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https://countercurrents.org/2019/12...stress-deaths-australian-aboriginal-ethnocide
I thought you could take a break from the happy happy whitewashing bullshit @DavidSling keeps posting and learn how the white christian invaders set Australia on fire through their greed and continued their long tradition of a brutal on-going genocide and prosecution against the Australian Aboriginals - kinda like what Israel does against the innocent women and children in Palestine.
Australian Climate Criminality, Heat Stress Deaths & Australian Aboriginal Ethnocide
in Climate Change — by Dr Gideon Polya — December 19, 2019
More than 500 Australians presently die from heat stress each year with this disaster disproportionately impacting the elderly, the impoverished and Indigenous First Nations peoples. Australia is currently beset continent-wide with climate change-exacerbated heat waves with sustained temperatures above 40 degrees Centigrade, extraordinary, nation-wide bush fire emergencies commencing in Winter, and a devastating and widespread drought in Eastern Australia that has lasted for years.
Heat stress deaths.
I am very conscious of heat stress deaths because I am 75, my home city of Melbourne (with rest of Australia) is suffering a heat wave (43 degrees Centigrade predicted for Melbourne tomorrow on Friday 20 December), and I am well aware of the need to keep out of the sun, keep cool and drink plenty of water.
According to Dr Richard Kidd, chairperson of the Australia Medical Association of Queensland Council of General Practice, more than 500 people die of heat stress in Australia each year, more than total annual deaths from floods, fires and cyclones and with about 22% occurring on 27 January in the middle of the Australian Summer, the day after the national holiday of Australia Day (Invasion Day to Indigenous Australians and which marks the anniversary of the invasion of Australia by the genocidal British on 26 January 1788) [1, 2].
Australian researchers have collated data on 5,300 heat stress deaths in Australia over the period 1840-2009, with decadal heat stress deaths steadily rising to a maximum of about 400-800 per decade in the 6-decade period of 1890- 1949, thence falling and then peaking again to over 500 in the decade 2000-2009 [3, 4].
The worst events (state location and heat stress deaths in brackets) were in October 1895- January 1896 (Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales; 435), January 1908 (Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales; 213), January 1939 (New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia; 420), January-February 1959 (Melbourne, Victoria; 145), and January-February 2009 ( Victoria, South Australia; 432) [4].
It was estimate from public health records that 432 people died from heat stress in the heat wave in Victoria and South Australia leading up to and including the Black Saturday bushfire catastrophe in which 173 people perished in the Victorian bushfire holocaust [4-6].
Jacobs et al. (Monash University, Melbourne) have expertly summarized the heat stress circumstances of the Black Saturday holocaust (2015): “The Black Saturday bushfire event of February 7, 2009, devastated the state of Victoria, Australia, resulting in 173 deaths. On this day, the maximum temperature in Melbourne (state capital of Victoria, population 4 million people) exceeded 46 °C, there were wind gusts of over 80 km h(-1) and the relative humidity dropped below 5 %. We investigated the severe meteorological conditions of Black Saturday and the risk of heat stress and dehydration for the residents of Melbourne. This was through the analysis of weather station data, air pollution data, the apparent temperature (AT) and the COMfort FormulA human energy budget model. A very strong pressure gradient caused hot and dry air to be advected to Melbourne from the desert interior of Australia creating the extreme weather conditions. The AT showed that on Black Saturday, heat stress conditions were present, though underrepresented due to assumptions in the AT formula. Further investigation into the human energy budget revealed that the conditions required a sweating rate of 1.4 kg h(-1) to prevent heat accumulation into the body. If sweating stopped, hyperthermia could occur in 15 min. Sensitivity tests indicated that the dry air and strong winds on Black Saturday helped to release latent heat, but the required sweating rate was virtually unattainable for an average person and would result in intense dehydration. Air particulates were at dangerous concentrations in Melbourne on Black Saturday, further intensifying the stresses to the human body. In the future, we recommend that the AT is not used as a thermal comfort measure as it underestimates the physical stress people experience” [5].
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (medical doctor and celebrated science educator)(2016): “In 2009, the terrible Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people. What most Australians don’t realise is that the crippling heat around the horrendous bushfires killed 374 people. In the European heatwave of 2003, 50,000-70,000 people died between June and August. The Russian heatwave of 2010 killed about 55,000 people… In Paris alone in 2003, some 15,000 people died from heat. They were overwhelmingly elderly women, living alone, and in the upper levels of apartments. “Elderly” often implies smaller reserves of strength. “Living alone” meant that another person wasn’t available to help. “Upper levels” meant that their apartments were getting the full brunt of the heat. Another factor in Europe is that houses are designed to keep the heat in, not out. Excessive heat is especially harmful to the very young and the very old – and to those with chronic diseases and mental illnesses. Other risk factors are being obese, very malnourished, or very unfit. Drugs – both legal and illegal – can worsen your risk. Dehydration from alcohol can contribute. If the electrical grid crashes, and you lose air-conditioning, the heat in poorly designed houses can be fatal” [6].
Peter Gardner (Australian climate change activist) (2019): “The number of people killed by political terrorism in Australia over the last one hundred years can be counted on your fingers. As a comparison Melbourne climate commentator Dr Gideon Polya noted “Presently about 80,000 Australians die [preventably] … each year in Australia from “life-style” and “political choice” causes (e.g. 15,500 pa from smoking, 10,000 pa from air pollution, 500 pa from heat stress) as compared to 0.2 pa from jihadi terrorism [in Australia] this century.” You have more chance of dying falling out of bed. Also of note is the 500 fatalities per annum due to heat stress – an extreme weather event heavily influenced by global warming. Polya continued “However globally about 7.5 million people die avoidably (prematurely) each year due to the effects [of] carbon burning pollutants (7.0 million) (WHO) or to climate change (0.5 million). This latter estimate of presently about 0.5 million climate change-related deaths may be an under-estimate… [with] impoverished, tropical or sub-tropical countries already being severely impacted by global warming” [7].
Gideon Polya (me) writing about heat stress deaths 10 years ago (2009): “Older people are peculiarly threatened by the worsening climate emergency in three key areas that can be summarized by the “three Ds” of Devaluation (GDP growth to prevent devaluation of pensions, investments, superannuation and family support is only sustainable in a non-carbon, renewable energy-based economy), Death (older people are frailer and more susceptible to heat stress death because of a weakened brain signalling system) and Descendants (their descendants will hate them for what they have done to the planet)… The World must urgently take the advice of top climate scientists and analysts who are advocating “100% renewable energy by 2020”, “cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020” and a rapid return of atmospheric CO2 to about 300 ppm for a planet that is safe and sustainable for all peoples and species… If Humanity really wants to save itself and the Biosphere – including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu Wetlands, temperate and tropical Rainforests and Murray-Darling River System – then it must urgently apply Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs, Reparation Demands and International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions against racist, climate genocidal Apartheid Australia and other climate criminal countries” [8].
Gideon Polya (2009): “Australian electricity consumers pay for electricity @ $1.6 million per fellow Australian killed by coal [burning][4,859 per year, ignoring 500 heat stress deaths pa ]”[9, 10].
