(no subject)

[blamebrampton]

It is 11pm and 24 degrees C (75F), which is at least an improvement on today's 34. But tomorrow we expect 41°C (105.8F). It's spring. My hottest Sydney day so far was 46°C (114.8F), there is a strong chance we will pass that this year. On a day that hot, if it is dry you cannot walk outside for more than a few hundred metres at a time because the moisture is sucked from your body and you need to seek out water or cool shade. You need to wear shoes with thick soles,or you will burn your feet. If it is humid, it is like walking through soup and you need to pack spare clothes, because at some point your clothes will become so clammy that you are unable to shed heat and you quickly sicken with heat exhaustion.

This is not usual heat for spring. It has spread across the continent. Four young people died in a bushfire in WA the day before yesterday, one a local farmer, the other three German backpackers. They had no hope in the wall of flame driven by the great wave of heat that is sweeping from west to east. They were kind people, out trying to save animals from the flames, but caught unawares by the fire's speed and ferocity.

The president of Kiribati is in Australia. He is begging our government to step away from its reliance on coal, because his country is sinking beneath rising waters. Our energy minister alleges there is a moral case for coal.

This year, as in most years for the past 15, more Australians will die from heat stress than have ever been killed by terrorism. It is yet right that we spend money to stop the evils of IS; it is, however, criminal that we spend money propping up the coal industry while killing the renewables industry in this country.

When I moved here, Australia was making millions from its developments in solar and wind power. Howard gutted the industry, which saw its top names move to California and China – where they now make billions and do not risk the future of Kiribati.

Tonight, I watered the garden and covered swathes of it in shade cloth. It will probably survive better than I do tomorrow.

Comments

[illereyn.livejournal.com]

Pretty much sums up my feelings about it all. It's not even about maintaining job security or whatever they spout when talking about a "moral case for coal", not when the government has actively ruined the renewables industry and its jobs. :(

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Sigh. The short sightedness of our politicians especially with regards to climate change is so disheartening. I guess our whole system is skewed against them looking to the future, so on the rare occasion we get someone who actually looks to the future we can hardly believe it.

I have such high hopes for the Paris conference. So much so that if they don't agree on massive action, I think it will break me.

[capitu]

We've been having excessive heat here. The hottest October/November ever recorded or something. Average temperatures have been 38/39. Summer is only starting. :(

[geneva2010.livejournal.com]

Eloquent and heart-breaking. How we cannot face facts and face change as a society I don't understand. I won't live to see the worst effects, but my children will see some really bad ones, and theirs.

[khalulu]

Ay yi yi.

And, climate chaos leads to competition for water/food leads to situations where people are desperate leads to conflict, so trying to solve environmental problems is an investment toward peace.

[ellie-nor.livejournal.com]

D-: ♥

[urnesha.livejournal.com]

Having read about the bush fires that Australia suffers from I was nervous today when I read an article about this year's El Nino being the strongest in history (it broke the record this week) and that strong El Ninos result in drought in Australia. :(

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

That sounds truly dreadful. I will have to be in Melbourne at the end of the year to visit an ailing relative, and I cannot say that I am looking forward to it, even though by all accounts Melbourne is a very nice city. That kind of temperature, though, I might as well go to Dubai and stay in their industrial-strength air-conditioning.

[enchanted-jae.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's awful.

It makes me livid, how much power and influence the fossil fuel industry wields, and it's even more maddening that governments continue to cave to them instead of looking to the future.

[lokifan]

Grim is not even the word.

And it snowed here in the Home Counties this morning. I'm going to miss the Gulf Stream.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

That seems unbearable weather indeed.

[valkyrie17.livejournal.com]

I can't even imagine that kind of heat. Hope you survive it without too much misery.
On the coal front…it would be nice if politicians had more morals and less desire to suck up to the rich and powerful.