'I want the government to teach our kids the truth about climate, not the spin'.

My 9-year-old son Ryder is a quirky, neurodiverse kid with a particular interest in politics, listening to trees, tuna spaghetti and natural phenomena. 

Not all other 9-year-olds at his school are as intrigued, which means he sometimes spends lunchtime on his own, sitting on his favourite seat in the playground to think about ‘life’s big questions’. Like how the universe started – was it from The Big Bang or maybe the universe always existed without a beginning or an end?

Is the world actually real or are we just simulations or holograms? I think this is why science is his favourite subject at school. He tells me it helps him understand everything.

Last year Ryder, my partner and I were rescued off the roof of my partner’s home during the catastrophic floods in Lismore.

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Ryder lost his school, pizza shop, library, burger shop, his dad and step-dad’s house and all his belongings. Being the curious kid he is, he went looking for an explanation as to why the flood was so catastrophic. We watched as his interest in climate science increased. This is how he explains it today:

“Coal and gas are toxic and when they burn they release carbon into the atmosphere and make it warmer. 

That’s why the icebergs are melting and that’s why the sea levels are rising. There used to be more trees and they were really good at sucking carbon from the air and keeping us all cool but because they keep chopping trees down the carbon is stuck and the atmosphere is hotter so the heat gets stuck in the clouds. 

Everything that goes up must come down and it all came down on us in Lismore and that is what caused the largest flood on record for Lismore.”

Image: Supplied.

Image: Supplied.

Last week, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (a panel made up of 300 scientists from 67 countries) released their final report for the decade.

The purpose of the IPCC reports are to provide governments with the most up-to-date scientific evidence on climate change so governments can base their climate change policies on the best science.

The take home point of the report is exactly what we already knew – greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are the single largest contributor to global warming, and just as the International Energy Agency warned us years ago – existing fossil fuel operations are going to push us beyond 1.5C of warming.

We have been warned in no uncertain terms that building new coal and gas infrastructure will push us well beyond 1.5C. 

Beyond that point, scientists have warned us that the climate breakdown will go from destructive to catastrophic. Weather events will become unpredictable. 

The Great Barrier Reef will be wiped out, sea level rises will see cities and island nations disappear under water, more intense cyclones will increase flooding events and drought and bushfire seasons will span years, leading to a mass extinction of plant, animal species, ecosystems and irreversible biodiversity loss.

The timing of the release of the report coincided with Federal Labor’s introduction of reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism Legislation this week. 

The reforms essentially do the opposite of what the global scientific community advise. The reforms allow new coal and gas operations to be built and allow the big emitters to offset their emissions by planting a few trees (that take decades to draw carbon down) or by capturing carbon (once the technology has been invented to the scale and efficiency needed, that is).

Like millions of Australians, it has been devastating to watch the Labor government turn their back on the recommendations of the global scientific community.

Supplied Image: Ryder speaking in front of 5000 people at a climate rally.

When the Greens and Independents asked the Government to just listen to the science and to respond by including a ban on new coal and gas in the bill, we saw Labor’s Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen accuse the Greens and Independents of siding with the Coalition and suggesting they were all climate change deniers.

According to the Minister Bowen, it would be irresponsible to ban new coal and gas operations. This is despite the government having the power to limit exports of fossil fuels so that we have enough domestic energy supplies to last us until we transition to renewables.

So why is the Government so determined to increase our emissions by opening new coal and gas operations? Is it because the fossil fuel companies are giving the Government millions of dollars in political donations every year?

Should our government be using public money to subsidise these dirty industries billions of dollars a year? Shouldn’t we be using billions of dollars of public money to accelerate the transition into the renewable sector? Is the government really prioritising the profits of climate wrecking fossil fuel operators over our future?

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Ryder has been paying close attention and the events this week have left him wondering why the Labor government is ignoring the science. He asked me who he should believe, the government or the scientists? After watching the news he said:

“Are they saying the science is not trustable? Science is the most trustable thing isn’t it? If they don’t think science is trustable then what do we trust? Science can tell us what is actually happening in the world, can’t it?”

A psychologist colleague, Brenda Dobia from Western Sydney University feels the Government’s anti-science position could be destabilising for children as it presents them with the dilemma of either not believing what they are taught by experts who are identified as leading scientific knowledge holders, or not believing that the government takes them, their education, and their futures seriously. 

Dobia also feels it undermines confidence in teachers and education, and in the understanding that the pursuit of scientific knowledge matters.

With negotiations on foot and with so much at stake, it is important now – more than ever – for each of us to speak up and reinforce with politicians the need to value and respect science in the development of evidenced-based policy and that means no new coal and gas operations. 

Eddie Lloyd is a criminal and environmental lawyer and mum to Ryder.

Feature Image: Supplied.