Whether colonisation fries or freezes the planet, white male capitalists are to blame

Unprecedented. Peter Hannam, Sydney Morning Herald, February 4:

The north Queensland coast is in the midst of an extreme rainfall event … “This event is just an unprecedented monsoonal burst,” says Grace Legge, a senior meteorologist in the bureau’s extreme weather desk …

419mm at Ingham and more than 1.5m elsewhere. Ben Smee, The Guardian, February 4:

After eight days of heavy monsoonal rain … some parts of Queensland have had more than 1.5m of rain since last weekend. At Ingham, north of Townsville, 419mm fell in a single day … At Townsville almost 1m was ­recorded … across eight days of torrential rain.

488mm at Ingham and more than 3.8m elsewhere. Bureau of Meteorology:

Notable Point Rainfall events, Queensland. Ingham — 488mm in six hours on January 4, 1980

Bellenden Ker Top — 3.847m in 8 days from January 8, 1979

The more things change the more they stay the same. Toowoomba Chronicle and The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser, January 28, 1892:

The flood at Townsville. Immense damage. The weather has cleared up for the present … The rainfall was quite unprecedented. At Aitken Vale there was 26 inches (660mm) in 24 hours.

Carbon dioxide highest ever. Tony Moore, The Sydney Morning Herald, February 5:

The levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere in June 2018 reached 411 parts per million, the highest-ever level.

Oh well, at least it’s only the fourth warmest year. Alister Doyle, Reuters, February 6:

Last year was the fourth warmest on record … 2016 was the hottest year … ahead of 2015 and 2017 …

Perhaps we need more colonisation to cool down? Jonathan Amos, BBC, January 31:

America’s colonisation cooled Earth’s climate … at the end of the 15th century (because it) killed so many people … That’s the conclusion of scientists from University College London, UK.

The team says … European settlement led to a huge swath of abandoned agricultural land being reclaimed by fast-growing trees and other vegetation. This pulled down enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to eventually chill the planet … (in) the “Little Ice Age” — a time when winters in Europe would see the Thames in London … freeze over.

No. Blame colonisation, capitalism and white males in Australia. Brandon Baker, Penn Today, February 5:

It’s how we discuss climate change that intrigues Hanna Morris, a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication (University of Pennsylvania) … She tackles the rise of the term “Anthropocene” in climate news … (writing that) the idea of the Anthropocene … validates ‘planetary scale’ projects designed by white male capitalists working from an unaddressed imperial logic” … Colonialism and capitalism, she argues, drove climate change … (and says) the idea of the Anthropocene has taken off in Europe and North America — it’s a sort of get-out-of jail-free card to say that we all are to blame for climate change instead of acknowledging the capitalist and imperial roots of the crisis … (It appears in) articles — which were mostly op-eds … written by white men … (who) cited … the ideas of other white men … It lets the capitalist class off the hook. (It’s popular in the) US and Europe in particular, but also in Australia.