Gideon Polya in a Submission to a Senate Inquiry on Men’s Health) (2009): “3. Australian (especially older Australian) deaths from global warming-related excessive heat (about 50% male deaths). The week before the Black Saturday February 7 2009 bushfire disaster saw a sustained heat wave in SE Australia (population about 6 million) with temperatures exceeding 43oC for 3 successive days in Melbourne (Wednesday January 28, Thursday January 29 and Friday January 30). In the late January 2009 heatwave over 100 people died in Melbourne and over 200 died in South East Australia (Victoria, South Australia and Northern Tasmania) as determined by Professor Neville Nicholls, Monash University, by comparing before and after Monday and Tuesday Death Notices…The consequent devastating bushfire tragedy in Victoria on Saturday February 7 killed more than 209 people, with 500 injured, 100 in hospital with burns, over 1,834 homes destroyed, thousands of homes damaged, and over 450,000 hectares burned … By way of comparison, the 2003 European heat wave occurred in one of the hottest summers on record in Europe (Western European population 392 million in 2003). The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop production shortfall in Southern Europe. More than 52,000 Europeans died as a result of the heat wave with ~15,000 dying in France… Heat waves will differentially kill elderly people (e.g. the heat wave in Europe that killed 35,000-52,000 people in Europe and nearly 15,000 in France). Older people are differentially affected, the problems being that older people are frailer, more prone to heat stress and have diminished brain signalling of dehydration stress… Public education is urgently needed about these risks” [11].
I am a half-century career scientist who has always been prepared to speak out in the public interest but was suddenly rendered “invisible” in Australia about a dozen years ago with Australian Intelligence “nutters” (described thus by Labor PM Paul Keating), mendacious, US- and Zionist-subverted, oligopoly Mainstream media gate-keepers, and the Apartheid Israel Lobby being the obvious culprits from an evidence-based perspective. Yet if Australians had been able to listen to me (and no doubt to numerous other like-minded and science-informed people) and taken appropriate action, then conceivably about 12 years x 500 heat stress deaths per year = 6,000 such Australian heat stress deaths could have been saved. One notes that before 2014 zero (0) Australians had been killed in Australia by jihadi non-state terrorists, and beginning in 2014 only 4 Australians have been killed thus.
Howard Florey Institute (University of Melbourne) neuroscience researchers Dr Michael Farrell, Associate Professor Gary Egan and Professor Derek Denton discovered that a region in the brain called the mid cingulate cortex predicts how much water a person needs, but this region malfunctions in older people. Dr Farrell described their study involved drinking water by older and younger people: “Although all participants had the same level of thirst, the older people only drank half as much water as the younger subjects. Using PET [Positron-Emission Tomography] imaging we found in the older people, the mid cingulate cortex was ‘turned off’ much earlier by drinking small volumes. This discovery helps explain why the elderly can become easily dehydrated” [12, 13].
If only “They” had listened to these medical experts… I am reminded that back in 1990 Professor Fred Mendelsohn (medical doctor, eminent neuroscience researcher and later head of the Howard Florey Institute ) courageously wrote a letter published by The Age newspaper (Melbourne) opposing the coming US Alliance war on Iraq because it would kill huge numbers of children. This fine medical scientist and humanitarian was correct – the subsequent Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide took the lives of 4.6 million Iraqis, half of them children, in the period 1990-2011 ([14-16; see also [17]). Indeed in the only US admission of the immensity of this genocidal crime, in 1996 anti-racist Jewish American journalist Lesley Stahl publicly asked Jewish American UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright “We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”, to which Albright replied “We think the price is worth it” ([14, 18]. If only “They” had listened…
Heat stress deaths and the ongoing Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Aboriginal Ethnocide.
Heat stress disproportionately impacts the elderly and poor people who cannot afford to have or run air conditioning. The latter category includes Australia’s impoverished Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who largely live in remote areas and rural towns as well as in the concrete heat sinks of Australia’s capital cities. Since the British invasion in 1788 about 2 million Indigenous Australians died through dispossession, deprivation, introduced disease and violence (the latter killing about 0.1 million Aborigines). This Aboriginal Genocide continues with about 4,200 Indigenous Australians dying avoidably from deprivation each year (on a global comparative scale) out of an Indigenous population of 0.7 million, as compared to about 4,200 Indigenous Palestinians dying avoidably from deprivation out of an Occupied Palestinian population of 5 million in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide. Indeed the avoidable deaths as a percentage of population is 0.6% for Indigenous Australians as compared to 0.1% for Occupied Indigenous Palestinians, 1.0% for non-Arab Africans , 0.4% for Indians and zero % (0%) for non-Indigenous Australians. [2, 19-21].
However there is also an ongoing Aboriginal Ethnocide conducted by a genocidally racist White Australia. Thus of 350-750 Aboriginal languages and dialects in 1788 , only 150 survive and of these all but 20 are endangered [2]. This ongoing Aboriginal Ethnocide is promoted by English-only education [26, 27], Coalition hostility to remote Aboriginal communities living “on Country”(i.e. on their sacred tribal homeland in continental Australia) , and the forced removal of children from their mothers (with this presently running at a record rate notwithstanding former Labor PM Kevin Rudd’s famous “Sorry” for the so-called Stolen Generations that involved about 0.1 million Indigenous children being forcibly removed from their mothers, forbidden to speak their language and trained to be effective quasi-slave labour in many instances) [27-30].
There is now a well-founded fear that Indigenous Australians will be forced out of remote communities and become Australia’s first internal climate refugees because of unsustainably hot living conditions, constraints on potable water supply, lack of effective cooling of substandard and crowded housing, and poverty-related cut-off of electricity supply [31]. Lorena Allam: “Across central Australia, people are bracing themselves for another scorching summer of drought. At least nine remote communities and outstations are running out of water. A further 12 have reported poor quality drinking water as aquifers run low and the remaining supply is saline. Temperature records have already been broken. In the year to July 2019, Alice Springs had 129 days over 35C, and 55 days over 40C… Houses that don’t cool down overnight create big health and social problems… Predictions by the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress for the health impacts of heat are dire. In its submission to the NT [Northern Territory] government’s climate change policy discussion paper, it outlined some of them: “Increased sickness and mortality due to heat stress, increased food insecurity and malnutrition, increased risk from infectious disease, poorer mental health and an increased potential for social conflict”” [31].
Melissa Sweet writing in The Guardian cites evidence from northwest Queensland Indigenous Health worker Renee Blackman: “Blackman describes elderly Aboriginal people with multiple health problems stuck in inadequate housing without air-conditioning during increasingly frequent extreme heatwaves. Sometimes it is so hot, she says, the bitumen melts, making it difficult for her health teams to reach communities in times of high need. As well, patients are presenting to Gidgee Healing clinics with conditions such as dehydration that might be preventable if they could afford their power bills and had appropriate housing” [32].
