Wednesday, 19 June 2024

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (10:02): Recently on World Environment Day as a regular citizen of Geelong I attended the Geelong Regional Library Corporation to listen to a thought-provoking panel on water. One of the panel guests was the formidable Dr Joëlle Gergis. She is an acclaimed climate scientist and was the lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report. For much of her career she has observed the accepted norm among scientists of detached objectivity. However, with the world hurtling towards levels of warming that will lead to unthinkable consequences within decades, Dr Gergis has felt morally compelled to step out of that frame and clearly and unequivocally call out the biggest barrier to meaningful climate action: political failure. Her recent Quarterly Essay aptly titled ‘Highway to hell’ is essential reading for all members of this place, especially those members who heckle me for calling out ongoing support for fossil fuel projects, like the new gas project that Victorian Labor signed off on just last week. Read her essay and then try to tell me you can honestly continue to defend your party’s decisions. I would like to quote Dr Gergis:

It makes me wonder if people in decades to come will look back at the world’s collective failure to shut down the fossil fuel industry in time and see it for what it really is: an intergenerational crime against humanity.