They found that there was no “credible pathway to 1.5 degrees Celsius” and current commitments to action, even if kept, would lead to global warming of around 2.5 degrees Celsius – in other words, a catastrophic climate collapse, with catastrophic consequences for societies around the globe. I read the report, but I admit I skimmed it and continued reading an article about the recent federal budget and a story about a boy rescued from a storm drain. Not because I don’t care about climate change (rather, it’s a consuming personal and professional passion), but because since becoming involved in the climate movement I’ve read countless reports like these. I’m not immune to the message. I just know that I can’t do the work I need to do unless I handle that information in a certain way. That is, like a floor-length taffeta dress I once bought for a formal event: it hangs in my closet as a reminder, only worn occasionally, but I can’t relax or do any real work in it. This requires the elastic pants of functional denial. I’m often asked why other people outside the climate movement don’t immediately react with alarm and take to the streets when they read headlines like this. They may actually be immune to the message. They may not care about the United Nations. But more likely, their failure to respond is a very human response. To feel fear, we must observe and register a threat, such as the sight of a predator. This will then trigger our “fight or flight” response. Climate change appears to defy almost all evolutionary and cognitive incentives for urgent action. Of course, the kinds of extreme weather we’ve seen in Australia and around the world are as tangible a threat to us as a terrorist attack or a virus. But to see these floods and fires in the same vein, you have to make the connection – that this is human-made climate change, not just Mother Nature doing her thing. Australia Weekend In other words, our reptilian brains have not evolved as fast as our ability to develop the kinds of technology that can change, in less than 200 years, environments on a planet that took millennia to develop. The good news is that research I’ve conducted shows that in recent years more of us see these climate impacts as signs of impending doom. About one in three Australians are concerned about climate change and would describe it as a “crisis” that requires more government attention than any other issue. And we can see how quickly electoral politics can change around climate when we compare the 2019 and 2022 federal elections. But the survey also shows that opinion still changes slowly, perhaps 1% for every extreme weather event that occurs. Floods and fires alone won’t turn us all into climate champions in the time we have left. Call me wildly optimistic or semi-delusional, but despite years of exposure to climate science, I don’t believe we’re headed for total societal collapse anytime soon. I still have faith in the ability of groups of dedicated people to work together to shift the odds in our favor. But I also have faith in capital to move quickly and decisively. It’s already happening. Once the corporations that fund politicians realize that there is more money to be made in climate action than in climate denial, we will all be amazed at how quickly things can move. And that brings me to my abiding concern right now above and beyond societal collapse: my concern is not that it’s “the end of the world as we know it.” It’s more like “the end of the world as we would like it”. We must move quickly to accelerate solutions for climate action. More renewable energy infrastructure and – if we want to meet our domestic energy needs and replace coal and natural gas as an export – large-scale renewables such as the proposed Sun Cable and the Asia Renewable Energy Hub. More, not less mining. My concern is that in the necessary rush to solutions we are forgetting the views, values and needs of those who are going to be most affected. The communities where those who work in fossil fuels are concentrated. Those who are geographically, socially, economically or culturally disadvantaged in accessing all the proposed benefits of this energy revolution. Those communities that have been hit and will be hit again and again by extreme weather, drought and water shortages. And First Nations communities are fighting for a real reason when it comes to renewable energy projects, after decades of fighting fossil fuel companies. My concern is not that the Australia of the future will be like Mad Max. More that it could be a more benevolent version of The Hunger Games. Again – call me wildly optimistic or semi-delusional – voters and communities have an opportunity right now to shape the nature of this energy revolution we’re already experiencing. It’s not just about wind farms and green hydrogen, with social downsides worse than during our fossil fuel heyday. This means we need to strengthen the voices and choices of the people most exposed to climate impacts and those most at risk if we just act fast and forget it fairly.
