'This is our new normal': regional mayors on bushfires and climate change

Extract from The Guardian

Opinion

Bushfires

It’s no longer enough for our communities to be bushfire prepared. We urgently need to address the root cause

Claire Pontin and Dominic King

Tue 12 Nov 2019 14.55 AEDT Last modified on Tue 12 Nov 2019 19.29 AEDT

Regional mayors say it’s time to put political point-scoring aside and take measures to keep their residents safe, which means addressing climate change. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/EPA

Claire Pontin: A betrayal of regional communities

Up on the New South Wales mid-north coast, we don’t have many inner-city greenies. What we do have is a community that’s battling the worst fire conditions we’ve ever seen, and looking down the barrel of what might be the hardest week we’ve had to face.

As our magnificent fire service works hard to contain the blazes threatening local lives and properties, it is galling to hear the deputy prime minister condemning anyone who draws the link between bushfires and climate change. Frankly, he’s pretty out of touch with how many people in my community are feeling right now.

Claire Pontin, deputy mayor of NSW’s MidCoast Council, says we need a new approach to respond to this increased threat. Photograph: Claire Pontin

We’re in the middle of an unprecedented dry spell, with river levels sitting at the lowest they’ve ever been. This is not normally a dry area – the hotter, drier conditions that are driving the current catastrophic fire conditions have developed over the last 10 to 15 years. And the science tells us that it’s climate change causing it.

To leave climate change out of this conversation is a betrayal of the regional communities that are threatened by these fires. How can we address the very real and growing threat to our safety while ignoring one of the major causes of unprecedented fire conditions?

MidCoast Council, along with many other rural and regional councils, recently declared a climate emergency. We are not out of touch city dwellers, or politicians looking to score a strike against our opponents. We are a community that has recognised that addressing climate change is one of the most important ways in which we can keep our residents safe.
The future out-of-control fires we feared are already here – this is our “new normal”, and the science tells us it’s only going to get worse unless urgent action is taken on climate change.

As my community stands shoulder to shoulder to protect our homes and our bushland this week, I call on our state and federal leaders to put political point-scoring to one side and focus on what needs to be done to support us. And that includes acknowledging that climate change is fuelling the conditions for catastrophic fires, and that we need a new approach to respond to this increased threat.
Claire Pontin is the deputy mayor of the MidCoast Council, NSW

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Dominic King: We’ve never seen conditions like this before

Bushfires usually aren’t a problem for us in Bellingen on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. However, in the past few months I’ve watched the massive fires on our escarpment grow and the blanket of smoke engulfing our towns thicken.
As the mayor of Bellingen, I’m deeply concerned.
Despite what Michael McCormack might think, it’s not just those in the inner city who are worried about climate change and bushfires – those of us in regional Australia living through an unprecedented fire season, which has already claimed several lives and many properties, are very worried about what’s in store this week, and over the coming summer.
We’ve never seen conditions like this before. Drought and unseasonal heat driven by climate change are creating conditions for fires in forests that have never burned before, including in our forests of Antarctic beech.
It’s no longer enough for our communities to be bushfire prepared. We urgently need to address the root cause of the heightened fire threat – climate change.
As I write this, more and more communities in NSW are facing catastrophic fire conditions. And while our overworked and under-resourced emergency service teams are doing their best to keep our families and communities safe, ultimately, Australia is not prepared for a year-round bushfire season.

We need to talk about climate change and bushfires together. To leave our rapidly changing climate out of the fire conversation is like talking about a car crash without mentioning speeding.
Instead of burying their heads in the sand, governments at all levels must commit to meaningful action to drive down Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.
We also need appropriate funding for councils and emergency services to do what we must to keep Australians as safe as possible.
This increased bushfire threat cannot be faced alone, and as we head into what may be one of the toughest weeks for Australian communities on record, we need our leaders to acknowledge that a new approach is needed.
The future of communities such as ours depends on it.

Dominic King is the mayor of Bellingen