The Greening of Gavin

Crisis? What Crisis?

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head in the sandWhen I talk to some people about the seriousness of climate change, they tend to not take me too seriously, and I think it is mainly for these two reasons:

  1. If what you say is true, why isn’t the government doing a lot more?, and,
  2. If what you say is true, why aren’t there people protesting in the streets?

That’s because there’s no sense of urgency.  In the national newspapers you can read about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet breaking up and raising sea levels by 1 metre, right next to a story about the Prime Ministers Business Adviser Maurice Newman saying that Climate Change is a hoax perpetuated by the United Nations.  One is true, and the other a quack, but if you didn’t know better you would give the dire climate change story less weight.

Therefore, one very good reason for taking drastic public measures in the form of activism, street marches, protests, walk against warming etc.  in addition to just changing your life as best you can, is quite simply to create a sense of urgency in the general population.

Because right now, that sense of urgency is not there at all.  Mind you, that may change pretty soon if water gets scarce and food supplies dwindle and more beach-side properties begin to slip underwater.

The mechanism that counteracts the creation of a sense of urgency by the usual means (i.e. by articles about droughts, heat-waves, melting ice shelves etc. in the newspaper, posts in environmental blogs similar to mine, and warnings by climate scientists) is this;

A while ago, I was working at in an office tower,  when there was an audible alarm.  It sounded like it might be something serious, but I didn’t know for sure. So I looked around to see how other people reacted.

Since nobody seemed overly worried, I concluded that it was probably not a signal to leave the building, and so I continued working instead of running down the fire stairs.  Sure enough, it turned out to have been some technical glitch with the alarm system.

You see, the same happens in the larger context. When ordinary people read truly alarming stuff in the newspaper, hear it on the radio, or see it on TV, they will check around them to see how everybody else is reacting. If others don’t seem to be overly worried, they’ll shrug, decide that the alarming report was probably exaggerated, and continue about their daily business.

The only problem is in the case of climate change, we know it’s not a technical glitch, and it’s not an exaggeration, either.

They really should be worried.  By not being worried right now, could turn out to be devastating for the human race. 

And all this talk about saving the planet is rubbish.  We need to save ourselves from ourselves.  The planet will get along just fine without us, albeit in a slightly altered state and probably a lot better off, but with a lot less species inhabiting it.

It is this reason, in my humble opinion, why we need to start behaving like people who really do believe they are living in the time of the greatest emergency mankind has ever faced.

We need visible and real action because only visible and real action communicates to people who there is an emergency going on, and they should pitch in and help.

If more people also begin to notice the emergency, then my work is not for naught.  Ordinary people will begin to act in a positive way to help avert the climate crisis by voluntarily lowering their carbon footprints, or alternatively, the government of the time acting on policy and legislating large cuts in emissions and change the way we use fossil fuels.

Crisis over, and the emergency mostly goes away, except for the global warming that is already locked in.

I believe that at this point in time it will be the only way we will be able to save ourselves, unless a global leader takes the reins and leads us down the right path to avert the climate emergency.  There are signs of hope in the direction of the US and China of late, and some hope for meaningful emissions cuts at Paris at COP21.  But unfortunately no such meaningful action in Australia.

Aussie coat of arms

Source: David Pope 2014.

In this country, environmental leadership is a rare commodity indeed.  Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen any time soon.  Look what they’ve done in reducing the Renewable Energy Target in the last few weeks.  Bloody ludicrous and the opposite direction we should be moving.

It will be up to people like you and me to step up to the crease and bat winning score!  The great thing is that lots of ordinary Aussies are installing their own renewable energy systems in the form of Solar PV on their homes.

We just need better incentives to keep the momentum going.  Taking away government subsidies from the fossil fuel industry would be a fantastic start, as would placing a price on carbon emissions.

Oh, that’s right, we had one of those that was actually working.

Some clown took it away.  I wonder who that could be?

I’m Sick of Inaction on Climate

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Yes, I’m sick.  Sick and tired of the way our Government is eroding every single environmental agency and target we have, and is brazenly anti-science.

I’m sick that we have little action on climate change in this country when the rest of the world is forging ahead.

I’m sick that our fully functional price on carbon was rescinded by short-sighted politicians with little thought for future generations and only focused on profit and greed.

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I’m sick of the political ping-pong that our Renewable Energy Target has become and in the process stifling investment in renewables across the country.  It needs to stay the same or increase because it is the only real action this country has on climate change in the current political vacuum.  How many more enquiries does the Wind industry have to go through and why doesn’t coal-fired power stations which are heavy polluters not under the same scrutiny?

We have sunshine in abundance.  We have steady winds in many places throughout this wide brown land.

