Criminologist and eco-justice expert urges students to get politically active to help combat climate change

Criminologist and eco-justice expert Rob White’s message to the students who are leading climate rallies in Hobart and around the world is to get politically active — and to bring their parents along for the ride.

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AUSTRALIA’S response to COVID-19 has given criminologist and eco-justice expert Rob White a sliver of hope that the political future needed to combat climate change is more than just a pipedream.

But his message to the students who are leading climate rallies in Hobart and around the world is to get politically active — and to bring their parents along for the ride.

Rob White. Picture Eddie Safarik

“This generation is the generation that sees the emperor has no clothes. They see through the fallacy of climate denial,” Professor White said.

“Their gut instinct is right but we need more than just protests, we need a plan for the future. Get involved in politics and get politically active,”

A Distinguished Professor of Criminology at the University of Tasmania, White said the pandemic had highlighted the importance of state-run healthcare systems and showed what Australia’s leaders were capable of when faced with a crisis.

His new book The Extinction Curve explores the question of why the science on climate change and growing inequality have not yet prompted an overhaul of policies to favour renewable energy and greater democratic control of essential services.

“What the book argues is that decisions over the essentials of life — food, shelter, healthcare and energy — should be made in the interests of the majority by the democratic will of the majority, not in the interests of billionaires,” Prof White said.

“Countries with national healthcare systems have done so much better during COVID because they’re not based on healthcare for profit.”

He said public subsidies for polluting industries had to end, but complacency stopped some from demanding change.

“The change we need will be led by the younger people because they have the energy and they don’t have the intrinsic vested interests that so many in the older generations have,” Prof White said.

“My generation benefited from free university tuition, there was high employment, you could build a career because there was some stability.

“This generation is entrenched in precarity. They have an uncertain future in terms of jobs, massive debt associated with training and education, they have existential fears due to climate change and pandemics. We know the solution, it’s very clear what needs to be done. The question is, why aren’t we doing it?”

Tasmanian students protest inaction on climate change. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

The Extinction Curve, co-written by John van der Velden, is available through Booktopia.