Of course it is not just Indigenous Australians who are under threat from the present callous, neoliberal, Liberal Party-National Party Coalition Government. About 26% of Australians do not have air conditioning [33]. Public housing for poor people in Melbourne provides air conditioning to people with serious medical conditions but not to others [34].
Further, one cannot avoid consideration of neoliberal political responsibility for the man-made climate change that is presently impacting Australia with prolonged, widespread and catastrophic drought in Eastern Australia , with rivers running out of water (the Darling, the Barwon and the Namoi Rivers) [35], towns running out of drinking water, sustained, deadly and continent-wide high temperatures above 40 degrees Centigrade , and horrendous bushfires in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, with other states and territories facing similar catastrophes this Summer. The Aboriginal Genocide was premised on racism and the obscene and genocidal concept of “terra nullius” or an “empty land” for British settlers. And having been robbed of their family members, family, land, language, and culture under “terra nullius”, Indigenous Australians in the New South Wales outback can no longer drink from or wash, swim or fish in the Darling, Barwon and Namoi Rivers that have now run dry under the deadly dichotomy of neoliberal greed and the obscene racist concept of “aqua nullius” (no non-agricultural human or environmental right to water) [35].
Thus under the climate criminal, anti-science, corrupt and anti-environment Coalition Government, while Australia has only 0.3% of the world’s population it is responsible for 4.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution (with its Exported GHG pollution included )[36, 37]. Further, Australia is among world leaders in 15 areas of climate criminality, specifically (1) annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution, (2) live methanogenic livestock exports, (3) natural gas exports, (4) recoverable shale gas reserves that can be accessed by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), (5) coal exports, (6) land clearing, deforestation and ecocide, (7) speciescide or species extinction, (8) coral reef destruction, (9) whale killing and extinction threat through global warming impacting on krill stocks, (10) terminal carbon pollution budget exceedance, (11) per capita Carbon Debt, (12) ultimately GHG generating iron ore exports, (13) climate change inaction, (14) climate genocide and approach towards omnicide and terracide, and (15) increasing GHG pollution despite Paris commitments to lower GHG pollution [36-44].
Australia’s PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison is Australia’s version of the populist buffoonery of the UK’s Boris Johnson and America’s Donald Trump. His only claim to fame outside of politics was an advertising campaign for Tourism Australia that starred a scantily clad young woman who crassly asked: “Where the bloody hell are we?” With bushfires raging across Australia, rivers running dry, catastrophic drought, shocking heat waves, a debt-burdened and faltering economy, and hundreds likely to die from heat stress in coming months, Pentecostal Christian but fervently neoliberal Scott “Scomo” Morrison (aka Scum-o, Skim-o, Scam-o and Scheme-o) has chosen to go overseas to a secret location for a holiday, this prompting Australian media to ask “Where the bloody hell are you?” One could well also ask what happened to the “Love thy neighbour as thyself” proposition of that wonderful Palestinian humanitarian, Jesus.
PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison’s Coalition Government is extremely secretive and frequently invokes “national security” to justify not answering questions from the Opposition or journalists. However science-based, rational risk management, that is crucial for public safety and security, successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis (this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) systemic change to minimize harm when bad circumstances inevitably occur. Now “Scomo” is perfectly entitled to believe in anything he likes, but in the interests of Australian national security PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison, as leader of an anti-science and effective climate change denialist Coalition Government, should be asked in Parliament whether he believes in (a) Biblical Literalism, (b) Creationism, and (c) Miracles.
Of course heat stress-related deaths (presently over 500 such deaths per year in Australia) are but one part of a continuing disaster of 85,000 preventable Australian deaths each year due to “lifestyle” or “political choice” reasons, the breakdown (including some overlaps) being as follows: (1) 26,000 annual Australian deaths from adverse hospital events, (2) 17,000 obesity-related Australian deaths, (3) 15,500 smoking-related Australian deaths, (4) 10,000 carbon burning pollution-derived Australian deaths, (5). 4,000 avoidable Indigenous Australian deaths, (6). 5,600 Australian alcohol-related deaths, (7) 2,900 Australian suicides (circa100 being veterans) , (8) 1,400 Australian road deaths, (9) 630 Australian opiate drug-related deaths with 570 linked to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry, (10) 500 heat stress- deaths, and (11) 300 Australian homicides (80 being of women killed domestically) [45-49].
Final comments.
About 7 million people die from air pollution each year with this including 10,000 Australians and 75,000 people dying each year from the long-term effects of pollutants the burning of Australia’s world-leading col exports [50]. About 1 million people die from climate change each year although this may be an under-estimate because 15 million people die annually from deprivation in the Developing World (minus China), countries that are disproportionately impacted by man-made global warming [19]. The world is facing a worsening climate genocide in which 10 billion people may die this century en route to a sustainable human population of only about 0.5-1.0 billion by 2100 [51]. While Australia has only 0.3% of the world’s population it is responsible for 4.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution (with its Exported GHG pollution included )[36, 37] i.e. it is disproportionately contributing to this existential disaster to a 15 times greater extent than the rest of the world on a per capita basis.
Nevertheless the climate criminal Coalition Australian Government, that is dominated by an anti-science, climate change denialist, extremist minority, resolutely rejects a global warming basis for the current heat wave, drought and bush fire disaster that has been impacting Australia. The climate criminal Coalition, backed by the dominant US Murdoch media Empire, has been able to fool half the population. However the heat wave conditions in addition to exacerbating drought and bushfires is actually killing Australians with impoverished Indigenous Australians being disproportionately impacted. Indeed a racist and climate criminal Australia that has disproportionately contributed to generating over 20 million climate change-displaced persons per each year [52], is now on the verge of making large numbers of impoverished Indigenous Australian climate refugees within Australia in a foreshadowed jump in Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Aboriginal Ethnocide [2]. Surely Indigenous Australians have suffered enough in over 230 years of genocidal racism [2].
Australia under the racist and climate criminal Coalition faces the prospect of international action via Green Tariffs, Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), International Criminal Court prosecutions and International Court of Justice litigations. Decent Australians will utterly reject the racist, climate criminal, anti-science and Australian-killing Coalition, vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last.
References.
[1]. Meecham Philpott and Sophie Kesteven, “Heat stress deaths rise following Australia Day, warns Queensland doctor”, ABC News, 25 January 2016: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-25/heat-stress-deaths-rise-following-australia-day/7113030 .
[2]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[3]. Andrew Gissing and Lucinda Coates, ”Heatwaves are Australia’s deadliest natural hazard and many of us are unprepared” , ABC News, 18 January 2018: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01...as-deadliest-hazard-why-you-need-plan/9338918 .
[4]. Lucinda Coates et al. “Exploring 167 years of vulnerability: An examination of extreme heat events in Australia 1844-2010”, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 42, October 2014, Pages 33-44: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901114000999 .
[5]. S. J. Jacobs, T. Vihma, and A.B. Pezza, “Heat stress during the Black Saturday event in Melbourne, Australia”, Int. J. Biometeorol. 2015 Jun, 59(6):759-70: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25172086 .
