australia

This Is Coal…(continued)

| cartoonrob

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison continues to dismiss setting emissions targets for 2050 after the UN’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/regional-australia-will-not-carry-climate-burden-morrison-says-20210810-p58hi6.html

For visitors outside Australia: –

‘This Is Coal’ refers to when, as Treasurer, Scott Morrison brought a chunk of coal into Parliament celebrating its contribution to the economy, claiming that it won’t hurt you and championing its continued use into the future. : https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2017/feb/09/scott-morrison-brings-a-chunk-of-coal-into-parliament-video

‘I don’t hold a hose, line refers to when he was apologising in December 2019 for taking holidays in Hawaii, whilst devastating bushfires hit Australia.

Climate change doesn’t cause fires directly but has caused an increase in the occurrence of extreme fire weather and in the length of the fire season across large parts of Australia since the 1950s. In addition to 2019 being the driest year since records began in 1900, it was Australia’s warmest year. In 2019 the annual mean temperature was 1.52 °C above average1.

The impact of climate change has led to longer, more intense fire seasons and an increase in the average number of elevated fire weather days, as measured by the Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI). Last year saw the highest annual accumulated FFDI on record. (CSIRO)

https://www.csiro.au/en/research/natural-disasters/bushfires/2019-20-bushfires-explainer

Politicians and Transparency

Image | | cartoonrob

A tribute to PM Scott Morrison being interviewed by anchor Leigh Sales on ABC’s current affairs programme 7:30.

The word ‘transparent’ is used by politicians with careless abundance, along with ‘accountability’. Maybe when they say, “transparent” it means they have something to hide, but we know that anyway and “accountability” means that they will ‘take it on notice’ until they find someone else to blame.

Juukan Gorge Gone

| cartoonrob
Rio Tinto destroys Juukan Gorge on 23rd May 2020

‘A sacred site in Western Australia that showed 46,000 years of continual occupation and provided a 4,000-year-old genetic link to present-day traditional owners has been destroyed in the expansion of an iron ore mine.

The cave in Juukan Gorge in the Hammersley Ranges, about 60km from Mt Tom Price, is one of the oldest in the western Pilbara region and the only inland site in Australia to show signs of continual human occupation through the last Ice Age. It was blasted along with another sacred site on Sunday.

Mining company Rio Tinto received ministerial consent to destroy or damage the site in 2013 under WA’s outdated Aboriginal heritage laws, which were drafted in 1972 to favour mining proponents.

One year after consent was granted, an archeological dig intended to salvage whatever could be saved discovered the site was more than twice as old as previously thought and rich in artefacts, including sacred objects.’ The Guardian, 26 May 2020.