David Suzuki stated in a 2017 blog post that "Environmentalism has failed.", and summarizes his reasons for how. Even today, in 2023, their is an emphasis of economy over environment. State governments are the principle law makers and enforcers. Even today, state governments give large subsidies to multiple economic means of extraction and resultant environmental despoliation and pollution. Pollution is part of our indispensable dependence on fossil fuels for at least 80% of the energy supplying all economic processes. These being the wants and needs necessary for continuing growth patterns of Techno-Industrial Civilization. Only recently have dedicated departments for the environment been created, and we made them another special interest, like education, health, and agriculture. Still secondary to primary interests like business, resources, trade and defense (or war).
The Australian Government is now ramping its ineffective Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the legislation of its politically impotent "environment department", to match "Nature Positive" ambitions,
There are strong political elements of our nation that refuse to accept that we are subject to strong ultimate limitations from system workings of our biological, ecological connected world. At best, integrated science and a large dose of caution should be telling us now that our species is subject to ultimate "systems laws", with long-term, cumulative, dire and even still unforeseen consequences for breaches, not just short term legal penalties, or "wrist slaps" for offenders. This is entirely withing the nature of complex systems. Careful observation and humility escape our best predictions and biases.
We fail to act on the point that our livelihoods and long term survival, depend absolutely on the biosphere, for air, water, soil, sunlight and teeming biodiversity. We are afraid of subjugating ourselves, of giving ultimate political power, to the continued and future needs of the biosphere. Instead we still act as if if the entire world is filled with unlimited resources provided for our use, and unlimited capacity to absorb our industrial waste products.
The EDO in various states of Australia is fighting approvals for new Coal Mines and Fracking projects. Members of our governments and public service institutions behave as if they have been bought up to serve corporations, and have no decent regard for country, water, climate, people and biosphere. Short term money appears to be all that politicians care about. Here are links to two upcoming legal court campaigns that need your funding help, that the EDO thinks are worth fighting, because our environments are worth defending.
This linked article by Alan Urban provides a comprehensive summary of reasons why our global food systems are rapidly failing, due to climate vulnerability, and harmful unsustainable agriculture technology.
All of which is the end-stage result of our overshoot of our biospheres systems capacity for regeneration. Insect species are rapidly declining in numbers, and so are all their species dependents, such birds and small mammals. The insect pests that feed on our crops are exceptions.
Why are the big nations now arming for war in haste? Why can't they wait for civilization to collapse? Why is Australian government now
wanting to buy expensive, complex USA made, deadly weapons? The "Collapse of Everything" must be accelerating, and political denial has now built up into total panic, hidden by a wall of silence.
It has been reported that our planet's average energy imbalance - EEI - has increased over the last two decades. Climate models suggest that we are likely to experience this in coming years as a faster rise in average surface temperature anomaly, and increased rate of accumulation of heat in our oceans.
In late 2022, an Office of National Intelligence (ONI) initial climate risk assessment — an election promise of the Albanese government — was distributed to members of the federal cabinet. It addressed external but not domestic climate threats. Since then there has been no government response to, or public communication of, the assessment’s findings. - Renew Economy article by Ian Dunlop and Chris Barrie
There are plenty of commonly available publications about likely future climate impacts, and consequences to Australia. Just because our government refuses to acknowledge them with report releases and appropriate changes of policy, doesn't mean they do not already exist. Also non-release does allow a full and free speculation as to the reports real contents. Future generations are already over-shadowed by the presence of the hyperobject of our global climate bomb.
Some have calculated that the global carbon budget for 2 °C is already blown. Future emissions, cannot be reduced fast enough by any mechanism known to human civilization. Not even the decline rate of production of major global about 6% a year, meets the sort of global greenhouse gas reduction rates, that is required to avoid looming tipping points that accelerate and worsen the blowbacks of global heating. Let us be absolutely honest and clear. There is no real "Safety Mechanism", just like there is no real Santa Claus, except for the delusions fostered on us by global capitalism, in particular the "dirty dozen" that profit from Australian Credulity.
All the Scope 1 emissions in Australia will be just the same no matter what carbon credit discounting scheme. The order of magnitude times more emissions exported will be the same, uncounted in Australia, known as "Scope 3" emissions, without dubious "offsets". Atmosphere CO2 will continue to grow, and biosphere will continue to die.
Nevertheless, the Climate Council of Australia is gamely trying to intervene in the current political game of lets pretend it isn't happening, and ask that the Australian government do something to exert real responsible control, and not just be remote controlled by the global mining, finance and economic growth lobby. So you can sign the petition on their dirty dozen web page, like I did, so that it can probably die unheeded later on just like all the other climate petitions already dead and buried at the hands of this "Australian" parliament.
The latest climate news is really "Big Heat hits Antartica", with some of 26 positive feedback tipping points getting so close now, but that sort of news has never had any effect on systemic political and corporate denial, to produce net-zero zilch in effective mitigation policies for global heating, in order that the global filthy rich can stay fossil fuel powered, and keep their control till the very end. Global emissions continue to rise. Humanity seems entirely doomed to suffocate itself.
Here I compare the internal energy and evolution systems of life, with those external energy systems of our massive global fossil fuel powered civilization, which only a long lived, evolved planetary life systems like ours could have enabled. Our dependency on all biosphere life systems will ultimately kill our species.
Picnics for Nature Event. Sunday 16th October, Parramatta Park, Manu Pavilion, 12 - 2 pm.
Dear NAB,
Rumors of absolute failures of your fossil fuels de-finance policy will be going global. I will put them on my website https://parracan.org. Why do bank executives not heed you-tube presentations by climate scientists? Is it a condition of outrageous highly paid employment? So sorry that you all will soon need to lose your jobs, in order to allow complex biosphere life to keep going.
There are at least 5 global climate tipping-overs already happening in accelerating motion. Melting permafrost, melting poles, Greenland ice pouring into oceans, Amazon forests now a carbon source, Northern Boreal forest dieback, fires all over, global photosynthesis decline, more and more positive feedbacks to our fossil fools global heating. The only solution will be imposed by nature and is a drastic reduction in our resources consumption and our population. Impact = P*A*T. Plus all our infrastructure to be washed away by sea level rise and escalating floods. You have a world to lose.