By Stephen Fitzgerald

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This amazing painting by Sally Deng says it all and captures the Australian summer of 2018/19. Standing waist deep in flood water with your family, accompanied by a million dead fish, to escape the raging bushfires destroying our communities and burning down our homes. This is climate change and global warming in action.

 

Record breaking hurricane slams Florida. The strongest cyclone on record wipes out Mozambique, the cost of unprecedented floods in Queensland runs into the billions. Add to that droughts, wild-fires, fish kill and the hottest years on record and we suspect something is amiss. Increased global temperature equates to energy in the atmosphere, equates to extremes in weather, ocean expansion, ice melt and rising sea-levels.

 

Federal LNP government accused of ‘false’ climate claims. A new report by the climate council has accused the Australian government of cover-ups and peddling misinformation on climate change. For the LNP the response is: We will ignore the cause, we will divert attention, we will use propaganda, we will make 'green' a dirty word, we will cover it up and we will hide from the truth to protect the fossil fuel and coal industry and, that then protects our own selfish agenda.

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The Liberal Party’s rejection of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, and the subsequent climate change denial is a lie. The word on the street is that the Liberal National Party’s intention, all along, has been that “we will adapt to climate change” and do nothing else about it. They don't say that so, they lie by omission and, we need to look for the truth.

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Malcolm Turnbull insists the Government's nearly half-a-billion-dollar donation to the private GBRF foundation with links to big resources companies has been done transparently, despite the body itself not asking for the money. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation has launched a bid to secure further donations of as much as $400 million. With $100 million of that earmarked to double the funds set aside for the reef restoration and adaption plan.

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“Adaptation plan”. What they are saying is, the reef needs to adapt to increased global temperature. No mention of taking remedial action to prevent climate change. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation have shown their hand. They don’t care about rising temperatures … keep burning fossil fuels, the reef can adapt! The reef is not adapting!

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The resistance by the LNP government tells us they have no intention of taking action to prevent climate change and their denial and inaction proves that. Their thinking is the same. Bring on climate change, we will adapt. Screw the electorate, screw Australia and screw the planet and don’t bother trying to fix the problem.

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Once again, the Liberal government has lied to us by omission. Their intention all along has been to adapt and do nothing about reducing the cause of global temperature increase. Do nothing about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Along with big business they would throw us to the wolves and they need to be exposed for that betrayal.

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Traditionally, right wing conservative government ideology is to cling to the status quo. Extreme right-wing governments have no intention of taking action to limit increasing global temperatures. They have misled us about their denial of climate change and, once again, their intention all along has been to adapt to extremes in weather and sea level rises. This also plays into the hands of the fossil fuel industry as Morrison backs coal in defiance of the IPCC report.

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The United Nations (UN) has urged if people want action on climate change, in some countries, that will require a change of government. In Australia that will mean evicting the extreme right-wing Morrison/Abbot/Dutton LNP government to the political wilderness and in America removing the right-wing Republican government. 35 million Americans experiencing utter devastation from unprecedented hurricanes in the Carolinas and Florida will agree.

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Australians experiencing severe state-wide droughts, tornados in Queensland, extreme bush fires conditions, month early cyclones off Queensland, unprecedented extreme weather patterns, the hottest year on record, the destruction of the Murray-Darling basin and catastrophic floods, will also agree that something needs to be done.

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So, there we have it, the UN the IPCC and the scientists who have prepared 6,000 research papers, on the subject, are urging action on climate change. We have been told that we need to remove extreme right-wing governments to be replaced by more progressive thinking governments prepared to take up the challenge.

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The solution then for this new government and, mechanism to gain across the board public support, would be a positive response. This aims at atmospheric Co2 management including, in particular, carbon capture at point of emission, removing Co2 from the atmosphere, reforestation, incentive-based emission reduction guidelines, electricity storage, support for alternative energy and research into hydrogen power.

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This has been promised by the Labor government if they win the next election. Both government and big business need to take affirmative action on behalf of each and every one of us. If the fossil fuel industry wishes to survive they need to participate and work towards reducing or eliminating their carbon footprint.

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Comments (Now Closed)

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SteveFitz October 14, 2018 at 6:36 pm

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It’s not just us in peril as a result of man’s inadvertent engineering of the climate. Without deep time to adapt, 30% of all species on earth are at risk of extinction in the next 100 years. What we are creating has the potential to be another great extinction event. We can’t let that happen and we need to act. We can’t continue to be so mindlessly stupid. So, driven by greed.

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This jewel in the universe, we call planet earth, is all we have and we need to see ourselves as the caretakers.

 

SteveFitz October 17, 2018 at 9:58 am

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Yes Wam – Distant future generations will look back on this period in time and shake their heads in disbelief at our stupidity. The most precious resource that earth has to offer are hydrocarbons (oil, coal and gas) and, what do we do, we burn it, and it’s lost forever. Not only do we burn it but, as pointed out, the Co2 released is returned to the atmosphere to force global warming.

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You’re not alone – People have also said to me “You're not a greeny are you”. The non-observers are easily brain washed by main stream media, corporates and the vested interest of the political parties who pander to them. Don’t despair, on your side are the worlds best scientists, the entire United Nations, 195 countries, the IPCC report and 6,000 research articles to back it up. What's on your side is the evidence of unpresedented catastrophic weather events driven by global warming. Plus every other thinking person on the planet. So, there’s hope.

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What we are up against, besides fossil fuel vested interests with their tobacco company type diversion and propaganda, are paid up members of the flat earth society and those who still believe the universe revolves around them - How they got through the evolutionary safety net has got me beat and we can only hope they are in the minority.

 

SteveFitz October 24, 2018 at 11:45 am

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The 2018 Atlantic and Pacific Ocean hurricane season is the most powerful on record: 

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Global mean temperature increase equates to energy, equates to extremes in weather and, that’s what we are seeing unfold across the planet. Driven by increasing green-house gas emissions as a result of human activity since the beginning of the industrial revolution. That's a jump in atmospheric CO2 concentration from 287ppm to 411ppm today and rising at 2ppm per year. Scientists suggest we need to cap atmospheric CO2 at 450ppm to avoid catastrophic climate change and irreversible sea-level rise.

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Donald Trump is a prisoner to his own body language – As a pro fossil-fuel advocate when the utter devastation of Florida and the Carolinas was put before him, his face went blank and he folded his arms to his chest.

 

There’s money to be made with fossil fuel, the driver of climate change. So Trump doesn’t care. We can rebuild from the devastation of catastrophic weather events. What these brilliant minds are forgetting is what goes hand in hand with global warming and, that’s sea level rise. Trumps home town will flood and, his real estate empire will be washed away.

 

How do we adapt to a 2 meter rise in sea level this century and then another 5 meters the following century and a possible 70 meter sea level rise within 500 years if all the planets ice melts? Oh dear, maybe we should do something about global warming. Maybe we should cut green-house gases emissions. Maybe we should have a go at stabilizing CO2 in the atmosphere. Not with the likes of Trump and Morrison we won’t!

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SteveFitz May 29, 2019 at 10:51 am

 

If humanity crosses the point of no return with climate change - How can humanity possibly adapt? Science America: CO2 Levels Just Hit Another Record High - Here’s Why It Matters & Carbon Budget Explained.

 

Climate Council: Point of No Return: Crossing a Climate Threshold “Exceeding this climate tipping point could lead to the highest temperatures experienced in more than 1.2 million years, creating a ‘Hothouse Earth’ that humanity has never experienced before, hitting societies, economies and ecosystems around the world with devastating impacts.”

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Go to the next article: An uncertain future

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