Australian bushfires extinguished, but climate rows rage on
Australia's "black summer" of devastating bushfires is finally arriving at a close, but bitter arguments over how to tackle climate-fuelled disasters are raging on. When firefighters announced this week that blazes in the hard-hit state of New South Wales were under control for the very first time since September, the relief was palpable.
In other regions, a few fires are still being contained, but most Australians can finally abandon the grim rituals of the last half-year morning checks of smog monitors and "Fires Near Me" apps, deciding whether the kids can play outside, whether to flee or defend their homes.
However the after-effects will endure, and national soul searching has recently begun. "We know events like these can challenge the way we take into account the world, undermine our perceptions of safety, and rupture social bonds," said disaster response expert Erin Smith.
Dozens of families have lost loved ones, a large number of homes and farms have already been gutted, swathes of the east coast are scarred charcoal-black and millions experienced their sense of security shaken.
"It'll likely take years and a lot of imagination for us to determine where we go from here," said Smith.The question of what's next for Australia has already been being asked, almost all of most of political leaders, in fact it is being met mostly with finger-pointing and recrimination.
While scientists agree climate change created favorable conditions for the blazes, politicians of most stripes are acutely aware how sensitive the issue is in Australian politics. Within an arid nation whose economical strength is intimately linked with the mining and export of fossil fuels, at least four prime ministers have been ousted partly over their climate policies.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has seen his ruling conservative coalition threatened by members in rural constituencies demanding funding for more coal-fired power plants. Concurrently, the centrist wing of his party has criticized his climate targets as inadequate.
Meanwhile rebel members of opposition Labor met secretly to steer the centre-left party's leadership toward a far more overtly pro-coal stance. The party's deputy leader awkwardly refused to eliminate more coal subsidies, months after vowing they should end.
"They don't want to stick their heads above the parapet, at least in terms of suggesting substantive policy," said Matt McDonald, a specialist in climate politics from the University of Queensland. One reason, he explained, is that as the hot and dry Australian continent is uniquely vunerable to the impact of climate change, additionally it is a world-beating source of coal.
Coal makes up about around 75 percent of Australia's electricity generation and exports of the fossil fuel are worth Aus$60 billion a year, the country's greatest export after iron ore.
People in affluent suburbs may call for emissions cuts and green energy, but coal accounts for thousands of jobs in election-deciding districts of Queensland and New South Wales, and more in the related aluminium smelting business.
Independent MP Zali Steggall a former barrister and Olympic medal-winning skier who ousted climate-sceptic former prime minister Tony Abbott from his Sydney seat at the last election, wants to take some heat out of the debate. She's introduced a bill that would reduce Australia's carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and divert some contentious issues to an independent expert body.
"The debate has been very divisive," partly because of the blame game, Steggall told AFP. "There is some defensiveness in the first days of the debate for the reason that finger was so squarely pointed at coal and fossil fuels."
"You have to look at a generation that worked really hard at building Australia's prosperity on fossil fuels. You need to be careful in the debate about apportioning blame. It isn't enjoy it was done on purpose."
"It's about recognizing and being thankful for that contribution, but acknowledging that people do need to evolve," she added. "We are all going to make it happen ultimately." With bushfires projected to get a lot more deadly and the next season just a little over half a year away, the risk, Steggall says, is that politicians take such a long time to attain consensus "it'll be too late to do anything".
