Young lead way in call for climate action

The climate strike protests led by school-age children that filled the country’s streets and parks on Friday won’t change anything by themselves but they certainly show that young people are concerned.

The number of people who showed in Melbourne – about 100,000 of them – and many thousands more elsewhere around the country show this movement has struck a chord among young people.

At a time when parents complain about children being disengaged or depressed and lost in a virtual world on their phones, many will applaud the active interest in current affairs. Recognising that, many schools decided to give students time off to attend.

Read the Editorial from The Age - “Young lead way in call for climate action.”

Thanks to humans the ‘wilderness’ no longer exists – but we can make things on Earth better

When the colonists arrived in Australia, they saw themselves as conquering both the continent’s land and its people. In many respects, they didn’t differentiate between the two.

 ‘In every continent, humanity has always shaped nature,
just as nature has always shaped humanity.’

The Bible commands believers (in Genesis 1:28) to “replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”.

That injunction informed terra nullius.

The settlers never believed Australia empty. They knew of its Indigenous inhabitants. But they didn’t believe the natives practised agriculture – and without agriculture (that “subjugation of the land”) the continent could, they thought, only be a wilderness.

Read the opinion piece from The Guardian by Jeff Sparrow - “Thanks to humans the ‘wilderness’ no longer exists – but we can make things on Earth better.”

To get conservative climate contrarians to really listen, try speaking their language

It’s a well-studied fact that facts don’t speak for themselves. This is especially apparent with climate change. Some brilliant studies in the past ten years have shown that people respond to narratives about climate change, not raw facts.

People will listen more when they like what they’re hearing. 

We also know that politics, not scientific knowledge, shapes people’s view of climate change. Hence deniers are generally politically conservative, regardless of scientific literacy. That means a climate change narrative that appeals to conservative values is a high priority.

The effects of climate change are potentially catastrophic. Currently, a minority of conservative contrarians, including politicians in several countries, have an outsized influence on our lack of action. It makes sense that a big chunk of our campaigning efforts should be targeted at them.

Read the story from The Conversation by a PhD student in literature from the The University of Queensland, Jamie Freestone - “To get conservative climate contrarians to really listen, try speaking their language.”