[6]. Karl Kruszelnicki , “Heat waves are more deadly than bushfires and they are going to get worse”, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 December 2016: https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/heat...heyre-going-to-get-worse-20161212-gt9fyl.html .
[7]. Peter Gardner, “Scare campaigns and the Federal election”, Peter Gardner, 13 March 2019: http://petergardner.info/2019/03/scare-campaigns-and-the-federal-election/ .
[8]. Gideon Polya, “” 300.org Message To World – Act Urgently Over Climate Emergency And Climate Genocide”, Countercurrents, 23 September, 2009: https://countercurrents.org/polya230909.htm .
[9]. Gideon Polya, “Coal is King: Australia CO2 pollution fact sheet”: http://sites.google.com/site/yarrav...al-isking”-australia-co2-pollution-fact-sheet .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “Senate Inquiry Submission by Dr Gideon Polya, biological chemist, to the Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy”, 2009: file:///C:/Users/Gideon/AppData/Local/Temp/sub273_pdf-3.pdf .
[11]. Gideon Polya, “Submission by Dr Gideon Polya to the Senate Select Committee on Men’s Health” (2009): file:///C:/Users/Gideon/AppData/Local/Temp/sub40-2.pdf .
[12]. “Brain malfunction explains dehydration in elderly”, Medindia, 25 December 2005: https://www.medindia.net/news/brain-malfunction-explains-dehydration-in-elderly-31069-1.htm .
[13]. Gideon Polya, “Global warming dangers and solutions for older people”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group, 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/global-warming-dangers–solutions-for-older-people .
[14]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[15]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[16]. “Iraqi Genocide Iraqi Holocaust articles by Gideon Polya”, 2004- : https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/iraqi-genocide-iraqi-holocaust .
[17]. Ross Caputi, Richard Hil, and Donna Mulhearn, “The Sacking of Fallujah. A People’s History”, University of Massachusetts Press, 2019.
[18]. Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright quoted in “Madeleine Albright”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright .
[19]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes a succinct history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[20]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[21]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s Aboriginal Genocide compared”, Countercurrents, 20 February 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/02...cide-australias-aboriginal-genocide-compared/ .
[22]. Colin Tatz, “With Intent to Destroy. Reflecting on Genocide”, Verso, London, 2003,
[23]. Colin Tatz, “Genocide in Australia”, AIATSIS Discussion Paper, Number 8, 1999: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/research/docs/dp/DP08.pdf .
[24]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Cambridge History Of Australia” Ignores Australian Involvement In 30 Genocides”, Countercurrents, 14 October, 2013: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya141013.htm .
[25]. Gideon Polya, “Australian Day is Invasion Day: will Australia join a Trump US War on China?:, Countercurrents, 27 January 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/01...-will-australia-join-a-trump-us-war-on-china/
[26]. Jo Caffery, Patrick McConvell, and Jane Simpson, “Gaps in Australia’s Indigenous language policy”, AIATSIS, December 2009: https://aiatsis.gov.au/publications...ntling-bilingual-education-northern-territory .
[27]. Gideon Polya, “Film Review: “Utopia” By John Pilger Exposes Genocidal Maltreatment Of Indigenous Australians By Apartheid Australia”, Countercurrents, 14 March, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya140314.htm .
[28]. Paddy Gibson, “Stolen futures”, Overland , Spring 2013: http://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-212/feature-paddy-gibson/ .
[29]. Katharine Murphy, “Indigenous child removal rate risks “second stolen generation”, Kevin Rudd warns”, Guardian, 13 February 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/austral...sks-second-stolen-generation-kevin-rudd-warns .
[30]. David Shoebridge, “Stolen Generation continues – time to break the silence”, 13 February 2014: http://davidshoebridge.org.au/2014/02/13/stolen-generation-continues-time-to-break-the-silence/ . ”
[31]. Lorena Allam, Nick Evershed and Mike Bowers, “Too hot for humans? First Nations people fear becoming Australia’s first climate refugees”, Guardian, 18 December 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/austral...ar-becoming-australias-first-climate-refugees .
[32]. Melissa Sweet, ”Inequality and climate change –the perfect storm threatening the health of Australia’s poorest, The Guardian, 14 May 2-10: https://www.theguardian.com/austral...-threatening-the-health-of-australias-poorest .
[33]. “Air conditioning: amazing facts”, Blue NRG, 15 November 2018: https://www.bluenrg.com.au/energy-insights/air-conditioning-16-amazing-facts .
[34]. Miki Perkins, “”Desperately hot” summer drives push to keep public housing cooler”, The Age, 18 April 2019: https://www.theage.com.au/national/...ep-public-housing-cooler-20190406-p51bjq.html .
[35]. Gideon Polya, “Water Crisis, Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust, Water Apartheid, Global Warming & Mina Guli”, Countercurrents, 17 May 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/05...aust-water-apartheid-global-warming-mina-guli .
[36]. Gideon Polya, “ Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .
[37]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm .
[38]. “Renewable energy in China”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China .
[39]. Gideon Polya, “Millions join Global School Climate Strike – we are running out of time”, Countercurrents, 22 September 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/09...ool-climate-strike-we-are-running-out-of-time .
[40]. Gideon Polya, “Australia rejects IMF Carbon Tax & preventing 4 million pollution deaths by 2030”, Countercurrents, 15 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10...preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030 .
[41]. Gideon Polya, “Redaction: Mainstream media censorship & self-censorship in pre-police-state Australia”, Countercurrents, 24 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10...self-censorship-in-pre-police-state-australia .
[42]. Climate Change Performance Index 2020: https://germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/files/CCPI-2020-Results_0.pdf .
[43]. Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy, “Australia’s emissions projections 2018”: http://www.environment.gov.au/syste...les/australias-emissions-projections-2018.pdf .
[44]. Petra Stock, Australian Climate Council, “Let’s get something straight – Australia is not on track to meet its Paris Climate target”, Australian Climate Council, 21 December 2018: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/australia-not-on-track-to-meet-climate-targets/ .
[45]. Gideon Polya, “Horrendous Cost For Australia Of US War On Terror”, Countercurrents, 14 October, 2012: https://countercurrents.org/polya141012.htm .
[46]. Gideon Polya, “ Australian state terrorism (4). Jingoistic, US Lackey Australia’s Deadly Betrayal Of Its Traumatized Veterans”, Stop state terrorism, 2018: https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/australian-state-terrorism-4 .
[47]. Gideon Polya, “Advance Australia Fair” Hides Australian Racism, Theft, Genocide, Ecocide, Speciescide & Terracide”, Countercurrents, 1 July 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/07...-theft-genocide-ecocide-speciescide-terracide .
[48]. “Exposing Australia”: https://sites.google.com/site/exposingaustralia/home .
[49]. Gideon Polya, “Australia rejects IMF Carbon Tax & preventing 4 million pollution deaths by 2030”, Countercurrents, 15 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10...preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030 .
[50]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
[51]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/home .
[52]. Steve Trent, “For climate refugees , tomorrow will be too late”, Environmental Justice Foundation, 3 August 2018: https://ejfoundation.org/news-media/for-climate-refugees-tomorrow-will-be-too-late .
