Two titan climate campaigners, Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough, have joined forces to push politicians and businesses to step up action on climate change after a year in which schoolchildren took to the world’s streets in protest.

Swedish teen activist Thunberg, who turns 17 this week, said 2019 had been “a very strange year” as millions of young people skipped school to demonstrate over slow progress on tackling climate change, inspired by her weekly vigils at the Swedish parliament.

British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough, 93, said Thunberg had “aroused the world” about the urgency of reining in global warming, achieving things that people who had worked on the problem for 20-odd years had not.

Attenborough – famous for his TV series showing the impact of environmental degradation on flora and fauna – said he had flagged the need for changes to political structures and daily lives two decades ago but “no one took a blind bit of notice”.

Thunberg urged people to “read up” about climate science and what is being done – or not – to tackle the problem.

“We climate activists are being listened to – but that doesn’t mean that what we are saying is translated into action,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Todayshow on which she was guest editor.

“It needs to be a big shift, and that’s what we are waiting for – this tipping point.”

Attenborough said it was depressing when governments in the US, Brazil or Australia indicated they were not taking any notice of what should be done.

“It needs a real electric shock – such as you have produced socially – to bring them to their senses, and let’s hope that shock will go on,” Attenborough told Thunberg on the Today show.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/people/2019/12/31/greta-thunberg-david-attenborough-join-forces/

“We have faced these disasters before and we have prevailed, we have overcome …That is the spirit of Australians, that is the spirit that is on display, that is a spirit that we can celebrate as Australians.”

And so, by clear implication, suggesting that this disaster IS different becomes somehow unpatriotic, wimpy, or, perish the thought, unAustralian.

Except we know that this fire disaster is unprecedented, and no amount of spin can hide it.

We know it because holiday makers along the New South Wales and Victorian coast used to spend New Year’s Eve partying on beaches, not cowering on them to escape raging infernos. We know it because we’ve never experienced this choking air and this constant dread for this long, or at this scale.

We know it because we have not experienced fires this fierce over this vast an area. We know it because we haven’t experienced the worst air quality in the world before, or this constant ominous orange sun.

We know it from our lived experience and, as Guardian Australia’s environment editor Adam Morton detailed in this piece before Christmas, we also know it because the NSW Rural Fire Service, and scientists, and the public servants responsible for our health, all say the scale and impact of these fires is unprecedented.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/01/we-know-this-disas...

Meanwhile, the other idiot, in Yamerika:

From his perch on Twitter, President Trump shared a brief video clip showing a line of parked cars set ablaze in Paris on the cusp of the New Year on Tuesday, adding only a simple caption:

How is the Paris Accord doing? Don’t ask!

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/477241-trump-macron-protests-climate-accord/

Read from top.

Scott Morrison wants Australians to respond to the bushfires with 'patience and calm'

Faced with the prospect of bushfires continuing for months, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will discuss how to handle the escalating fire crisis at a meeting of the National Security Committee of Cabinet next week.

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australians should have confidence in state emergency services and show "patience" and "calm"
• Calls for a more ambitious approach to emissions reduction have intensified during the bushfire crisis
• Mr Morrison flagged he will discuss contingencies for the current bushfire season in the national security committee of cabinet on Monday

However, he has told the public the best way to respond "is the way that Australians have always responded to these events" and to have confidence in state emergency services.

"What we are saying is we cannot control the natural disaster but what we can do is control our response," he said.

"What we can do is support those who are out there putting themselves at risk by showing the patience and the calm that is necessary".

However, he did confirm the National Security Committee of Cabinet would meet on Monday to address "contingencies" required for the current fire season "as well as the longer-term response and some issues we have identified to consider amongst premiers after the fires".

"We are considering every option because we know the fire season still has a long time to run and particularly now as we are calling in more ADF [Australian Defence Force] assets to deal with this," he said.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-02/scott-morrison-urges-patience-and...

Your arse is on fire. Be patient and calm. The emergencies crews are a couple of hours away... Scotcummodumbandumbererson is an idiot. When will this idiot come to contemplate the reality of anthropogenic global warming as Angela Merkel has done?

See also:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/earth-at-a-tipping-point-royal-famil...

Read from top.

“We’ve complained about this before. It usually happens during election campaigns.”

In a follow-up tweet the ADA questioned “the speed of publication and purpose of this ad.”

“Dragging the ADF into party-political controversy, needs to be explained. Not a good look at best.”

Mr Morrison even came under scrutiny from overseas, with British broadcaster Piers Morgan slamming the video as a “self-promotional commercial with cheesy elevator music”.

“This is one of the most tone-deaf things I’ve ever seen a country’s leader put out during a crisis. Shameless & shameful,” he posted.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd also expressed outrage.

“On a day we have catastrophic fire conditions, in the midst of a genuine national crisis, Morrison, the marketing guy, does what? He releases a Liberal Party ad! He is no longer fit to hold the high office of prime minister,” Mr Rudd tweeted.

The ad controversy erupted as Australians in four states reeled from the impact of the flames or braced for their arrival.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/01/05/scott-morrison-adf-a...

Read from top.

This was the day Australia lost its MoJo... Scott Morrison should resign forthwith.