Climate stories

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.