Speaker 1: The most extraordinary thing, I think was just about four
Speaker 1: days after the election, when the extent of the Democrats
Speaker 1: route was beginning to sink in on everybody. Prospect Park
Speaker 1: in the middle of Brooklyn burst into flames. Breaking news
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, serious situation.
Speaker 2: Firefighters working to try to knock down a brush fire
Speaker 2: in Prospect Park. In a lot of ways, Prospect Park
Speaker 2: is Brooklyn's green heart. In tonight, parts of that heart
Speaker 2: are on fire. Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Geraldine Brooks has
Speaker 2: long called America home, so when she began to witness
Speaker 2: the effect of the climate crisis on her doorstep, she
Speaker 2: was alarmed.
Speaker 1: So it was essentially a bush fire in the middle
Speaker 1: of one of the most densely urban places in the
Speaker 1: United States. And what was even more strange and eerie
Speaker 1: was this is happening in the middle of autumn, which
Speaker 1: is usually a time of rain and damp leaves and
Speaker 1: cool temperatures and chili nights, and yet New York is
Speaker 1: in a drought.
Speaker 2: For Geraldine, this moment, just before Trump's second term can
Speaker 2: be seen as a sign of what's to come under
Speaker 2: his presidency.
Speaker 1: And the parks are just tinder dry. So this massive
Speaker 1: bushfire in the middle of the city. It couldn't have
Speaker 1: been more stark.
Speaker 2: From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM today,
Speaker 2: Geraldine Brooks on Trump's America and what it means for
Speaker 2: a burning planet. It's Wednesday, November twenty. Geraldine. As you
Speaker 2: watched the Harris and Trump campaigns in the lead up
Speaker 2: to the election, how did you reflect on the way
Speaker 2: that the CIBAT was spoken about with despair?
Speaker 1: Because Trump, of course, has always held to the climate
Speaker 1: hoax that theres nothing to see here, even though the
Speaker 1: evidence is all around us. It'll start getting cooler. I
Speaker 1: wish you just watch.
Speaker 3: I wish science.
Speaker 1: Agreed, but.
Speaker 3: Oh well, I don't think science knows.
Speaker 1: Actually, you know, if you care about the economy, climate
Speaker 1: crises are the biggest threat to prosperity and to people's
Speaker 1: ability to live and manage. But even perhaps more depressing
Speaker 1: to me was that Kamala Harris, who had a very
Speaker 1: good story to tell on the climate accomplishments of the
Speaker 1: Biden administration, barely mentioned it.
Speaker 3: Many other fundamental freedoms are at stake, the freedom to
Speaker 3: live safe from gun violence.
Speaker 1: A short half sentence at the Democratic National Convention.
Speaker 3: The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water
Speaker 3: and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis.
Speaker 1: A couple of other mentions when she was questioned on
Speaker 1: her reversal on fracking.
Speaker 3: I am not going to bandfracking. I did not as
Speaker 3: vice president. In fact, as vice president.
Speaker 1: She was the deciding vote on the Inflation Reduction Act,
Speaker 1: which was actually the Green New Deal. Essentially, it was
Speaker 1: massive funding for all kinds of climate initiatives, for a
Speaker 1: transition to clean technology, for research and development of green hydrogen,
Speaker 1: of sequestration, massive massive jobs program, and clean energy.
Speaker 3: I know that we can invest in a clean energy
Speaker 3: economy and still not banfracking, and still work toward what
Speaker 3: we need to do to create more jobs and create
Speaker 3: US based jobs in a way that would be globally competitive.
Speaker 1: She could have been talking up this significant piece of
Speaker 1: legislation that she was absolutely critical to, and yet she
Speaker 1: chose to run away from it.
Speaker 2: Why do you think that choice was made to stay
Speaker 2: silent on both the climate threat and the ways to
Speaker 2: combat it.
