Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Climate change

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (15:02): While we have had a break for the winter our friends on the other side of the planet have been enduring worsening climate disasters. So far this year we have had cyclones in south-eastern Africa, including Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar and Zimbabwe; wildfires in Chile and Canada – and as of 17 July in Canada there were 907 active fires, with 500 still out of control; Typhoon Talim hitting the south of China, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan; ice storms in southern United States; and flash floods in six northern Indian states. South Sudan has had its fourth year of historic flooding. There has been record-breaking rainfall in Vermont, there have been ice avalanches and there have been heatwaves across Asia and Europe, including in Greece and Italy. UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared that the era of global boiling has arrived. It has been confirmed that the planet has experienced the hottest three weeks on record since records began, and July is tracking to be the hottest month ever recorded.

The ecosystem that sustains life on Earth exists in a fragile equilibrium that has been permanently and wilfully destabilised by inaction by the global community. While parliaments like this fiddle, our world burns, boils and collapses, and people are dying. People are being displaced from their homes, and societies will soon not be able to function. While we have passed the point of no return on global warming, there is still more that we can do to stop runaway climate change, which means stopping carbon pollution and stopping burning of fossil fuels. To quote secretary Guterres, who said it most powerfully:

The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.