Australia has not Reacted Properly to Climate Change, and Everyone Knows It
Climate change is an ongoing problem across the entire globe. Recently, Australia has seen the worst of it, with bushfires killing half a billion animals. Naturally, people would think that immediate action would have taken place and the prime minister would do anything to protect his country and put out the fires. However, that is not the case with Australia’s current prime minister, Scott Morrison, as he was spotted vacationing in Hawaii as his country was in flames.
Recently, many protests have begun in efforts to send Morrison a message. The public is obviously very angry, stating “We’re protesting this Friday because we’re outraged about our government’s criminal negligence about the bushfire crisis, exacerbated by climate change,” said a group on its Facebook page. “We are protesting to give a voice to the tens of thousands of people who want real action on climate change and real funding for relief services.” Throughout the country, it is well known that the prime minister has been reacting improperly by his inaction to stop the fires, and this may affect his current position with the Parliament of Australia.
Climate change has been an ongoing problem, and with Australia’s prime minister, he has not been addressing the problem seriously enough for some time now. In an article written more than two months ago, 60% of the 1,083 sample voters believe Australia should be doing more. This percentage is up from 51% in March. The voters worry Australia is not doing enough to reduce the risks of climate change, and more people see a direct link between warming and bushfires, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. This not only shows that the public believe Morrison hasn’t been doing enough, but they have felt this way for a while, even before the bushfires.
To make matters worse, Australia isn’t on track to meet the 2030 emissions to the Paris climate change conference. Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world, with its 0.3% of the world’s population releasing 1.07% of the world’s greenhouse gases. From all of the events leading up to the fires, Scott Morrison should have seen the signs from the public, and acted on it, but he failed to. While Scott Morrison has accepted the link between climate change and natural disasters, the prime minister has argued, including in parliament on Monday during a statement on the bushfires, that it is not appropriate to get into that debate while a disaster is in progress. This has only fueled the public’s anger, and made them as furious as ever.
Australia has been facing a disastrous fire, which gives all leaders around the country a deadly warning to make some real changes on gas emissions. In fact, it gives everyone a warning to fix their daily acts that harm the environment, such as keeping water on longer than necessary or littering. Climate change is all of our responsibilities, which leads to one question; are you going to be apart of the problem, or part of the solution?