Speaker 1: I think she was in a tricky position because she
Speaker 1: had said that she was opposed to fracking, and that
Speaker 1: was a huge issue in Pennsylvania, which as we know,
Speaker 1: was a crucial swing state, and she was trying to
Speaker 1: woo those voters. And the more she talked about climate,
Speaker 1: I think the more it was felt that she reminded
Speaker 1: the voters of Pennsylvania that she had been opposed to fracking.
Speaker 1: And even though now in hindsight, it was totally waste
Speaker 1: of time because the voters were not wooed. And goodness
Speaker 1: knows how many potential voters stayed at home who might
Speaker 1: have come out if she had had a compelling climate message.
Speaker 1: Because even though only one in five voters in polls
Speaker 1: say that climate is very important, you know, twenty percent
Speaker 1: of the electorate. Surely those people are worth speaking to.
Speaker 2: Twenty percent. I mean that is that is a low percentage.
Speaker 2: What do you think the story is behind that?
Speaker 1: You know, there's so much inequality in the United States
Speaker 1: right now, and people at a low end of the scale,
Speaker 1: which is the majority of the population, really have been
Speaker 1: thrashed by inflation. And this is a global problem. But
Speaker 1: the Biden administration wasn't compelling about getting that message out
Speaker 1: that actually the United States was suffering less than most places.
Speaker 1: But if you're suffering, it you're suffering it, and people
Speaker 1: were really struggling to make ends meet. And I think
Speaker 1: when they asked what the most important issue was, it
Speaker 1: was the bread and butter, grocery prices, gas prices that
Speaker 1: were front of mind. But again, I think it was
Speaker 1: because there wasn't a great enough effort to say, the
Speaker 1: most important thing that has ever happened in the history
Speaker 1: of the world is happening now, and that is that
Speaker 1: we are living with hotter temperatures than any civilization. You
Speaker 1: know what astonishes me is, you know, Wall Street will
Speaker 1: be underwater and they won't be anything that we recognize
Speaker 1: as a prosperous economy if we don't come to grips with.
Speaker 2: This coming up after the break, Geraldine's message for her
Speaker 2: own generation. Geraldine, you mentioned the things that Kamala Harris
Speaker 2: could have talked about. So Biden's climate legacy. Trump is
Speaker 2: promising to reverse that legacy, among other things. He recently
Speaker 2: announced that Chris Wright, who is a climate change skeptic
Speaker 2: and a fracking executive, will be his pick to lead
Speaker 2: the US Energy Department. What impact do you think that
Speaker 2: will have?
Speaker 1: Oh, look, his pick for the Environmental Protection Agency concerns
Speaker 1: me even more because that is a gentleman from South
Speaker 1: Dakota who is totally in the pocket of extractive industries
Speaker 1: and will just be moving to slash all the remaining
Speaker 1: regulations that protect air, water, wetlands, coastal areas. They already
Speaker 1: had a really good go at it, and with the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, which is also in Trump's pocket big time,
Speaker 1: there's nothing really to stop them. It used to be
Speaker 1: that you could stop them through legislation. Wonderful groups like
Speaker 1: the NRDC the National Resources Defense Council have a stellar
Speaker 1: track record of using the court to block egregious attacks
Speaker 1: on the environment. But with the Supreme Court that the
Speaker 1: US has now that is not even a possible line
Speaker 1: of protection.
Speaker 2: And Trump's approach to climate and attempts to block environmental protection.
Speaker 2: There's clearly money to be made through marning natural resources.
Speaker 2: But beyond that, do you see a more ideological reason
Speaker 2: for this position.
Speaker 1: No, I think it's money. I think it's entirely money,
Speaker 1: and it's short term money, because if you really look
Speaker 1: at at the entire economic picture, it makes no sense
Speaker 1: these short term gains. But you know it's the Trump
Speaker 1: cronies and they will be enriched the next four years,
Speaker 1: it's just going to be an absolute, you know, bonanza
Speaker 1: for money launderers and people who scam and deal crookedly.
