It’s clear that the world is indeed boiling and that climate-related records are being smashed with alarming regularity.
Warnings have not been heeded, greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and feedback loops and multiple effects have kicked in.
We’ve already gone beyond some tipping points. Tens of millions of people have been impacted. And it’s set to get a whole lot worse.
We can’t duck and dive around this any longer. Surveys by the Climate Council show that most Australians have direct experience of extreme weather events and they’re terrified of what the future holds.
Facing Up
And yet, according to the next Facing Up speaker, Ian Dunlop, the government is failing to provide the full facts about the nature, scale and consequences of the climate emergency. In fact, along with fossil fuel corporations, they’re a core part of the problem.
As a former senior executive of Royal Dutch Shell and chair of the Australian Coal Association, Ian Dunlop knows a thing or two about how governments and corporations manoeuvre around climate issues. He’s seen close up the obfuscation, the deceit, the suicidal pursuit of profit.
Albanese government’s obsession with militarisation
In a recent opinion piece for online magazine, Pearls and Irritations, Dunlop and his Australian Security Leaders Climate Group colleagues note the Albanese government’s obsession with militarisation, and the fudging of the most direct threat to organised human existence; namely, climate breakdown.
‘Any government’s primary responsibility’, say the authors, ‘is to ensure the real security of the people’.
‘That means international climate emergency mobilisation now, built around unprecedented global cooperation, not militarisation.
‘We’re staring at planetary disaster’, say Dunlop et al, and on current trends, there’s little prospect of avoiding this outcome.
Time has run out
‘Time has run out’, they say, ‘mass community action is now essential to force leaders to face reality. Climate change can no longer be treated as just another item on the political agenda. If we are to have a future, it is the agenda’.
In conversation with academic, climate activist and Plan C CEO, Jean Renouf, Ian will reflect on his time in the fossil fuel industry, his shift to climate activism, and how we might live in a transformed world.
Join them on Wednesday, August 30, at the Brunswick Picture House from 6pm. Tickets: events.humanitix.com/facing-up-aug.
The Exxon as well, can tell us a thing about obfuscation and deceit.
Maybe we should add The Shell to the obfuscation bucket as well
What is it about Big Fossil Fuel and their suicidal pursuit of profit – we could ask The Shell, given their apparent public support for ‘net zero’, why they are fighting a Dutch Court decision for The Shell to reduce the CO₂ emissions of the Shell group by net 45% in 2030, compared to 2019 levels.
Our current ALP Fed Govt, very nicely sponsored by $’shundredsofthousands Fossils Industry, isn’t much use on climate either with $’staxpayer hard earned being spent boosting Big Fossil Fuel Adventures, on top of Minister Tanya this year approving new gas wells and approving the progression of coal projects.
ALP acting seriously on climate…..ha, ha, ha.
We’re in a pickle all right and I think about the future for my grandchildren and shudder. Some people though just love to sound (from the sidelines) as if they have all the answers while others quietly( the Government) get on with the concrete goal of reaching 82% renewables by 2030 and upgrading the network to deal with the change.
The big power companies are no fools and know where the market’s heading. If renewables are successful enough there will be no market for fossil fuels. In the meantime gas in particular is an important transition fuel.
Mind you, we should be a lot further down the track of renewables but somehow we got stuck with a bunch of deniers for a decade! 🤔
Dunlop, what an alarmist total hypocrite.
Greg, all the flood and fire catastrophies, the melting north and south poles, retreating glaciers, just alarmist hypocrisy, yeah.