Date: 2025-03-14 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00017360
Climate Crisis
Australia
I now look back on my 20 years of climate activism as a colossal failure ... The climate crisis is so severe the actions of the denialists are now an immediate threat to our children
Peter Burgess
schoolchildren marching through Cambridge city centre during a climate change protest.
‘As I have become ever more furious at the polluters and denialists, I have come to understand they are threatening my children’s wellbeing as much as anyone who might seek to harm a child.’ Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
In this age of rapidly melting glaciers, terrifying megafires and ever more puissant hurricanes, of acidifying and rising oceans, it is hard to believe that any further prod to climate action is needed.
But the reality is that we continue to live in a business-as-usual world. Our media is filled with enthusiastic announcements about new fossil fuel projects, or the unveiling of the latest fossil-fuelled supercar, as if there’s no relationship between such things and climate change.
In Australia, the disconnect among our political leaders on the deadly nature of fossil fuels is particularly breathtaking.
Prime minister Scott Morrison continues to sing the praises of coal, while members of the government call for subsidies for coal-fired power plants. A few days ago, the energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, urged that the nation’s old and polluting coal-fired power plants be allowed to run “at full tilt”.
In the past, many of us have tolerated such pronouncements as the utterings of idiots – in the true, original Greek meaning of the word as one interested only in their own business. But the climate crisis has now grown so severe that the actions of the denialists have turned predatory: they are now an immediate threat to our children.
A ‘colossal failure’ of climate activism
Each year the situation becomes more critical. In 2018, global emissions of greenhouse gases rose by 1.7%, while the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere jumped by 3.5 parts per million – the largest ever observed increase.
No climate report or warning, no political agreement nor technological innovation has altered the ever-upward trajectory of the pollution. This simple fact forces me to look back on my 20 years of climate activism as a colossal failure.
Many climate scientists think we are already so far down the path of destruction that it is impossible to stabilise the global temperature at 1.5℃ above the pre-industrial average without yet to be developed drawdown technologies such as those that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. On current trends, within a decade or so, stabilising at 2℃ will likewise be beyond our grasp.
And on the other side of that threshold, nature’s positive feedback loops promise to fling us into a hostile world. By 2100 – just 80 years away – if our trajectory does not change, it is estimated that Earth will be 4℃ warmer than it was before we began burning fossil fuels.
Far fewer humans will survive on our warming planet
That future Earth may have enough resources to support far fewer people than the 7.6 billion it supports today. British scientist James Lovelock has predicted a future human population of just a billion people. Mass deaths are predicted to result from, among other causes, disease outbreaks, air pollution, malnutrition and starvation, heatwaves and suicide.
My children, and those of many prominent polluters and climate denialists, will probably live to be part of that grim winnowing – a world that the Alan Joneses and Andrew Bolts of the world have laboured so hard to create.
How should Australia’s parents deal with those who labour so joyously to create a world in which a large portion of humanity will perish? As I have become ever more furious at the polluters and denialists, I have come to understand they are threatening my children’s wellbeing as much as anyone who might seek to harm a child.
Young people themselves are now mobilising against the danger. Increasingly they’re giving up on words and resorting to actions. Extinction Rebellion is the Anthropocene’s answer to the UK working class Chartists, the US Declaration of Independence and the defenders of the Eureka Stockade.
Its declaration states:
This is our darkest hour. Humanity finds itself embroiled in an event unprecedented in its history, one which, unless immediately addressed, will catapult us further into the destruction of all we hold dear […] The wilful complicity displayed by our government has shattered meaningful democracy and cast aside the common interest in favour of short-term gain and private profit […] We hereby declare the bonds of the social contract to be null and void.Words have not cut through. Is rebellion the only option?
Not yet a year old, Extinction Rebellion has had an enormous impact. In April it shut down six critical locations in London, overwhelmed the police and justice system with 1,000 arrests and forced the British government to become the first nation ever to declare a climate emergency.
So unstable is our current societal response that a single young woman, Greta Thunberg, has been able to spark a profoundly powerful global movement. Less than a year ago she went on a one-person school strike. Today school strikes for climate action are a global phenomenon.