Speaker 2: And we are at the very beginning of Trump's second era,
Speaker 2: so there will likely be many decisions that will be
Speaker 2: made over the next four years that will exacerbate the
Speaker 2: climate crisis. Have you thought about how, on a personal level,
Speaker 2: how you will approach the next four years.
Speaker 1: I try and say that we need to think of
Speaker 1: it as a two year timescale because there are midterm elections,
Speaker 1: and I think we have to mobilize strenuously for the
Speaker 1: midterm elections to get back control of the Senate and
Speaker 1: the House and put at least some breaks on presidential
Speaker 1: power before it's too late. But we have to do
Speaker 1: what we can. All of us have to do what
Speaker 1: we can. You take your little piece of it. In
Speaker 1: the United States, I served on the Local Conservation Commission
Speaker 1: for six years beating back inappropriate developments in the wetlands
Speaker 1: and the coastal fragile coastal areas of the town that
Speaker 1: I lived in there. And in Australia, you know, I
Speaker 1: will do the same with whatever it is that I
Speaker 1: have any possibility of moving the needle on and I
Speaker 1: think we all have to do that. We all have
Speaker 1: to just pick up the handle that we can lift
Speaker 1: this thing by and do the task that's right in
Speaker 1: front of us.
Speaker 2: And Geraldine, when the climate crisis is ignored or misrepresented
Speaker 2: by politicians, what is the ultimate impact of that?
Speaker 1: Oh, we're seeing the impact already, and the people who
Speaker 1: have contributed the least are the ones who are suffering most.
Speaker 1: But we're seeing it everywhere. I mean the floods in Spain,
Speaker 1: unprecedented drought, and bushfires in New York in fall unprecedented,
Speaker 1: the tremendous devastation of the flooding in the Carolinas, in
Speaker 1: the mountains where you'd least expect to have climate impacts
Speaker 1: of that nature. Then, of course we lived through the
Speaker 1: Black Summer. It couldn't have been more starkly demonstrated to
Speaker 1: us what will be for our country and our precious biodiversity,
Speaker 1: our wonderful wildlife. And yet we've failed to act in
Speaker 1: any meaningful way. And maybe it's just that some problems
Speaker 1: are too big for the human imagination, but that's not
Speaker 1: an excuse. So there's a temptation, particularly people of my generation.
Speaker 1: We're not going to be here to see the worst
Speaker 1: of it. But if you care about your kids, if
Speaker 1: you care about nature, if you care about all the
Speaker 1: other things that share this planet with us, this beautiful planet,
Speaker 1: you know, if we found a bit of bacteria on
Speaker 1: another planet, we'd be all excited about it. And yet
Speaker 1: we've got this planet still bursting with life and diversity
Speaker 1: and as far as we know, so far unique in
Speaker 1: the universe. Why wouldn't we do everything in our power
Speaker 1: as a protector.
Speaker 2: Geraldine, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Ruby.
Speaker 2: Also in the news today, more charges have been laid
Speaker 2: against eighty three year old veteran broadcaster Alan Jones. On Monday,
Speaker 2: New South Wales Police revealed Alan Jones had been charged
Speaker 2: with a total of twenty four offenses against eight complainants.
Speaker 2: Police say, following further legal advice, they can reveal Jones
Speaker 2: has been charged with two additional counts of assault with
Speaker 2: an active indecency relating to a ninth alleged victim. And
Speaker 2: the Australian Privacy Commissioner has ruled that the hardware chain's
Speaker 2: warehouse reached the privacy of potentially hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 2: Australians for its use of facial recognition technology. In twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, it was revealed that Bunnings was one of
Speaker 2: a number of retailers using facial recognition in stores to
Speaker 2: check the face of every customer entering the store against
Speaker 2: a database of band customers. The Commissioner has ordered Bunnings
Speaker 2: to destroy all personal information collected. I'm Ruby Jones. This
Speaker 2: is seven am. Thanks for listening.