Climate change is everybody’s business. We have lived experience of it, with extreme weather events now taking a physical, monetary and emotional toll on society. We have a profound obligation to act. If we don’t, future generations would be justified to look back and say ‘what were those people thinking – consuming and amusing themselves without thought for the future’.
We are in a climate emergency. It is not hyperbole. World scientists are ratcheting up their pleas for politicians to act and Mother Nature is speaking loudly with record heat waves (most recently in Europe), bushfires, storms and floods, and coral bleaching.
The frequency of extreme weather events has increased and global economic losses from these events in the past two years is estimated at $653 billion, according to insurance giant Aon. The UN estimates the world could see 1 billion climate migrants as their food and water supplies are impacted. This is not someone else’s problem, it will affect us all.
We know that climate change is real, because we have seen it and felt it. Of the hottest locations on Earth on January 24 this year, 91 were in Australia. Rain dumps in north Queensland led to massive flooding in Townsville and the loss of 600,000 cattle. There were catastrophic fires in central Queensland rainforest.