So why is the Government putting a noose around the neck of renewables all the while cheering on the fossil fuels industry?  It is shallow thinking, short-sighted and just bad leadership.  Leadership of the worst kind.

In fact in all my years, I don’t think I have ever seen a government so hell-bent on the destruction of our land and our planet.  It is shameful.

That is why I am raising my voice.  That is why I am speaking out where ever I can.  I shall no longer be politically agnostic (not that I really was), because when there are bad things happening, one should not be quiet.  One should stand up and be counted.

I will sign any petition, attend any rally, get the message out there any way possible, because we all need to do more, government and citizens alike, to solve the climate crisis and put a price back on carbon.  It is the only way we are going to get any traction on this, the biggest issue mankind has faced.  The time for inaction is over.  The time for action is now!

Who else is sick of this bull?  Hands up!

Thinking of Emily

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The CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology released a conclusive study about the projected state of Australia’s climate in the late 21st century.  The conclusion, based on climate modelling, was that Australia was basically going to become unlivable around the turn of the next century.  Well maybe not unlivable, but certainly vastly different from it is today.

Roughly a 5˚C rise in some northern areas, with around a 2.8˚C rise in Southern Eastern Australia and Tasmania.  Tasmania becomes Australia’s food bowl with increased agricultural output due to a warmer climate and rainfall, but the rest of Oz basically becomes a dust bowl due to lower precipitation by 67%.

Here is a line from the summary that struck home for me;

“By late in the century (2090), Australian average temperature is projected to increase by 0.6 to 1.7°C for a low emission scenario, or 2.8 to 5.1°C under a high emission scenario.”

Guess what?  We are currently on track for the high emission scenario.  With that brings half metre sea level rise and ocean acidification, which means no Great Barrier Reef.

No, I am not being dramatic.

From reading the executive summary of this study, either we start reducing greenhouse gas emissions now and maintain a habitable climate, or we join the millions of climate refugees in the near future and all move to the Tassie or join our mates in Middle Zealand.

What gets me down the most is that this is only two generations away.  If I reach 80 years of age, which sounds like a pretty good innings to me, it will be the year 2044.

If my eldest son Adam reaches 80, it will be 2067.

If my two month old granddaughter Emily reaches 80 years of age, it will be 2104.

Thinking of Emily

Emily, my grand-daughter

It will be her generation and her children that bear the brunt of our inaction to prevent 5 degrees of warming by the end of this century.  The only saving grace for her may be the fact that Emily and her parents live in Germany, where the warming impacts may be less than Down Under.  But still, we don’t really know what all this extra warming will bring to that area.

Now I ask us all one very simple question.  How can we let that happen to her generation? 

Well, let me tell you straight up.  We should not.  No bloody way!

However, lately I feel like we’ve dammed them all to hell on earth by not working hard enough to prevent such an occurrence.  Not hard enough by a long shot!  Pissing into the wind more like it if the last year has been anything to go by.  Australia has become the laughing stock of the world, with its crappy backward looking, coal induced, climate policy.

To make matters worse, One Term Tony, our glorious prime monster, laments over farcical knighthoods and petty medicare co-payment squabbling, taking us back to the middle ages along with him and his cohorts.

With no real climate policy in place, and no visible action from the Australian Government, we have two real choices as citizens of this country; either sink into a pit of depression and do nothing or get off our bums and do something about it.

I choose the latter, especially at the grassroots level.  I will not give up the fight for the sake of Emily and her children.  When I look at Emily’s little face, I tear up knowing that if we do nothing, her life will be one of hardship, misery, and pain.  Who wants that for their descendants?

I don’t.  Do you?

I have tears in my eyes even thinking about it.

So what are we going to do about it?  Now is the time to do something.  Anything.  Any big action, or any small behavioural change.  No action is too small in my books and the time for doing nothing at all is long past.  We just don’t have the time to spare.

But before you all rush out there and start knitting your own hemp knickers and socks, or brewing your beer from nettles, remember that a little bit of knowledge goes a long way when it comes to living sustainably.

Read through the blog’s archives, take a workshop or two to increase your skills, or visit a sustainable living event near you if you get the opportunity.  You will then feel a lot more comfortable if you get your dominoes lined up before you let the first one topple. You will probably make a few like-minded friends who can help you along the way.

To drive it home, let our community know via comment, what you are going to do to lower your personal carbon emissions and prevent them from rising further.  YOU CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!

If this blog post has got you all fired up and you need get a few things off your chest, then vent via comment.  Go for it and do it for future generations.  We have a moral imperative to act quickly as possible because the world waits for no one.

So don’t do it for me.  Don’t do it for yourself.  Do it for Emily and her generation.  They deserve better than what we are currently dishing out here in Australia.

Show her that we care enough to make that difference.