Abbott: Media failing on climate change

GREENS candidate Sue Abbott has called out mainstream media for failing to acknowledge climate change issues ahead of the by-election, unlike school strikers who will be participating in a national Climate Strike on May 21.

“Climate change is the biggest threat our electorate and the world face at the moment and all the media wants to talk about are horses, farms, mines and bypasses. It’s as though climate change doesn’t exist,” Ms Abbott said.

“The threat is immediate, yet crazily we are witnessing political climate inertia facilitating the continuation of carbon being belched into the atmosphere,” she said.

“We are on a pathway for a hothouse earth future with irreversible self-sustaining warming due to tipping points actually tipping. We probably already can’t avoid 1.5 degree Celsius of global warming, but we must take emergency action to avoid two degree Celsius,” she said.

“What we do in the next three to four years will determine the future of humanity and that means the future of our children,” said Ms Abbott.

On Friday May 21, School Strikers will leave their classrooms and take to the streets to protest against the government’s inaction on climate action, including calling on the Prime Minister to stop subsidising fossil fuel industries.

“I fully support the children leaving their classrooms to protest in the streets for the Climate Strike. This mass exit from school is in itself a tipping point and it is very sad that our children are feeling there is little point getting an education because they’re not sure whether there’ll even be a future for them,” Ms Abbott said.

“Without proper and meaningful climate action by our political leaders we are consigning our children to a hothouse earth disaster and a terrifying future. This is a litmus test for our politicians to recognise the need to take emergency action just as they did with the pandemic,” she said.

“This is also a litmus test for mainstream media to call it as it is rather than how they’d like it to be,” said Ms Abbott.

For more information on where candidates stand: Voting 101: Upper Hunter by-election.

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