I don’t believe in Climate Change
I don’t believe in Climate Change I don’t believe in climate change. Or gravity?Or electricity? Or night will follow ...
2019/2020
What was going on?
Remember the summer of 2019/20, when the farmers were desperate for rain; towns were running out of water; enormous numbers of fish died because their rivers ran out of water; the bush was getting dry as tinder and the birds and wildlife were dying of thirst and heatstroke?
Our political leaders were still denying the reality of climate change.
And then came the unprecedented bushfires, with the smoke that blanketed us for weeks and months.
Our devastating Black Summer.
The Emergency Leaders for Climate Action wanted to warn the Government of this impending disaster early in 2019, but the denying Prime Minister refused to meet with them, so we weren’t as prepared as we should have been.
When the fires were really bad and people were linking this with climate change, the Government told us that, if it really was a problem, we would just build up our resilience and get through it.
And when this climate problem didn’t seem to go away, it was suggested that we accept it as “the new normal”.
Then it rained.
And rained and rained
And in some places flooded.
These poems are dedicated to those who lived and died through Australia's climate-ravaged Black Summer of 2019-20.
2025 Update
Climate change fuelled drought and fire and rain are getting more frequent and more severe globally and in Australia. It seems that each new event is “unprecedented”. Unprecedented floods in parts of Spain in 2024 and then unprecedented wildfires in 2025. Unbelievably massive and unprecedented wildfires in Los Angeles in January and February 2025 destroyed 16,000 homes, businesses, and many fatalities. The shocking Fourth of July 2025 flood in Texas tore Summer Camp cabins and holidaying families into the flood waters in the middle of the night. The Philippines have been slashed by two devastating back-to-back typhoons within one week in early November 2025. Heart and home breaking.
Many people in Australia have also suffered multiple disasters. Twenty seven (what used to be called) “natural disasters” including record-breaking floods in Eastern Australia and record-breaking drought in South Australia, were acknowledged in just in the first 5 months of 2025. There are still many people affected by previous climate fuelled disasters who have by no means recovered financially or emotionally.
It doesn’t have to be a flood to cause water damage. Like the period of seemingly never ending torrential in Sydney in early 2022 which caused major damage to many houses and other buildings and produced mushrooms of mould. Not to mention sea level rises undermining houses right on the coast. More and more it’s not just “Somebody Else’s Problem”, but all of ours.
Why are the glaciers melting?
Why are the glaciers melting? Why are the glaciers melting, Mum? And tell me why you care, And ...
I don’t want it to be normal
I don’t want it to be normal: To sit and cry among the charred and burnt-out wreckage of ...
Don’t forget the fires
Don’t forget the fires Don’t forget the fires when it’s cool and moist and starts to rain. The ...
Nine/eleven 2020?
Nine/eleven 2020? Were this summer’s bushfires Australia's 9/11 moment? Only longer, hotter; seemingly never ending? Catastrophic, unprecedented fires ...
A Canberra Summer Garden, January, 2020
A Canberra Summer Garden, January, 2020 It's really quiet in my backyard. The few birds you still see ...
Black Sticks
Black Sticks The Black Summer’s gone; the rain has come; The fires finally quenched. The sky’s now clear ...
Somebody Else’s Problem
Somebody Else’s Problem I’m just an ordinary houseperson Living in the suburbs, But I started to have a ...