"It is not too late for a collective moment of radical action," says environmentalist Andy Lester

For those of you who have been watching the news since November 2019, you will no doubt have been moved and deeply saddened by the tragic pictures from Australia. Perhaps most telling of all was the shocking image of a kangaroo that had tried to escape the flames and found itself against a fence-where it perished. Then of course there were some more heart-warming images; such as the koala bear sharing a bucket of water with a pet dog; who immediately fell in love with the furry friend and began licking it.

Whether horrific or heart-warming, the images tell a story of catastrophic destruction; never witnessed before in Australia on this scale. Since November 10 an area the size of England south of a line from Blackpool to Bridlington has been burnt to the ground. Scientists estimate that upwards of one BILLION mammals, birds and reptiles have perished. Some species may have been wiped out completely; and the population of the iconic koala has fallen to its lowest level ever. As of January 2020 the koala is functionally extinct. That means the population gene pool is now too small to withstand a sudden shock; such as a virulent virus. Tragic news for the koala; desperate news for Australia and a devastating blow for nature.

Whilst all of this has been happening, the Australian PM Scott Morrison and wider cabinet have continued to deny the reality of climate change. At a recent press conference, during a temporary lull in the fires Morrison repeated his familiar mantra that these fires whilst a tragedy happen frequently and that many of them were started by people. He made no reference to climate at all. And yet this year Australia has faced record breaking drought in the interior as well as the hottest recorded average temperature. On the December 10 2019 Australia recorded its highest ever average maximum at 41.9C (107F). Amazingly that beat the previous record by 1C, which had been set only one day earlier.

Many of us have pointed our fingers at Australia as a terrible example and aren’t we glad that the UK is so much better? And yet what is happening there is only a reflection of a much, much wider problem. The world’s love affair with fossil fuels is diminishing far too slowly; and we are collectively still wedded to oil, gas and coal at deeply unhelpful levels. Australia in many ways just carries on responding to demands from elsewhere and argues that the coal they supply would have to come from somewhere so it may as well be them.

It is the same argument we can so easily use for justifying flying; “well the plane would be going anyway-so what difference does it make?” Or the classic comment of driving “well if I went by train it would cost so much more!”

Until we reach a point where we are collectively willing to take a deep breath and take some significant and sometimes life-changing decisions-we will continue to mess around at the edges. The trouble as Australia has so vividly shown; is that we love kicking the can down the road-but what on earth do we do when the road has run out? We keep on kicking the can! The problem being that where there was a road, there is now a cliff and the can is teetering on the edge.

It is not too late for a collective moment of radical action. Australia may be too late for that. However, we can still turn this around if we work for lasting and meaningful change. But we have probably less than five years to act decisively at both a local and global level.