Australia Is Sleepwalking Into A Climate Security Nightmare

Australia is sleepwalking into a new and uniquely 21st century security challenge -- the far-reaching impacts of climate change. It is unlike any previous security challenge we've come across. We're living with this threat now, and will be for generations.

Events such as Cyclone Debbie remind us of the
 destructive impact extreme weather has on our
 communities and livelihoods.

Recently, US filmmakers released an aptly titled documentary, 'The Age of Consequences', which was also aired on Four Corners in March. It serves as another reminder of how far behind Australia really is in dealing with this challenge. The film catalogues in high definition the many security ramifications of a changing climate, as told by former US military and senior policy experts from across the political spectrum. One can only hope that our local politicians digest its sober warnings.

The arguments in the film are not new. Over the past decade, the evidence has mounted that climate change is a direct threat to our peace, prosperity and health, as well as a phenomenon exacerbating geopolitical instability in our region. Australia's future is one of increasingly extreme weather and more natural disasters, both in terms of frequency and severity.

Read Rob Sturrock’s story on The Huffington Post - “Australia Is Sleepwalking Into A Climate Security Nightmare.”

First it was 'sleepwalking into disaster', now it's 'blindly into tragedy'

G

oulburn Valley people were warned in the lead-up to the city’s first ever climate change forum that they were “sleepwalking into disaster”.

And now nearly three years later a similar warning comes from the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs.

Sachs has written in The Guardian that in separating nature from economics, we now walk blindly into tragedy.

The story - “‘By separating nature from economics, we have walked blindly into tragedy’” – tells readers that economic policy must be combined with climate and technology if we are to stand any chance of saving ourselves.

Times are changing, but still we rush toward the abyss

Things are changing, and not just our climate.

Until recently our national media rarely carried a story about climate change, but now it’s referenced nearly every day.

Sadly however, although the media, some of it at least, appears to understand the gravity of what it is we have done to our climate, the people who really matter (our government) are leading charge as we rush toward the abyss.

Economic editor with the Melbourne Age, Peter Martin, has written today lamenting the fact that many of us sleepwalking towards catastrophe.

His comment piece: “Policy’s too hard basket” says that it is time for the Coalition to wake up in climate change and turn the ship around before it is too late.