An Inconvenient Truth is now the Undeniable Reality.

Allison Marion took this photo of her son Finn as they joined the exodus from Mallacoota - From ABC

I write this post, mindful of the stress and destruction facing so many drought and bushfire affected communities across Australia, not to mention the personal loss and danger facing our brave firefighters. I write, not to disrespect or distract from their situation or efforts, but in support of them, for we can’t keep relying on our best and bravest to fight the effects of climate change. And to hold off on commenting until the fires are out, the rains fall again, and the green grass returns, will only serve the nonsense arguments of climate change deniers, including Donald Trump, who through ignorance, self-interest, or sheer stupidity, continue to espouse conspiracy theories when connecting the ever growing devastation of natural disasters with climate change.

In 2006 Al Gore, US statesman and former presidential candidate, produced the Academy Award winning documentary called ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, which graphically forecast the increased occurrence and devastation from natural disasters globally resulting from human-made climate change, caused primarily from the burning of fossil fuels and methane emissions. To my knowledge this was the first mass market presentation of the scientific facts and predictions that confronted the global community at that time. Despite wide acclaim for the movie much of the world’s mainstream political parties chose to ignore the warnings and widespread inaction resulted. Needless to say the PR and lobbying tactics of the responsible industries played a big part in the political paralysis the ensued.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Australia, a continent forecast to be most affected by climate change, yet for the past decade this topic, coupled with mindless political power plays, has toppled PM after PM, all at a time when we most needed strong leadership to address this threat.

Fortunately, since ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ screened there has been a steady stream of similarly high profile productions and activism efforts to keep the climate change topic on the political and societal agenda. Most recently Al Gore repeated his dire warnings in 2017 in his sequel doco ‘Truth to Power’, supported by Leonardo DiCaprio’s UN ambassadorial and foundation commitments to combating climate change. In the past year (2019) Sir David Attenborough’s documentary ‘Climate Change - The Facts’ and of course the brave stance taken by Greta Thunberg in her school strike activism, have equally reinforced the scientific facts and urgent need for action on the subject. Yet the strongest warning by far has come from Mother Nature herself.

It is now an Undeniable Reality that, as carbon emissions continue to climb, natural disasters globally are occurring more frequently and with more devastating effects than ever before. Again this is particularly evident in Australia.

Yet I continue to read comments from climate change deniers who, ignoring all the scientific facts, want to blame anything and everything other than climate change, the psychology of which utterly baffles me. One even dismissed our current situation on the basis that “bush fires have been a part of the Australian landscape forever”. What an ignorant comment. Of course, they have but a simple Google search on the destructive effects of bushfires over the past century shows how the frequency and devastation of each fire season, underpinned by equally frequent, severe, and longer-lasting droughts, has grown almost exponentially over the past 20 years.  Whereas prior to 1990 a destructive bushfire season would occur in Australia on average once a decade at worst, they have occurred on average every second year since 2001. 

Whilst fortunately improved planning, communications, and firefighting techniques have limited, although not eliminated the resultant and tragic loss of life from these fires, the ferocity of the fires themselves, along with their range and property destruction continues to grow alarmingly, not to mention the devastating and potentially irreversible impact on local wildlife and ecologies. And all of this where we have barely reached halfway to the “target ceiling” of 2% increase in global temperatures. I shudder to think what will happen if we get even close, let alone beyond that target.

I could go on and on quoting facts, but I will leave that to those higher profile and more qualified contributors mentioned earlier. Instead, my message to our political and community leaders is clear. The time for debate and games are over. Address climate change now, urgently, directly, and as your highest long term priority or face an electoral revolt that will consign your political careers and parties to the sorry pages of our nation’s history. This should start by enshrining our UNFCCC Paris Agreement obligations into legislative law as New Zealand has recently done.

And don’t think that throwing a few dollars at our very deserving volunteer firefighters will mitigate your responsibilities. Nor should you wait for some other nation to take the first step whilst pleading our own limited carbon contributions. Whilst this is unmistakably a global issue, Australia are in this up to our necks through our excessively high per capita carbon emissions and of course our fossil fuel exports. More so, true leaders step forward in times of crisis and show others the way. Australia needs to be one of these leaders, politically, technologically, and industrially. And finally, don’t ask we, the consumers, to carry the burden. While we all have an urgent responsibility to dramatically reduce our individual carbon footprints, the biggest and most immediate impacts will result from strong and actionable national policies, initiatives, and investments.

In the meantime, I pray for urgent rains to end the fires and droughts across our great country, and to let our brave firefighters return safely to their families for what’s left of the holidays, and I pledge to continue to keep discussing and debating this topic until combating climate change becomes this country’s highest priority.