Combust! USYD Enviro Collective Handbook

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

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no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice2020 without Indigenous justice no USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice

Acknowledgement of Country The Environment Collective meets and organises on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. This publication was therefore edited and distributed on stolen land. Sovereignty was never ceded and no treaty currently exists that respects First Nations land rightsland rights. Our environmental activism is defined by colonial disposition — the lands we aim to protect and conserve are not simply the environment, but sacred country. We would like to pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that colonialism is ongoing. As a group of not just allies, but accomplices, we must strive to centre First Nations voices and perspectives in all that we do — there can be no environmental justice without Indigenous justice.

Office Bearers’ Note

Hello! We’re so glad that you’ve stumbled upon this edition of Combust, the first of what we hope becomes a yearly publication by the USyd Enviro Collective. This booklet is a collection of prominent radical ideas currently surrounding the environment movement - it’s essentially some of the knowledge that we wish we’d had when we first became interested in enviro politics.

The Enviro Collective is a branch of ASEN (Australian Student Environment Network) — a non-hierarchical space for grassroots organising around environmental activism and building community. This year, we’ll have weekly meetings, regular stalls, drinks, film screenings, reading groups, trips to rural communities affected by the water crisis, and much more. You do not need a comprehensive knowledge of environmentalism to join the collective — we are all learning and growing together. But either way, we hope this will help you, make you think, or even reaffirm something you already knew.

Love Shani & Prue Convenors of the Enviro Collective, 2020

no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous 02 justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice no climate justice without Indigenous justice

o o e e t s e

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Contents

burnt passage ...4

why anti-colonialism? ... 5 unlearn capitalism ... 6 no sustainability in shame ... 7 our mother’s pain ... 8 acab? the myth of a protective police force ... 9 what is a ‘just transition’? ... 10 the nsw water crisis ... 12 eco-feminism: who is she? ... 14 shall i compare thee to a summer’s day ... 15 the 17 principles of environmental justice... 16 a just transition to indigenous sovereignty... 18 a climate movement built on rock, not sand ... 19 socialism 101 ... 20 the racism of australia’s waste politics ... 21 goodbye nuclear, and good riddance ... 22 an intersectional climate movement ... 23 fossil free usyd ... 24 imaging a net zero future ... 25 the new normal ... 26 adani: explained ... 27 Cover art by Amelia Mertha Photography by Misbah Ansari

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USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Burnt Passage Poetry by Claire Ollivain

“This was originally written in an airport in December while I was overseas, reflecting on what was happening back home and feeling devistated. It has been rewritten in charchoal, and the leaves you see were burned in the fires and found in my backyard.”

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USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

WHY ANTI-COLONIALISM?

The genocide of the First Nations people of this land never ended. It is ongoing.

This is part of a global pattern of dispossession—of colonialism – and one of the systems at play at the heart of climate injustice. The extractivism on other lands and exploitation of people that colonialism maintains itself off of is fundamentally incompatible with self-determination, so is enacted through colonial subjugation.

About 50% of the land in the NT is recognized as Aboriginal land. It’s not a coincidence that the government’s sounded a false alarm around pedophilia in Aboriginal communities then implemented the NT Intervention, which has seen an increase in child removals, youth suicide and self-harm, while over 50% of the NT has recently been opened up to fracking.

Shifting the focus to the effects climate change, the cocentration of intensive weather events and sea-level rise, particularly along the equator, are disproportionately felt by Indigenous people, as well as people of the Global South more broadly, with long histories of anti-colonial struggles, who contribute the least to pollution. While the draught here is exacerbated by climate change, it’s because the government has sold off billions of litres of water to cotton farmers that towns in rural NSW—mostly comprised of Aboriginal people – have been left without drinking water. The bushfires have drawn attention to a more recent problem – the cashless debit card ‘apartheid’.

What this meant in Canberra, for over 100 people living under compulsory income management at this time, all Aboriginal, that 80% of their welfare payments were locked into the card and inaccessible due to a power outage while bushfires raged around them.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more, like how nuclear waste is being dumped right next to an Aboriginal community in Brewarrina.

Environmental destruction is inseparable from its colonial roots—anti-colonialism in environmental and activist spaces is a necessity.

Violence.

Part of it is the imposition of the prison system.

Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated people on earth. In fact, I’ve heard the same/similar stories from reputable sources a few times now; of an Indigenous person committing a crime just so they could join the rest of their family in prison. In light of the fact 45.6% of people are return to prison within two years, we’re looking at a systemic, sustained removal from family, community and culture, playing a direct part in cultural genocide. Not to mention imprisonment is often a death sentence for Aboriginal people. Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991, a further 495 people have died in prison, with rates on the rise. And this entrapment into the system can start so young—at the age of 10 to be exact—the age of criminal responsibility in this country, which legal experts say is far too young. In the NT all children in detention are Aboriginal.

The Stolen Generations is not a thing of the past. Since Kevin Rudd said “sorry”, Aboriginal child removals have gone up by 500%. You’re not only seeing the removal of children from their parents or guardians, but again, an intentional severing from their entire community – their culture – in favor of assimilation into white families by the NSW Department of Family & Community Services (FACS).

Alev Saracoglu USyd Enviro Officer 2019 Collage by Vivienne Guo

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USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

UNLEARN CAPITALISM At its core, capitalism as an economic and political system involves the sustained accumulation of wealth. It fundamentally relies on an abundance of human labour and natural resources, yet demands their perpetual exploitation in order to survive.

that the land to be traded in so-called Australia was violently stolen, never sold or ceded, but by this standard, the natural world only matters if these groups have sufficient reason to value it—if it serves capitalist needs. In theory, this solution aims to generate a valuing of (and therefore caring for) the environment, but ultimately fails due to the contradictions of capitalism.

Thus the contradictions of capitalism arise—for capitalists to accumulate surplus value: 1. Their workers must be paid less than the full value of their work. However, these workers also make up the market of buyers that capitalists provide goods & services for. That is, a market of people with compromised purchasing power must sustain a system that exists thanks to their own exploitation.

‘Cap and trade’ is a significant example—businesses are given a maximum level (“cap”) of environmental degradation that they can commit, which can then be traded on the market between businesses.

This is the idea that it doesn’t matter where the emissions come from, as long as they are limited to a certain degree. However, this creates a new market under a system that prioritises accumulation over environmental protection— the richest and largest businesses are able to afford to continue to harm the planet. It is a passive strategy that fails to combat the flaws of capitalism, and instead perpetuates them by using them as a strategy which will ultimately collapse on itself.

2. They must facilitate the continuous acceleration of uncapped economic growth on a planet with finite natural resources, causing ecological destruction at a rate faster than nature can replenish itself. As this occurs, there is a higher risk of natural disasters and resource scarcity, posing a direct threat to the ability of capitalism to continue to operate.

Environmental protection under

Under capitalism, there is no viable system that allows for effective mitigation of capitalist-induced environmental challenges. Neoliberal solutions do not exist to altruistically save the environment, nor to liberate the people who environmental disasters will impact the most—who exist in a compromised position due to this system. Fundamentally, capitalism is a system that eternally perpetuates the uneven growth and return of profit to a small proportion of people, whilst exploiting others and the natural environment indefinitely.

neoliberal capitalism seeks to turn nature into a commodity.

