Lyrebird Dreaming - Gregory Andrews
If you’ve been feeling like the weather’s getting weirder, storms more intense, and seasons out of whack - you’re not imagining it. One of the world’s most respected climate scientists, James Hansen, has released new evidence confirming what many of us already feel in our bones: climate change is accelerating, and the models we rely on are underestimating just how fast it’s moving.
Hansen’s latest paper, reveals that global heating is picking up pace - driven not just by carbon emissions, but also by a dangerous feedback loop as polar ice sheets melt. This is throwing the planet’s systems out of balance. Sea ice is hitting record lows in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Ocean warming is now so intense that even the fresh water from melting ice - once thought to momentarily buffer surface temperatures - is being overwhelmed.
For most Australians, this might seem like distant science. But it matters. A lot. There’s nothing between us and Antarctica except ocean. When ice sheets melt, sea levels rise. And that’s not just a problem for penguins and polar bears. It’s a threat to every coastal town in Australia - from the Torres Strait to Tasmania. It means more flooding, saltwater intrusion, collapsing insurance markets, and a housing crisis far worse than what we’re already facing.
Accelerated polar melt also disrupts the ocean’s conveyor belts - the currents that drive rainfall patterns, fish migrations, and seasonal stability. As these systems destabilise, we’ll see even more of what we’ve already been witnessing: flash droughts, bushfires in winter, collapsing fisheries and once-in-a-generation floods happening every other year.
But here’s the kicker: we’re not hearing a word about this from either major party right now. In the midst of an election!
Election silence on climate is deafening
Election talk is mostly about the “cost of living” and “housing affordability”. But no one seems to be connecting the dots: nothing threatens our cost of living more than climate change. It’s already making food more expensive, insurance unaffordable, and energy systems more vulnerable to extreme heat and storms.
Yet Labor and the Liberals are refusing to have a serious conversation about climate action. Worse still, they keep approving new coal and gas projects. It’s like putting more fuel on a house that’s already on fire.
Hansen’s paper should be front-page news. It shows the ice is melting faster than expected and that existing climate models are giving us a false sense of security. If we wait for them to catch up, we’ll have waited too long.
Real zero, not net zero. Urgency, not delay
We don’t need more greenwashing, nuclear power plants or vague 2050 promises. We need real zero emissions - as fast as humanly possible - and we need politicians with the courage to treat this like the emergency it is.
The science is clearer than ever. The silence from our so-called ´major parites’ is louder than ever. And the stakes - for our coastlines, our economy, and our kids - have never been higher. That’s why on election day I will be putting credible independents like David Pocock and Jessie Price first on my ballot paper. They care about our kids and country, not parties and power.
Links
- Global Warming Acceleration: Impact on Sea Ice
- Climate scientist Dr Jim Hansen on the miracle that's needed to avoid two degrees of warming
- Climate change target of 2C is ‘dead’, says renowned climate scientist
- Youth Voices for Climate and Country: Hope and Action from Southeast Sydney
- The Climate Consequences of Trump's Win The Climate Crisis and Eucalyptus Collapse
- Staying Optimistic on Climate Action
- Climate tipping points
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