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"We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to."
-Terri Swearingen
In 2000, Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, and Eugene F. Stoermer proposed in IGBP's Global Change newsletter that humanity had driven the world into a new geological epoch, "the Anthropocene (effects of humans on the global environment and causing climate change)".[1] From Mallacoota to the outskirts of Melbourne and Sydney, New Year’s Eve brought horror, despair, anxiety in the wake of catastrophic bushfires. An estimated 8.4 million hectares have burned down, roughly the size of Ireland or Austria. Scientists estimate that close to half a billion mammals, birds and reptiles have been killed in New South Wales alone.[2] Human beings are committing what Piers Beirne calls theriocide: diverse human actions that cause the death of animals.[3]
Even though the world is now finally talking about the massive bushfires engulfing Australia, climate change hit the country a long time ago. Giant kelp marine forests have already been devastated by a marine heatwave between 2010 and 2013,[4] which proves that climate change isn’t a problem lurking in the future, it’s here now – ‘post-apocalyptic fiction has turned into current affairs’.[5]During the same period, an estimated 23,000 giant fruit bats - 1/3rd of the total population of the species - dropped dead from heat stress in Queensland and New South Wales.[6] Furthermore, about 90 towns and communities in New South Wales alone are out of water and are relying on trucked water.[7] New South Wales is considered as a global biodiversity hotspot and a defining feature of Australian biota due to its vegetation of 900 different species of Eucalyptus. However, extreme climatic drying and variability in the temperatures have lead to their death[8] Also, a period of three year drought due to El Nino (an irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region) has not even spared the ancient subcontinent remnants of Gondwana (rainforests along the spine of the Great Dividing Range), which are burning for the first time ever in history.[9]
A think tank, Commonwealth of Australia - Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory ranks Australia as the third largest exporter of CO2 in fossil fuels. Also, the 2020 Climate Change Performance Index ranks Australia 57th out of 57 countries on climate change action.[10] But how did Australia reach this tipping point? Both the ruling party in Australia and the opposition have big donors from the fossil fuel industry, which is sending the country to its doom. However, to further understand this it is necessary to return to the history of Australian politics and policy around environment.
The infamous 1996 Cabinet papers showcase how the Keating government adopted a ‘no-regrets’ policy towards tackling climate change. The government ruled out taxing fossil fuels, as it would increase the cost of electricity and hurt the corporates, but relied on the ‘One Billion Trees’ program to create carbon sinks. In fact, the cabinet agreed that “Australia’s overall objective in climate change negotiations should be to safeguard our national trade and economic interests while advancing compatible outcomes that are environmentally and economically effective”.[11] The papers highlight that Australia received massive international pressure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, while they also feared that there would be bans placed on its fossil fuel exports. There are two fires: overt, that burns the living landscapes such as bushes and trees, and covert, which are produced upon combustion of coal and gas. The issue here is that these two realms of fires are interacting in a more entwined and threatening way.[12] For example, fires can start from power lines (2019 Californian fires), which is a demonstration of how these fires interact. The effects of these are not limited to only ocean acidification or global warming, but also how people organize their landscapes – agriculture, nature reserves etc., and thereby causing such bushfires. The Australian government’s environmental policies ensured that Australian land became more barren, which in turn increases the risk of fire, and consequently increases greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
There have been numerous bushfires in the past, like the horrors of Black Saturday in 2009, when some 180 people died in Victoria alone, or the 1967 Black Tuesday Tasmanian Bushfires which left 7000 people homeless. It’s the basic fundamental human right to organize silent protests against the governmental policies that either fail to address the dangers of climate change or are the cause for these massive fires. However, the Australian state government are bringing anti-protest legislation that tend to curb basic human rights.[13] A legislation which has been previously declared unconstitutional as it violates freedom of speech and expression, has been reworked and provides for a penalty of up to 21 years in jail. The government should be accountable to its citizens, especially in such catastrophic situations, with full fairness and transparency. At a time where, on the one hand the Hong Kong protesters are being lauded for standing against Chinese oppression, such law by Tasmania proves to be nothing short of draconian, and shields the government from any responsibility in such situations.
