Every time an international disaster or horrific injustice emerges, Australia is quick to wring its hands. We’re not a global power, we don’t have a lot of economic power to throw around – we’re the little fish in a big pond. The government uses this as an excuse to say that there is not much we can do to help. People like political lobbyist Kos Samaras insist we shouldn’t ‘waste time’ trying to help others overseas while people in this country live in poverty.
It’s true that when it comes to helping countries in crisis, our government’s ability to help is limited. But there is something Australia can do that would make a significant difference to all these problems and more: Climate action. We could and should take climate action seriously because the climate crisis is worsening every social justice and human rights issue you can think of.
Making a serious plan to cut 50% of our emissions by 2030, beginning with no new fossil fuel approvals, is one of the most helpful things Australia can do as climate justice is deeply connected to the liberation of all people, both at home and abroad.
War & Liberation Is A Climate Action Issue
When Greta Thunberg shared a photo in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza, she was immediately mocked by the Israeli government on its official Twitter account: “Hamas doesn’t use sustainable materials for their rockets.” Not to give Israel too much (or any) credit, but their dumbass tweet does get one thing right by acknowledging the link between war and environmental destruction.
For people living in areas devastated by war and armed conflict, climate change is making everything worse. In Gaza, rising sea levels are eating away at the already crammed strip of land that’s home to more than 2 million Palestinians; with unlivable conditions, intermittent power, and hospitals bombed out of existence, extreme heat is a death sentence.
The Australian government should absolutely be demanding a ceasefire (not a humanitarian ‘pause’). But even in a peaceful future where Palestinians are able to live freely and with sovereignty on their own land, at 2ºC global heating that land may not be able to sustain them.
This is already the reality in countries like Yemen and Somalia, where decades of civil war have destroyed institutions and left people without food or clean water. Extreme droughts make agriculture and water sourcing almost impossible. Somali herder Mohamed Hassan told the International Committee of the Red Cross, “if your animals die, you die with them.”
On top of all this, the climate crisis itself is expected to create 1.2 billion ‘climate refugees’ by 2050. When their own homes become unlivable due to heat, floods, food and water scarcity, where will these people go? The report listed Pakistan as the country with the most people at risk of mass migration, constantly on the brink of disasters like the 2022 floods that affected 33 million people. Just this week the country abruptly began forcing tens of thousands of Afghans refugees to leave and return to a war-ravaged Afghanistan, now under Taliban control.
As finite resources become more scarce, violence will erupt over who gets to control them. In the Democratic Republic Congo, warring militant groups are forcing civilians (including children) to mine the very valuable mineral Coltan, which is used in smartphones, computers, cars and other electronics. It’s so lucrative – worth billions of dollars a year – that armed groups will kill entire civilian communities to gain control of mineral-rich territory.
“If your animals die, you die with them. You can’t survive without your animals.”
— ICRC Africa (@ICRC_Africa) November 4, 2021
The growing #climatecrisis is pushing herders in Somalia to abandon their way of life.
👇🏿are the numbers pic.twitter.com/zOL056XGJE
Climate impacts your job, your health, your home…
Even if, as people like Samaras suggest, we can only focus on the things that directly affect us, climate progress would have a positive impact in every other area of life.
Climate action is a labour rights issue – especially for anyone who works outdoors or in factories, forced to endure extreme heat.
It is health issue, with the climate crisis creating respiratory and cardiac illness caused by poor air quality; to nutritional issues from lower quality fresh produce and food deserts; to diseases from contaminated food and water. What happens if, as one report predicts, Melbourne runs out of drinking water by 2050?
Climate action is an education issue when bushfires and floods close schools (temporarily or permanently); when it’s too hot to think let alone learn; when eco-anxiety develops into chronic depression and ‘climate trauma’ makes schoolwork feel impossible.
It’s a housing issue when Australian homes built on floodplains are swept away; when you can no longer afford insurance because the climate risk makes the cost too great; when the urban heat islands in our most densely populated residential areas become too hot to endure.
Climate action is a disability rights issue when our society’s most vulnerable are not adequately included in local and state-level disaster and extreme weather evacuation plans (a key recommendation from the Disability Royal Commission).
And the one that affects us all – if we continue on the current trajectory, the climate crisis will take up to 14% off the global economy. A whopping $23 trillion burned to ash. Smaller countries will collapse entirely, including lots in the Asia-Pacific region, putting even greater financial burden on the rest. In Australia, this will push even more people into poverty and widen the class divide. Just like we saw with the COVID-19 recession, women, young people and people on low incomes will suffer the most financial devastation. With less economic power, the rates of abuse and violence, health issues, mental illness and homelessness among these groups will increase; their access to education, political and social power will decrease.
The idea that there is a ‘right time and place’ to talk about climate action or women’s safety or exploitative economics or disability rights is a tool that people in power use to keep these struggles siloed from each other. All human struggles are connected and understanding those links strengthens our activism and advocacy. It makes us more powerful, not less.
Don’t listen to anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.
Smart people read more:
Interwoven struggles: The green paradox meets the Palestine paradox – Al Jazeera
An Analysis: What Labor’s Climate Change Bill Is, And What It Is Not
Climate Change Could Cut World Economy by $23 Trillion in 2050, Insurance Giant Warns – New York Times
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