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COVID-19 Submission

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COVID-19 Submission As we share knowledge, learning and research within this submission, we also pay respect to the knowledge embedded forever within the Aboriginal Custodianship of Country. This submission addresses the Terms of Reference of the inquiry of the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, namely: a. the Australian Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and b. any related matters. We start by introducing Extinction Rebellion (XR) Grey Power Victoria (section 1 ​ ​ below) and then consider the scientific basis for recognising that emergency action ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ on the climate crisis is imperative (section 2). We include discussing some of the opportunities for the government to use the recovery period from COVID-19 to st recreate an economy fit-for-purpose in the 21 ​ century, one that is based on ​ renewables. We see the opportunity here for Australia to become a renewable energy superpower by using its outstanding renewable energy resources. The final section (section 3) in our submission outlines our concerns with the National ​ COVID-19 Coordination Commission and our recommendations for changes in its structure and operations to improve accountability and transparency. 1. Extinction Rebellion (XR) Grey Power Victoria ​ Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a movement of people who care deeply about our current climate and ecological crises. This submission comes from the XR Grey Power Victoria group (people aged over 50) and has been written by a multidisciplinary group including people with extensive careers in: public health, health promotion, child psychology, community psychology, permaculture, horticulture and geology. We form a knowledgeable, skilled, committed and concerned group of older people. Our aim is to stimulate action to address the climate emergency and the devastation of the natural environment. The contributors to this submission are listed in an Appendix at the end of this submission. We are affiliated with local, state, national and international Extinction Rebellion (XR) groups, and part of the movement which is working towards international recognition of the urgent work needed to prevent and ameliorate climate change and its associated natural disasters. These disasters include species extinction, coral bleaching, bushfires and increasingly-extreme weather events (to name a few). XR Grey Power Victoria was formed to acknowledge 2 the significant contribution that older people can make in the race against time with the current climate crisis. Significantly the group formed just prior to the bushfires that destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of native vegetation and killed over a billion native animals. The horror of the bushfires in 2019 and 2020 revealed the reality of global warming, through the destruction of communities and the natural environment, and their impact on our economy and physical and mental health. The current world pandemic of Covid-19 reveals the interconnected world we all, even on our island, now inhabit, and how it and global warming exert socio-economic and health threats on our way of life. These two existential threats and our responses to them over the coming decade provide an extraordinary opportunity for Australia to create a thriving, sustainable future, where our children and grandchildren, 10 years older, will be living in a country that acknowledges and protects our unique environment, integrates Indigenous knowledge into the care of our land, and respects, listens to and acts on science. We now know that our politicians can act quickly, effectively and collaboratively in the national and international interest as they have done with the 2020 pandemic. In the face of a serious health threat, politicians can heed the best scientific advice, listen to it and act upon it in Australia’s best interest. Our measure of success is that currently deaths from COVID-19 in Australia stand at 103. This stands in stark contrast to the toll from the 2019-2020 fire season. Nearly 80 percent of Australians ​ were affected either directly or indirectly by the bushfires1 . Thirty-three Australians lost their lives and an estimated 417 more died from the burden of toxic smoke2 . At least one billion animals were killed by the bushfires3 . With recent, new and significant changes to the Australian psyche, future policy must be designed to ensure that immediate action to safeguard our environment 1 Biddle N, Edwards B, Herz D, and Makkai T (2020) Exposure and the Impact on Attitudes of ​ the 2019-20 Australian Bushfires.” ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. 2 Borchers Arriagada N, Palmer AJ, Bowman DMJS, Morgan GG, Jalaludin BB, Johnston FH. Unprecedented smoke-related health burden associated with the 2019–20 bushfires in eastern Australia. Medical Journal of Australia. 2020. Climate Council. 2020a. “Summer of Crisis.” https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/summer-of-crisis/. 3 University of Sydney. 