Five years on from Black Summer, climate crisis should not be a debate

With less than a week left of February, summer is approaching its end.

Thankfully – and unlike the recent experience of those living in Far North Queensland – for NSW it has been a summer without the natural disasters to which this state has become all too accustomed: fires and floods making headlines the world-over, and devastating local communities.

But, as the reflections five years on from the Black Summer bushfires in today’s Sun-Herald remind us: there is no guarantee that next season we will be so lucky.

The Herald wrote in January 2020 that the fire season of 2019-20 was “the summer that changed us”, causing $10 billion in damage, destroying more than 3000 homes and – tragically – leading to 33 deaths.

For those in affected communities, the memories and struggle persists. The rebuild has been slow. Some have left, some have stayed; all have had their lives changed forever by the pure horror of an orange sky and flames pushing towards the coast.

Among the devastation, during NSW’s Black Summer there was also a rage. Then prime minister Scott Morrison was angrily confronted by locals when he arrived in the fire-ravaged town of Cobargo, which lost its main street in the blaze. Their frustration became a symbol of that summer, referenced in calls for climate action and better preparedness across the country.

But while the residents of Cobargo, Lake Conjola, and the other towns worst affected by the Black Summer fires, did not have the choice to forget, elsewhere life went on. The pandemic arrived, and with it a new unprecedented time. The widespread anger and frustration about our changing climate was undeniably muted.

For many, a news story on the other side of the world earlier this year – January’s Los Angeles wildfires – freshened the memory. A raging fire devastating a coastal community, leading to unthinkable loss.

In those fires’ aftermath, the Herald has raised concerns about NSW’s own fire preparedness, revealing exclusively that a business paper from a Rural Fire Service Association conference had highlighted that water supply signs relied on by volunteers had been placed at entrances to properties with insufficient water supply and unsafe access.

The royal commission into the Black Summer bushfires, established mere weeks after their devastation, is still yet to deliver its final report.

As the earth experienced its hottest year on record in 2024, climate scientists have repeatedly warned that extreme weather is only going to become a greater feature of life on earth.

In turn, the science on man’s contribution to climate change is clear.

It is concerning, then, that the climate “wars” seem already on track to be a feature of Australia’s coming federal election. As the Trump administration withdraws the US from the Paris Climate Agreement and rescinds its emissions targets, the memory of Black Summer should remind Australia that climate change should not be subject to a debate, but a disaster response.

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