Environmental lawyer Ned Bible, appearing for Jesuit Social Services, has delivered a dire prophecy. His experiences lead him to underscore the increasingly severe climate emergency affecting the Northern Territory. He warned that unless concerted and urgent steps are taken, the area might be uninhabitable by 2070. His remarks are especially welcome as alarm is rising about accelerating climate change. Local communities and ecosystems complain about its destructive impact.
Religion isn’t just an afterthought, the Bible is calling us to act now. When it gets hotter, extreme heat days more frequently threaten the health and safety of the residents. Beyond these three challenges, he pressed the need for greater coordination of all levels of government to meet foundational challenges. Without urgent action, extreme heat will render the Northern Territory uninhabitable in under 40 years,” he said.
Bible continued, noting that the scale and speed of climate warming requires a response that meets that scale. He feels the same goes for local and national levels of governments – climate has to be an agenda item that they don’t negotiate on.
“It is difficult to imagine how communities in the north will survive, let alone thrive, without an urgent, coordinated and locally led response.” – Dr. Ned Bible
The Call for Coordinated Efforts
The urgency of the situation could not be more acute. Unlike Bible, who was watching from the capital, we were already living out the big impacts of climate change across the territory. Recent climate disasters, including Hurricane Idalia and Hawaii’s recent wildfires, are perhaps the most obvious reminders of the urgent realities of climate change. The impacts are most devastating to marginalized people who are least able to afford to adapt.
Caitlin Perry, another advocate for bold climate action, highlighted the disproportionate impacts of climate change. Those who are already living on the margins of disadvantage are subsequently relegated to substandard housing. These communities are disproportionately affected because they have the least capacity to address increasing climate hazards,” she said. This brings into stark focus the urgent need for targeted programs there to empower those most affected by climate change in the Northern Territory.
That’s because public sentiment all around Australia echoes the growing call for stronger, faster climate action. Polling shows that a majority of Australians want their governments to do more, not less, to combat climate change. The growing public demand for action on the crisis teaches us that without political will, even a crisis cannot be fixed.
“Climate change is not going to go away as an issue, and polling consistently shows that Australians do want climate action, and do want government at all levels to be doing more,” – [Unnamed female speaker]
Local Communities Face Immediate Threats
Territorians have been living the realities of climate change, with the recent roiling weather wreaking havoc on their lives and livelihood. Dr. Ned Bible emphasized that these extreme circumstances are difficult to argue against if you are a resident in the area.
Extreme heat is more deadly than COVID! Governments across Australia are abdicating their duty of care in protecting Territorians and our unique, irreplaceable environments from the climate crisis,” said Alex Vaughan, an activist on the frontline of this deadly crisis. Vaughan’s remarks should be a wake-up call for swift action to change our policies and help people adapt to climate change that we already can’t avoid.
The activists emphasize that community-led solutions need to be at the center of any efforts to fight these dangers. They contend that only local knowledge and leadership can produce the local, nuanced strategies that are necessary to most effectively target regional needs.
“While stalling the action needed might suit a short-sighted few with power and influence, the rest of us know how urgent this is, and we know that action isn’t a choice.” – [Unnamed female speaker]