Thus neoliberalism is born—the collection of economic policies which favour free-market capitalism at all costs. It prioritises privatisation and deregulation (or creating regulation that actively favours the market), whilst secondarily encouraging voluntary charity groups to make up for a lack of government support, and communities that do not rely on government-provided necessities. The unchecked growth which results from this inevitably leads to the uneven development of global markets— those who propel environmental degradation benefit the most, and will suffer the least from their actions.

Shani Patel USyd Enviroment Officer 2020

Environmental protection under neoliberal capitalism seeks to turn nature into a commodity.

Into a ‘thing’ that can be bought and sold by society’s rich and powerful. Not only is this corrupt, given

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Art by Prudence Wilkins-Wheat

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

NO SUSTAINABILITY IN SHAME With the impending doom of our planet on the horizon, environmentalism and sustainable lifestyle choices have rightfully come to the forefront of the global consciousness. Yet the sustainability movement has often come under fire for being elitist, and it absolutely is.

Sustainable consumption is the use of services and products that cause minimal harm to our planet, preserving it for future generations.

But the lack of an intersectional outlook on sustainability means that many do not differentiate between those who are unwilling to be sustainable and those who cannot.

Being “good” to the planet has a substantial price tag and effectively locks out low-income brackets.

We are all familiar with free-market capitalism—an economic and political system where trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. Because freemarket capitalism is profit-driven, it has ensured that sustainability is not universally accessible.

Higher price points for sustainable essentials such as food and clothing effectively bar these options from people in lower-income brackets.

Yet, the sustainability movement often neglects to critique capitalism as the main driver of the profitdriven actions of large corporations.

Approvals for the disastrous Adani coalmine have been repeatedly forced through by state and federal governments, showing us that as long as ecocide is profitable, capitalist elites will continue to carry it out at a global level. But the sustainability movement too often sets it sights on the choices of individuals, resulting in a regrettable culture of shame that villainises non-sustainable lifestyles

Vivienne Guo, USyd Women’s Officer 2020, on the classism of the sustainability movement.

and ignores the complex barriers to entry created by capitalism.

A statement made by animal rights group PETA claimed that eating meat and being an environmentalist are mutually exclusive.

This cynical dichotomy highlights a central flaw in the sustainability movement – the onus of saving the planet should not merely be on consumerism but on destructive multi-million-dollar corporations with devastating ecological footprints. While ethical fashion brands like Reformation or With Jéan are heralded as shining beacons of sustainability in comparison, they are still positioned to be profitable, as capitalism would have them be. With prices reaching into the hundreds, they are inaccessible to most. Overly optimistic representations of ethical fashion uphold the same culture of shame as in PETA’s activism, because such optimism can be exclusionary, and perhaps unwittingly create an economy of cultural capital that revolves around one’s ability to access or perform sustainability.

The absence of affordable sustainable alternatives feeds back into the social media shame culture.

That being said, those who can, should buy keep cups or become vegan. The meat industry treats animals horrifically and we are devastating our planet with the wasteful processes that underlie fast fashion. However, the priorities of low-income demographics lie in quiet everyday survival. Shame cultures misconstrue the inability to be sustainable with an unwillingness.

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Shame does nothing to reduce barriers of entry into sustainability, while creating animosity that gatekeeps climate justice. We should not shame poor people for being poor, we should focus on the root of the inaccessibility dilemma—capitalism.

Capitalism tricks us into thinking that buying and living sustainably will make a world of difference when the Carbon Majors Report reveals that just 25 corporations have been responsible for over half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions over the last 30 years.

Art by Claire Ollivain Eco-friendly consumerism should not be seen as the final destination of climate justice but as a side quest. We must approach individual sustainability critically with an intersectional and anti-capitalist lens because sustainability is a luxury under capitalism. Until the sustainability movement stops weaponizing shame and ignoring accessibility, it cannot meaningfully contribute to the continued survival of our planet.

Our Mother’s Pain Elizabeth Jarrett, Gumbaynggirr Dunghutti Bundjalung poet and activist

Welcome to the land down under, Where all are welcome to rape and plunder..

The Australian flag that flies so high, Is one that represents terrorism and lies!!

The national anthem states “we are young and free” But not if you are born a First Nation like me…

Mining is rape against our mothers will, Turning her into Mars with craters of land fill..

Drilling, digging and fracking with force, All for the supreme and privileged and their resource.

Our custodians denied their sovereign right to voice, To protest now leaves fines and jail as our choice..

Rise up First Nations no more silence, The time has come to end the offshore and colonial violence..

Our land sold from right under our feet, To a corporate thief that can’t fill their greed.

Our waters poisoned never again to flourish, Our communities destroyed n people being punished, Why is it they can’t understand She is our mother not just a piece of land.

Their dollar beholds their ultimate power, But where will be it’s worth in our mothers final hour….

This poem was originally published in Honi Soit, January 2020

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Photography by Finn Bryson

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

A.C.A.B?

The myth of a protective police force Adapted by Shani Patel from articles by Pranay Jha and Amelia Mertha, Honi Soit Editors 2019 Art by Claire Ollivain

For most people, common interactions with the police force occur when cops are patrolling public spaces, supposedly performing a deterrence function by being on the lookout for crimes. Whilst many benefiting from settler privilege in so-called “Australia” may associate this police presence with feelings of safety, this is not the case for large proportions of First Nations people, and people of colour. The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody concluded that First Nations people are over-represented in all forms of custody — despite making up only 3% of the population, they represent 27% of the prison population.

The commission made 339 recommendations for policing, criminal justice incarceration, education, health, reconciliation and self-determination — in 2019, it was revealed that the majority of these have not been implemented, or have only been partially implemented.

At a Black Lives Matter protest in August last year, Gumbayngirr activist Gavin Stanbrook addressed the crowd in a speech at the steps of the NSW Supreme court: “These people inside, the arbiters of choice and decision, they’re the ones who send our people to jail. They’re the ones who lock us up. They’re the ones who condemn us to a life of oppression and exploitation.”

Whether they are targeting queer communities in recreational spaces, attacking unassuming people of colour walking home or silencing protestors voicing dissent, violence from police tends to produce a tiring and repetitive social response. It begins with a sense of shock, as the police push the boundaries of inhumanity with their callous brutality. Some of that shock turns to anger, which may translate into calls for reform. Those in power pretend to listen by offering a reductive reminder that there are only a few “bad apples”. A debate begins over re-training police officers, changing their attitudes towards marginalised groups, or reducing their use of weapons. Meanwhile, we slowly

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forget the names of the victims and survivors, and the police continue to antagonise broader society on a daily basis.

Engagement with these debates is underpinned by an often unchallenged assumption; whether good or evil, the police are a necessary protective force.

If asked to picture a world without the police, images of unadulterated anarchy feature in their minds — windows of shops shattered by looting rapscallions, cars being set on fire, the distant sound of gunshots, and so on.

