FROM this week’s news ON: the climate crisis, environmental issues, and nuclear threats/issues [Note: Content Warning - links to distressing reports on this topic. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

Froom this week’s news on the climate crisis, environmental issues, and nuclear threats/issues (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published), noting that at least some issues will not have made it into the news that I see: 

• “Why the world cannot afford the rich”   https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00723-3   “Equality is essential for sustainability. The science is clear — people in more-equal societies are more trusting and more likely to protect the environment than are those in unequal, consumer-driven ones”   but   “In First, Rich Nations Cut CO₂ 4.5% in ’23 but still Grew, as Coal fell to 1900 Levels”   https://www.juancole.com/2024/03/first-nations-levels.html   “The reason the new findings are so heartening, however, is that in 2023 emissions from the advanced economies fell even though they experienced economic growth. A 4.5% fall in emissions from countries with an expanding GDP is unprecedented in the hydrocarbon era.   ...   The fall in emissions would have been even greater, but drought in China and elsewhere caused hydroelectric production to fall last year. This finding should reinforce for us how, the longer we leave the climate crisis unsolved, the harder it becomes to solve it.”   I have to admit I did not think this was possible - and there are other concerns around growth, but this may help address the climate denialists and delayers. And we still CANNOT AFFORD THE RICH!!!  
  

• “CSIRO hits back at Dutton’s ‘unfounded’ criticism”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2024/03/15/csiro-dutton-attack-nuclear   “Australia’s national science agency has taken aim at Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in a highly unusual public intervention”   The  push for nuclear energy is the worst of climate delayism - and thus is, IMO, criminally irresponsible. To do so by also attacking science is both climate denialism and an attack on the survival of the human species, and shows how unfit the dinosaurs of the neoliberal party are for ANYTHING    

• more existentially threatening climate delayism - this time from the USA:   “Across the Nation, Lawmakers Aim to Ban Lab-Grown Meat - Inside Climate News”   https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12032024/lawmakers-aim-to-ban-lab-grown-meat/   

• despite geologists crawling down to Pleistocene sand strata to store their heads after an epoch-long and apparently somewhat dodgy debate, other more rational and responsible humans say   “the term [‘Anthropocene’] still matters”   https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00786-2  
  

 

• “CSIRO claims new record for energy efficiency in lightweight printed solar cells | Solar power | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/12/csiro-claims-new-record-for-energy-efficiency-in-lightweight-printed-solar-cells  
  

• “China’s green steel push could crush Australia’s dirty iron ore exports”   https://theconversation.com/chinas-green-steel-push-could-crush-australias-dirty-iron-ore-exports-219299   
  

• “UK Government Holds its Nerve on Heat Pumps as Clean Heat Policy Confirmed - DeSmog”   https://www.desmog.com/2024/03/07/uk-government-holds-its-nerve-on-heat-pumps-as-clean-heat-policy-confirmed/   
  

• “Almost half of cane growers sceptical of science behind laws protecting Great Barrier Reef”   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/12/great-barrier-reef-protection-conservation-queensland-government-cane-farmers-regulations   “Review found ongoing ‘mistrust’ among farmers, including many who remain unconvinced by need for pollution regulations”   Then, given the amount of science they rely on in their industry, they are professionally incompetent   

• “Australian sport runs financial and legal risks due to climate inaction, new report warns”   https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/13/australian-sport-climate-inaction-risks-report-data-environmental-defenders-office   “Less than 1% of organisations mention climate in annual reports   Report identifies areas of liability in event of extreme weather”   

• “If polluting vehicles are pricier under Labor’s scheme, that’s kinda the point”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2024/03/12/vehicle-efficiency-standard   “Peak motorist body requests clarity on Albanese government’s proposed clean car policy”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/13/peak-motorist-body-requests-clarity-on-albanese-governments-proposed-clean-car-policy   Meanwhile, in parts of the world more concerned about survival than maintaining current destructive lifestyles,   “How did Norway become the electric car superpower? Oil money, civil disobedience – and Morten from a-ha”   https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/12/how-did-norway-become-the-electric-car-superpower-oil-money-civil-disobedience-and-morten-from-a-ha   
  

• “Pacific Islanders have long drawn wisdom from the Earth, the sky and the waves. Research shows the science is behind them”   https://theconversation.com/pacific-islanders-have-long-drawn-wisdom-from-the-earth-the-sky-and-the-waves-research-shows-the-science-is-behind-them-225088  
  

• “Cultural burning is better for Australian soils than prescribed burning, or no burning at all”   https://theconversation.com/cultural-burning-is-better-for-australian-soils-than-prescribed-burning-or-no-burning-at-all-224337   “Indigenous fire management began more than 11,000 years ago: new research”   https://theconversation.com/indigenous-fire-management-began-more-than-11-000-years-ago-new-research-225263   

• “The next pandemic? It’s already here for Earth’s wildlife”   https://theconversation.com/the-next-pandemic-its-already-here-for-earths-wildlife-222306   This is about bird flu  
  

• “Wood Pellet Giant Drax Targets California Forests”   https://www.desmog.com/2024/03/04/wood-pellet-giant-drax-targets-california-forests/   

My links for activism post may aid any activism you may decide to do on any/all of these. If you do, don’t get too fixated on specific instances of problems - important though they may well be: take a moment to also consider the broader issues these incidents and groups of incidents may suggest/reveal.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/