“Somewhere not far down the track there will be a dreadful climate event that will similarly reshape global and national politics, and it could well be on our own doorstep”, says an Australian politician. It will change our society as much as the tragic events of 9/11 did – can we afford not to act now?
Labor’s federal president, Wayne Swan, has warned climate change will “completely reshape global, national and local politics” over the next five to 10 years in the way that other seismic external events such as mass-casualty terror attacks have changed the global conversation.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, Swan predicted just as the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC upended global politics, “somewhere not far down the track there will be a dreadful climate event that will similarly reshape global and national politics, and it could well be on our own doorstep”.
Swan acknowledged the May election was a setback for climate action in Australia, “particularly in Queensland”. But he said the Labor party has to stick the course while also safeguarding the interests of workers in the transition to low emissions “because we are realists, because we trust experts and the science, because we take our responsibilities for this great country and for our planet seriously”.
“All of us know climate is not just going to go away as an issue”.
Original source: The Guardian