Don’t Give Up

David Lowe

Is it all too late? Is the end nigh? Has the fat lady sung? Is the human race run? If so, how should we live?

More than a few of us have jumped directly from saying ‘she’ll be right, there’s no need to do anything’, to ‘we’re all going to die, it’s too late to act.’

Both of these approaches to the climate crisis are passive, and play into the hands of those who have put life on earth into this precarious situation.

Doing nothing is against our national character. No matter how much Scott Morrison enthuses about ‘quiet Australians’, these are not the people we remember, or mythologise. What we love most as a nation is heroic failure. We admire people who fight against overwhelming odds, especially if they die in the process. This is what ‘having a go’ means.

Think about Breaker Morant, Gallipoli, Phar Lap, the Socceroos, Gough Whitlam, Kate Miller-Heidke at Eurovision. If they’d won and lived happily ever after, they would be in the same box as our victories at Beersheba in WWI and at the America’s Cup in 1983 – quickly forgotten.

And failure is never inevitable. None of us know what’s going to happen. The only surefire guarantee of failure is giving up, and waiting for the tide of history to drown you.

The tipping points are accelerating, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appear to be under starter’s orders

Certainly the science looks very grim. The tipping points are accelerating, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appear to be under starter’s orders, but these are not good reasons for inaction, or continuing business as usual.

A few years ago, failure seemed inevitable at Bentley as we waited in the darkness for hundreds of riot police to arrive. Only one person I spoke to that night thought we’d win. If the people of the Northern Rivers had been passive in the face of the threat from unconventional gas, we would now be living in a gasfield.

We stood up because it was the right thing to do, not because we thought we would win.

History is full of examples of people who didn’t give up in spite of the overwhelming odds against them.

In 1942, 21 year old Sophie Scholl and her brother began distributing White Rose pamphlets inside Germany, resisting the Nazis. They knew exactly what risks they were taking, but they didn’t wait for someone else to act. A few years after these young people were executed, the Nazis fell.

In 1965, Charlie Perkins and his fellow Freedom Riders had their bus run off the road and were assaulted when they drew attention to the apartheid-like rules governing outback Australia at that time. The Freedom Riders didn’t give up, or shut up. Today, the Moree pool where Aboriginal people were forbidden to swim has a mural proudly detailing that history, and Charlie’s film-maker daughter Rachel is doing the Boyer Lectures on the ABC.

In the UK, the suffragette Emily Davison was arrested nine times, went on hunger strike seven times, and was tortured in prison. In 1913 she died after being struck by the King’s horse. For most of her life, Emily’s cause was considered hopeless, but women gained the vote in the UK not long after her death.

The Brazilian rubber-tapper Chico Mendes fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest and the human rights of those who lived there. He was told he’d be killed if he didn’t stop, but he continued speaking out, and fighting for what he believed in. He was shot dead in 1988. His beloved forest, the lungs of the world, is now more threatened than ever.

Closer to home, a young Tasmanian sailor named Teddy Sheean found himself on a corvette called the HMAS Armidale in 1942, off the coast of Timor. After the ship came under attack from Japanese fighter planes, the large crew made it to lifeboats, but the fighters came back to strafe them. Wounded, Teddy strapped himself to the machine gun on the sinking plane’s deck and managed to shoot down one of the planes and save the survivors before going down with the ship. If he’d chosen to give up, everyone would have been killed.

57 years later, the people of nearby East Timor went out to vote for independence from Indonesia, although they knew many would be murdered by militias for expressing their views. They went anyway, because it was the right thing to do.

Giving up was not an option for any of these people, and it shouldn’t be an option now

Giving up was not an option for any of these people, and it shouldn’t be an option now.

Australians love to play the victim, but the truth is we are the luckiest, richest people in the world. In practical terms the average Australian is far wealthier in terms of practical things and information than almost any human in history. True, the people of the past didn’t have cat videos to distract them, but that’s no excuse.

So far the climate crisis has been disproportionately affecting the poor, the marginalised and non-human earthlings, but now it’s biting us.

It is our responsibility to use our wealth, education and position in the world to fight for what is right, just like we did in the Northern Rivers during the gas crisis.

In WWII Winston Churchill didn’t say ‘we shall give up on the beaches, we shall give up in the fields and in the streets’.

The volunteer firefighters who have been risking their lives to save our homes aren’t giving up.

The inspirational students who have been standing up around the world in ever-greater numbers to confront the climate crisis aren’t giving up, and neither should we.

On Friday November 29 there will be Solidarity Sit-Downs around Australia as part of the next International Climate Strike Day, organised by SchoolStrike4Climate and supported by Extinction Rebellion and affiliated groups.

These events will be demanding real climate action, along with increased support for indigenous land management and the Rural Fire Service. Every Australian event will be raising money for the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal.

In Lismore tomorrow there will be a Climate Change Solidarity Sit-Down in outside Kevin Hogan’s office at 11am. In Byron Bay there will be a Mothers ‘Nurse-in’ for Climate Action at 10am outside the library. There are other events happening all over the world.

Wherever you will be, find the latest information at Schools Strike 4 Action. 

Please join the students in solidarity, and think about what you can do to make a positive difference.

Just don’t give up.