PA ImagesDespite being told the ‘mind her own business’, climate activist Greta Thunberg has taken aim at Australia’s leaders over the country’s bushfire crisis, and she’s taking no prisoners.
The 17-year-old took to Instagram to share a photo of a kangaroo running away from a vicious blaze in Conjola, on the New South Wales south coast, alongside a call to action for Aussie politicians.
‘Australia is on fire. And the summer there has only just begun,’ she wrote.
Greta continued, writing:
Today the temperature outside Sydney was 48.9C. 500 million animals are estimated dead because of the bushfires.
Over 20 people have died and thousands of homes have burned to ground. The smoke has covered glaciers in distant New Zealand making them warm and melt faster because of the albedo effect.
And yet. All of this still has not resulted in any political action. Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the Australia fires.
That has to change. And it has to change now. My thoughts are with the people of Australia and those affected by these devastating fires.
PA ImagesIt comes after Thunberg condemned the Australian government for failing to recognise climate change’s role in the bushfires.
Retweeting a video of a ring of fire around Sydney, the teen wrote:
Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible? Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires. That’s what has to change. Now.
Responding to the comments, prime minister Scott Morrison responded said: ‘We’ll do in Australia what we think is right for Australia.’
PA ImagesAt a press conference just before Christmas, Morrison said:
Australia and the Australian government will set our policies based on Australia’s national interests, on what Australia needs to do. That’s where I keep my focus.
It’s not for me to make commentaries on what those outside of Australia think that Australia should do. We’ll do in Australia what we think is right for Australia. And that has always been my guiding principle.
I’m not here to try to impress people overseas. I’m here to do the right job for Australians and put them first.
So far, the bushfires have killed 24 people, ravaged more than 1,500 homes and destroyed more than 3.6 million hectares of land, killing nearly half a billion animals in the process.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.