The first heat of the year and we are already breaking records

Climate collapse is not coming; it’s already here and Australia is burning faster than ever, writes Ben Laycock.

A NORTHERN WIND blowing extremely hot air from the Pilbara in Western Australia has caused catastrophic bushfires around Victoria. Once upon a time, such things were a very rare occurrence. Although Victoria is arguably the most fire-prone place in the world, just ahead or behind California, we can count on one hand the devastating wildfires of the last century: the fires of ’39, the fires of ’69, Ash Wednesday in 1983, Black Saturday in 2009, and Black Summer in 2019.

We may soon have to take off our shoes to continue counting.

About 60 thousand years before the white man invaded this country, local people were accustomed to a heat wave of this magnitude about every 25 years. They prepared for these extreme events by burning available fuel during the cold months so there was less fuel available during the warmer months, which made sense. Unfortunately, we are so busy doing more important things these days that we don’t bother to make such extensive preparations.

Since industrialization was in full swing, heat waves and other severe weather events have literally started to increase. They have increased at an alarming rate this century. It looks like we can now expect devastating heat waves every five years. Soon they will happen every two years!

On January 9th we had what turned out to be a “once in five years” heatwave here in Victoria. Now here we are two weeks later, facing an unusual heat wave. We have not had a week above 35 degrees on this continent since records began. Scientists tell us that carafullas have never had to endure such extreme weather conditions in the more than 40 thousand years they have lived on this continent.

Of course, we all knew this would happen…eventually, right?

In 1988, NASA’s Jim Hansen announced climate change.* We all knew that industrialization was the cause, but we were all so fascinated by the benefits that we unconsciously decided to continue this enthusiasm, even though we knew deep down in our souls that we would have to pay the price for the deal we had made with the devil. Some of us are already paying the price for this. Most of us are still in denial.

We have come to expect, even demand, that we will become richer as we move through life. If this does not happen, we will become very angry and exclude the government of the day. We’re ready to buy rooftop solar and even the occasional electric car if we can see the economic benefit, but we’re not yet ready to sacrifice our cherished dream of becoming richer as we get older. The average income in Australia is approximately $100,000 per year. This puts us in the top 1% of the world’s population (threshold is US$37,000 (AU$54,000).

In 2020, the richest 1% of the global population produced approximately 16% of the world’s total CO2 emissions. We emit as much carbon pollution as about five billion people, the poorest two-thirds of humanity. We, the 1 percent, consumed our annual fair share of emissions until January 10th. Now we burn everyone’s fair share. In doing so, we helped the ultra-rich burn more carbon. We have all eagerly purchased products created by billionaires to realize our dreams of ever-increasing wealth. The richest 0.1 percent of the United States burns 4,000 times more carbon than the poorest 10 percent of the world.

So if you’re looking for culprits, don’t just blame the polluters, they’re just providing what we demand. Calling your dealer a drug dealer right after solving the problem is a bit hypocritical!

*In June 1988, in the midst of a heat wave in the United States, Jim Hansen spoke to the US Congress. He said he was 99 percent certain the heat wave was caused in part by human activity. The cat was out of the bag. ExonBobile had known about climate change since the 1960s but kept it a well-kept secret. On June 23, 1988, the whole world learned about this. Jim Hanen has been vilified and ostracized ever since.