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| Being arrested - Courtesy ABC News |
I’d like to say a few words why I am disrupting business as usual today, to block the traffic in Melbourne CBD. I am 68 years old and have been concerned about the lack of climate action for 20 years.
I have written letters and emails, I have signed petitions, I have been on delegations to my Federal MP Peter Khalil, and my former MP Kelvin Thomson. Since 2015 I have attended Merri-bek Council meetings each and every month as a witness for their actions on climate. I have decarbonised my personal carbon footprint by increasing cycling, using Solar PV, eliminating gas from my home, composting, and reducing plastics use.
I have attended four UN climate change conferences as an Environmental NGO observer for Climate Action Network Australia: Paris COP21 in 2015 when the Paris Agreement was signed that set the 1.5C target and a plan to reach that target. Marrakech COP22 in 2016, Fiji’s COP23 in Bonn in 2017, and Chile’s COP25 in Madrid in 2019.
My tweet to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop during the final days of COP21 saying I was ashamed of Australia, elicited a public tweet response that there was no need for my shame as Australian had joined the High Ambition Coalition. That was very temporary of course, a fiction.
In 2017 I bumped into Josh Frydenburg at a coffee cart at the 2017 COP in Bonn. I politely tried to give him a Fossil of the Day award received by Australia, and he refused to accept it. (Facebook post)
I am closely following what Australia’s Ministers and negotiators are pledging and negotiating at COP28 in Dubai right now.
I was hopeful in 2022 when the Labor government was elected we would see substantial climate action progress, and we have on the renewables and energy side of the ledger, but on fossil fuels we have seen 10 new coal and gas projects approved, 4 of them coal mines.
Labor has also failed to address the $11 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, not even a plan to phase them out.
Labor has funded the Darwin Middle Arm petrochemical hub to the tune of $1.5 billion that effectively subsidises fracking the Beetaloo Basin gas field, and Santos offshore Barossa Gas Field.
Labor has also authorised seismic blasting in Commonwealth waters in Bass Strait in the search for more oil and gas, that is killing and disrupting marine species and ecosystems.
In my last 20 years the science has become clearer and very strident. I have read a mountain of IPCC reports and science articles and tried to translate that info to readable stories on my blogs.
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| Sitdown protest outside Flinders St Station |
The climate impacts are mounting and will escalate, and the costs from those impacts will also escalate. The costs of the 2019/20 black summer bushfires that killed both directly and indirectly through the smoke particulate pollution, not to mention the huge loss of species (PDF), probably driving several species to extinction. The extensive flood events around Australia in the last 2 years, killing people, and causing so much flood damage to homes. And then there is the rising temperatures and heatwave events, hotter, longer and more frequent. They are a silent killer, but kill more people than all other weather related events combined.
We are starting to see climate breakdown already: each month from June to November was the hottest of that month on record. 2023 is certain to be the hottest year on record at 1.46C above pre industrial temperatures.
Australian scientist Will Steffen and others warned us of tipping points in earth’s climate system in 2018. Just days ago 200 climate scientists published a report to update this research warning we may have already crossed some tipping points, and others we may be very close to crossing. The Cryosphere is in deep peril, with collapse of Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets likely already triggered. The pre-eminent Science Journal screamed out a headline: Catastrophic change looms as Earth nears climate ‘tipping points’. Marine Scientists warned just this week ‘Unprecedented mass coral bleaching’ expected in 2024.
Has Peter Khalil, Anthony Albanese and their Labor colleagues heard these warnings? Not if they continue to approve new fossil fuels.
While I grieve for the millions of people that will die this century due to very slow action at the political level, I also grieve for the many species and ecosystems on earth also being driven to extinction through our obsession and addiction with coal, oil and gas.
I do this disruption today for my children, my nieces and nephews and their children, and all the future children. I do it with apologies for disrupting the everyday life of ordinary people. Climate Change is already disrupting ordinary life around the world and in Australia.
The media has so often failed to step up with clear and unambiguous reporting of global warming and its impacts. They have failed to Tell the truth of what we face.
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| Juliet and Jones on the march |
My therapy dogs Juliet and Indiana Jones are here to represent all the companion animals and other species that will suffer, are suffering in the bushfires, floods and extreme heat.
"The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting. Climate breakdown has begun. Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash. Our climate is imploding faster than we can cope with extreme weather events hitting every corner of the planet. Surging temperatures demand a surge in action. Leaders must turn up the heat now for climate solutions. We can still avoid the worst of climate chaos — and we don’t have a moment to lose." - Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, September 2023
John Englart, with Chihuahuas Juliet and Indiana Jones
Fawkner Resident
Merri-bek Environmental Sustainability award 2019
Convenor, Climate Action Merribek
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