Underpinning the prison abolition movement, which is closely tied with anti-cop rhetoric, is a vision of community accountability and rehabilitation without carceral capitalism. This movement aims to dismantle prisons, replacing them with a system of community care and rehabilitation — one that treats the source of many crimes rather than just reacting to them with temporal and spatial punishment. As the legendary Black feminist and abolitionist Angela Davis says, “prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings.”

For example, when considering instances of sexual assault, the police are often the last port of call.

A report released by the ABC in January 2020 revealed that of over 140,000 sexual assaults reported to the police, almost 12,000 were rejected upon belief that the assault did not occur, over 34,000 were ‘cleared’ without making an arrest, 50,800 remain unsolved, and just under 42,600 led to legal action. In NSW, only one in 10 reports since 2009 has led to legal action. We must therefore question whether a system like this, which imposes suffering on so many, and offers so little justice for victims who do put their faith in the police and the justice system, is one that is viable. Prisons exist as an ongoing colonial structure, with police acting as agents for a government that is driven by capitalism and white supremacy.

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

What is a ‘just transition’?

The organised working class is crucial to achieving the economic changes that are necessary to handle current environmental concerns stemming from carbon emissions.

Historically, workers have had the ability to shut down workplaces and disrupt the economy. Hence, the labour movement is responsible for many of the workplace rights we enjoy — from the 8-hour-day to sick leave. Beyond this, they can be thanked for public education, transport and healthcare systems, along with having given support to issues like Indigenous land rights, ending Apartheid in South Africa and ending the war in Vietnam.

Over the last 15 years, Australian politics has proven that the market alone will not be sufficient to force the changes that we need. The coal and gas industry has a stranglehold on federal and state politics that will not be broken by cheaper renewables. Large scale economic planning and public investment in renewable energy is needed in order to shift our energy

system. This must be demanded by a grassroots movement of millions of ordinary people, which the union movement can provide.

There is a legacy of hostility between the environment movement and the labour movement, propelled by conservative politicians who position the need for environmental action against the need for job creation.

This is evident in the Hunter Valley, where unemployment is high and many local people are in favour of new coal mines, while opposition is strongest in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne. These issues are complex — workers in coal communities accept the reality of climate change, but many see no alternative source of livelihood. The coal industry is a major source of employment; it absorbs not only those who directly work in the mines, but those who work in supporting industries like transport, mechanics, and other general services.

Alongside concern for livelihoods is a concern that climate action would increase power prices, thereby

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increasing cost of living pressures for poor and working class households. This is mere subterfuge invented by Tony Abbott and the coal industry — it is actually the privatisation of the energy system over the past 25 years which is responsible for the increases in our energy bills.

The environment movement is not blameless in this division either. In 2014 when Hazelwood power station in Victoria closed down, 750 miners were left jobless — many of whom had never worked outside of the industry. There was no plan in place for their job transition. As environmental groups were celebrating, one worker described the experience of hanging his hat on a memorial to the mine as “gut-wrenching” — on this memorial hung a banner reading ‘God hates greenies’.

This lack of consideration for workers alienated those whose livelihoods depended on the project, playing into perceptions that the movement is a middle-class inner city project which cares little about working people.

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Andy Mason USyd Enviro Officer, 2018

A just transition is not only a necessary part of action on climate change, but without strong working-class climate politics, we are unlikely to see any meaningful action at all.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) are currently committed to the planned expansion of coal and gas in Australia.

These projects expand from the Galilee Basin to the Upper Hunter and Gunnedah coalfields to the Beetaloo gas basin in the Northern Territory. There is a widespread attitude among members of these unions that a transition to renewables will leave their members high and dry. In some ways, this is not totally unfounded — the renewables projects that we have seen have terrible safety standards and low wages. There are currently no apprenticeships on offer in renewable energy in

NSW. Shifting these unions towards a progressive climate policy will require a forwardthinking positive vision for the world we want to create, one which looks after both workers and the environment.

There are some examples of transitions being done well — for example, after Hazelwood’s closure the CFMEU managed to negotiate a retraining and early retirement scheme for hundreds of workers formerly employed in the power station. Germany has also had a large scale transition away from coal, which has ensured retraining of coal workers, while the UK and US concepts of a ‘Green New Deal’ put forward a positive vision for expansive economic change.

We should look to examples like this for guidance.

We also have a home-grown legacy of workers and the environment movement working together. The ‘Green’ in ‘green politics’ was first used to describe the Green Bans, a 1970s movement in which construction workers in Sydney refused to work

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on projects that were environmentally or socially damaging. These actions saved large areas of working class housing, urban bushland and inner-city parklands. The secretary of the union, Jack Mundey, argued that workers should not only be concerned with improving our pay and conditions at work, but also about the end result of our labour. We need to revive this vision of a labour movement willing to stand up for not only workers rights but for environmental and social justice issues more broadly.

A major barrier is that the union movement is currently relatively weak, with about 15% union density, in contrast to 50% in the 1970s and 80s. The reasons for this decline are complicated, but young workers today need to remember how to rebuild the union movement and how to throw our power as workers behind the important movements in this country such as climate change and Indigenous rights. This is difficult but not impossible — we’ve done it before.

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Art by Shania O’Brien

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THE NSW WATER CRISIS USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Felicity Macourt wants to know where all the water has gone.

Walgett, meaning “a meeting of two rivers” in Gamilaroi language, is a rural town in Western NSW. The bodies of water referred to in the town’s name are the Namoi and Barwon Rivers, both of which ran completely dry in 2019.

Residents have been left without access to safe drinking water and natural relief from the heat that these rivers once provided. The town has been forced to rely on warm bore water that damages gardens, stains basins and exposes residents to excessively high levels of sodium, as well as the potentially fatal risk of amoebic meningitis.

Air-conditioning units, which rely on water evaporation, are now defunct for residents facing temperatures consistently rising above 40º Celsius. Alarmingly, conditions worsened last year in Walgett when the bore system broke down, leaving residents reliant on crowdfunded campaigns to access bottled water.

At best, the government has negligently failed to protect the complex river system due to inadequate investment in ecological research programs.

These problems are not limited to Walgett. The Burrendong dam on the Macquarie River is the main water source for cities including Dubbo, Wellington, Cobar, Nyngan and Warren. It is at 4.5% capacity, and rapidly depleting. Even in Sydney, water storage levels are likely to reach emergency lows this year. The Warragamba Dam is expected to run dry in 2022.

And the scale of injustice only worsens upon investigating the causes of these water shortages.

While rising temperatures have greatly contributed to the drought, the government’s flagrant mismanagement of waterways has proven to be a more immediate cause of this environmental destruction.

In 2017, a landmark Four Corners investigation revealed that billions of litres of water set aside for environmental purposes in the Murray Darling Basin Plan were instead being exploited for irrigation heavy industries. Evidence in the program suggested that textile and agricultural industries have tampered with water meters to avoid licensing restrictions. In particular, the cotton industry uses the largest volume of irrigation water, making up 26% of the national average as demand for fast fashion remains high. At best, the government has negligently failed to protect the complex river system due to inadequate investment in ecological research programs.

