Friends,
"It's doing their heads in, the animals that are in pain, that are crying out in the forest, it's absolutely horrific."[1]
Those are the words of NSW Apiarist Association President Stephen Targett, describing the trauma of young beekeepers upon re-entering forests ravaged by deadly bushfires, to check on their hives.
Beekeepers are saying it may take up to twenty years for hives and the flowering trees they depend on to recover from the deadly fires currently gripping the country.
The devastation is so bad that older beekeepers are organising counselling for younger beekeepers and avoiding them re-entering the forests to protect their mental health.
This is horrifying. This is climate change.
Capital City Details:
- Adelaide: 12pm South Australian Parliament
- Brisbane: 1pm Queens Gardens
- Canberra: 10am in front of Federal Parliament - Thursday Nov 28
- Darwin: 10am 36 Parap Place
- Hobart: 12:30pm Parliament Lawns
- Melbourne: 2:30pm Victorian Parliament
- Perth: 6pm Yagan Square
- Sydney: 10am 100 William St Woolloomooloo
Click here for everywhere else
On Wednesday, there was not a single state or territory that did not experience temperatures in excess of 40 degrees.[2] Hundreds of schools have been closed in the past week. The other week, there was barely a drop of rain on mainland Australia.[3] People have lost lives, and homes.
As former Fire & Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins says: “If anyone tells you, "This is part of a normal cycle" or "We’ve had fires like this before", smile politely and walk away, because they don’t know what they’re talking about.”[4]
And summer hasn’t even begun, so we must brace ourselves for worse to come. Which is why it’s so important that we band together to build the size and power of our climate justice movement to push for urgent action to halt further climate damage:
- No new coal, oil and gas projects, including Adani’s mega coal mine.
- 100% renewable energy and exports by 2030.
- Funding for a just transition and jobs for fossil fuel workers and communities.
In the words of Glen Innes Severn Mayor Carol Sparks who lost her home of 40 years to the fires and has been an RFS volunteer for 20 years: "This is not a political thing — it is a scientific fact that we are going through climate change."[5]
With hope,
The School Strikers 4 Climate Action
References
[1] Beekeepers traumatised and counselled after hearing animals screaming in pain after bushfires, ABC, 20 November 2019.
[2] Australia fires: residents brace for severe fire danger across NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, The Guardian, 20 November.
[3] The day it forgot to rain on Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November.
[4] This is not normal: what's different about the NSW mega fires, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November.
[5] Regional mayors criticise politicians for failing to link climate change and deadly bushfires, ABC, 11 November 2019.