Tuesday 18 June 2019

It doesn't matter how many times or in how many ways the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government is told Australia is facing a climate emergency Coalition MPs & Senators just won't listen


Here is yet another warning that all is not well......

ABC News, 12 June 2019:

Nearly a billion people are facing climate change hazards globally, with the Asia-Pacific region housing twice as many people living in areas with high exposure than all other regions combined, a new report has revealed.

In the annual Global Peace Index released on Wednesday, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said an estimated 971 million people — including more than 2.4 million Australians — live in areas with high or very high exposure to climate hazards including cyclones, floods, bushfires, desertification and rising sea levels.

The top nine countries facing the highest risk of climate hazards were all Asian nations with the Philippines topping the list, followed by Japan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China.

IEP founder and executive chairman Steve Killelea told the ABC that many of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region also have weaker coping capacities for natural disasters.

"Pacific Islands are going to be massively impacted by rising sea levels," Mr Killelea said, adding that they would be the first affected because of their proximity to the equator.

In Australia, the main risks come from hurricanes and cyclones in the north, rising sea levels in the south and east, as well as drought and desertification which is already affecting thousands of farmers, he said.



Climate hazards exacerbate conflict and migration

The report — which ranks 163 countries by measuring internal safety and security, militarisation and ongoing conflict — included climate change risks for the first time this year to evaluate links between climate hazards and violence.
It found climate pressures can adversely impact resource availability and affect population dynamics, which can impact socioeconomic and political stability.

"When you start to get massive effects from climate change you start to get large flows of refugees," Mr Killelea said, adding that this migration can increase instability and the impact of terrorism on host nations.

Mr Killelea listed several countries where climate change has caused or exacerbated violence including Nigeria, where desertification has led to conflict over scarce resources, Haiti in the aftermath of multiple hurricanes and earthquakes, and South Sudan, where the drying of Lake Chad has exasperated tensions.

In 2017, over 60 per cent of total displacements around the world were due to climate-related disasters, while nearly 40 per cent were caused by armed conflict……
[my yellow highlighting]


In the Global Peace Index 2019: Measuring peace in a complex world Australia only ranks 13th on the global peace scale, having fallen one place since 2018 mainly because of ‘’Militarisation, namely weapons imports, military expenditure (% GDP), and nuclear and heavy weapons. The incarceration rate in Australia also rose”.

Australia had a 31 percentage point gap between the per cent of men and women who feel safe walking alone, the highest gap in all surveyed countries – a dubious honour it shared with Moldova.



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