At worst, the mass fish kills and droughts along the Murray Darling Basin represent a complete failure to monitor and enforce water restrictions in the name of corporate profit.

For too long industries have profited from the destruction of stolen land, while First Nations People — who have lived sustainably in their communities for thousands of years — have 013 been challenged

with unemployment and poverty.

Now, the traditional owners of the land do not even have access to a viable source of water.

Importantly, these rivers are sacred Indigenous sites often referred to as bloodlines. Not only do these rivers sustain life as the arteries of the land, they are also an important place of ancestral connection for many First Nations Peoples. North of Lightning Ridge, newborn babies have been washed at the Narran River for generations, as parents and children formed sacred ancestral bonds by the water. Dreamtime stories have been passed down between generations in an ancient oral tradition on the Narran River’s banks.

Indigenous residents, devastated by ecological destruction, have reported that the river’s banks have now become a place of death and mourning, rather than a place to celebrate birth and new life.

Ultimately, the NSW Water Crisis represents an ongoing regime of colonialism that prioritises corporate interests over the rights of First Nations Peoples to access water and connect to country. The flowing rivers that accompanied these stories have now run dry. Wildlife that once relied on the rivers to survive has fallen silent. And residents have been left to mourn by the dry banks.

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Ecofeminism: who is she?

Ava Kofman writes that “an attention to chemistry requires an attention to complicity.” Who and what is complicit in climate change and environmental annihilation? Who and what is changing the ‘chemistry’ of our atmospheres? In theory and in practice, ‘ecofeminism’ understands that the colonial and patriarchal structures and institutions that destroy and exploit the natural environment and non-human, and oppress and exploit marginalised communities, are one and the same — mutually enforcing and mutually beneficial. These structures and institutions rely on the denial of body autonomy, self-determination and basic human rights in order to justify profit and power-driven environmental destruction. Ecofeminism is an intersectional feminist lens that should necessarily include queer, Indigenous, disabled and ecological approaches, visions and experiences.

For example, in the state of Victoria, the Djap Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy is currently fighting to protect sacred birthing trees on Djap Wurrung country that have been marked to be destroyed by Labor’s plans to build a highway. The survival of First Nations sovereign land is inseparable from First Nations culture and identity such as these sacred trees.

Their protection must be considered inseparable from feminist reproductive justice.

The water in Flint, Michigan USA has not been clean for more than four years.

The majority of the city’s population is African-American and about forty-one percent of Flint’s residents live in poverty. Access to clean water is not formally recognised as a fundamental human right but it is a fundamental human need that is unmatched in its necessity for health and survival. (It is worth remembering that we, too, are bodies of water). Flint’s water crisis is a further example of we can see how paradigms of environmental justice and reproductive justice emerge as they bear on the issues of environmental racism, reproductive health, and the neoliberal notions of ‘choice’ and ‘liberty’. Hazardous waste dumping, the pollution of urban water channels, de-funding health services and Art by Emily Cork (@ohdeer.art)

by Amelia Mertha

infrastructure are ways in which governments compartmentalise communities of color and poor communities globally.

Nancy Tuana, an American feminist philosopher, writes that the “boundaries between our flesh and the flesh of the world we are of and in is porous.” We should work to think similarly of the relationship between nature and culture. As ideologies, objects and practices the two can no longer be separated.

Ecofeminism attempts to focus on ways of thinking than do not necessarily entail Western binary (or dual) structures that homogenise and normalise (such as heternormativity, disability as ‘unnatural’, and cisgender as the only gender), often times violently and lawfully. According to Australian ecofeminist philosopher, Val Plumwood, some other binaries we must interrogate and dissolve include mind/body, self/ other, private/public and production/reproduction. The survival of white supremacy and patriarchy need such binarisms to persist. Thus, we resist and repair.

How we protect and nurture the environments we live within is part of the demands that other grassroots movements for justice and equity ask us to visualise and strategise. In our lifetime we are likely not to see these utopias realised, but if, after Donna Haraway, we stay “with the trouble” and unsettle the norm, we’re probably heading in the right direction.

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USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? Tom Davidson McLeod

Your porcelainic cheek—as white, and warmer Than coral bleaching caused by thermal trauma.

The tangled smokey black within your hair— More dark (with fewer toxins) than the air.

Your lips are trilling threads of daring red— Crimson as skies that ferment overhead.

Your smile, full of kindness, grace, and trust Makes short my breath (as does the ashy dust).

Your sweet, liquescent voice’s still emotion— More smooth than oil spilt across an ocean.

The glimmer of your eyes—sharp and discerning— Glows bright like sixteen million hectares burning.

Like hope stolen from Greta Thunberg’s eyes; Like future prospects stolen from the youth; Like Murdoch stole our chance to hear the truth; Like Mephisto stole Faust with Marguerite; Like polar ice caps stolen by the heat; Like time steals youth and rots what’s ripe and fresh; Like rising seas will soon steal Bangladesh; Like twigs, for nests, are stolen by the starling— Like gigalitres from the Murray Darling.

I love you just as coal’s loved by deniers; Like soft koala fur’s loved by our fires; Like voyagers adore uncharted miles; Like rising seas love Pacific isles; Like kindness loves the act of benefaction; Like federal cabinets love climate inaction; Like hummingbirds love flowers once they’ve flourished; Like droughts love watching cattle die, malnourished; Like generals love their medals for distinction; Like humankind loves watching mass extinction; Like God so loves to hear a child’s wish— Like thermal shock loves slurries of dead fish.

The truth is you and I belong together— Like fossil fuels and climate changing weather; Like nectar goes with bees, or does with stags; Like turtles’ stomachs go with plastic bags; Like weddings bands that fit a dainty finger; Like radiation goes with Maralinga; Like Hello Kitty and the term “kawaii”; Like firestorms and vacations in Hawaii; Like star-crossed lovers go with adolescence— Like Garbage Island and planned obsolescence.

Like sorrow goes with loss, and love with lust Like Gina Rinhart’s children and a trust.

My heart’s as chasmic as Adani’s mine Your love’s a subsidy more sweet than wine.

And hence thou be no summer’s day, dear thing.

I shall compare thee to a silent spring.

My heart is yours, you’ve stolen it away— Like starlight stolen by the break of day; Like mystery stolen by hows and whys; 015

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

THE 17 PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE The overwhelming whiteness of environmental activism in so-called Australia complicates and obscures the anti-colonial and anti-capitalist project of environmental justice. However, there would be no environmental grassroots movement without the leadership and wisdom of First Nations and People of Colour. Let’s turn back to October 1991. In Washington D.C. grassroots delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit draft and adopt 17 principles of Environmental Justice (EJ). Although some principles are US-centric, as a guide for the movement and the term “environmental justice” itself, these principles have since reminded and inspired action and radical change globally.

Words by Amelia Mertha

THE PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (EJ)

1) Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.

2) Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.

3) Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.

4) Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.

5) Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples.

6) Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

7) Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision — making, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.

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8) Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

9) Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.

10) Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

11) Environmental Justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.

12) Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.

13) Environmental Justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.

14) Environmental Justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.