Tasmania is burning. The climate disaster future has arrived while those in power laugh at us
On Friday in Australia and elsewhere, school principals must decide whether they will allow their students to march in the global climate strike in an effort to save themselves from the climate predators in our midst, or force them to stay and study for a future that will not, on current trends, eventuate.
I will be marching with the strikers in Melbourne, and I believe teachers should join their pupils on that day. After all, us older generation should be painfully aware that our efforts have not been enough to protect our children.
The new and carefully planned rebellion by the young generation forces us earlier generations of climate activists to re-examine our strategy. Should we continue to use words to try to win the debate? Or should we become climate rebels? Changing the language around climate denialism will, I hope, sharpen our focus as we ponder what comes next.
Tim Flannery is a professorial fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne
This piece was originally published in the Conversation
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I never thought I'd see the Australian rainforest burning. What will it take for us to wake up to the climate crisis? Joëlle Gergis Read more Climate strike in Australia: everything you need to know about Friday's protest Read more
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Opinion Australian politics Greta Thunberg Climate science denial Tim Flannery School climate strikes comment Share on LinkedInShare on Pinterest Reuse this content Advertisement SPONSORED BY LEAN STARTUP CO Experience Innovation In Action At The Lean Startup Conference A 2-Minute Video. Three Days Of Deep Learning In San Francisco. A Lifetime Of Impact. Sessions For Enterprises And Government Agencies; Startups; Nonprofits; And A N... Editorially independent, open to everyone We chose a different approach — will you support it? Find out more most viewed in US My father had a lifelong ticket to fly anywhere. Then they took it away Live Global climate strike: Greta Thunberg and school students lead climate crisis protest – live updates As a foreign reporter visiting the US I was stunned by Trump's press conference Lenore Taylor Area 51 raid: people gather near military base to 'see them aliens' The wearable LEX chair lets you sit where you want – but will it catch on? promoted links from around the web Recommended by Outbrain About this Content Meghan Markle Wore an Everlane Jumpsuit to Her British Vogue Shoot—And It’s Still in Stock Meghan Markle Wore an Everlane Jumpsuit to Her British Vogue Shoot—And… EVERLANE ON PEOPLE Meghan Markle's $100 Cashmere Sweater Is Back in Stock Meghan Markle's $100 Cashmere Sweater Is Back in Stock T+L - STYLE 30 US Cities With the Worst Reputations (Stroudsburg is arguably the worst) 30 US Cities With the Worst Reputations (Stroudsburg is arguably the worst) ALOT TRAVEL [Gallery] Marina Sirtis Turns 64 & Is Definitely Not Like We Remembered [Gallery] Marina Sirtis Turns 64 & Is Definitely Not Like We Remembered HISTORY A2Z You could save $699 on car insurance by switching to Progressive PROGRESSIVE [Photos] Obama's Brand New House Is Far From What You'd Assume BUZZNET Surgeon Says You Can Now 'Look Younger' Just By Doing This BEVERLY HILLS MD See why this clothing company is keeping everything in America CBS NEWS About this Content comments (446) Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion. Guardian Pick I can express my debt of gratitude to Tim Flannery enough. The Future Eaters was probably the book of a decade for me, it galvanised me that much. A masterpiece, a master at bringing science to the masses. I too despair. My 80 yo dad despairs. It seems all we are going to be left with is a I told you so. Not good enough for our children and their children. But I take heart in one thing. When the data starts to roll in over the next 20 years and th… Jump to comment Craig Murray 3d ago 55 56 Experience Innovation In Action At The Lean Startup Conference A 2-Minute Video. Three Days Of Deep Learning In San Francisco. A Lifetime Of Impact. Sessions For Enterprises And Government Agencies; Startups; Nonprofits; And A New Lean Startup Core Concepts Track. Get A Glimpse Of What You Can Expect To Experience At The 2019 #LeanStartup #Conference.... Guardian Pick You have been a warrior on the front line for many years Mr Flannery, and your work has helped to inform a generation and pave the way for the activism today and the activism to come. None of your effort has been wasted. It has helped to lay a most important foundation. But you are right; the gloves must now come off. Richard Bugg © 2019 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.