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational...ity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
I thought you could take a break from the happy happy whitewashing bullshit @DavidSling keeps posting and learn how the white christian invaders set Australia on fire through their greed and continued their long tradition of a brutal on-going genocide and prosecution against the Australian Aboriginals - kinda like what Israel does against the innocent women and children in Palestine.
Australian Climate Criminality, Heat Stress Deaths & Australian Aboriginal Ethnocide
in Climate Change — by Dr Gideon Polya — December 19, 2019
More than 500 Australians presently die from heat stress each year with this disaster disproportionately impacting the elderly, the impoverished and Indigenous First Nations peoples. Australia is currently beset continent-wide with climate change-exacerbated heat waves with sustained temperatures above 40 degrees Centigrade, extraordinary, nation-wide bush fire emergencies commencing in Winter, and a devastating and widespread drought in Eastern Australia that has lasted for years.
Heat stress deaths.
I am very conscious of heat stress deaths because I am 75, my home city of Melbourne (with rest of Australia) is suffering a heat wave (43 degrees Centigrade predicted for Melbourne tomorrow on Friday 20 December), and I am well aware of the need to keep out of the sun, keep cool and drink plenty of water.
According to Dr Richard Kidd, chairperson of the Australia Medical Association of Queensland Council of General Practice, more than 500 people die of heat stress in Australia each year, more than total annual deaths from floods, fires and cyclones and with about 22% occurring on 27 January in the middle of the Australian Summer, the day after the national holiday of Australia Day (Invasion Day to Indigenous Australians and which marks the anniversary of the invasion of Australia by the genocidal British on 26 January 1788) [1, 2].
Australian researchers have collated data on 5,300 heat stress deaths in Australia over the period 1840-2009, with decadal heat stress deaths steadily rising to a maximum of about 400-800 per decade in the 6-decade period of 1890- 1949, thence falling and then peaking again to over 500 in the decade 2000-2009 [3, 4].
The worst events (state location and heat stress deaths in brackets) were in October 1895- January 1896 (Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales; 435), January 1908 (Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales; 213), January 1939 (New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia; 420), January-February 1959 (Melbourne, Victoria; 145), and January-February 2009 ( Victoria, South Australia; 432) [4].
It was estimate from public health records that 432 people died from heat stress in the heat wave in Victoria and South Australia leading up to and including the Black Saturday bushfire catastrophe in which 173 people perished in the Victorian bushfire holocaust [4-6].
Jacobs et al. (Monash University, Melbourne) have expertly summarized the heat stress circumstances of the Black Saturday holocaust (2015): “The Black Saturday bushfire event of February 7, 2009, devastated the state of Victoria, Australia, resulting in 173 deaths. On this day, the maximum temperature in Melbourne (state capital of Victoria, population 4 million people) exceeded 46 °C, there were wind gusts of over 80 km h(-1) and the relative humidity dropped below 5 %. We investigated the severe meteorological conditions of Black Saturday and the risk of heat stress and dehydration for the residents of Melbourne. This was through the analysis of weather station data, air pollution data, the apparent temperature (AT) and the COMfort FormulA human energy budget model. A very strong pressure gradient caused hot and dry air to be advected to Melbourne from the desert interior of Australia creating the extreme weather conditions. The AT showed that on Black Saturday, heat stress conditions were present, though underrepresented due to assumptions in the AT formula. Further investigation into the human energy budget revealed that the conditions required a sweating rate of 1.4 kg h(-1) to prevent heat accumulation into the body. If sweating stopped, hyperthermia could occur in 15 min. Sensitivity tests indicated that the dry air and strong winds on Black Saturday helped to release latent heat, but the required sweating rate was virtually unattainable for an average person and would result in intense dehydration. Air particulates were at dangerous concentrations in Melbourne on Black Saturday, further intensifying the stresses to the human body. In the future, we recommend that the AT is not used as a thermal comfort measure as it underestimates the physical stress people experience” [5].
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (medical doctor and celebrated science educator)(2016): “In 2009, the terrible Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people. What most Australians don’t realise is that the crippling heat around the horrendous bushfires killed 374 people. In the European heatwave of 2003, 50,000-70,000 people died between June and August. The Russian heatwave of 2010 killed about 55,000 people… In Paris alone in 2003, some 15,000 people died from heat. They were overwhelmingly elderly women, living alone, and in the upper levels of apartments. “Elderly” often implies smaller reserves of strength. “Living alone” meant that another person wasn’t available to help. “Upper levels” meant that their apartments were getting the full brunt of the heat. Another factor in Europe is that houses are designed to keep the heat in, not out. Excessive heat is especially harmful to the very young and the very old – and to those with chronic diseases and mental illnesses. Other risk factors are being obese, very malnourished, or very unfit. Drugs – both legal and illegal – can worsen your risk. Dehydration from alcohol can contribute. If the electrical grid crashes, and you lose air-conditioning, the heat in poorly designed houses can be fatal” [6].
Peter Gardner (Australian climate change activist) (2019): “The number of people killed by political terrorism in Australia over the last one hundred years can be counted on your fingers. As a comparison Melbourne climate commentator Dr Gideon Polya noted “Presently about 80,000 Australians die [preventably] … each year in Australia from “life-style” and “political choice” causes (e.g. 15,500 pa from smoking, 10,000 pa from air pollution, 500 pa from heat stress) as compared to 0.2 pa from jihadi terrorism [in Australia] this century.” You have more chance of dying falling out of bed. Also of note is the 500 fatalities per annum due to heat stress – an extreme weather event heavily influenced by global warming. Polya continued “However globally about 7.5 million people die avoidably (prematurely) each year due to the effects [of] carbon burning pollutants (7.0 million) (WHO) or to climate change (0.5 million). This latter estimate of presently about 0.5 million climate change-related deaths may be an under-estimate… [with] impoverished, tropical or sub-tropical countries already being severely impacted by global warming” [7].
Gideon Polya (me) writing about heat stress deaths 10 years ago (2009): “Older people are peculiarly threatened by the worsening climate emergency in three key areas that can be summarized by the “three Ds” of Devaluation (GDP growth to prevent devaluation of pensions, investments, superannuation and family support is only sustainable in a non-carbon, renewable energy-based economy), Death (older people are frailer and more susceptible to heat stress death because of a weakened brain signalling system) and Descendants (their descendants will hate them for what they have done to the planet)… The World must urgently take the advice of top climate scientists and analysts who are advocating “100% renewable energy by 2020”, “cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020” and a rapid return of atmospheric CO2 to about 300 ppm for a planet that is safe and sustainable for all peoples and species… If Humanity really wants to save itself and the Biosphere – including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu Wetlands, temperate and tropical Rainforests and Murray-Darling River System – then it must urgently apply Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs, Reparation Demands and International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions against racist, climate genocidal Apartheid Australia and other climate criminal countries” [8].
Gideon Polya (2009): “Australian electricity consumers pay for electricity @ $1.6 million per fellow Australian killed by coal [burning][4,859 per year, ignoring 500 heat stress deaths pa ]”[9, 10].
