A report based on the ongoing work of the three Working Groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – a combined effort of thousands of the world’s best scientists – has been released.
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions – those originating in human activity – have increased since the pre-industrial era, thanks to unavoidable things like economic and population growth and are now much higher than ever. According to the report the resulting shit-tonne of ‘atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years.’ Which is cute.
The report went on to outline the many risks and impacts of a globe just left to warm on up, of which there are many, with the thrust of it all being: “Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems”/STOP 420 BLAZING FOSSIL FUELS.
Enter: Environment minister Greg Hunt and the government’s Direct Action policy.
hello,
am here to environment.
An ABC article recently asked ‘What is the Coalition’s direct action climate change policy?’ and went through the ‘Emissions Reduction Fund’ facts. The president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Geoff Cousins, was a tad more forthright when he called it a “Mickey Mouse scheme that has been stitched up with the leader of a mining company.” Either way the independent climate policy advisor, the Climate Change Authority (soon to be completely shut down by the Greg Hunt and the Coalition Government), has deemed the Direct Action emissions reduction target “inadequate.”
This is not the first time the Environment Minister’s plans have been given the inadequate sticker (Science Academy Labels Govt.’s Reef Preservation Plan “Inadequate”) or been labelled unachievable (Dredge Spoil To Be Dumped In Great Barrier Reef Marine Park For New Coal Party) and today the chief executive of the CCA, Amanda McKenzie, said of our government’s refusal to chill with the fossil fuels: “It would be ill-advised to prioritise one industry at the expense of our collective health, economy and way of life.”
And here we find ourselves, the Australian people, in the middle of a Mexican standoff between our Coalition Government and the UN Climate Change experts, with a Environment Minister who has previously cited Wikipedia to downplay climate change and who, to borrow the cockney rhyming slang vocab, is being a real Greg Hunt about it all.
via The Guardian.
Photo (before Photoshop) by Ian Waldie/Getty Images. Caption: A file photo shows the sun shining on the outback landscape June 7, 2005 near MARREE, AUSTRALIA. An Australian Federal Government report has found that Australian coastal cities and tourist destinations are facing a much higher risk of the destructive effect of climate change resulting in severe storms. The report concludes that likely scenarios include the Australian continent warming by between 1 and 6 degrees by 2070, more droughts which could cut farm output by billions of dollars, tourism suffering from damage to reefs, rainforests and beaches and an increased risk of more tropical cyclones, and longer growing seasons, fewer frosts and higher rainfall in some areas which could help some agribusinesses but adversely affect others from less rainfall.
