Australia burns while the government fiddles
2019 has been the hottest and driest year on record for Australia, and average temperatures continue to rise:
Whichever way you cut the data, the story is the same — rising temperatures with new records being set (two of the hottest days ever across the whole country over the Christmas holiday period) and extreme weather events as predicted by the climate science, meaning our generation is living with the impacts of climate change not just worrying about the future.
In the 2019–2020 Summer, parts of Australia have experienced unprecedented bushfires that have been terrifying in their scale and intensity.
This video of firefighters from NSW Fire & Rescue led news bulletins all around the world.
However, just as many leading newspapers around the world had coverage of the Australian bushfires on their front pages, alongside analysis of the ‘Climate Emergency’, much of the Murdoch-owned Australian media relegated coverage of the bushfire crisis (eg to page 4 in the WA edition of The Australian), and gave editorial space to the Prime Minister insensitively telling Australians to be ‘patient and optimistic’:
and to the ‘Energy and Emissions Reduction’ Minister, Angus Taylor, (who has been criticised throughout the entire past 12 months for his failures, shady dealings around selling water licences, spin & lies around emissions data, and fabrication within his office of a report to smear a political opponent — with ongoing police investigations) claiming that Australia should be ‘proud of its record on Climate Change’:
Of course the science doesn’t lie, and the data doesn'’t lie, it’s just the politicians who lie:
So, Australia ends the year in multiple crisis. A climate crisis. A bushfires crisis. A tourism crisis. A business crisis. A crisis of confidence — in its politicians, its government, its Ministers, its Prime Minister. The PM was lampooned for his insensitivity and poor judgement in taking a holiday in Hawaii whilst his country was on fire:
2020 has been ushered in with warnings that huge areas of Australia are unsafe, such as this area down the South Coast of NSW:
For the benefit of UK citizens, here’s the size of area overlaid on a different map:
Or US citizens might relate to this:
PM Scott Morrison toured the affected areas but proved to lack empathy once again, especially when he turned his back on a woman asking for help (via more resources for her area):
Sad times indeed. First and foremost because the bushfires have led to deaths of residents and firefighters, mass evacuations, and the loss of more than 1000 homes.
Sad also because the Australian economy has been hit, especially in areas that rely on peak business at this time of year, and because of the damage done to Australia’s international reputation. It has certainly limited the impact of the MateSong tourism promotion video:
(which has inevitably been parodied by many, including The Chaser team).
But perhaps most sadly of all, the Australian government continues to deny climate change, to try and spin the emissions data (Minister Taylor even saying ‘if you take out the components that are going up, then emissions are coming down’!) and claim the disaster is ‘normal’, including the PM telling Greta Thunberg not to cause anxiety among children!
when the reality is that children are much more (self) aware than the political leaders they are supposed to be looking to for climate action. And now they’re facing this as 2020 begins:
Just as I was planning to write some hopeful, optimistic words about the beginning of a new year and a new decade, I find myself writing this:
Australia — the Summer of 2019–2020:
emissions on the rise
politicians full of lies
Climate Change is visible
the PM’s response is risible
bushfires that devastate & destroy
Ministers that frustrate & annoy
the government says it’s achieving
but it’s not even achieving at deceiving
Angus Taylor has a record of which he’s proud
(yes he actually said that out loud)
the lucky country has run out of luck
with a government that doesn’t give a f***
— — —
Paul Vittles lived in Australia for almost 15 years and re-located to the UK in August 2019.
It is a source of great sadness that Australia never managed to agree a climate policy during that period, and continues to have climate change deniers in its government with much power and influence still in the hands of the fossil fuel lobbies — such a contrast to the UK, although heartless governments with harmful policies is something Australia and the UK share!