Gideon Polya in a Submission to a Senate Inquiry on Men’s Health) (2009): “3. Australian (especially older Australian) deaths from global warming-related excessive heat (about 50% male deaths). The week before the Black Saturday February 7 2009 bushfire disaster saw a sustained heat wave in SE Australia (population about 6 million) with temperatures exceeding 43oC for 3 successive days in Melbourne (Wednesday January 28, Thursday January 29 and Friday January 30). In the late January 2009 heatwave over 100 people died in Melbourne and over 200 died in South East Australia (Victoria, South Australia and Northern Tasmania) as determined by Professor Neville Nicholls, Monash University, by comparing before and after Monday and Tuesday Death Notices…The consequent devastating bushfire tragedy in Victoria on Saturday February 7 killed more than 209 people, with 500 injured, 100 in hospital with burns, over 1,834 homes destroyed, thousands of homes damaged, and over 450,000 hectares burned … By way of comparison, the 2003 European heat wave occurred in one of the hottest summers on record in Europe (Western European population 392 million in 2003). The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop production shortfall in Southern Europe. More than 52,000 Europeans died as a result of the heat wave with ~15,000 dying in France… Heat waves will differentially kill elderly people (e.g. the heat wave in Europe that killed 35,000-52,000 people in Europe and nearly 15,000 in France). Older people are differentially affected, the problems being that older people are frailer, more prone to heat stress and have diminished brain signalling of dehydration stress… Public education is urgently needed about these risks” [11].
I am a half-century career scientist who has always been prepared to speak out in the public interest but was suddenly rendered “invisible” in Australia about a dozen years ago with Australian Intelligence “nutters” (described thus by Labor PM Paul Keating), mendacious, US- and Zionist-subverted, oligopoly Mainstream media gate-keepers, and the Apartheid Israel Lobby being the obvious culprits from an evidence-based perspective. Yet if Australians had been able to listen to me (and no doubt to numerous other like-minded and science-informed people) and taken appropriate action, then conceivably about 12 years x 500 heat stress deaths per year = 6,000 such Australian heat stress deaths could have been saved. One notes that before 2014 zero (0) Australians had been killed in Australia by jihadi non-state terrorists, and beginning in 2014 only 4 Australians have been killed thus.
Howard Florey Institute (University of Melbourne) neuroscience researchers Dr Michael Farrell, Associate Professor Gary Egan and Professor Derek Denton discovered that a region in the brain called the mid cingulate cortex predicts how much water a person needs, but this region malfunctions in older people. Dr Farrell described their study involved drinking water by older and younger people: “Although all participants had the same level of thirst, the older people only drank half as much water as the younger subjects. Using PET [Positron-Emission Tomography] imaging we found in the older people, the mid cingulate cortex was ‘turned off’ much earlier by drinking small volumes. This discovery helps explain why the elderly can become easily dehydrated” [12, 13].
If only “They” had listened to these medical experts… I am reminded that back in 1990 Professor Fred Mendelsohn (medical doctor, eminent neuroscience researcher and later head of the Howard Florey Institute ) courageously wrote a letter published by The Age newspaper (Melbourne) opposing the coming US Alliance war on Iraq because it would kill huge numbers of children. This fine medical scientist and humanitarian was correct – the subsequent Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide took the lives of 4.6 million Iraqis, half of them children, in the period 1990-2011 ([14-16; see also [17]). Indeed in the only US admission of the immensity of this genocidal crime, in 1996 anti-racist Jewish American journalist Lesley Stahl publicly asked Jewish American UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright “We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”, to which Albright replied “We think the price is worth it” ([14, 18]. If only “They” had listened…
Heat stress deaths and the ongoing Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Aboriginal Ethnocide.
Heat stress disproportionately impacts the elderly and poor people who cannot afford to have or run air conditioning. The latter category includes Australia’s impoverished Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who largely live in remote areas and rural towns as well as in the concrete heat sinks of Australia’s capital cities. Since the British invasion in 1788 about 2 million Indigenous Australians died through dispossession, deprivation, introduced disease and violence (the latter killing about 0.1 million Aborigines). This Aboriginal Genocide continues with about 4,200 Indigenous Australians dying avoidably from deprivation each year (on a global comparative scale) out of an Indigenous population of 0.7 million, as compared to about 4,200 Indigenous Palestinians dying avoidably from deprivation out of an Occupied Palestinian population of 5 million in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide. Indeed the avoidable deaths as a percentage of population is 0.6% for Indigenous Australians as compared to 0.1% for Occupied Indigenous Palestinians, 1.0% for non-Arab Africans , 0.4% for Indians and zero % (0%) for non-Indigenous Australians. [2, 19-21].
However there is also an ongoing Aboriginal Ethnocide conducted by a genocidally racist White Australia. Thus of 350-750 Aboriginal languages and dialects in 1788 , only 150 survive and of these all but 20 are endangered [2]. This ongoing Aboriginal Ethnocide is promoted by English-only education [26, 27], Coalition hostility to remote Aboriginal communities living “on Country”(i.e. on their sacred tribal homeland in continental Australia) , and the forced removal of children from their mothers (with this presently running at a record rate notwithstanding former Labor PM Kevin Rudd’s famous “Sorry” for the so-called Stolen Generations that involved about 0.1 million Indigenous children being forcibly removed from their mothers, forbidden to speak their language and trained to be effective quasi-slave labour in many instances) [27-30].
There is now a well-founded fear that Indigenous Australians will be forced out of remote communities and become Australia’s first internal climate refugees because of unsustainably hot living conditions, constraints on potable water supply, lack of effective cooling of substandard and crowded housing, and poverty-related cut-off of electricity supply [31]. Lorena Allam: “Across central Australia, people are bracing themselves for another scorching summer of drought. At least nine remote communities and outstations are running out of water. A further 12 have reported poor quality drinking water as aquifers run low and the remaining supply is saline. Temperature records have already been broken. In the year to July 2019, Alice Springs had 129 days over 35C, and 55 days over 40C… Houses that don’t cool down overnight create big health and social problems… Predictions by the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress for the health impacts of heat are dire. In its submission to the NT [Northern Territory] government’s climate change policy discussion paper, it outlined some of them: “Increased sickness and mortality due to heat stress, increased food insecurity and malnutrition, increased risk from infectious disease, poorer mental health and an increased potential for social conflict”” [31].
Melissa Sweet writing in The Guardian cites evidence from northwest Queensland Indigenous Health worker Renee Blackman: “Blackman describes elderly Aboriginal people with multiple health problems stuck in inadequate housing without air-conditioning during increasingly frequent extreme heatwaves. Sometimes it is so hot, she says, the bitumen melts, making it difficult for her health teams to reach communities in times of high need. As well, patients are presenting to Gidgee Healing clinics with conditions such as dehydration that might be preventable if they could afford their power bills and had appropriate housing” [32].
Of course it is not just Indigenous Australians who are under threat from the present callous, neoliberal, Liberal Party-National Party Coalition Government. About 26% of Australians do not have air conditioning [33]. Public housing for poor people in Melbourne provides air conditioning to people with serious medical conditions but not to others [34].
