In Australia, “the Land As We Know It Is No More”

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Writes Andy Rowell . . .

My heart is bleeding. My heart is angry. As 2019 draws to an end, Australia is on fire. The country is burning. Homes are being destroyed. And brave volunteer fire-fighters are dying.

. . . For weeks, Australia has been suffering from excessive temperatures. For weeks, Sydney has been choking on a toxic soup of air pollution caused by the fires. Temperatures have been hitting record after record. The iconic Blue Mountains are scorched red and blackened. The land as we know it is no more.

The crisis is mounting with experts predicting the country could see 50 C temperatures – over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. . . . [And] as the earth bakes, the sea boils, leading to large numbers of fish being killed.

. . . Whereas [so many of our] young are climate heroes, Australia’s Prime Minister [Scott Morrison] is a coward, a climate denier who loves coal.

This has to change. Everything has to change. Do not get me wrong: much progress has been made fighting our climate emergency. Renewables have been making leaps and bounds. Coal is slowly heading for the history books. But despite the good news, we are still currently heading for 3 degrees C warming under a business-as-usual scenario – put another way, we are heading for a climate catastrophe. We have lost much of this decade to the deniers like Scott Morrison, but this cannot continue.

So we have to act. The next decade will define our collective future. We better not waste it. We have no time to waste. For we have wasted too much time already.

– Andy Rowell
Excerpted from Decades of Denial Have to End:
We Need Radical Climate Leadership in 2020
Common Dreams
December 30, 2019

Related Off-site Links:
Yes, Australia Has Always Had Bushfires: But 2019 Is Like Nothing We've Seen Before – Adam Morton (The Guardian, December 24, 2019).
Nearly 500 Million Animals Killed in Australian Bushfires, Experts Fear – Harriet Brewis (Evening Standard, December 28, 2019).
“Never Seen That Before”: Birds Falling Dead from Trees – Brooke Rolfe (Yahoo News Australia, December 22, 2019).
Thick Bushfire Smoke Blankets Sydney, Causing Air Pollution to Rise 11 Times Above “Hazardous” Levels – Bianca Britton (CNN, December 10, 2019).
We Are a Burning Nation Led by Cowards – Hugh Riminton (10 Daily, November 18, 2019).
Scott Morrison and the Big Lie About Climate Change: Does He Think We're That Stupid? – Richard Flanagan (The Guardian, November 24, 2019).
Climate Denialism Is Bought and Paid for by a Rotten Political System – Bernard Keane (Crikey, November 18, 2019).
2019 Was the Year the World Burned – Laura Paddison (The Huffington Post, December 27, 2019).
Global Warming, Overpopulation and Social Inequality: Three Legs of Climate Crisis Monster – Gilbert Mercier (News Junkie Post, December 28, 2019).
Nature Will Have the Last Word on the Climate Crisis – John Gibbons (The Irish Times, December 30, 2019).
The Bushfires in Australia Are So Big They're Generating Their Own Weather — “Pyrocumulonimbus” Thunderstorms That Can Start More Fires – Jim Edwards (Insider, December 30, 2019).
Australia’s Hellish Heat Wave and Wildfires, Explained – Umair Irfan (Vox, December 30, 2019).
“Unprecedented National Crisis”: Australians Flee to the Water as Fires Consume Coastal Town on Southern Coast in Victoria – Eoin Higgins (Common Dreams, December 30, 2019).
Thousands Flee to the Ocean to Escape Australian Wildfires – Democracy Now! (December 31, 2019).
Australia’s Angry Summer: This Is What Climate Change Looks Like – Nerilie Abram (Scientific America, December 31, 2019).
Global Apathy Toward the Fires in Australia Is a Scary Portent for the Future – David Wallace-Wells (New York Magazine, December 31, 2019).
The Tragedy of Two Australias: A Lament for New Year’s Eve – Danielle Celermajer (ABC Religion and Ethics, December 31, 2019).
We Spoke to 5 Climate Experts About What Gives Them Hope – Kyla Mandel (The Huffington Post, December 26, 2019).

UPDATES: Australian Bushfires: Extraordinary Satellite Images Show Devastating Scene – Sydney News and Life (January 1, 2020).
Australia Burns: Fireworks, Bush Fires and Denial – Binoy Kampmark (The Australian Independent Media Network, January 1, 2020).
Australia, Your Country Is Burning – Dangerous Climate Change Is Here With You Now – Michael Mann (The Guardian, January 1, 2020).
Call for Royal Commission into Australia's Bushfires as Government Urged to Tackle “Root Cause” – SBS News (January 1, 2020).
2019 Was Australia's Hottest and Driest Year on Record – Kate Doyle (ABC Weather, January 1, 2020).
Australia Fires Create Plume of Smoke Wider Than Europe as Humanitarian Crisis Looms – Jane Dalton (MSN News, January 1, 2020).
Australia Fires: Race to Evacuate Thousands Before Conditions Worsen – Rebecca Falconer (Axios, January 2, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Greta Thunberg: Quote of the Day – September 23, 2019
• Five Powerful Responses to the Amazon Fires
• Greta Thunberg: Quote of the Day – March 16, 2019
• As the World Burns, Calls for a “Green New Deal”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – August 29, 2017
• The People's Climate Solidarity March – Minneapolis, 4/29/17
• Earth Day 2017
• “It Is All Connected”
• Standing Together
• Standing in Prayer and Solidarity with the Water Protectors of Standing Rock
• Prayer of the Week – April 24, 2017
• Earth Day 2015
• Rachel Smolker: Quote of the Day – September 19, 2014
• Something to Think About – April 22, 2014
• The Paris Climate Talks, Multilateralism, and a “New Approach to Climate Action”
• Superstorm Sandy: A “Wake-Up Call” on Climate Change
• Chris Hedges: Quote of the Day – May 31, 2011

Images: Photographers unknown.