Another concern related to this tragic episode, is the anti-environmental extremism of conservative politicians, including Scott Morrison of Australia.[14] Politicians, supported by the likes of Rupert Murdoch are carrying out a disinformation campaign, to establish and make the public believe that the 2019 bushfires are not worse off than past ones. Murdoch’s outlets have falsely peddled the argument that arson is a major contributor to fires.[15] His newspapers can be constantly seen condemning protesters who demand action from the government, publishing editorials arguing against climate change policies, and containing columns asking for more backburning to control fires. Environmental policies and their related economic ramifications should not be relegated to so-called liberal politics, they should instead be taken seriously by all parties during election campaigns.
How we interpret and respond to global developments like the climate crisis depends upon how we define environmental harm, how we envisage the protection of human, ecological and animal rights, and how we understand the social and political relationships that underpin issues like the bushfires. Firefighting capacity and improved fire preparation communication systems are immediate remedies, but a massive societal and cultural shift would be needed in order to stall climate change and prevent further detrimental effects. In the words of Ross Bradstock, director of the Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires at the University of Wollongong, “If people are to continue living in places like New South Wales, they’ve got to drastically change their relationship with the surrounding environment in order to be able to survive and reduce their vulnerability”.[16]
Author: Harsh Bajpai
[1] Crutzen, P. Geology of mankind. Nature 415, 23 (2002)
[2] Statement by the University of Sydney on 3rd January 2020, Available at: https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/01/03/a-statement-about-the-480-million-animals-killed-in-nsw-bushfire.html
[3]Piers Beirne, “Theriocide: Naming Animal Killing”, Vol. 3 No. 2 (2014): International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 49-66, Available at https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/725
[4] Darryl Fears, “2 degree Celsius: Beyond the Limit”, Washington Post, Dec. 27, 2019. Available at, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/climate-environment/climate-change-tasmania/
[5] Richard Flanagan, “Australia is commiting climate suicide”, New York Times, Jan 3, 2020. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/opinion/australia-fires-climate-change.html
[6] Lisa Cox, “Queensland…. Reduced by heatwave”, “The Guardian, Conservation” 29 Nov, 2018. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/30/queensland-flying-fox-species-decimated-by-record-heatwave
[7] Tina Perinotto, “ NSW considers evacuating”, The Fifth Estate, 13th December, 2019 Available at https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/articles/day-zero-might-mean-tough-choices-for-90-towns-looking-at-new-locations/
[8]Michael Slezak, “Global Deforestation Hotspot”, The Guardian, 4th March, 2018. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/05/global-deforestation-hotspot-3m-hectares-of-australian-forest-to-be-lost-in-15-years
[9] Mitchell Beazley, “The Last Rainforests”, David Attenborough, IUCN: The World Conservation Union, UN Environment Programme.
[10]Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen et. al., Climate Change Performance Index: Results 2020, Available at. https://newclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/CCPI-2020-Results_Web_Version.pdf
[11] National Archives of Australia, Cabinet Papers - 1996-97. Available at https://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/cabinet/by-year/index.aspx
[12]Steve Pyne, “The Australian Bushfires are a harbinger of things to come”, The Guardian, Jan 7, 2020, Available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/07/australia-fires-warning
[13]Amnesty International, 15th November, 2019, Available at https://www.amnesty.org.au/draconian-anti-protest-legislation-would-take-tasmania-back-to-the-dark-ages/
[14] Damien Cave, “How Rupert Murdoch is influencing Bushfire Debate”, The New York Times, January 8, 2020, Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/world/australia/fires-murdoch-disinformation.html
[15] Christopher Knaus, “Misinformation is bushfire coverage”, The Guardian, 10th Jan, 2020, Available at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/10/news-corp-employee-climate-misinformation-bushfire-coverage-email
[16]Bianca Nogrady, “How Long will Australia be Livable”, The Atlantic, Jan 7, 2020 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/only-way-confront-australias-wildfires/604546/
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