Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum"Australia Will Continue To Burn" - The Atlantic On What 1st World Death Spiral Looks Like
Australia is caught in a climate spiral. For the past few decades, the arid and affluent country of 25 million has padded out its economyotherwise dominated by sandy beaches and a bustling service sectorby selling coal to the world. As the East Asian economies have grown, Australia has been all too happy to keep their lights on. Exporting food, fiber, and minerals to Asia has helped Australia achieve three decades of nearly relentless growth: Oz has not had a technical recession, defined as two successive quarters of economic contraction, since July 1991.
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Though polls report that most Australians are concerned about climate change, the countrys government has so far been unable to pass pretty much any climate policy. In fact, one of its recent political crisesthe ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the summer of 2018was prompted by Turnbulls attempt to pass an energy bill that included climate policy. Its current prime minister, Scott Morrison, actually brought a lump of coal to the floor of Parliament several years ago while defending the industry. He won an election last year by depicting climate change as the exclusive concern of educated city-dwellers, and climate policy as a threat to Australians cars and trucks. He has so far attempted to portray the wildfires as a crisis, sure, but one in line with previous natural disasters. In fact, it is unprecedented. This seasons fires have incinerated more than 1,500 homes and have killed at least 23 people, Prime Minister Morrison said on Saturday.* There were at least twice as many fires in New South Wales in 2019 as there were in any other year this century, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Climate change likely intensified the ongoing epidemic: Hotter and drier weather makes wildfires more common, and climate change is increasing the likelihood of both in Australia. Last year was both the hottest and driest year on record in the country.
Perhaps more than any other wealthy nation on Earth, Australia is at risk from the dangers of climate change. It has spent most of the 21st century in a historic drought. Its tropical oceans are more endangered than any other biome by climate change. Its people are clustered along the temperate and tropical coasts, where rising seas threaten major cities. Those same bands of livable land are the places either now burning or at heightened risk of bushfire in the future. Faced with such geographical challenges, Australias people might rally to reverse these dangers. Instead, they have elected leaders with other priorities.
Australia will continue to burn, and its coral will continue to die. Perhaps this episode will prompt the more pro-carbon members of Australias Parliament to accede to some climate policy. Or perhaps Prime Minister Morrison will distract from any link between the disaster and climate change, as President Donald Trump did when he inexplicably blamed Californias 2018 blazes on the states failure to rake forest floors. Perhaps blazes will push Australias politics in an even more besieged and retrograde direction, empowering politicians like Morrison to fight any change at all. And so maybe Australia will find itself stuck in the climate spiral, clinging ever more tightly to coal as its towns and cities choke on the ash of a burning world.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/australia-caught-climate-spiral/604423/
Mickju
(1,800 posts)ProudMNDemocrat
(16,783 posts)After 3 week cruise. I could not get over the country's beauty, the friendliness of its people, the welcoming arms of diversity.
I kept reminding my husband how lucky we were to have spent that month, do all that we did, before all hell broke out. I feel for Australia and have donated money for the efforts there. The future of this beautiful country is now on life support.
Thyla
(791 posts)And the Lib/Nats are just as big of a steaming heap but the truth of the matter is you can't point the finger at one without pointing it at the other. Both Labor and Libs need to accept their responsibility in this.
It's been decades of cross party generational ignorance that has lead us to this point coupled with voter apathy.
That's centrist politics for you, keep your interest rates low and you can easy look away when they lock brown people up on an island somewhere.
So yeah maybe the coalition will change tact as doubtful as that seems, maybe Labor will stand up and announce even broader environmental policy which would actually meet the required targets. Maybe but until then both can fuck off, both are complicit at state and federal level. Do not think for one minute that a change in government will even start to fix things.
And while I'm at it for the rest of the world watching, we are your canary and it's soon to be an ex-canary. This is your fault as much as it is anybody else. USA, Europe, China, India and everywhere else you lot need to get your shit in order too. Australia could be the greenest nation on Earth but without you lot doing your part too we'd still be on fire. Save your pity and scorn and turn it inwards.
Everybody, everywhere needs to do something useful. Vote for your greenest candidates, demand that from the ones who are not offering enough(which is practically all of them).
Having said all that I do like a bit of ScoMo bashing so I leave you with this little NSFW ditty from a member of the band The Chats. I reckon it sums up a lot of Aussies thinking atm.