2020. “More than One Billion Animals Impacted in Australian Bushfires.” Media ​ release. https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/01/08/australianbushfires- more-than-one-billion-animals-impacted.html 3 and biodiversity cannot be subverted by the politicisation of climate science. Rather, it must use scientists’ research and Indigenous knowledge to guide all future decisions about our environment and also accord these fields of knowledge the same respect and influence in decision making that has been appropriately and effectively afforded to our medical scientists in the current pandemic. Many of us fall into groups that are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, and we have appreciated how Australia’s response to the pandemic has been shaped to protect us and other vulnerable groups. As we turn to the important task of moving out of the lockdown, we think it important that our responses are informed by science and designed to protect future generations, those who will bear the brunt of climate and ecological emergencies into the future, if we do not act to ameliorate global warming as much as possible. The next 5-10 years are crucial. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic disruption provide a unique opportunity for the Government to show strong leadership. An opportunity to take up this challenge and rebuild the economy by leading our nation through an emergency 10-year transition to a net zero emissions economy, accompanied by measures to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Practical plans detailing the necessary changes in all sectors of our economy are available. We need strong, courageous leadership to implement these changes at full speed. 2. What the science tells us about the current climate emergency and implications for recovery from COVID-19 At the beginning of this year, the latest Bulletin from the Atomic Scientists warned “Climate change that could devastate the planet is undeniably happening. And ​ for a variety of reasons that include a corrupted and manipulated media environment, democratic governments and other institutions that should be working 4 to address these threats have failed to rise to the challenge.” ​ Their Doomsday clock stands closer than ever before to midnight, expressing the urgency of the challenge posed by the climate emergency, also echoed in the article 5 published in Bioscience by 11,000 plus scientists . 4 It is 100 seconds to midnight 2020 Doomsday Clock Statement Science and Security Board Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Editor, John Mecklin. 5 Ripple WJ et. al. (2020) World scientists’ warning of a climate emergency. BioScience, January 2020 / ​ ​ ​ Vol. 70 No. 1. Available at https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz088 ​ ​ 4 Despite some measures to cut carbon emissions (at well below the Paris Agreement requirements), levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are continuing to climb, being at 416ppm in April 2020 – the last time levels were so high was over 1 million years ago, when trees were growing in the Antarctic. In line with the science of climate change, temperatures have increased in line with the CO2 increase, so far by a little over 1 degree C (1ºC). Even with just this level of warming, we are already experiencing dangerous climate change, as illustrated by the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, unprecedented floods and the horrendous Black Summer bushfires in 2019-2020, along with a continuous litany of broken temperature records (e.g. 2019 was the hottest year on record for Australia). Overseas, millions of climate refugees are already fleeing droughts, extreme temperatures and rising sea levels, not only causing immense suffering but giving rise to an increase in racism, xenophobia and conflict in receiving countries. The UN Security Council, along with Defense Departments around the world, regard climate change as a ‘threat accelerant’ for intra- and inter-state conflict. Major tipping points have already been triggered and others are close to being triggered, even with only 1ºC temperature rise. E.g. even in 2014, scientists had found that “the retreat of ice in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica was ​ unstoppable, with major consequences – it will mean that sea levels will rise 1 metre worldwide Its disappearance will likely trigger the collapse of the rest of the West … Antarctic ice sheet, which comes with a sea level rise of between 3–5 metres. Such an 6 event will displace millions of people worldwide”. Arctic tipping points have also 7 ​ been crossed for sea-ice-free summer conditions, with severe consequences for the future stability of permafrost and frozen methane stores. It is therefore clear that “We have no carbon budget left for the +1.5 ºC target and the opportunity for holding to +2ºC is rapidly fading unless the world starts cutting 8 emissions hard right now” (Prof. Michael Mann). Bill McKibben has calculated that “Even if all of the world’s nations meet the pledges they made in the Paris accord, ​ carbon dioxide is currently on a path to hit 500 or 600 parts per million (ppm) by century’s end—a path if not to hell, then to someplace with a similar setting on the 6 Rignot, Mouginot et al (2014) "Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith, and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica, from 1992 to 2011", Geophysical Research Letters 41:3502–3509.
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