15) Environmental Justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

16) Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

17) Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to ensure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

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A just transition to Indigenous Sovereignty James Sherrif, on why sustainability without justice is unsustainable.

Climate justice is Indigenous justice.

This is an idea which is fundamental to the philosophy of the Enviro Collective, however the actual links between these two concepts are not always well-understood or widely recognised. Amidst the growing push for a ‘just transition’, the concept of justice itself should be clear and tangible, not simply a rhetorical commitment. Understood fully, the idea of a just transition represents not simply a necessity but an opportunity.

‘Environmental racism’ is a concept first articulated by marginalised African-American communities in the US, who fought the unequal distribution of industrial pollution in the 1970s and 80s. The movement challenged the racialised nature of environmental degradation; while affluent, white communities had access to clean, well-maintained natural amenities, poorer, black and brown communities were surrounded by under-regulated and destructive industrial sites, waste facilities, and toxic pollutants.

In post-colonial contexts, the concept of environmental racism has come to incorporate calls for sovereignty and decolonisation as well as redistribution, with movements utilising this understanding of racialised environmental injustice to strengthen their demands for systemic change. It is here that campaigns for Indigenous sovereignty become inherently intertwined with the just transition process.

Justice discourse emphasises that transition and decarbonisation are not just technological but societal

projects. It is this which is so often overlooked (or intentionally obscured) by mainstream discussion on renewable energy and climate change. Within the dire and urgently escalating crisis there is an opportunity for change. It is a chance to seize the current, broken order of things and rearrange it to actually work for the common good.

The experience of Maori communities in New Zealand, in particular, shows the strength of such an approach. Compared to the rest of the world, New Zealand has a particularly well developed renewable energy industry, which provides 85% of the country’s electricity from (largely) hydroelectrical and geothermal sources.

In the vast majority of these developments, Maori communities are actively involved, in some cases through the training and employment of local Maori workers, and in more active leadership roles where projects exist directly on native lands (as is the case with most geothermal sites).

This creates a system of “mutual development,” allowing Maori communities to manage the process of transition with dignity, while also providing expertise and guidance in the development of native lands with new technologies.

This moves beyond the basic conception of justice as redistribution, and demonstrates the strength of a deeper, societal understanding of sustainability. It is possible due to the existence and respect of the Treaty of Waitangi — the founding document of New Zealand. The Treaty broadly guarantees the “full authority” of Maori communities over traditional natural “treasures” (both tangible and intangible), and is the basis for 018

this more cooperative, sustainable model of land and resource management.

A similar idea has emerged in Australia through the First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance, formed as a way to deal with soaring energy costs and unlivable conditions in parts of regional Australia through the community ownership of energy projects. Partnerships between certain local councils have also been formed in some areas to provide renewable energy to communities.

While these are admirable projects, they are isolated and restricted by the inequalities built into the current system. To work, genuine respect for Indigenous sovereignty — and the systemic change needed to allow this — is essential, as well as significant state investment and intervention in this industry.

A just transition then, is one which champions Indigenous sovereignty.

From this starting point, questions of public ownership and ideas about a jobs guarantee and decentralised community ownership of renewable energy projects can flow. The inequalities of the past and present must not be built into the system for generations to come.

A just transition is an opportunity to restructure society to benefit all — to use Indigenous knowledge to shape our understanding of sustainability, and learn from the mistakes of the past. To ensure that the energy and resources that are drawn from these lands are held by its traditional custodians, and shared sustainably amongst us all.

Climate justice is Indigenous justice.

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

a climate movement built on rock, not sand In the last few months the climate movement in Sydney has been awash with rallies. Week after week the public, tired of climate inaction, have made their way to central Sydney and marched together for climate justice. The crowds have grown, dwindled, grown again and dwindled again. How many more times will we have to march? How many more people need to be on the streets until the demands are met?

Perhaps these are the wrong questions to ask.

Fundamentally, rallies are limited to what demands they can win for a movement. If we are to win climate justice, we are going to need more than a series of large rallies.

Rallies certainly demonstrate power in numbers, provide an opportunity to expand the politics of masses of people around a certain topic, and coalesce the community under central and uniting demands.

However, they do little to shift the balance of power

movement. But using power without building it, is to assemble the climate movement on a bed of sand: one storm and everything will wash away.

How do we organise our communities so that power lies with working people and all those who will be affected by the climate crisis? I can offer a few suggestions: hold mass meetings, build unions in your workplace and strike for climate, go out of your way to find new people for the movement and invite them in warmly, eject the fossil fuel industry from every community using blockades, protests pickets, and the erosion of their social support. All of this with an eye to overthrow the capitalist class that will continue to exploit the land and people so long as they can make a few extra dollars along the way.

How do we string all of these actions together so that we really can build a world run for the needs of working people? We will only find the answer when we struggle to work it out together. I hope you will join us.

But using power without building it, is to assemble the climate movement on a bed of sand: one storm and everything will wash away.

Words by Toby Walmsley State ASEN Convenor 2020

between those who have much to gain from coal, oil, and gas extraction (fossil fuel companies, the political class, financiers) to those who have much to lose from climate change (working class, poor people whose experience of climate change is magnified by sources of oppression already in their lives: e.g. sexism, racism, homophobia). We need something more than mobilising people to do that – we need to organise.

I do not suggest that one ought to be prioritised over the other. Clearly, in order for our organised power to make an impact, we have to mobilise it; in fact, mobilising presents many opportunities to organise communities and pushes groups and movements to grow. However, in the current climate movement, mobilising is prioritised over organising. To suggest reasons why this may be the case, mobilising is easy, exciting, and immediately gratifying, whereas organising tends to come with less glory and with less opportunity to direct the short-term direction of the

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USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

SOCIALISM 101 SOCIALISM 101 SOCIALISM 101 SOCIALISM 10 SOCIALISM 101 Himath Siriniwasa explains the basics of socialism.

Every introduction to socialism is skewed by the ideological commitments of the socialist writing it. As Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan Robinson points out: “if you ask 10 socialists what it means you’ll get 12 or so different definitions.”

This article does not aim to survey the diverse theoretical, empirical and normative commitments of socialism as a tradition in political thought, nor does it try to provide grounds for formulating a “one true socialism”. Rather, by analysing values central to the paradigm, we hope to canvas concrete and idealised institutions conducive to a world free from exploitation, hierarchy and the denial of real, human needs.

Anti-Capitalism Broadly speaking, socialism is best understood as an economic arrangement alternative to, or evolving from, capitalism. This allows us to make a distinction between socialists and social democrats. The latter seek to supplement capitalist institutions with regulations and social programs like free healthcare, education and welfare. Intuitively, it seems that an economic system cannot be labelled capitalism and socialism at the same time. As such, to proffer an understanding of socialism, we must first analyse the constitutive features of capitalism.

It is important to note that the presence of one or more of these features does not entail the presence of a capitalist economy. Markets, for example, predate capitalism by centuries, and the origins of wage-labour can be traced back to Rome or juridically to Anglo-Saxon England.

Solidarity Central to the socialist ethos is the rejection of the class system, in

the name of the ethic of solidarity.

