I have, along with everyone else in Sydney, spent the last month and more dealing with smoke from bushfires across the state. This is however, obviously not the worst of the national disaster we are now in the midst of as there are countless families who have been burnt out or displaced in rural areas and even some suburbs of cities, millions of animals dead with some pushed to the edge of extinction from habitat loss, and over 5,900,000 hectares (15,000,000 acres) of forest and bushland up in smoke. The relentless news of this ‘new normal’ is really starting to wear on me (as is the heat; I did have plans to do some small projects and travel over the holidays but find myself just escaping in my flat under fans or A/C). Also, the places I was thinking of going are either on fire or blocked from road closure and evacuation. What are we to do other than taking short showers and having a bucket under us as we do? This afternoon I wrote my local MP, Linda Burney about my concerns. I’ve met her a couple times and know that these sentiments are already what she advocates for in Canberra; but I think it’s important as a citizen of what’s ostensibly a functioning democracy to voice them regardless:
Dear Minister,
I’m writing as I watch social media posts from one set of friends evacuating Mallacoota by navy ship and another picking up the pieces down the coast at Rosedale. For the past many weeks we have all suffered through smoke and heat here in Sydney and the months ahead look set to be much the same. What cannot remain the same are the responses and denial from Canberra as we enter a new decade. We, as citizens of a country both blessed with resources and limited by scarcity, expect leadership and coherence from our politicians; however, most of what we encounter is either nonsensical or farcical with little reference to the reality of what’s happening.
I recognise you and your Labor colleagues have attempted to put forward sensible plans for our future but have been frustrated at the polls and hindered by misinformation; please persevere regardless. The alternative is that we, as a country, are blindly led further down the path we have traversed for years that has resulted in this emerging disaster.
Please continue to advocate for immediate action to address both our international commitments and the advancement of changes that can surpass them where applicable. We have immense capacity for renewable energy (including retraining and new jobs for people currently working in the fossil fuel industry to justly transition workers from the old to new); however, the window to accomplish this with any sense of order is quickly closing. We cannot wait till all the coal is burnt and the rivers have run dry to decide it’s time to make the shift. We cannot close down every TAFE* in the country and expect to have the skill base needed to rebuild from the ashes. We cannot divert the flow of our watersheds to grow cotton and expect to have ample supply for our expanding urban populations. Something has to change either now or, alternately, in the future at the ragged end of chaos. Please do all you can to make it the former while that’s still an option.
*TAFE is Australia’s national vocational educational system; it’s gone from world class to massively privatised and decimated over the past ten years.