Further, one cannot avoid consideration of neoliberal political responsibility for the man-made climate change that is presently impacting Australia with prolonged, widespread and catastrophic drought in Eastern Australia , with rivers running out of water (the Darling, the Barwon and the Namoi Rivers) [35], towns running out of drinking water, sustained, deadly and continent-wide high temperatures above 40 degrees Centigrade , and horrendous bushfires in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, with other states and territories facing similar catastrophes this Summer. The Aboriginal Genocide was premised on racism and the obscene and genocidal concept of “terra nullius” or an “empty land” for British settlers. And having been robbed of their family members, family, land, language, and culture under “terra nullius”, Indigenous Australians in the New South Wales outback can no longer drink from or wash, swim or fish in the Darling, Barwon and Namoi Rivers that have now run dry under the deadly dichotomy of neoliberal greed and the obscene racist concept of “aqua nullius” (no non-agricultural human or environmental right to water) [35].
Thus under the climate criminal, anti-science, corrupt and anti-environment Coalition Government, while Australia has only 0.3% of the world’s population it is responsible for 4.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution (with its Exported GHG pollution included )[36, 37]. Further, Australia is among world leaders in 15 areas of climate criminality, specifically (1) annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution, (2) live methanogenic livestock exports, (3) natural gas exports, (4) recoverable shale gas reserves that can be accessed by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), (5) coal exports, (6) land clearing, deforestation and ecocide, (7) speciescide or species extinction, (8) coral reef destruction, (9) whale killing and extinction threat through global warming impacting on krill stocks, (10) terminal carbon pollution budget exceedance, (11) per capita Carbon Debt, (12) ultimately GHG generating iron ore exports, (13) climate change inaction, (14) climate genocide and approach towards omnicide and terracide, and (15) increasing GHG pollution despite Paris commitments to lower GHG pollution [36-44].
Australia’s PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison is Australia’s version of the populist buffoonery of the UK’s Boris Johnson and America’s Donald Trump. His only claim to fame outside of politics was an advertising campaign for Tourism Australia that starred a scantily clad young woman who crassly asked: “Where the bloody hell are we?” With bushfires raging across Australia, rivers running dry, catastrophic drought, shocking heat waves, a debt-burdened and faltering economy, and hundreds likely to die from heat stress in coming months, Pentecostal Christian but fervently neoliberal Scott “Scomo” Morrison (aka Scum-o, Skim-o, Scam-o and Scheme-o) has chosen to go overseas to a secret location for a holiday, this prompting Australian media to ask “Where the bloody hell are you?” One could well also ask what happened to the “Love thy neighbour as thyself” proposition of that wonderful Palestinian humanitarian, Jesus.
PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison’s Coalition Government is extremely secretive and frequently invokes “national security” to justify not answering questions from the Opposition or journalists. However science-based, rational risk management, that is crucial for public safety and security, successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis (this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) systemic change to minimize harm when bad circumstances inevitably occur. Now “Scomo” is perfectly entitled to believe in anything he likes, but in the interests of Australian national security PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison, as leader of an anti-science and effective climate change denialist Coalition Government, should be asked in Parliament whether he believes in (a) Biblical Literalism, (b) Creationism, and (c) Miracles.
Of course heat stress-related deaths (presently over 500 such deaths per year in Australia) are but one part of a continuing disaster of 85,000 preventable Australian deaths each year due to “lifestyle” or “political choice” reasons, the breakdown (including some overlaps) being as follows: (1) 26,000 annual Australian deaths from adverse hospital events, (2) 17,000 obesity-related Australian deaths, (3) 15,500 smoking-related Australian deaths, (4) 10,000 carbon burning pollution-derived Australian deaths, (5). 4,000 avoidable Indigenous Australian deaths, (6). 5,600 Australian alcohol-related deaths, (7) 2,900 Australian suicides (circa100 being veterans) , (8) 1,400 Australian road deaths, (9) 630 Australian opiate drug-related deaths with 570 linked to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry, (10) 500 heat stress- deaths, and (11) 300 Australian homicides (80 being of women killed domestically) [45-49].
Final comments.
About 7 million people die from air pollution each year with this including 10,000 Australians and 75,000 people dying each year from the long-term effects of pollutants the burning of Australia’s world-leading col exports [50]. About 1 million people die from climate change each year although this may be an under-estimate because 15 million people die annually from deprivation in the Developing World (minus China), countries that are disproportionately impacted by man-made global warming [19]. The world is facing a worsening climate genocide in which 10 billion people may die this century en route to a sustainable human population of only about 0.5-1.0 billion by 2100 [51]. While Australia has only 0.3% of the world’s population it is responsible for 4.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution (with its Exported GHG pollution included )[36, 37] i.e. it is disproportionately contributing to this existential disaster to a 15 times greater extent than the rest of the world on a per capita basis.
Nevertheless the climate criminal Coalition Australian Government, that is dominated by an anti-science, climate change denialist, extremist minority, resolutely rejects a global warming basis for the current heat wave, drought and bush fire disaster that has been impacting Australia. The climate criminal Coalition, backed by the dominant US Murdoch media Empire, has been able to fool half the population. However the heat wave conditions in addition to exacerbating drought and bushfires is actually killing Australians with impoverished Indigenous Australians being disproportionately impacted. Indeed a racist and climate criminal Australia that has disproportionately contributed to generating over 20 million climate change-displaced persons per each year [52], is now on the verge of making large numbers of impoverished Indigenous Australian climate refugees within Australia in a foreshadowed jump in Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Aboriginal Ethnocide [2]. Surely Indigenous Australians have suffered enough in over 230 years of genocidal racism [2].
Australia under the racist and climate criminal Coalition faces the prospect of international action via Green Tariffs, Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), International Criminal Court prosecutions and International Court of Justice litigations. Decent Australians will utterly reject the racist, climate criminal, anti-science and Australian-killing Coalition, vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last.
References.
[1]. Meecham Philpott and Sophie Kesteven, “Heat stress deaths rise following Australia Day, warns Queensland doctor”, ABC News, 25 January 2016: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-25/heat-stress-deaths-rise-following-australia-day/7113030 .
[2]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[3]. Andrew Gissing and Lucinda Coates, ”Heatwaves are Australia’s deadliest natural hazard and many of us are unprepared” , ABC News, 18 January 2018: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01...as-deadliest-hazard-why-you-need-plan/9338918 .
[4]. Lucinda Coates et al. “Exploring 167 years of vulnerability: An examination of extreme heat events in Australia 1844-2010”, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 42, October 2014, Pages 33-44: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901114000999 .
[5]. S. J. Jacobs, T. Vihma, and A.B. Pezza, “Heat stress during the Black Saturday event in Melbourne, Australia”, Int. J. Biometeorol. 2015 Jun, 59(6):759-70: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25172086 .
[6]. Karl Kruszelnicki , “Heat waves are more deadly than bushfires and they are going to get worse”, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 December 2016: https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/heat...heyre-going-to-get-worse-20161212-gt9fyl.html .