This is most eloquently summarised

by American socialist Eugene Debs: “While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” Socialists contend that class oppression is a central barrier to human dignity, freedom and equality. While there is vast disagreement in how to address some common features of society often-associated with capitalism in a socialist economic system, the fundamental abolition of class categories is an aim central to most socialist thought.

Wage-Labour & Exploitation Socialists argue that there is something fundamentally exploitative about capitalist social relations. However, they disagree on what this is. Many Marxists and Anarchists adopt the labour theory of value (LTV), that holds that economic value of a good is constituted by the amount of (socially necessary) labour time that went into producing it. As such, workers are exploited when they are paid a wage less than the value produced by their labour. Defenders of capitalism have used the LTV as a bulwark against socialism, arguing that as it is empirically false, the core assumptions of socialism are misguided. While there are strong arguments both for and against the empirical success of the LTV, both sides miss a more fundamental point — that workers are responsible, and entitled to, the fruits of their labour (known as the labour theory of property (LTP)).

Distribution and Ownership Socialists tend to agree with the abolition of the class system and the democratic control of workplaces and communities. However, they

diverge on the economic mechanism by which goods and services are allocated. Marxists hold that the ills of capitalism are caused by a system of commodity production (ie. production-for-profit) and that markets must be replaced by “united co-operative societies [regulating] national production upon a common plan”. Thereby, many Marxists and anarchists advocate for a planned economy (production-for-use) accompanying a partial or total abolition of all market relations. Other socialists argue that planned economies have a propensity towards bureaucracy, hierarchy and inefficiencies (as seen in the USSR) incongruous to the ideals of socialism, holding that autonomous worker cooperatives should be able to engage in commercial activities and trade of some (but not all) goods and services.

Socialists also typically hold that productive resources should be put under social or common ownership.

The nature of ‘social’ ownership differs extensively, with workercooperatives, municipally held, and nationally held resources all falling under this category.

Conclusion At its roots, socialism developed from the ideals of thinkers systematically opposed to capitalism. Since then, debates have raged endlessly on how to spell out this alternative.

Fundamental to this ideal is the abolition of the class system and the call for direct management and control of production by free associations of workers. Socialists must follow this vision with institutional experimentation, open-mindedness and genuine pluralism if we are to propose a feasible, ecologically-oriented and revolutionary alternative to capitalist and state socialist systems of the past.

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USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

The Racist Politics of Australia’s Waste Management

Madeleine Rowell, USyd Waste Fighters Society President 2020

In a society that is becoming increasingly aware of the environment, the materials we use and where they end up are creeping into the forefront of mass environmental-consciousness. Sure, Coles and Woolies have banned plastic bags at the checkout, but the pressure remains on individuals to make personal changes.

Businesses get off without reprimand, and the associated politics is largely ignored.

So-called Australia’s massive output of waste (67 million tonnes per year on average) is not just a case of an individual’s poor choices at the supermarket. Whilst the ‘zero waste’ movement (in which people attempt to use and dispose of as little waste as possible) has begun to take off, a lifestyle without waste is expensive. Toxic and non-biodegradable materials remain cheaper to produce than recycled goods — large-scale corporations who make up the majority of this waste production have little incentive to remove plastics from their supply chains. As countries such as China and Indonesia are now accepting far fewer recyclables from Australia, the government must finally accept responsibility.

However, landfill sites continue to increase in size as consumers are taught to put their faith in the power of recycling, but the government lacks the appropriate infrastructure to recycle these materials. Ecocide remains convenient and economically viable.

Waste management under a capitalist and colonial regime has been ruining native land and displacing First Nations people for decades. As the government remains complicit in dumping massive amounts of waste into landfill sites, we must step back and question what this means. Not only are landfills a significant source of greenhouse gases as organic waste decomposes anaerobically, but sending waste to landfill means dumping on stolen country. Linked to this is a fundamental disregard for sacred lands, all for the sake of the economic greed of powerful corporations under a capitalist regime. We have ignored the harm caused by our country’s deplorable waste management for too long, and we need to recognise those who are suffering.

The burden of waste management currently rests on the wrong shoulders: those of the individual. The colonial grip that still holds every aspect of this country right down to waste management remains largely intangible to the population. We need to recognise that this land was stolen, and that dumping waste on it is a crime: we were never given permission.

Art by Claire Ollivain

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Goodbye Nuclear, and Good Riddance

In earlier times, renewables were more expensive and it was thought that nuclear reactors could be built far more cheaply; but we now know that none of this is true, and much of this propaganda results from corporate greenwashing. Support for nuclear power in Australia has nothing to do with energy policy ‒ it is a component of the ‘culture wars’ driven by conservative ideologues, such as Andrew Bolt or Barnaby Joyce who support coal, oppose renewables, loathe environmentalists, and deny climate change science.

In reality, renewable power is far cheaper than nuclear power. Investment firm Lazard’s November 2018 report on ‘levelised costs of electricity’ found that wind power and utilityscale solar are approximately four times cheaper than nuclear power. A 2018 report by the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator concluded that “solar and wind generation technologies are currently the lowest-cost ways to generate electricity for Australia.”

Renewables can also provide a far greater contribution to power supply and to climate change abatement compared to an equivalent investment in nuclear power. Peter Farley, a fellow of the Australian Institution of Engineers, recently proved that we can get equivalent renewable power plus backup power for a third of the cost of nuclear power, in a third of the time.

Apart from its inability to compete with renewables, there are plenty of other reasons to be concerned about the nuclear industry as well.

- In Australia, an important concern is the nuclear industry’s appalling treatment of First Nations peoples. Maralinga is one example, where the government tested nuclear weapons on Indigenous land. The fallout gave radiation poisoning to Indigenous communities.

- Nuclear power programs have provided cover for numerous secret nuclear weapons programs (including in Australia). In a worst-case scenario, nuclear warfare would quickly cause catastrophic climate change.

- No country has a dump for high-level nuclear waste.

- Nuclear power is incredibly thirsty: a single reactor consumes 35‒65 million litres of water every day, mostly for cooling.

- Catastrophic nuclear accidents are rare but devastating in many respects, as in the case of Chernobyl (which cost an estimated A$1000 billion) and Fukushima.

In January 2019, the Climate Council, comprising Australia’s leading climate scientists and other policy experts, issued a policy statement concluding that nuclear power plants “are not appropriate for Australia – and probably never will be.” The statement continued: “Nuclear power stations are highly controversial, can’t be built under existing law in any Australian state or territory, are a more expensive source of power than renewable energy, and present significant challenges in terms of the storage and transport of nuclear waste, and use of water.”

For more information, go to: dont-nuke-the-climate.org.au, nuclear.foe.org.au, or wiseinternational.org/nuclear-monitor.

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Jim Green, Friends of the Earth

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

An Intersectional Climate Movement Kedar Maddali, USyd Ethnocultural Officer 2020, exposes the whiteness of the climate movement Recently a press conference took place in Switzerland with a panel of young climate activists from all across the world. Perplexingly, during the Associated Press coverage of the event, 22 year old Ugandan climate activist (the only person of colour on the panel) Vanessa Nakate was conveniently cropped out.

