Nine/eleven 2020?

Were this summer’s bushfires Australia’s 9/11 moment?
Only longer, hotter; seemingly never ending?

Catastrophic, unprecedented fires burning rainforests and wetlands,
Homes, businesses, fences, stock, wildlife.
Too many people died,
Too many people hurt.

Nearly every year is hotter; mostly drier.
Towns running out of water; farmers running out of feed;
More cyclones; beaches washing away; houses too.
Floods killing thousands of cattle;
Lack of water killing millions of fish.

And then there was the smoke –

We couldn’t breathe without hurting our lungs.
Old people and babies in danger.
Is this our great Australian dream? 

They said it would be like this.
They said it would be hotter and drier;
More floods and cyclones; more bushfires.
They even said it would be bad for our health.

They said it would be like this.

But we didn’t listen.
We didn’t think it would really happen to us.
We didn’t imagine it would be so bad,
Or so soon.

For we who have been through this terrible summer,
Nothing will ever be the same.
We have been afraid. We are still traumatized.
We have lost so much of what matters to us.
We look at our world in a different light.
We don’t feel safe.
Terror is around the corner.

After 9/11 our Government signed up to the War on Terror.
That was nothing to what we are starting to face.
Surely it is finally time to wage the War on Carbon?
To stop bickering in Parliament,
Pretending everything will be all right.
Pretending our economy will suffer if we do something.
Knowing our economy will suffer if we don’t.

Will it take a firestorm to hit Canberra’s Parliament House
 before our Government takes real action on climate change?

The fire is coming.
Let’s do something before it gets too close.