I use #ClimateDisruption due to global warming from burning fossil-fuels.
I also use my Physics training to talk about what happens when you keep pumping energy into an oscillating system and point people to the film of the Tacoma Washington bridge failure, a real world example. https://youtu.be/XggxeuFDaDU?feature=shared
And, I also suggest people listen to David Robert's Volts podcast to hear about both the challenges to get to net zero and all the great progress being made.
What is Australia's fair share when it comes to financing the necessary climate transition?
In a headline today, the Australian government has pledged AU$150m in #ClimateFinance for Pacific nations.
Good news, right? Isn't this PM Anthony #Albanese "ending the #ClimateWars" by actually doing what #Australia ought to have done years ago? Let's consider that assumption.
Back in 2009 at the much hyped, but ultimately deeply disappointing international climate negotiations in #Copenhagen known as #COP15, one step forward that was agreed, even as more comprehensive or ambitious agreements slipped away was that the wealthy nations of the world (including #Australia) collectively pledged to be providing US$100b each year to help the poorer nations transition away from #FossilFuels (#ClimateMitigation) and develop in ways that help societies adapt to the warming that cannot be mitigated (#ClimateAdaptation).
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Over the last ten years, the promise of a #GreenClimateFund has been a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to global climate agreement. Arguably, the #ParisClimateAgreement reached in 2015 and signed by every nation in the world (bar war-torn #Syria) in 2016 was one of the biggest steps forward in international cooperation over a global crisis in the history of humanity (while still being thunderously inadequate to the scale of the #ClimateCrisis). After decades of arguing and partial steps, 2015 was the first time a major agreement had been reached that included all the major polluting nations promising to reduce their carbon emissions towards a goal of at least somewhat #HabitablePlanet
And the pledge of a US$100bn/yr Green Climate Fund was widely acknowledged in international negotiations as a major enabler of this historic Paris Climate Agreement. Though still far from adequate (some estimates said that to be fair, it really ought to have been five times as large), it was nonetheless a solid first formal step towards recognising the massively unequal responsibilities of various nations when it comes to causing planetary #ClimateDisruption.
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Anyone who thinks #FossilFuels are ever the 'cheaper'/'more affordable' option (a claim that hasn't been true for years, even within the very blinkered assumptions of conventional economic analysis), hasn't even begun to reckon with the true costs of #dirtyEnergy
A more clear-eyed analysis would see that continuing to burn ancient carbon to power our societies is largely a way to strip wealth from the poor and those not yet born and funnel the vast majority of it into the pockets of a tiny number of #plutocrats.
The time to end our reliance on #coal, #oil and #gas was decades ago, but today is better than tomorrow for taking the most ambitious steps imaginable that remain compatible with the avoidance of societal #collapse and a commitment to #justice.
Another world is not just possible, given #ClimateDisruption, it is inevitable. The degree to which that world is habitable, equitable or even slightly just is very much up for grabs.
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In Marshallese culture, there is a prominent attitude of "Enaaj Emman," which translates loosely to "It will be okay." It is strongly embedded in the culture and people's everyday thinking. If you are ever despondent, somebody is always there to remind you that "enaaj emman." It is a focus on hope and happiness that pervades daily life despite the struggles, setbacks, and disappointments that inevitably happen. People retain this optimism even after being irradiated by nuclear testing by the USGovt throughout the 1950s.
Having lived in the Marshall Islands for eight years, I am acutely aware of the threats and dangers posed by both nuclear waste and fossil fuels.
At this point, I expect to see this country of beautiful coral atolls and generous, gentle people be subsumed by rising sea levels. They are undergoing severe stress at 1.1C and will be completely uninhabitable at 1.5C. We will push past 1.5C by the end of this decade, and I don't think we have enough time, nor are we doing the right things, to reverse the momentum. These islands will be gone, and an entire country and culture will have been displaced or extinguished.
It fills me with profound sadness, especially when I think how it all could have been prevented but for the fraud perpetrated by fossil fuel energy companies and the greed of their executives. And let's not forget about the collusion of our politicians through bribery, nor forget about the perpetuation of the fraud through mass media owned by members of the same bourgeois class.
I understand the need to continue seeking solutions. I hope people create those solutions. Enaaj emman. I appreciate people like @pvonhellermannn who, despite feeling despondent, has provided to us long threads informing us about this crisis. Hope is still alive as Tina Stege, #ClimateEnvoy from the Marshall Islands, impresses upon us in these two posts:
Yet I am despondent. I am also very angry. My reaction is to want to dislodge and remove the parasitical elites of the 1%, punish them harshly, and completely dismantle their capitalist systems. I despair that billions will have to die before we make that happen. Certainly among the first great wave of casualties will the Marshall Islanders. And that fills me with rage.
It also brings back memories of living in the islands. It's as close to an anarchist way of life as I've ever seen in the world. And I'm now reminded of an elder woman who was asked by another Peace Corps Volunteer, "Who do you think is the best US president?" Her response: "I think President Kennedy was the smartest president. He sent all these young people here so they could learn "mantin majel" (Marshallese custom). There is so much wisdom in that statement, that it resonates even more strongly for me 35 years later. The world needs to learn Mantin Majel and enact its inherent values of peace, cooperation, solidarity, and optimism.
