CLIMATE PASSION
Applaud students’ commitment
THE passion and determination displayed by so many students at the Climate Strike rally on Friday should be applauded as this commitment to action is the first step in the solving the wicked problem of climate change. Having worked with young people from all over the world in schools in Australia and the UK for the past 23 years gives me great hope for the future as they are particularly good at being creative in unusual and appealing ways, and their positive engagement with the very real issue of climate change deserves our full attention and support.
The students who marched on Friday, and their children, will bear the brunt of climate change and we should be encouraging their engagement, thinking and leadership as it will be their ideas and innovations that will make a positive difference to the world.
Has PM bought it?
WAS Prime Minister Morrison’s press conference on the Queensland bushfires, where he advocated they and the drought had been influenced by climate change, his true belief, or just meant to satisfy the Greens? Either way it would have been far more appropriate for him to have forwarded the view of Australia’s chief scientist on climate, who has said it has had no effect.
Schoolies at risk
IT’S going to be a lean year on the Gold Coast and elsewhere when all the kiddie climate warriors cancel flying off to Schoolies this year. emissions will rise significantly, unless substantial reductions are made elsewhere. While we are “nearly 100 per cent renewable” (as we have been for a long time), non-forestry emissions have increased by 5 per cent since 1990, and emissions in all major sectors of the economy rose in the most recent year of recording (2017). Our per capita non-forestry emissions are almost as large as those of the average American. By no stretch of the imagination are these “great gains”.
Cars that ate Paris target
ON Friday, around 10 per cent of Hobart gathered on Parliament Lawns to demand climate action. Days later, Alderman Zucco and others are pushing for EOIs for a multi-storey car park. This will bring more cars, pushing Australia even further from our Paris Climate targets. Traders at yesterday’s meeting said Uber Eats drivers sat in their cars on Elizabeth St waiting for a job. However, a survey showed North Hobart carparks function at 80 per cent capacity. The carpark is never full, even at peak times. Removing arks on Elizabeth St and replacing them with bike parking and seating will bring in significantly more revenue. This would also solve the problem of Uber Eats drivers.
Please don’t further add to our climate woes. Instead let’s increase bike parking and public transport. Do we want more traffic congestion, increasing risks of car accidents and more fossil fuels to be burnt? Or do we want to increase business revenue whilst increasing people’s health (as riding becomes a viable option), and decreasing our carbon emissions?
Out of the mouths of babes
WHEN it comes to Australian politics and climate change: the conservatives are encouraging chaotic social and environmental upheaval; the Labor Party is supporting foreign owned business interests rather than the living standards of Australian workers and the National Party won’t listen to farmers. Today, you can find more responsible leadership coming from schoolchildren than from Parliament House.
Collingwood blow
I WAS at Victoria Park 29 years ago and witnessed the Colliwobbles being buried. Who the bloody hell dug them up?
Hayes prison farm regret
GREG Barns writes about prison rights and conditions (Talking Point, September 23). How regrettable is thenminister Nick McKim’s decision to close Hayes prison farm for a mere $4.5 million repair bill. It had facilities to house 120 prisoners and produce food for the prison and hospitals.
Skipping summit
THE UN climate change summit has begun. It is shameful that Australia, the world’s leading producer of fossil fuels, is unable to attend because it has nothing to present on a plan to reduce emissions. Even China and India are fronting up.
Well fed and watered
HOW good is it that the Morrisons are better fed than the Trumps. Uncork another 2010 Grange, honey.