In my work I have witnessed first hand the impacts the changing climate is having on iconic species - including koalas.
Brisbane, QLD
My name is Paul, I live in Brisbane and I work in environmental management. I spend a lot of time in the bush, and in my work I have witnessed first hand the impacts the changing climate is having on iconic species – including koalas.
I first became aware of climate change back in the 1980s. I was hitchhiking and someone told me about the hole in the ozone layer. From that day on, I’ve been in the field studying the environment.
I am already noticing how our wildlife is being affected by climate change. Whole suites of species are going to go extinct with only a very small amount of temperature rise. That really concerns me. I feel some kinship to our wildlife, some duty to look after our Australian species. I feel anxious that some of our wildlife could disappear and that there will be nothing that I can do to save them.
Climate change is affecting people too. During the 2022 floods, I volunteered in disaster management centres in Brisbane where people could come if they had to evacuate. A lot of people there were really suffering. People had lost everything, whole houses were washed away. I’d never seen anything as bad as these floods in terms of the amount of rain and the amount of damage that had been done.
People in my community are concerned about what’s happening. They are concerned about the number of bushfires, the recent floods and the new weeds that are popping up.
There are also mental health issues around climate change – a lot of people in my community are suffering from the uncertainty about the future.
I have two children and I worry about their future and their ability to experience the joy of nature that I had growing up. My kids are very aware of climate change. I grew up with the threat of nuclear war, but my kids are growing up with the threat of climate change and climate disasters happening on a regular basis.
Hundreds of people from across the country are sharing their stories to send a clear message to the Australian government - it's time for real action on climate change.
Every story appears as a point on this map. Click around to read how climate change is affecting our communities, and add your own story to the map.
We have spent a summer trapped in our home with heatwave after heatwave hitting our city in the longest and hottest summer of my lifetime (and indeed the city’s lifetime). I have had to stop my three year old son playing outside day after day and we have all had to stay in the same room as it is the only air conditioned one. Summer used to be a time of fun, of outdoor barbecues for dinner, of freedom. Now it has a feeling of containment and dread. My job requires me to confront climate issues and victims of bushfire and other disasters and their experiences and the flood of climate information leave me feeling deep grief, distress and helplessness. My little son loves animals passionately and i dread the day I will have to tell him about climate change and about how so many of the creatures that inspire him are threatened by mankind’s very existence. I fear he will grow into an adult in a time of increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters, in a country weakened economically and fragmented socially by these disasters. That by the time he grows up the Great Barrier Reef we describe to him will be dead and gone. Having him despite my fear for his future was an act of hope and defiance, but that hope is hard to maintain when our governments will seemingly not act to end the use of fossil fuels and replace them with renewables with the speed that will give my beautiful child the bright future he deserves. I hope and pray that this case changes the situation. And I thank these elders for bringing this action.
Read my storyPeople all across Australia are being harmed by climate change. These are some of their stories.
We're reviewing your story now. As soon as it's up on the website we'll send you an email to let you know. We need as many people as possible to share their climate stories - so we can show the government that Australians need urgent climate action. Will you spread the word by sharing this campaign on social media?
Share on Instagram Share on Twitter Share on FacebookWill you stand with us and share your story of how climate change is affecting you, your family and your community?
It doesn't matter how big or small the impact you've felt - everyone's story is important.
Together we can show the government that taking real climate action is in everyone’s interest.
