… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Climate Crisis

  • Response to Rishi Sunak abandoning climate crisis policies

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    One of the many occasions UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
    One of the many occasions UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.

    This post should be regarded as a draft subject to change or elaboration. dizzy deep

    Politicians given a climate brief often come to appreciate and understand how desperate and important the current climate situation is. I have reached the same conclusion from my experience of addressing the climate. By contrast people who attack activists and protesters are totally ignorant and have no idea.

    Zac Goldsmith resigned from Rishi Sunak’s government on 30th June 2023 claiming that Prime Minister Sunak was “simply uninterested” in the environment.

    Zac Goldsmith resigns accusing Sunak of being ‘uninterested’ in environment

    …

    In his letter stepping down from the Foreign Office, where his portfolio was overseas territories, Commonwealth, environment, energy and climate, Goldsmith said it had been a privilege to work as an environment minister, particularly under Johnson.

    He said he had been horrified by the Sunak government’s “abandonment” of policies around animal welfare, and that its efforts on environmental issues at home had “simply ground to a standstill”.

    Addressing Sunak directly, the Tory peer said: “Prime minister, having been able to get so much done previously, I have struggled even to hold the line in recent months. The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our prime minister, are simply uninterested. That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.”

    …

    Sunak’s disinterest should not come as any surprise: Sunak became UK Prime Minister on 25 October 2022; during his first week in office he announced that he intended to not attend the COP27 climate conference at Sharm-el-Sheik. That decision was reversed and he did attend, partly to avoid getting embarrassed by previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s intended attendance. Sunak routinely uses private jets and helicopters to travel regardless of the damage he causes to the climate.

    I consider that Sunak’s disregard for the climate is due to his privileged situation: being excessively wealthy he is part of the problem of excessively wealthy individuals disproportionately damaging the climate. His lifestyle is that of a climate destroyer. He has a holiday home in Santa Monica, California, he routinely travels by private jet, he had to have the electricity grid to his home upgraded at his own expense to heat his private swimming pool FFS. He’s not able to address the issues of the climate debate because to do so would require he recognise and address his own destructive actions instead of ignorantly carrying on.

    This post should be regarded as a draft subject to change or elaboration. I will also be increasing my attention to Sunak and the Conservatives. dizzy deep

  • Global heating made Greece and Libya floods more likely, study says

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    Destruction caused by floods in Derna, Libya
    Destruction caused by floods in Derna, Libya

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/global-heating-made-mediterranean-floods-more-likely-study-says

    Report says climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into humanitarian disaster

    Carbon pollution led to heavier rains and stronger floods in Greece and Libya this month but other human factors were responsible for “turning the extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster”, scientists have said.

    Global heating made the levels of rainfall that devastated the Mediterranean in early September up to 50 times more likely in Libya and up to 10 times more likely in Greece, according to a study from World Weather Attribution that used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed.

    …

    The amount of rain that fell in Libya was “far outside that of previously recorded events”, the WWA report found. Up to 50% more rain fell than it would have in a world where people had not changed the climate, the report found, though the researchers cautioned that the level of uncertainty was high.

    The report found the ongoing conflict and political instability in Libya compounded the effects of the flooding. Dams built in the 1970s had been poorly maintained. They may also have been designed based on short rainfall records that underestimated how strong an extreme storm could be.

    The report found that people were at greater risk because the dams stored so much water and failed at night, leaving little time to escape.

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/global-heating-made-mediterranean-floods-more-likely-study-says

  • ‘Missing half the equation’: scientists criticise Australia over approach to fossil fuels

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    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/missing-half-the-equation-scientists-criticise-australia-over-approach-to-fossil-fuels

    Image of a kangaroo.
    Image of a kangaroo.

    Prof Lesley Hughes and others says there is ‘cognitive dissonance’ between Labor’s stated commitment to the climate crisis and its policies

    The Australian government is “missing half the equation” in acting on the climate crisis by backing a shift to renewable energy but having no plan to get out of fossil fuels, according to an author of a new scientific review.

    Prof Lesley Hughes is a leading climate change scientist and member of the independent Climate Council and government advisory body the Climate Change Authority. Hughes said there is a “cognitive dissonance” between Labor’s stated commitment to addressing the problem and the pace at which it is moving.

    The dissonance is most clear in it subsidising or approving new and expanded fossil fuel developments while arguing it supports trying to limit global heating to 1.5C – a goal agreed at UN climate conferences.

    “The two things are completely at odds with each other,” she said.

    Hughes is the co-author of a Climate Council review, released on Wednesday, which found Australia should be cutting national carbon dioxide emissions by 75% by 2030. The government’s legislated target is a minimum 43% cut (compared with 2005 levels).

    The report said the country should be aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2035 – much sooner than the current 2050 goal. The finding is broadly consistent with other analyses that have found Australia should be moving more rapidly.

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/missing-half-the-equation-scientists-criticise-australia-over-approach-to-fossil-fuels

    Dissonance but not cognitive dissonance to this pedant but understood …

  • Young people to take 32 European countries to court over climate policies

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    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/14/young-people-to-take-32-european-countries-to-court-over–climate-policies

    Canadian wildfire 2023
    Canadian wildfire 2023

    Claimants to argue lack of adequate action is breach of human rights, in largest climate legal action to date

    Six young people are preparing to appear at the European court of human rights to try to compel 32 nations to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in the world’s largest climate legal action to date.

    Aged from 11 to 24, the six Portuguese claimants, say they were driven to act by their experiences in the wildfires that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying 20,000 hectares of forest.

    After another summer in which wildfires raged across Portugal, Greece, Spain, Croatia and Italy, the young people will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court in 13 days’ time that the 32 European nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.

    Crowdfunded by people around the world, who have donated more than £100,000, they are seeking a binding ruling from the judges to force the countries to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in what would be a historic milestone in climate litigation.

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/14/young-people-to-take-32-european-countries-to-court-over-climate-policies

  • Rishi Sunak considers weakening key green policies

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    Madness, Driving in My Car

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66857551

    Rishi Sunak is considering weakening some of the government’s key green commitments in a major policy shift.

    …

    First, the government would push the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars – currently set to come into force in 2030 – back to 2035. The 2030 date has been government policy since 2020.

    Second, the government would significantly weaken the plan to phase out the installation of gas boilers by 2035, saying that they only want 80% to be phased out by that year.

    Third, homeowners and landlords would be told that there will be no new energy efficiency regulations on homes. Ministers had been considering imposing fines on landlords who fail to upgrade their properties to a certain level of energy efficiency.

    Fourth, the 2026 ban on off-grid oil boilers will be delayed to 2035, with only an 80% phase out target at that date.

    In addition, Britons will be told that there will be no new taxes to discourage flying, no government policies to change people’s diets and no measures to encourage carpooling.

    Mr Sunak is also likely to rule out what he sees as burdensome recycling schemes.

    …

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66857551