Though this post was later taken down, this incident is indicative of the malicious paradigm of racism and erasure of PoC (people of colour) and Indigenous voices from the climate movement.

This incident is neither isolated nor unprecedented as it is a part of a systemic enfetterment of Indigenious and PoC voices which has been used to silence generations of activists in environmental movements.

Unfortunately the communities most affected by environmental crises are disproportionately from the voiceless global south and marginalised people in the global north, who continue to be the victims of climate violence.

Indigenous and marginalised people of colour have been on the front lines of climate violence and “understand climate violence not as a threat of a future apocalypse but as the wind that fans the flames of existing injustices.” Given Indigenous people have been outright refused help from so called “charities” in bushfire devastated areas, and black communities of New Orleans, whose homes were lost during Hurricane Katrina and then demolished to build a new highway, racism during a climate crisis is a very profitable venture. Further alienation of PoC and Indigenous voices from what can only be described as ‘privileged’ protest groups is indicative of the deep and systemic racism that is rooted within the climate movement. The global south is constantly sidelined in climate conversations, disasters such as the Jakarta Floods which killed tragically 66 people (and were happening at the same time as the Australian

Photography by Finn Brysonn

bushfires) and Cyclone Idias in Mozambique in 2019 which took over 1000 lives. These disastrous events would be making headlines all over the world if they had happened in the global north. Thus all climate movements must centre around marginalised voices who struggle not only to be understood, but heard.

A clear indication of a dysfunctional environmental movement is the lack of marginalised communities taking part, and no other group personifies the petite bourgeois idealism and race exclusionary politics better than the burgeoning Extinction Rebellion movement (XR). Drawing the ire of many activist groups, XR has continually shown to be a non inclusive space for PoC with brazenly racist statements suggesting that PoC could rest assured when they are arrested as “most prison officers are black and do not wish to give you a hard time”. A few days later a figure head for the movement, Rupert Read stated strict immigration laws are needed for a successful climate movement; statements eerily similar to ones of eco fascists suggesting that the once most affected by the climate crisis (namely immigrants) are the ones to blame. This divisive agenda by an outwardly “politically neutral’ group is extremely detrimental to the climate movement as it suppresses the people who need representation the most.

The deep seated and systemic racism must be erased from the climate movement if there is any real progress to be made. We must centre our activism around peoples and communities which are most prone to the effects of climate violence and do our best to educate the movements which attack the people who are most affected by climate change. The climate movement will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.

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Fossil Free USyd Fossil Free USyd is a student-led group formed on campus in 2014 to advocate for the University of Sydney to fully divest from fossil fuels.

The University of Sydney has three main sources of income: government funding, student fees, and investment returns on its $2.5 billion endowment. The USyd’s endowment is made up of donations, legacies and bequests amassed over the many years since its inception, and this money is invested for an annual return of a few percent, which is used to fund the university’s operations.

As Fossil Free USyd’s Freedom of Information requests revealed in 2019, the university has $22.4 million invested in the following fossil fuel companies: BHP Billiton ($9.35M), Woodside Petroleum ($5.9M), AGL Energy ($1.60M), Oil Search ($1.56M), South 32 ($1.30M), Royal Dutch Shell ($1.04M), Whitehaven Coal ($541K), EOG ($400K), CNOOC ($354K), CLP Holdings ($232K), and Santos ($137K).

By remaining invested in fossil fuels, the university lends social licence to these companies, allowing them to extract and release more dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than we can afford if we want to stay below 2°C of global warming. Fossil Free USyd calls for our university to divest from these companies and commit itself to protecting the future of its students.

In 2019, as USyd began putting together its Sustainability Strategy, Fossil Free USyd joined with staff divestment advocates to propose that divestment from fossil fuels be included in the strategy. In spite of this, the university has not made any commitments to divesting as part of the Sustainability Strategy. In 2020, as USyd announces and begins rolling out its Sustainability Strategy, our goal is to highlight the hypocrisy of remaining invested in fossil fuels while promoting a grand vision a “sustainable future”.

Fossil Free USyd is one of many Fossil Free Uni groups on campuses across Australia and the world, and this network of student-run campaigns is part of a broader global fossil fuel divestment movement, working to push institutions towards climate justice. Since the divestment movement began in 2013, more than $12 trillion has been divested from fossil fuels worldwide. Fossil fuel companies are recognising the divestment movement as a real threat, with American coal company Peabody Energy citing divestment as one of the reasons for its 2016 bankruptcy.

Some recent divestment wins from universities include the University of British Cloumbia’s December 2019 commitment to fully divesting from fossil fuels, as well as the University of California’s September 2019 announcement that it was immediately divesting its $80 billion portfolio from fossil fuels.

The time is ripe for USyd to follow the lead of these institutions, and to use its endowment to make a real impact.

Alison Eslake, Fossil Free Usyd Convenor 2020 024

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Imagining a Net Zero Future Alexi Barnstone, Editor of The Climatized Those who are suffering from climate anxiety are often overburdened with a sense of helplessness. Media coverage eschews discussions over practical systemic change for discussion about economics versus ecology, the focus on profit versus nature. The discussion leaves us with a sense of learned helplessness, that feeling that irrespective of what we do capita is too powerful, nature is bound to be destroyed.

in greenhouse gas emissions, by 2100 the world could warm by 4ºC since pre-industrial times.

In order to realise the positive path projected by CSIRO, the scientific research institute calls for global cohesion and action on the issue of climate change.

The Slow Decline model provides us with an indication of the direction that Australia is headed in should it fail to act quickly, in conjunction with a global effort of similar vigour.

Research from the CSIRO may beg to differ. In 2019, they published the Australian National Outlook Report, which used complex economic, social, and environmental modelling to explore the difference between possible ways Australia could look in 2060. The two possible scenarios were; one where the nation fails to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow, and one where it doesn’t. 50 leaders from 22 different organisations across sectors assisted in the development of the report, which was the second of its kind. When it came to climate change, it could not have been clearer, stating “we are beyond the ability to eliminate the effects of climate change.” This confronting reality, however, does not mean the situation must necessarily be dire.

In the event that Australia stays its course, CSIRO’s modelling provides a trajectory that only sees an 11% decline in our emissions by the year 2060.

CSIRO compared different assumptions on GDP growth, a common measure of the strength of the economy, and action to reduce emissions. The findings indicated that economic growth was an independent factor from the issue of emission reduction. That GDP could grow at a steady rate simultaneously with a radical reduction in emissions across the nation. This decoupling, between emissions and GDP, shows us that stronger action on environmental measures need not come at the expense of economic outcomes.

Without a significant reduction

The positive outlook, which the report denotes as the Outlook Vision, suggests that with

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strong global action to limit climate change, lower emissions from energy, and greater sequestration to draw down carbon from the atmosphere, the nation could reach a net zero emissions target by 2050.

The scientific capacity to mitigate the damages of climate change exists. What is lacking is the political will. Australia has the ability to address this crisis, and avoid the worst of its cataclysms. But to do so will take leadership, forward thinking and staunch action on the issue. The entirety of the repercussions for the Anthropocene cannot be avoided in this late hour, but through activism, spirit and vehement demanding of climate action, the worst may yet be avoided. Political will is key to addressing this issue. The economy vs. ecology dichotomy is false, and the world can still be made a better place.

