LESLEY HUGHES PROFESSOR
Having been at the forefront of climate science for two decades, ecologist and former IPCC lead author Lesley Hughes says hope is still our most vital and powerful tool…
It’s easy to feel helpless and hopeless about the enormity of the climate change catastrophe. Our feeds are full of bad news – bushfires, droughts, floods and heatwaves, many on an unprecedented scale of ferocity. But the one good thing about climate change is we know what’s causing it – us. And the latest IPCC report, devastating though it was, made it clear that we still have a window of opportunity to turn things around.
What we do in the next decade is critical. Net zero by 2050 is too late – it’s what we do by 2030 that counts. We must rapidly and deeply cut our emissions by moving from eighteenth century fossil-fuel technology to the renewable technologies of the twenty-first century. We can transition our electricity, transport and manufacturing, and power these sectors with the wind and sun. We can move our money out of institutions that prop up the fossil fuel industry, reduce agricultural emissions with plant-focused diets and cut our consumption and waste. But most important of all, we can elect leaders who share our vision that a safe planet is not negotiable. Hope is a powerful emotion, but it’s also our most fundamental strategy to ensure a safe future for our children.
LESLEY HUGHES IS ALSO A DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY AND THE PRO VICE-CHANCELLOR OF RESEARCH AND
