who probably told the Prime Minister to appear to "do something".
In response to a recent article at "resilience.org" from Will Steffen, Emeritus Professor at Australia National University. How can we alter our future reality faster? By seeking new answers to it every day.
The momentum of global heating heating is a now fully activated threat. It has a predictive timetable, set by our rate of global heating that is getting worse. Effective survival responses are required now. For many nations and species, our fastest institutional responses will be too slow to survive. Our current wasteful way of life is as good as gone now. We are among so many dead systems still working without lasting purpose. Sad, because there our energy, transport and production systems seem to have started adapting. The rate of climate change is much faster.
Global heating continues to accelerate. We continue to add greenhouse gases to global solar radiation imbalance. We lose a little more ice every year. Permafrost systems thaw.
This is all so slowly incremental, the warming pot syndrome, that to refer to it becomes "alarmism". Too many of our conventional politicians and media can deny we have a global climate emergency. After all, all the people that matter to elites are mostly still here, and those falling off into the unemployment social abyss can still be ignored. Denial of slow social collapse is a national behavioral blind spot, only felt by those on the margins.
Overgrown global Humpty Dumpty is not ready for his big fall. He is much bigger after 3 decades of global growth since the first IPCC report of 1990. But everything I read adds up to more growth.
Above is the mission statement for "Climate for Change" - https://climateforchange.org.au -.
The need for political climate action is now much more dire than mentioned in media.
There are too many distractions in our everyday cares and concerns.
More people are needed to come together for review and talk, about successful political intervention.
The country of which I became an adopted citizen of, Australia, has a federal government which always claims that Australia "is a unique case" when negotiating in international forums for climate action. It is the most unique crime case. Like many selfish anti-social crimes justice must ensure hurt rebounds on the criminal more at the end. The uniqueness involves an extreme belligerent hard-nosed attitude with carbon accounting combined with public denial of climate change when it comes to action. This is very much opposite to the global behavior required to have a safe global climate system. This is being done on behalf of global fossil fuel corporations, that are totally into colonial exploitation, and our government is helping them every way it can, because - money.
After a record year in 2019 of drought, record temperatures, and record bush-fire damages, Australian government climate policy is still operates much as if it is the year 1970. Perhaps 1950 even, in the case of the Liberal - National Party coalition. Australia is still into expanding coal and gas exports like it is all the rage. Money still trumps science.
Dr Ye Tao, at "The Rowland Institute" at Harvard, is explicit about what we need to do in order to escape our near-term extinction. We need to reverse the temperature rise caused by our rapid production of greenhouse gases, and also negate the hidden part of its temperature rise that is currently masked by all of our transient aerosol pollution. The challenge and its difficulty is made clear in this you-tube presentation.
If the global reduction of fossil fuel burning goes down as fast as needs to, lack of demand for them should soon drop their selling price below their production cost floor. Everyone knows the target of 50% reduction by 2030, as required for even a two thirds chance of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C. Many nations targets are being set by this.
Climate for Change news-letter reported the following news items in recognition and encouragement of those many already ahead of the rushing crowd. Don't be the last institution or the last laggard nation left holding stranded assets!
"The Conversation" has some detailed articles with strong criticisms of the recent Australian Governments Climate and Energy road map, and budget. I find these articles to be rather lame in their criticism. They do not scream out "climate emergency", which ought to be considered a rational response by now.
Again the enormous subsidies to Coal and Gas mining in Australia are mentioned.
Human states and cities have been trying grow bigger than their neighbours, since the discovery of metal technologies - the copper and bronze ages, for 5000 years. Domination by weaponized warriors became possible. Metal technology brought with it, mining, smelting and money, requiring states to exploit more energy, resources, and the sacrifice of forests.
States and Corporations co-evolved as a "Metallurgical complex" It became necessary for states to compete or be dominated. Since then we have been perfecting the technologies of exploitation, and war. Civilization for the next 5 millennium has tried to organize around four tyrannies: Military domination, Economic capitalism, Ideology and Linear thinking.
We are not good at fixing the problems that our Megamachine causes. Mining corporations and wealth accumulation systems now dominate the globe. States are struggling to manage the end of growth. Our world is becoming crippled by our many accumulating problems, while our institutions keep trying to maintain their roles in causing them.
The Megamachine is run using people, and people can change their views and choices, which is what is happening now.
This is an introduction to the online zoom session presentation, of the #StopAdani film "People vs Adani: The fight of our times".
Specially for Parramatta and Western Sydney, or where-ever your internet access point is.
Date: Sunday 25th October, 2:30 pm - ParraCAN Event Registration Link
The Adani Coal Mine is still being stalled, while various economic and political forces still want to start turning the Galilee Basin of Queensland into yet another quarry of Australia. This did not develop in a cultural vacuum. Who and what is behind it? What are the economic and political forces pushing it. What culture, life values and future for all of us are still at stake?
Many people are still absorbing the flurry of Australian Government climate, energy and "Big Gas" announcements. They make up a confusing and contradictory "wish list". Some of them relate to important ideas. Too much of the whole package relates to the wishful thinking of our mining industry biased government, manifest in statements which say that climate mitigation cannot be allowed to impact our "economy". Still telling the big economy lie.
This is ludicrous, because climate change is already impacting our economy. Too much of our economy is seriously tied up with green house gas emissions, including "Big Gas". We are not defining what is really important for our economy. Failure of sufficient action now dooms the economy later on. Damage and withdrawal of many parts of our economy cannot be avoided. What is missing are plans to have a climate safe economy. And this is entirely possible now.
We are the great Australian gas swindled. That is you and me, whether we have seen through it or not. The gas industry is still getting away with it. Their game pieces are all lined up. The gas lies have been building up thick and fast over the decade, backed by billions of dollars of conviction money from the banks. Dollars buy conviction. Mostly convinced are our conventional standard politicians in Australia, who allow the lies to be repeated wholesale. They also don't want to be seen opposing "progress". The mainstream media are professionally devoted to not joining the dots.
The lies start from the fossil fuel gas corporations, are echoed in every possible way by our domesticated Australian governments and their tame environment and planning departments. Gas industry lies have corralled the main political parties. The whole and entire aim is to produce profits from high exported gas prices, for the benefit of tax-dodging foreign corporations like Santos. For political brains, we have gas industry zombies. We have an overwhelming supply of self-important suckers for a government. We are the great Australia gas swindled because we keep electing them to high office.