The first introduction to this website was written over three years ago. During those three years there have been some significant changes in both our community and around the world in both climate policy and the implementation of measures to reverse global warming. Unfortunately, in those three years there have been many opportunities missed because of too much control of energy and climate policy in the wrong hands.
A new government was elected in May 2022 and with a new government came hope that the many years of neglect in halting and reducing the effects of climate change by previous administrations would be reversed. Those in denial of climate change, it’s causes and effect are still there – but I do believe that their ranks have thinned. However, the climate is still warming at an abnormal rate – catastrophic weather events, destructive agricultural methods, approvals for yet more polluting fossil fuel projects, and meanwhile back in the suburbs many people are still more concerned about superannuation returns, tax breaks and consuming Chinese manufacturing output than they are about the fact that we are facing a crisis that will herald a complete change in the way we live our lives if we don’t act now.
Some of the things that media and governments, including our own supposedly progressive government, are hesitant to talk about that are becoming a reality are the real possibility of food shortages, increased occurrence of catastrophic storms and bushfires, increasing desertification, the alarming rise of ocean temperatures, the underlying power of the press, social media and some not so ethical and fiercely lobbying fossil fuel miners, and the elevation of populist political leaders driven by egos and power in places around the world you would not expect this to happen.
The Rockflat website is about climate change. It’s not about politics, governments or life styles. The essays are factual, the opinions few but heartfelt.
We start 2024 with a disappointing and very frustrating COP 28 just concluded in Dubai. The conference was held in the historical heartland of fossil fuel production, was led by the former head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, and allowed the extremely well-represented fossil fuel industry to keep control of future energy strategy. There were at least 475 carbon capture lobbyists and more than 2400 industry-affiliated lobbyists in Dubai foe COP 28 – it was a a farce!
Take a few minutes (or longer) and read an article or two on this website. I hope you’ll find some of the information and arguments interesting, challenging and sometimes confronting.
A quick ‘heads up’ – Rockflat will no longer be using Twitter (X), notifications of new essays and posts will still be on Instagram, Facebook and now Masterdon.
Robert Watson
