David Wallace-Wells, one of the finest writers to engage with the climate emergency, pens a self-explanatory (but definitely worth reading, though it may be behind a paywall) long article titled “Why 2021 could be California’s worst fire season ever.” A Washington Post article (syndicated outside the Post’s paywall as a Sydney Morning Herald article, “The earth is warming faster than expected“) sums up a new NASA/NOAA paper that deduces Earth is warming twice as quickly now than a decade and a half ago. Northwest USA is baking in record temperatures whilst in the midst of a horrific drought.
My country’s prime minister poses for selfies at a G7 meeting, while refusing to endorse any climate action at all. My country’s opposition party matches that willful inaction. Both kowtow to mining-oriental electorates and farmers and retirees.
In about three months, I’ll come to the second anniversary of when I got arrested in the heart of Melbourne as part of an Extinction Rebellion action. XR lives on but doesn’t seem to have engaged the essential broad middle class. I haven’t been arrested again, partly due to Covid-19, partly due to fear, partly due to tactical uncertainty. Since my arrest, Australia has shifted not at all towards doing what must be done.
Gloom pervades. I must act.