Good morning. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has published a landmark report and it’s a “wake-up call to the world”. Drastic action is desperately needed to avoid a global climate catastrophe. We have the details of the report, plus plenty more in today’s Morning Mail.
Human activity is changing the Earth’s climate in “unprecedented” ways, with some of the changes now inevitable and “irreversible”. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned in its landmark report released on Monday that only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gases in this decade can prevent widespread devastation and extreme weather. Within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which would be “catastrophic” for Pacific island nations and could lead to the loss of entire countries due to sea level rise.
But what does the IPCC’s assessment mean for Australia? Australia’s land area has warmed by about 1.4C in 110 years, and there are now more incidents of extreme heat and fewer cold extremes, and those trends look set to continue. There would be an increase in coastal flooding and the shore would retreat, plus changes to rainfall across the country. But Australian scientists have stressed it is “not too late” to take action to stem the worst of the climate crisis and called on leaders to “wake up”. Dr Pep Canadell, who worked on the report, said humans were “still in the control cabin of the planet and climate system”. The president of the upcoming UN climate talks, Alok Sharma, echoed the statement, and called on the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to produce clear plans to drastically cut their carbon output.
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has ruled out vaccine mandates to industries outside the aged care workforce and quarantine workers. Announcing the federal drugs regulator had approved the Moderna vaccine, Morrison also implored “angry” and “frustrated” Australians to stay the course through the current lockdowns. The government has secured 25m doses of the Moderna mRNA vaccine, which will begin to be distributed next month. On Monday, NSW recorded 283 new local cases, while the state’s lockdown was extended to Byron Bay and Tamworth amid concern that travellers had spread the virus from Sydney.
The Australian government has been accused of double standards after it sent more than 11,000 people Centrelink debt letters worth a total of $32m claiming they were overpaid due to jobkeeper, while resisting calls to claw back money from businesses that got the wage subsidy and then made a profit. “It is farcical that the government is chasing individuals for so called debts for what will be genuine mistakes in a confusing system when they have given millions to billionaires,” Greens senator Rachel Siewert said.
Australia
Sky News Australia has quietly deleted more than 30 videos promoting unproven Covid treatments, as the broadcaster prepares to face the media diversity inquiry.
The family of missing Aboriginal man Gordon Copeland is calling on the NSW police to “ramp up the search” for the 22-year-old, who was last seen by police allegedly running into the Gwydir river in NSW.
The Australian aged care industry is facing a shortage of 110,000 workers in the next decade unless urgent action is taken, including boosting pay and conditions, an expert committee has found.
Josh Frydenberg’s office intervened in the drafting of a consultation paper to make sure it linked proxy advisers to the issue of compulsory superannuation, a key battleground in the political war over retirement savings, internal Treasury documents show.
Australia risks “eroding” its reputation with international students if it does not develop a timeframe for a staged, Covid-safe return to on-campus studies, a senior diplomat has said.
A Liberal-dominated parliamentary committee has called for changes to be made to make it easier for skilled migrants to remain in Australia as the pandemic has created major skills shortages.
The world
The devastating scale of destruction from a week of wildfires in Greece and Italy was being assessed as the EU mounted one of its largest firefighting operations ever. Twelve people have died in Greece, Turkey and Italy, with many more injured.
The Taliban captured another provincial capital, Aibak, without meeting resistance, leaving pro-government forces in region cut off.
Analysis of a 1,000-year-old grave in Finland suggest non-binary people were not only accepted but respected members of their communities, researchers have said.
Recommended reads
When Gabriella Pasztor met Natsumi in kindergarten, they had no shared language as they had both recently immigrated to Australia – but that did not stop them from becoming fast friends. Unfortunately, at the end of that year, Natsumi’s family moved to Queensland and Gabriella’s moved to NSW and they lost touch. After 25 years, Gabriella finally tracked down Natsumi, and the pair reconnected. “It was the strangest experience, reminiscing about shared childhood memories, when at the time we’d had no words for them. She was so different from the quiet, shy girl I’d known back then – and I was so different too.”
August is Poetry Month and Guardian Australia has teamed up with Red Room Poetry to bring you a special edition of our interactive Zoom book club, featuring Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Omar Sakr and Evelyn Araluen. Watch Abdel-Magied perform her poem There’s So Much I Could Write Poetry About here, and register here to join on Zoom on 13 August.
“How many wake-up calls on the climate does Australia need?” writes Adam Morton. “Without ever straying into politics, the latest [IPCC] report illustrates the vast gulf between what qualifies as climate policy and debate in Australia and what is required to address the problem. The Morrison government’s response to criticism of its climate performance is to list what it says is evidence of action where there is next-to-none.”
Listen
Should Australia vaccinate children against Covid-19? Initially considered the last in line for a vaccine, some 12 to 15-year-olds are now eligible for Pfizer in Australia. But should we be vaccinating more young people? Science writer Donna Lu joins Laura Murphy-Oates to discuss what we know about how Covid-19 affects children and whether they react differently to the vaccine than adults.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Australia’s swimmers are already looking towards the 2024 Olympics in Paris after their record-breaking Tokyo medal haul.
Just over two weeks ago, when Super Netball bosses announced a hastily rejigged fixture for the final three home and away rounds, seven out of eight sides were in the running for finals. The last two fixtures of the regular season featured the top four sides but their 20201 stories remain very much unwritten.
Australia has been thrashed by Bangladesh in the fifth Twenty20 cricket international after collapsing to 62 all out.
Media roundup
The ABC says the NSW health minister is “looking at ways to require all health workers to be vaccinated” after the Liverpool cluster began when an unvaccinated nurse worked while unknowingly Covid-positive. In Queensland, there are calls for the government to open AstraZeneca vaccination hubs for young people, reports the Brisbane Times, and the Courier Mail reports on financial relief to the tune of $70m for the hospitality and tourism sectors.
Coming up
Millions of households will complete the census today.
A NSW health inquiry will hear from health minister Brad Hazzard and chief health officer Kerry Chant.
Sign up
If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com.
