Climate Change Is This Election's Top Issue. Guardian Australia Tells You What You Need To Know

The Guardian - Guardian staff

Guardian Australia gives climate change reporting the prominence it deserves, stories which often go unreported by others in the mainstream media

The No 1 issue for Australians during this 2019 election campaign is climate change. Guardian Australia has covered the climate emergency from every angle. Composite: David Mariuz/AAP

The No 1 issue for Australians during this 2019 election campaign is climate change.
Polling by foreign policy thinktank Lowy found the majority of Australians believe global warming is a critical threat.
 From a list of 12 threats to Australia’s national interests, more than 60% of adults rank climate change as No 1. This is up 18 points since their survey in 2014.
Reporting on climate change is a priority for the Guardian globally. We give these stories the prominence they deserve, stories which often go unreported by others in the mainstream media. At this critical time for our planet, we are determined to inform readers about threats, consequences and solutions based on scientific facts, not political prejudice or business interests.
During this election campaign, we have covered the climate emergency from every angle. From the shocking UN report on the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems released last week and what Australia needs to do about it, through to the short-sightedness of some of the political debate and also why there is still hope for our species, Guardian Australia has reported on it. There is simply no bigger issue.

Guardian Links

• The climate change election: where do the parties stand on the environment?
  Adam Morton reported on the parties’ key policies, including emissions, renewable energy, endangered species, waste and recycling and the Great Barrier Reef.
• Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth’s natural life
• Jonathan Watts reported on the damning UN report by the world’s leading scientists that revealed human society is in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems.
• UN environment warning: 10 key points and what Australia must do
  Calla Wahlquist looked at Australia’s role in the extinction crisis and what we must learn from the report about native species, Indigenous land management, water efficiency and more.
• Climate change takes centre stage in Australia’s election
  Kate Lyons reported on the very different messages from the two prime ministerial candidates on how to address environmental emergency.
• Tony Abbott bet me $100 the climate will not change in 10 years
  Cassie Flanagan Willanski revealed the former Australian prime minister is so confident climate change is nothing to worry about he put money on it.
• The obsessive focus on imaginary costs of climate action is harming our prosperity
  Erwin Jackson wrote on the short-sightedness of the current election campaign discussions on climate change and how the focus on mythical costs of action risks will harm our prosperity and squandered economic opportunity.
• Modelling that shows Labor’s climate policy could cost billions is ridiculous
  Frank Jotzo examined the modelling that caused such consternation and reminded warring parties that we should be focusing on positioning Australia for a low-carbon future.
• I’m willing to go to jail to stop Adani and save our beloved country. Will you stand with me?
  In this anti-Adani rally speech, Richard Flanagan said the fight against Adani’s Carmichael coalmine defines the fight against the climate crisis.
• Climate change costings that don’t count the cost of inaction are worthless
  Greg Jericho said we must demand better of our political parties and our media on this issue.
• Britain passes one week without coal power for first time since 1882
  Jasper Jolly reported on the landmark event that followed the UK’s government pledge to phase out coal-fired electricity by 2025.
• It’s time for nations to unite around an International Green New Deal
  Yanis Varoufakis and David Adler wrote about the need for a global response to climate change, given several countries have proposed their own versions of a Green New Deal.
• After Extinction Rebellion, Australian politicians are on notice – change is coming
  Nicky Ison implored major parties to learn from the UK’s Extinction Rebellion protests and other global movements to fight climate change.
• The media is failing on climate change – here’s how they can do better ahead of 2020
  Guardian reporters asked climate change experts for advice on how news outlets can cover the environment in ways that make voters listen.
• Climate change poses a clear financial risk to Australia
  Chris Barrett and Anna Skarbek discussed how Australia stands to benefit from a successful – and rapid – low-carbon transition, given our world-class solar and wind energy resource base.
• Dare to declare capitalism dead – before it takes us all down with it
  George Monbiot wrote about the incompatibility of the economic system with the survival of life on Earth, and called for something new.
• The Extinction Rebellion scorecard: what did it achieve?
  After mass civil disobedience in the UK, Guardian reporters looked at what impact the protests had made and whether anything had changed.
• Fact or fiction? We check Coalition’s claims about Labor’s climate change policy
  Adam Morton fact-checked the government’s claims that the opposition’s emissions reduction policy would cost $26bn.
• Melting permafrost in Arctic will have $70tn climate impact – study
  Jonathan Watts looked at a study that shows how destabilised natural systems will worsen a man-made problem.
• To stop global catastrophe, we must believe in humans again
  Bill McKibben said it was time for mass resistance to demand action on climate because the technology to prevent the crisis already exists.
• Politicians’ reluctance on climate change is bizarre – action would not only be right but popular
  Jeff Sparrow wrote how strange it was that there were political inaction given many ordinary people are calling for radical climate policies
• Humanity is at a crossroads, Greta Thunberg tells Extinction Rebellion
  Guardian UK reporters reported on Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist, who told London protestors that governments will no longer be able ignore the impending climate and ecological crisis
• Our leaders are ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence. It’s unforgivable
  Tim Winton wrote about the difference between the cold war and climate change, and how we can no longer wait patiently for our leaders to catch up.
• We are not yet doomed: the carbon cutters determined to save the world
  Guardian correspondents set out to find hopeful climate stories, and found an orchestra, a village, an entire country who are part of the growing movement to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
• Buying international permits is a cheap way to cut emissions. It’s that simple
  Katharine Murphy reminded readers that as recently as 2017 the Coalition was in favour of international permits and yet it’s now losing its mind over Labor’s climate policy.
• Decades of denial’: major report finds New Zealand’s environment is in serious trouble
  Eleanor Ainge Roy reported on how even the nation known for its natural beauty is under pressure with extinctions, polluted rivers and blighted lake.
• The financial sector must be at the heart of tackling climate change
  Mark Carney, François Villeroy de Galhau and Frank Elderson discussed a new international report from the Network for Greening the Financial System that demonstrates that the financial industry is key to achieving a low-carbon economy.
• Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse
  George Monbiot on why mass civil disobedience is essential to force a political response now.
• How anchoring a ship to an ice floe will help fight climate change
  Robin McKie wrote about Mosaic, a year-long Arctic mission aims to answer fundamental questions about global warming.
• Glaciers and Arctic ice are vanishing. Time to get radical before it’s too late
  Bill McKibben on why we should all be grateful rather than annoyed when schoolkids start leaving class en masse or surprised that Green New Deal advocates call for dramatic overhaul of society.