As the fires rage, we glimpse the evolving abnormal

How good is Australia. I will burn (coal) for you every single day.

I will fix the dearth of tourism, in this burnt land, with a slick video.

This is clearly not what we need now or long-term. Those in the immediate firing line of the fires-that continue, need crisis support. But much more will be needed over the coming months and years.

We are now in the new abnormal.

Of course we must adapt but unless we end the use of fossil fuels our life in Australia will deteriorate exponentially.

What will change this trajectory?

1. Immediate steps:
   • No new coal mines
   • End deforestation
   • Listen to Indigenous voices on land-care
   • Heed the young climate activists – lower the voting age to 16
2. End all fossil fuel subsidies and political enmeshment with coal. Rapidly transition to renewables. – we have left it so late-
3. Put political pressure on all parties, for genuine action.
4. Vote on the basis of genuine effective climate action.

We must all wake up to this emergency. To say it's a giant problem that we can do nothing about, is the way to despair. It's what climate scientist Michael Mann terms the sixth stage of denial. From climate change is crap to, the science is not settled, to its not caused by humans to it's real but it's too late to fix.

The antidote to despair is to search for what you can do and get going.

The human brain is inclined to focus on immediate needs. Climate change requires us to think ahead, to what once seemed a distant threat. The fires are showing us what an increasingly warming world will become.

Since the election of this Government of climate deniers, I have felt depressed and in despair. This Government was elected on a platform of no effective climate action and the vigorous promotion of coal mining.

The fires had brought me so low I had wondered what the point of life was. I have emerged from a period of intense grief, with renewed energy to continue the fight.