Apparently the storm surges also close airports on Ailinglaplap Atoll, the outer atoll where I lived for three years.
Ailinglaplap was the traditional capital of the Marshall Islands and home to the Paramount Chiefs ("Iroojlaplap") because it's islands are the largest/longest, naturally and without landfill, in the entire country.
The storm closed two of the three airports. The airports are small and made by scraping the reef that lies beneath the six inches of topsoil and sand. The planes that land on the outer island (read: not the urban atolls of Majuro--the current capital--and Kwajalein) airports are small 19-seat planes. Pretty exciting take offs and landings if you enjoy short, unpaved runways in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
[Excerpt:]
"MAJURO — Powerful waves, driven by offshore storm surges, hit an important U.S. military installation in the Marshall Islands Saturday night, causing some damage and resulting in evacuation of all 'non-mission personnel' from the island.
"Flooding caused by the waves also hit two airports at Ailinglaplap Atoll, leaving rocks, coral and debris in their wake that will keep those airports closed for weeks. Other islands in this atoll nation were reporting flooding and moderate damage."
...
"Wave swells also seriously flooded islands in Ailinglaplap Atoll, tossing debris onto airfields at Woja and Jeh islands. It likely will take weeks to clear the runways for air service to return. Kili Island, home of the displaced Bikini Islanders, also experienced flooding Saturday-Sunday.
"The elevation of most islands in this atoll nation are in the three-to-six-foot (one-to-two-meter) range. Ocean flooding due to rising sea levels has increased throughout the Marshall Islands in recent years, with dozens of small, “nuisance” inundations on Majuro Atoll, the capital, and other atolls each year. Saturday night’s wave flooding incident at Roi-Namur was a significant escalation over minor ocean inundations seen in the Marshall Islands the past year."
...
"While Kwajalein and Ailinglaplap were dealing with the aftermath of wave-driven ocean flooding, Majuro has been facing an ongoing power crisis for the past two weeks, with numerous extended power outages affecting most parts of the capital atoll. These have resulted from the decline of old generators that constantly break down, leaving the utility company without adequate electrical generating capacity to power the entire atoll."
The Marshall Islands are a harbinger of what's to come from climate change.
Tiny pieces of semi-combusted petrol, microscopic specks of charred timber from a fireplace, minute scraps of coal ash, little flecks of tyre rubber, miniature particles of a gum tree lit now to avoid burning later: all this and more is particulate matter. Stuff small enough to float on the breeze for a while.
And some of it is small enough to flit through your nasal hairs, to sidestep the phlegm lining your trachea, to find a home deep in the alveoli of your lungs, indeed, so titchy it can cross into your bloodstream, travelling along your arterial highways and byways into heart, belly and brain.
Our bodies can handle a bit of this. A bit.
But not much. Not of the really tiny stuff.
Particulate matter is one of the most harmful forms of #AirPollution, contributing to many millions of premature deaths each year, and compromising the health and wellbeing of billions. Particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter are the most dangerous (a human hair is about 75 microns wide). These are called PM2.5.
The World Health Organisation updated its guidelines in 2021.
Chronic exposure to PM2.5 ought to be kept below a concentration of 5 micrograms per cubic metre.
Acute exposure (no more than a handful of times annually) should be kept below 15.
All the smoke around Sydney this week is from hazard reduction burns. i.e. controlled burns conducted by the rural fire service to mitigate this summer's bushfire's risk, which has been assessed as particularly high, after three very wet La Ninã years and with a likely El Niño developing.
The #RFS is way behind schedule on this due to all the rain and other complicating factors causing many delays. With temperatures topping 30ºC this weekend, they are rushing to get as much done as they can before the window closes.
Speaking of which, make sure all your windows are closed.
It's a nasty trade-off: to reduce the risk of a climate disaster hitting hard this summer, we conduct an activity with its own risk of air quality for five million people dropping into the toilet for a week. These days of bad air (and even worse nights) will result in premature deaths, increased hospitalisations, and some long-term damage to everyone's respiratory health (esp children).
Once more, given the direct impacts on air quality and the long-term global worsening of #wildfire risk, this moment is another salutary reminder that #DirtyEnergy sends our future up in smoke.
Really excellent piece on #ElNino + impacts in @TheEconomist We need to prepare now for the coming storms. As ever, poorer countries are likely to suffer more. There is nothing better than good governance and robust infrastructure to deal with the #ClimateDisruption.
#climateChange in the mix will likely make everything worse.
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El Niño and global warming are mixing in alarming ways from The Economist https://econ.st/3szzc0l
The usual line from the #DirtyEnergy spokespeople elected to parliament is that Australia is too small a player for Oz energy policy to make any significant contribution to #ClimateDisruption.
It's always been a lie. Australia has always punched above its weight when it comes to climate responsibility, having the largest fossil fuel resources per capita in the world.
For years, courts have even largely accepted the government's 'drug dealer' defence when it comes to approving new coal and gas projects ("if we don't sell it, someone else will, who doesn't even have our standards!").
But if you want to see the lie laid bare, check this story. The mere possibility of temporary industrial action at a single Australian dirty energy company is already having global impacts on gas markets.