News from the United Nations that there is ‘no credible pathway in place’ to limit a global rise in temperatures to 1.5°C is echoing across the world. Sameh Shoukry, the chair of the COP27 climate summit that starts this weekend, has warned that current geopolitics may cause even further slippage. The situation could not be more grave. While world leaders prepare to focus on negotiating pledges and loss and damage, more than three billion people already teeter on the cliff edge of losing everything because of climate change.
I am one of those teetering. Climate-driven wildfires destroyed my farm, my home, and more than 211,500 hectares (816 miles2) of the island landscape where I live during the continent-wide Australian ‘Black Summer’ of 2019/20, when wildfires devoured 19,000,000 hectares (73,359 miles2).
On the morning of 4 January 2020, with little more than our cars and our phones, we stood with ash on our faces and smoke in our hair, and a deep knowledge scar of the clear line between the wildfire and our changing climate. In the weeks that followed, we learned that our government had no plan or road map to lift devastated communities from the disaster. Our once-strong community shattered like exploding glass under thermal shock.
