At The Australian, the Doomsday Clock is about to strike midnight:
The keepers of the Doomsday Clock have moved the symbolic countdown to global disaster to the closest point to midnight in its 73-year history, citing “existential danger” from nuclear war and climate change.
Funnily enough, there was no mention that the Doomsday Clock also struck Scott Morrison, via Domain:
Former California governor Jerry Brown has blasted the Australian government’s “utter and absolute” denial of the threat of climate change at an event warning the world is closer than ever before to a man-made apocalypse.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Thursday (Friday AEDT) announced it was moving its famous Doomsday Clock closer to midnight than at any point in its 73-year history because of the growing risk of climate change, nuclear war and disinformation.
Several speakers at the announcement in Washington DC held up the Australian bushfire crisis as an example of the extreme and deadly weather events that will become more common unless the world dramatically reduces its carbon emissions.
“The Australian government is in utter and complete denial,” he said.
“Under its current leadership, Australia is fostering denial in an incredibly mendacious way.
How anyone that is not a psycho can work at The Australian these days is beyond me.
Tony Wood of Grattan composed a nice piece at Domain too:
First are the facts. Subject to any final revisions, the government’s latest figures show that Australia’s emissions have fallen by 13 per cent from 611 million tonnes in 2005 to 532 million tonnes in 2019. The same report projects that emissions will fall to 511 million tonnes in 2030, 16 per cent below the 2005 level.
After the bushfires, the government’s assertion that this is sufficient to meet its commitment to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 per cent (based on historic overachievement) looks more like creative accounting than a credible claim.
….it is very likely the bushfires have reduced community tolerance of perceived inadequate climate change policy…It is clear that many sectors of heavy industry, resources, insurance and finance have also become less tolerant, as have major regulatory, prudential and ratings organisations. And globally, the government will be under pressure to lift its target ahead of the UN’s annual international climate change conference, to be held in November in Glasgow.
…the constraints…Despite the PM’s claims to the contrary, it seems Coalition party-room conflicts over climate change are as toxic as ever.
…Finally is the question of what policies the states and territories will pursue – unilaterally, in unison, or with the Commonwealth – to meet their unanimous commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.
…Changing the 2030 target is likely to prove beyond him. But the Coalition must eventually end its silence on what should happen after 2030. Morrison has consistently avoided the question of Australia’s obligations on the long road to 2050. The pressure of the bushfires means he cannot avoid this question for much longer.
The position of the Australian states means that net zero by 2050 is, de facto, Australia’s national emissions reduction target. An official commitment by the national government to that de facto target would reduce the political gap between Morrison and his state Liberal colleagues, as well as between him and international conservative peers such as Boris Johnson.
There are lots of ways SmoCo can get on the right side of this but he sees neither the need nor has the desire. The climate psycho is not for changing.
Why would he when the Albotross has fallen in behind him?