[7]. Peter Gardner, “Scare campaigns and the Federal election”, Peter Gardner, 13 March 2019: http://petergardner.info/2019/03/scare-campaigns-and-the-federal-election/ .
[8]. Gideon Polya, “” 300.org Message To World – Act Urgently Over Climate Emergency And Climate Genocide”, Countercurrents, 23 September, 2009: https://countercurrents.org/polya230909.htm .
[9]. Gideon Polya, “Coal is King: Australia CO2 pollution fact sheet”: http://sites.google.com/site/yarrav...al-isking”-australia-co2-pollution-fact-sheet .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “Senate Inquiry Submission by Dr Gideon Polya, biological chemist, to the Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy”, 2009: file:///C:/Users/Gideon/AppData/Local/Temp/sub273_pdf-3.pdf .
[11]. Gideon Polya, “Submission by Dr Gideon Polya to the Senate Select Committee on Men’s Health” (2009): file:///C:/Users/Gideon/AppData/Local/Temp/sub40-2.pdf .
[12]. “Brain malfunction explains dehydration in elderly”, Medindia, 25 December 2005: https://www.medindia.net/news/brain-malfunction-explains-dehydration-in-elderly-31069-1.htm .
[13]. Gideon Polya, “Global warming dangers and solutions for older people”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group, 2009: https://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/global-warming-dangers–solutions-for-older-people .
[14]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[15]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[16]. “Iraqi Genocide Iraqi Holocaust articles by Gideon Polya”, 2004- : https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/iraqi-genocide-iraqi-holocaust .
[17]. Ross Caputi, Richard Hil, and Donna Mulhearn, “The Sacking of Fallujah. A People’s History”, University of Massachusetts Press, 2019.
[18]. Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright quoted in “Madeleine Albright”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright .
[19]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes a succinct history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[20]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[21]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s Aboriginal Genocide compared”, Countercurrents, 20 February 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/02...cide-australias-aboriginal-genocide-compared/ .
[22]. Colin Tatz, “With Intent to Destroy. Reflecting on Genocide”, Verso, London, 2003,
[23]. Colin Tatz, “Genocide in Australia”, AIATSIS Discussion Paper, Number 8, 1999: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/research/docs/dp/DP08.pdf .
[24]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Cambridge History Of Australia” Ignores Australian Involvement In 30 Genocides”, Countercurrents, 14 October, 2013: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya141013.htm .
[25]. Gideon Polya, “Australian Day is Invasion Day: will Australia join a Trump US War on China?:, Countercurrents, 27 January 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/01...-will-australia-join-a-trump-us-war-on-china/
[26]. Jo Caffery, Patrick McConvell, and Jane Simpson, “Gaps in Australia’s Indigenous language policy”, AIATSIS, December 2009: https://aiatsis.gov.au/publications...ntling-bilingual-education-northern-territory .
[27]. Gideon Polya, “Film Review: “Utopia” By John Pilger Exposes Genocidal Maltreatment Of Indigenous Australians By Apartheid Australia”, Countercurrents, 14 March, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya140314.htm .
[28]. Paddy Gibson, “Stolen futures”, Overland , Spring 2013: http://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-212/feature-paddy-gibson/ .
[29]. Katharine Murphy, “Indigenous child removal rate risks “second stolen generation”, Kevin Rudd warns”, Guardian, 13 February 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/austral...sks-second-stolen-generation-kevin-rudd-warns .
[30]. David Shoebridge, “Stolen Generation continues – time to break the silence”, 13 February 2014: http://davidshoebridge.org.au/2014/02/13/stolen-generation-continues-time-to-break-the-silence/ . ”
[31]. Lorena Allam, Nick Evershed and Mike Bowers, “Too hot for humans? First Nations people fear becoming Australia’s first climate refugees”, Guardian, 18 December 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/austral...ar-becoming-australias-first-climate-refugees .
[32]. Melissa Sweet, ”Inequality and climate change –the perfect storm threatening the health of Australia’s poorest, The Guardian, 14 May 2-10: https://www.theguardian.com/austral...-threatening-the-health-of-australias-poorest .
[33]. “Air conditioning: amazing facts”, Blue NRG, 15 November 2018: https://www.bluenrg.com.au/energy-insights/air-conditioning-16-amazing-facts .
[34]. Miki Perkins, “”Desperately hot” summer drives push to keep public housing cooler”, The Age, 18 April 2019: https://www.theage.com.au/national/...ep-public-housing-cooler-20190406-p51bjq.html .
[35]. Gideon Polya, “Water Crisis, Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust, Water Apartheid, Global Warming & Mina Guli”, Countercurrents, 17 May 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/05...aust-water-apartheid-global-warming-mina-guli .
[36]. Gideon Polya, “ Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .
[37]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm .
[38]. “Renewable energy in China”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China .
[39]. Gideon Polya, “Millions join Global School Climate Strike – we are running out of time”, Countercurrents, 22 September 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/09...ool-climate-strike-we-are-running-out-of-time .
[40]. Gideon Polya, “Australia rejects IMF Carbon Tax & preventing 4 million pollution deaths by 2030”, Countercurrents, 15 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10...preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030 .
[41]. Gideon Polya, “Redaction: Mainstream media censorship & self-censorship in pre-police-state Australia”, Countercurrents, 24 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10...self-censorship-in-pre-police-state-australia .
[42]. Climate Change Performance Index 2020: https://germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/files/CCPI-2020-Results_0.pdf .
[43]. Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy, “Australia’s emissions projections 2018”: http://www.environment.gov.au/syste...les/australias-emissions-projections-2018.pdf .
[44]. Petra Stock, Australian Climate Council, “Let’s get something straight – Australia is not on track to meet its Paris Climate target”, Australian Climate Council, 21 December 2018: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/australia-not-on-track-to-meet-climate-targets/ .
[45]. Gideon Polya, “Horrendous Cost For Australia Of US War On Terror”, Countercurrents, 14 October, 2012: https://countercurrents.org/polya141012.htm .
[46]. Gideon Polya, “ Australian state terrorism (4). Jingoistic, US Lackey Australia’s Deadly Betrayal Of Its Traumatized Veterans”, Stop state terrorism, 2018: https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/australian-state-terrorism-4 .
[47]. Gideon Polya, “Advance Australia Fair” Hides Australian Racism, Theft, Genocide, Ecocide, Speciescide & Terracide”, Countercurrents, 1 July 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/07...-theft-genocide-ecocide-speciescide-terracide .
[48]. “Exposing Australia”: https://sites.google.com/site/exposingaustralia/home .
[49]. Gideon Polya, “Australia rejects IMF Carbon Tax & preventing 4 million pollution deaths by 2030”, Countercurrents, 15 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10...preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030 .
[50]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
[51]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/home .
[52]. Steve Trent, “For climate refugees , tomorrow will be too late”, Environmental Justice Foundation, 3 August 2018: https://ejfoundation.org/news-media/for-climate-refugees-tomorrow-will-be-too-late .
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational...ity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
