Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to The Guardian, loving your country means you should believe in the climate crisis.

If you love Australia, climate change should scare the hell out of you

Greg Jericho

Sun 26 Jan 2020 06.00 AEDT

Conservatives love to talk up Australia ‘punching above its weight’, but they turn to self-hating cowards when it comes to climate change.

I love Australia.

It’s not a thing you hear too often from progressives. Mostly this is because we don’t go in for the pathetic jingo-nationalist, quasi-militaristic “love it or leave it”-style patriotism that John Howard attempted to link with a love of country.

But I do love Australia. I get an absurd amount of irrational pride when I hear of Australians doing well.

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Because I love Australia, and the real question is why don’t conservatives who refuse to do more on climate change love Australia? Because climate change will destroy much of what we love about this country of ours.

Much of what makes Australia unique and beloved by those of us lucky enough to live here is linked to the extremes of our land and climate.

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What we love about Australia will be taken by climate change well before other nations who emit much more greenhouse gas will feel great changes. And that should enrage us and our representatives, and it should drive their actions.

I love Australia and so I want action on climate change. And if you love Australia, so should you.