In his 1946 essay ‘Why I Write’, George Orwell said:
“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”
As a veterinarian, I worked for forty years caring for animals, the sick dogs and cats that came to the clinic and the cattle and sheep in the paddocks. When my working life reached an end, retirement gave me time to look around and open my eyes to what was going on in the world.
I was aware of ‘climate change’ without any facts or figures in my head. But, having studied and delivered science, it wasn’t difficult to find out why the climate is changing and how bad it could get.
Scientists first warned against burning fossil fuels back in the 1950s. Since then, scientists around the world have reported unequivocally that burning coal, oil and gas releases carbon-dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere, causing the heat from the sun to be trapped and the global temperature to rise.
Climate denial also got underway in the 1950s. The coal, oil and gas companies banded together to launch an organised campaign, sustained until the present day, to block climate action by casting doubt on the science. Climate denial is funded and delivered by companies that want to protect their profits. It is also delivered by some of our politicians, people who we trust to lead the country from a platform of truth.
Climate denial is a lie.
So, instead of settling down to a happy retirement – enjoying grandchildren, walking the dogs and growing veggies – I decided I had to find a novel way to draw attention to the lie and the ongoing delay in addressing climate change. I decided to write a ‘climate fiction’ story and I embarked upon a new career as a novelist.
It took me more than two years to write Kanamaluka Fella, and now it has been published.
Finn is 16 years old when climate change wrecks his life, his ambitions and his future. The year is 2084, the supermarket sheds run out of food, and looting, riots and violence rapidly follow. Law and order vanish overnight. Society and democracy are cooked and an anonymous business leader, dubbed the Big Boss, takes charge and establishes a private army. Finn survives the looting and the hunger. He finds others his own age and they attempt to work out their future.
The backdrop to my story is the disintegration of democracy. Elections are still held and we all vote for someone to represent us in parliament. But, after an election, whichever party forms government, large business corporations seem to have so much influence that the government rarely delivers the policies they were voted in for, but deviate in ways that benefit the powerful and wealthy in the country.
As well as being honest and not engaging in skulduggery, the most important responsibility of the government is to care for its people. When the COVID-19 virus reached Australia, governments immediately got to work alongside health experts to control the epidemic with minimal loss of life. Today, right now, governments must urgently work alongside scientists, technologists, construction workers, agriculturists, industrialists, emergency services and health experts to control the even greater risks associated with climate change.
With concerted effort, we can put an end to the mining and burning of coal, gas and oil. Then we may avoid a climate apocalypse. And my story, Kanamaluka Fella, will remain forever fiction.