Art by Ellie Stephenson

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

The New Normal Hotter, drier, and more volatile — the story of a changing climate by Kate Scott As per usual, cricket plays in the background of the Boxing Day BBQ. Your uncles,brothers and cousins cheer on every thwack of ball against bat. As an ad break begins, breaking news presenters read the headline: “Climate Change major contributor to Bushfire disaster”. Your uncle takes a swig of his Corona and grimaces, “Australia’s always had bushfires.” he calls out to the TV, “this is normal!”

You remember the first time you saw a severe weather event. You were four years old. That day, you danced around the sprinkler in your aunt and uncle’s front yard. Bright pink zinc smeared across your nose and your feet poked by bindis in the wet grass. When the dark storm clouds appeared on the horizon, the sprinkler was turned off and you were ushered inside. It wasn’t long before pieces of ice “the size of golf balls” fell from the sky. You had gone to Sunday school and were certain that this was the end of the world, that the rapture was coming. Your mum ran inside from her banged up car, slipping on the ice. She ended up needing a bag of peas for the growing welt on her head and bruises on her shoulders.

It’s years before you see hail again — outdoor furniture ripped to shreds and the car taken to repairs for dents and cracks. But as you get older, hail becomes a staple of summer, no longer a rare occasion. Now every time those thunderstorms roll over the horizon, you are waiting. Arms filled with old outdoor cushions and towels, you wait for that first piece of ice to hit the ground. And then you run, racing to cover the cars on the street with enough padding before they get damaged. And as your toe gets banged up by a rogue piece of hail, you swear this wasn’t always the norm.

In high school, you learn about energy production and mining. You learn about how it can release gases that keep heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse. That summer, the school tells students with asthma to stay home one Wednesday because of bushfire smoke. You come back to Sydney before Christmas last year. You thought the lights you saw outside the aeroplane window were towns, but the orange glow gave them away. You see the map of fires on your phone and are filled to terror. On the news you see charred rubble where towns used to be. You see families in water up to their waists and the sky a blazing red. You see animals covered in burns and bandages. You try to fall asleep at night but feel like you’re choking on the smoke, and gasp for air.

And yet, the Prime Minister assures that “we’ve had bushfires before.’’

But we haven’t, not like this. We haven’t had over 17 million hectares burned in a single fire season, so close to civilisation. We haven’t seen smoke so vast it could be smelled in South America. This isn’t normal. It is the violent throes of climate that is changing, becoming hotter, drier, and more volatile. We’ve known this since Scientists predicted it way back in the 80’s.

Yet people like your uncle put on their tinfoil hats and disregard those “leftie snowflake scientists.”

They argue that it is normal, or blame the collective efforts of hundreds of arsonists when only 24 individuals have been charged with committing arson this bushfire season.

You stand among a crowd marching along Hyde Park. You’re chanting… pleading for the government to listen: “Don’t let this be the new normal.”

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USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Adani: Explained Emma GolDrick brEAKS IT DOWN What is the Adani Group?

The Adani Group is an Indian conglomerate headed by selfmade billionaire Gautam Adani, who purchased a Queensland deposit of untapped thermal coal in the Galilee Basin in 2016. His plan, now in action, was to build the Carmichael mine, essentially doubling Australian carbon exports by producing 60 million tonnes of coal every year and clearing the land for nine more mega-mines belonging to five different mining companies. Reports

by Environment Justice Australia have found extensive environmental violations by the Adani Group in several countries, including bribery, shell companies, tax havens, suggested fraud and money laundering.

How many jobs will the mine actually create?

The Adani Group and Australian Government pitched the prospects of the Carmichael Mine by claiming that the economic benefits outweighed the negative environmental consequences since the mine would generate 10,000 jobs by peak operation in 2024.

However, 2018 Nationals MP Brigid McKenzie forecasted that the mine would only create 100 ongoing jobs.

How are First Nations communities affected?

The Wangan and Jagalingou people, the Traditional Owners of the land that Adani currently excavates, took legal action against the group on the grounds of native

title. Denial of their sovereignty in support for Adani is “an act of war and terrorism,” explains David Cole, a member of the original sovereign tribal federation.

“Wangan and Jagalingou have never knowingly acquiesced their title nor dominion over the lands,” proclaims Adrian Burragubba, a member of the Wangan and Jagalingou tribes. Refusing to recognise their dominion and relaying title to Adani, argues Cole, is a form of “ethnic cleansing”. In removing them from land and records Australian authorities revert to a terra nullius ideology, burying their history, religion and family — alive.

erbate the rate of coral bleaching and destruction to The Great Barrier Reef exponentially, through destructive processes such as dredging to expand shipping terminals. Dredging is known to degrade the water quality of the area and destruct sunlight. Despite the current water crisis, the Queensland Government has granted Adani a license to unlimited water. Roughly 250 litres of water are required to produce one tonne of coal. If the Adani Carmichael Mine reaches its touted peak rate of production of 60 million tonnes a year – it will be responsible for an estimated 120 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

How bad are the environmental ramifications?

The Queensland Adani Carmichael Coal Mine would be the largest mine in the Southern Hemisphere and amongst the largest in the world. Despite the devastating environmental repercussions and plummeting coal prices, the Australian Government continues to back Adani through lifting restrictions on land and water and conducting immense subsidisation.

Projections of the Adani Carmichael Mine include 500 more coal ships travelling through the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area annually for the next 60 years, access to 270 billion litres of groundwater for 60 years (free of charge) and an estimated 4.6 billion tonnes of carbon released into the atmosphere.

Adani isn’t the only mine Though the Carmichael Mine will have massive ramifications, 14 new and expanding coal projects in NSW could create more coal than the Adani Group and release more carbon pollution.

Australia’s primary contribution to climate change is the exportation of coal. 90% of the coal mined in the Hunter Valley is exported.

According to Lock The Gate: “Annual greenhouse emissions from NSW coal exports, when burnt in overseas power stations, are approximately triple our annual domestic emissions..”Adani being one of the largest singular mines drew big media attention but we must also acknowledge and #stop the mines outside of the public spotlight which are equally as damaging.

The Carmichael Mine will exac027

USYD ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE // COMBUST 2020

Thank you to everyone who made Combust happen: Alev Saracoglu Alexi Barnstone Alison Eslake Amelia Mertha Andy Mason Claire Ollivain Elizabeth Jarrett Ellie Stephenson Ellie Zheng Emily Cork Emma Goldrick Felicity Macourt Finn Bryson Himath Siriniwasa James Monaro James Sherriff Jim Green Kate Scott Kedar Maddali Misbah Ansari Madeleine Rowell Pranay Jha Prudence Wilkins-Wheat Shani Patel Shania O’Brien Toby Walmsley Tom Davidson McLeod Vivienne Guo

Facebook Page: USYD Enviro Collective Facebook Organising Group: USYD Enviro Collective 2020 Instagram: @usyd_enviro Email: environment.officers@src.usyd.edu.au 028