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Climate Future Spokesperson, Richard Weller, has penned an open letter to his federal MP and shared it with The Point and our readers.
Open Letter to Dr Gordon Reid MP
Australian Government
Dear Gordon,
We have talked previously about climate, and I have to say that all the latest news is very bad. Recent jumps, particularly in ocean temperatures, have created very hot conditions for the last 12 months. This is well known to anyone keeping tabs on climate science. People are depressed about the lack of action. They are desperate and are looking to who they will vote for in the coming elections – not only in Australia but in all countries around the world.
In truth, climate change now should dominate all other government issues and be the number one priority.
First – no new development of any fossil fuels. That means a full stop to any spending on port facilities, pipelines, railways, new mines, exploration or expansion, both locally and globally. Approvals of any new exploration, drilling, mining or any other activity surrounding extraction of fossil fuels must be stopped. The situation is now desperate enough that any facilities currently in the development process must not be allowed to proceed. If this ban on fossil fuels requires legislation, then that must be done immediately. Essentially, fossil fuel companies have to be told by government that they must get into another type of business or go out of business.
Second – an appropriate emissions reduction target, such as the Climate Council’s call for 75% below 2005 levels by 2030, must be implemented. Significant investment in ramping up all government emissions reduction programs is required. Given the increase in atmospheric concentrations of GHGs since the last IPCC report, the net zero target must be brought forward to 2035.
Third – the necessity of negative emissions, another point from the IPCC that has not been part of the public discourse. Negative emissions are a necessary part of the transition away from coal, oil and gas that enable us to control the warming of our atmosphere. Once we reach net zero, we must continue into negative emissions to the tune of 100 million tCO2 extracted each year from the atmosphere and stored permanently. This extraction must be a global project by all the world’s countries and has to be kept running for several decades to meet the Paris goal of 1.5C. Therefore, the government must prepare to invest in direct extraction and permanent storage systems with a plan to have 100 MtCO2/year capacity ready for operation by 2040 (Australia’s share of the global requirement).
These requirements mean that the Government (and all parts of the economy) must accept that the future holds no place for coal, oil or gas being burnt for any purpose. This currently does not seem to be the attitude of government. Nor is it the attitude of major corporations or even the banking system, which continues to fund hundreds of billions of dollars of investment globally every year. The result will be a catastrophe unless this policy attitude is changed. This is simply what the physics of the world’s atmosphere and ocean require.
Finally, the Australian Government must begin a full scale lobby effort to get every other government in the world to do the same. Particularly the first two points above – no new fossil fuel developments and a serious emissions cut program.
The climate system is perfectly capable of wiping out everything we have built in the last 10,000 years and causing massive loss of life or even human extinction. This planet does not owe us a livable climate. The power of the natural environment goes far beyond the ability of our world to protect itself. We have had evidence of the flimsiness of that protection from the aurora seen across our skies over the last week.
We cannot negotiate with physics. Humanity is staring down the barrel of the climate gun and if you and your colleagues continue to avoid doing what is required you will lead us to disaster.
The voting majority is slowly coming to understand the fundamental nature of climate physics and the degree of impacts to come. Some effort will be needed to further educate them and bring them along on this change of policy direction.
The climate system will not wait for us, though. Extreme events will get worse following the demands of the basic physics and chemistry of the atmosphere and ocean. We have been warned over and over and over again by scientists. If you do not do this, you become one of those many politicians who so far have failed miserably in the face of this challenge. Humanity must take the action that is clearly required, urgently and without diversion.
The link here is to a paper on the collapse of livable conditions across the world within just a couple of decades (Lenton et al, Quantifying the human cost of global warming, Nature Sustainability, 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01132-6). You should note that billions of people live in the areas that are to be impacted.
I would be happy to meet with you to discuss this further.
Richard Weller
for
Climate Future
