Governments want you to feel powerless, but the tools for change are in our hands. Australia’s economy is failing to decarbonise. Burning trees to produce electricity is phoney environmentalism.

You’re never too small to make a difference

I attended The Australia Institute’s third Climate Integrity Summit a couple of weeks ago. These summits are not about the science of climate change. They are concerned with the politics of climate action, specifically the disgracefully low levels of integrity of many politicians and business people when it comes to discussing and taking action on climate change and what we can all do to push for more and more urgent climate action.

In a follow-up communication to summit participants, Richard Denniss, The Australia Institute’s executive director, summed up the messages of the summit:

“The Summit revealed something crucial. The tools for change remain firmly in our hands. This isn’t feel-good rhetoric – it’s evident in how hard government and industry work to convince us we’re powerless. As Polly Hemming noted, ‘every person in this room holds power – the only difference is whether you use it to uphold the status quo or to change it’.

“We’ve been conditioned to believe we’re powerless in the face of global challenges, that our voice is too small, our influence too limited. But this learned helplessness is exactly what maintains the status quo. If protest, independent journalism, whistleblowing, and public scrutiny weren’t powerful tools for change, governments wouldn’t be working so hard to restrict them.

“Every speaker at the summit demonstrated just what can be achieved by those often perceived as ‘minor’ players. None of us are too small to make a difference. Not as individuals, and certainly not as a nation.

“When the next wave of headlines drives despair, when geopolitical shifts seem overwhelming, when corporate influence appears absolute – remember that these are precisely the conditions that have historically preceded major change. The mechanisms to achieve integrity and accountability in policy are still within Australia’s grasp.”

Recordings of the summit speakers are available on The Australia Institute’s website.

Are Australia’s emissions really declining?

The Australian Government loves to make a fuss about the (alleged) 29% reduction in our domestic CO2 emissions since 2005 and to claim that we are on track to meet the target of 43% by 2030.

However, it’s long been recognised that most of the credit for Australia’s emissions reductions over the last 20 years should be given to fewer emissions from the land (technically the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector, or LULUCF). The industrial side of the economy has contributed very little overall, with emissions reductions from electricity generation being balanced by increased emissions from transport and industrial processes, as discussed a month ago.

To help us cut through all the history, jargon, technicalities, acronyms and spin, The Australia Institute’s histogram below clearly shows that our non-land sectors (the major sources of our emissions) have achieved very little – their emissions have hardly changed in the last 20 years. But changes to our land use have increased its capacity to absorb and be a sink for CO2 and so our net emissions have fallen. It’s the land that’s been doing all the hard work, but it’s reaching its limit.

SEE/READ MORE:

https://johnmenadue.com/environment-governments-like-docile-populations-thats-why-they-intimidate-activists/

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.