A couple of creatives: Bella and Angus

There is no need for quotation marks. While the fun-coloured Instagram infographics have been great for garnering awareness, they truly don’t convey the urgency of our climate situation. It most certainly is a crisis.

How do we know this? It can be difficult to find independent information about issues which are susceptible to the influence of political interests and agendas. However, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), comprised of 195 countries, is a relatively credible source of information. This is because of its intergovernmental nature and how its researchers are field experts who contribute on an unpaid, volunteer basis. The most recent IPCC report (published on August 9th), with over 14,000 studies cited, has been illuminating yet disturbing... • 2.6 million pounds of CO2 are released into the atmosphere every second • Essentially all of the rise in average global temperatures since the 1800s can be attributed to human activity (such as the burning of fossil fuels and forestation) • While the wealthy countries are the bigger contributers to these problems, it is the developing countries suffering the hardest hits as the occurrence of extreme weather events increases • The overall current global warming will take centuries, if not a millennium to reverse

Along with seven other Aussie teens, 17-year-old Anjali Sharma responded to the Wickery coal mine expansion by taking the federal Minister for the Environment (Sussan Ley) to the Federal Court. The formidable team sought to establish that the Environment Minister has a duty of care to protect future generations, and that the Wickery project (and others alike)

In a groundbreaking and highly emotional live stream, the presiding judge acknowledged that the physical danger that climate change is posing to Australian children is no longer speculative but “foreseeable,” and current inaction could be called “...the greatest inter-generational injustice ever inflicted by one generation of humans upon the next.” While the judge did not order an injunction on the mine expansion, it was found that the Environment Minister owed a duty of care to Australia’s young people. Not only is this antastic in itself, but it provides grounds for litigation against the Minister for future fracking projects.