THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING
In DNA #228, my editorial was inspired by
Sir David Attenborough’s address to the COP24 climate conference. Sir David urged everyone to empower our politicians to act quickly on reducing and reversing the effects of global climate change. He pointed out that most people understand the seriousness of the situation and want to see action, but that politicians lack the political will to do it.
In my editorial, I encouraged readers to contact their parliamentary representatives and tell them that climate change is an important issue for them, and that they want to see action. Of course, I put my money where my mouth is and on December 13, I wrote to Australia’s Federal Minister For The Environment, Melissa Price, and Australia’s Federal Minister For Energy, Angus Taylor.
In my email I said that I had heard the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, say that, we, Australia, had reduced our carbon emissions and were on our way to meeting our Paris commitments. But this turned out to be untrue. Our emissions are the highest they’ve ever been and, in fact, we have no policy for meeting the Paris agreement.
I don’t believe that transitioning to a lowcarbon energy system will cost jobs or make power more expensive. And I don’t believe we can ignore climate change because “other countries aren’t pulling their weight”. None of those arguments stack up any more.
I received a prompt reply from Melissa Price. It read: “Thank you for taking the time to write to me. This is an automated reply to let you know that I have received your email. As you will appreciate, given the volume of correspondence received, a reply cannot be sent immediately, nor a reply sent to every email received.”
And I’ve not heard from her again.
As for Angus Taylor, it’s now mid-February and I’ve not had even an automated response.
Climate change is a bipartisan issue. Everyone is concerned about the future liveability of our planet. Only a handful of climate sceptics exist. They are usually from vested interest industries or are fringe politicians who see climate change as “ideological”.
Wherever you are in the world, whenever your next chance to vote comes, make some noise and make a difference. I will not vote for a party that does not take climate change seriously or listen to the science on climate change.