It’s not often a letter to the editor hits the second top spot on Google for keyword ‘climate’, even if written to Los Angeles Times. But then today’s focus for our climate change chronicles is gasping for air while wildfires rage across eastern Australia. We found the letter so compelling we decided to take a back seat, and let Michael Voorbij from Tenambit, Australia speak from his heart.
The Climate Change Chronicles Unfolding in Tenambit
Tenambit is a suburb of the Hunter Valley city of Maitland, a short distance inland from the Tasman Sea. Maitland in turn is approximately half way between Sydney and Port Macquarie and hence in the fire infested region of New South Wales. At the time we posted this Maitland Mercury was offering advice on using a spare room to help fire evacuees.
Michael Voorbij reached out to the editor of Los Angeles Times, imploring others to learn the lessons of the fire disaster. The father and grandfather blamed the drought and extended fire season on ‘human caused climate change’. The worst is yet to come, he warned as the climate change chronicles roll on.
An Economic and Environmental Disaster is Unfolding
“We are a nation in great peril,” he wrote. “And one further imperiled by a leadership enthralled by the lobbying and revenues of mining corporations. We may well become a failed state in time, a once proudly developed nation, the first nation to fall victim to climate change.”
We have towns with no water during this heatwave, Michael Voorbij continued. Farmers have none for their crops and livestock either. He described living in a haze as if smoking tobacco. “Heed our warning,” he pleaded. “The time to act on climate change is here and it is now. The call is for immediate and urgent action. Make the personal adjustments and sacrifices that climate change demands. Our world is on fire. It is time to act.”
Related
Is Climate or Change Behind Australian Fires?
Australia Fails To Meet Emission Targets
Preview Image: East Maitland Line Serving Tenambit
