The members of Writers for Climate Action write all sorts of books and come from all shades of the political spectrum. The one thing we agree on is that we need real, immediate action on climate change, and that the 2022 Australian federal election is a chance to make that happen. There is a mountain of evidence which shows us that the climate is changing. The hard part is what to do about it. Sorting our recycling and getting solar panels is good. But climate operates on such a gigantic scale that individual efforts alone aren’t enough. The scale of the solution has to match the scale of the problem. Whatever we think about governments or politicians, we have to persuade them to act.
At every election, we’ve got dozens of issues jostling for our attention. They’re all important issues and they’ll all shape our future. But we believe that underlying all those issues is the fundamental one: our need for a world that gives us the human essentials of food, water and shelter. If the changing climate makes those essentials unreliable, all the other issues are only going to get much worse. This election, we’re asking you to put climate first when you vote. We’re not pushing any particular party or candidate, just suggesting you find out which of your candidates have the most effective plans for climate action, and vote accordingly.