GERALDINE:

The most extraordinary thing, I think, was just about four days after the election when the extent of the Democrats' rout was beginning to sink in on everybody. Prospect Park, in the middle of Brooklyn, burst into flames.

Audio Excerpt - News Host (CBS):

“Breaking news in Brooklyn, a serious situation: firefighters working to try to knock down a brushfire in Prospect Park.”

Audio Excerpt - News Reporter (FOX):

“In a lot of ways Prospect Park is Brooklyn’s green heart, and tonight parts of that heart are on fire.”

RUBY:

Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Geraldine Brooks has long called America home.

So when she began to witness the effect of the climate crisis on her doorstep, she was alarmed.

GERALDINE:

So it was essentially a bushfire in the middle of one of the most densely urban places in the United States. And what was even more strange and eerie was this is happening in the middle of autumn, which is usually a time of rain and damp leaves and cool temperatures and chilly nights. And yet New York is in a drought.

RUBY:

For Geraldine, this moment just before Trump’s second term can be seen as a sign of what’s to come under his presidency.

GERALDINE:

And the parks are just tinder dry. So this massive bushfire in the middle of the city, it couldn't have been more stark.

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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media. I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Today, Geraldine Brooks on Trump’s America and what it means for a burning planet.

It’s Wednesday, November 20.

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RUBY:

Geraldine, as you watched the Harris and Trump campaigns in the lead up to the election, how did you reflect on the way the climate was spoken about?

GERALDINE:

With despair! Because Trump, of course, has always held to the climate hoax that there's nothing to see here, even though the evidence is all around us.

Audio Excerpt - Donald Trump:

“It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch.”

Audio Excerpt - Journalist:

“I wish science agreed with you.”

Audio Excerpt - Donald Trump:

“Well, I don’t think science knows, actually.”

GERALDINE:

And, you know, if you care about the economy, climate crises are the biggest threat to prosperity and to people's ability to live and manage. But even perhaps more depressing to me was that Kamala Harris, who had a very good story to tell on the climate accomplishments of the Biden administration, barely mentioned it.

Audio Excerpt - Kamala Harris:

“Many other fundamental freedoms are at stake. The freedom to live safe from gun violence.”

GERALDINE:

A short half sentence at the Democratic National Convention.

Audio Excerpt - Kamala Harris:

“The freedom to breathe clean air, and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis.”

GERALDINE:

A couple of other mentions when she was questioned on her reversal on fracking.

Audio Excerpt - Kamala Harris:

“I am not going to ban fracking. I did not as Vice President.”

GERALDINE:

She was the deciding vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which was actually the Green New Deal. Essentially, it was massive funding for all kinds of climate initiatives for a transition to clean technology, for research and development of green hydrogen, of sequestration. Massive, massive jobs program in clean energy.

Audio Excerpt - Kamala Harris:

“I know that we can invest in a clean energy economy, and still not ban fracking, and still work towards what we need to do to create more jobs and create US based jobs in a way that will be globally competitive.”

GERALDINE:

She could have been talking up this significant piece of legislation that she was absolutely critical to. And yet she chose to run away from it.

RUBY:

Why do you think that choice was made to stay silent on both the climate threat and the ways to combat it?

GERALDINE:

I think she was in a tricky position because she had said that she was opposed to fracking. And that was a huge issue in Pennsylvania, which, as we know, was a crucial swing state. And she was trying to woo those voters. And the more she talked about climate, I think the more it was felt that she reminded the voters of Pennsylvania that she had been opposed to fracking. And even though now in hindsight, it was totally a waste of time because the voters were not wooed and goodness knows how many potential voters stayed at home who might have come out if she had had a compelling climate message. Because even though only one in five voters in polls say that climate is very important. You know, 20% of the electorate, surely those people were speaking to.

RUBY:

20%, I mean, that is a low percentage. What do you think the story is behind that?

GERALDINE:

You know, there's so much inequality. In the United States right now. And people at the low end of the scale, which is the majority of the population, really have been thrashed by inflation. And this is a global problem. But the Biden administration wasn't compelling about getting that message out that actually the United States was suffering less than most places. But if you're suffering it, you're suffering it. And people were really struggling to make ends meet. And I think when they were asked what the most important issue was, it was the bread and butter grocery prices, gas prices that were front of mind.

But again, I think it was because there wasn't a great enough effort to say the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of the world is happening now, and that is that we are living with hotter temperatures than any civilisation. You know, what is done assures me is, you know, Wall Street will be underwater and there won't be anything that we recognise as a prosperous economy if we don't come to grips with this.

RUBY:

Coming up after the break - Geraldine’s message for her own generation.

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RUBY:

Geraldine, you mentioned the things that Kamala Harris could have talked about, so Biden's climate legacy, Trump is promising to reverse that legacy. Among other things, he recently announced that Chris Wright, who is a climate change skeptic and a fracking executive, will be his pick to lead the U.S. Energy Department. What impact do you think that will have?

GERALDINE:

Look, his pick for the Environmental Protection Agency concerns me even more because that is a gentleman from South Dakota who is totally in the pocket of extractive industries and will just be moving to slash all the remaining regulations that protect air, water, wetlands, coastal areas. They already had a really good go at it. And with the Supreme Court, which is also in Trump's pocket big time, there's nothing really to stop them. It used to be that you could stop them through legislation. Wonderful groups like the NRDC, the National Resources Defence Council, have a stellar track record of using the courts to block egregious attacks on the environment. But with the Supreme Court that the U.S. has now, that is not even a possible line of protection.

RUBY:

And Trump's approach to climate and attempts to block environmental protection, there's clearly money to be made through mining natural resources. But beyond that, do you see a more ideological reason for this position?

GERALDINE:

No, I think it's money. I think it's entirely money and it's short term money because if you really look at the entire economic picture, it makes no sense, these short term gains. But, you know, it's the Trump cronies and they will be enriched to the next four years is just going to be an absolute bonanza for money launderers and people who scam and deal crookedly.

RUBY:

And we are at the very beginning of Trump's second era, so there will likely be many decisions that will be made over the next four years that will exacerbate the climate crisis. Have you thought about how on a personal level, how you will think about the next four years?

GERALDINE:

I try and say that we need to think of it as a two year time scale because midterm elections and I think we have to mobilise strenuously for the midterm elections to get back control of the Senate and the House and put at least some brakes on presidential power before it's too late.

But we have to do what we can. All of us have to do what we can. You take your little piece of it in in the United States. I also served on the local Conservation commission for six years, beating back inappropriate developments in the wetlands and the coastal fragile coastal areas of the town that I lived in there and in Australia, you know, I will do the same with whatever it is that I have any possibility of, of moving the needle on. And I think we all have to do that. We all have to just pick up the the handle that we can lift this thing by and, and do the task that's right in front of us.

RUBY:

And Geraldine, when the climate crisis is ignored or misrepresented by politicians, what is the ultimate impact of that?

GERALDINE:

Well, we're seeing the impact already. And the people who have contributed the least are the ones who are suffering most. But we're seeing it everywhere. I mean, the floods in Spain, unprecedented drought and bushfires in New York in fall, unprecedented. The tremendous devastation of the flooding in the Carolinas, in the mountains where you least expect to have climate impacts of that nature.

Then, of course, we lived through the Black Summer. It couldn't have been more starkly demonstrated to us what will be for our country and our precious biodiversity, our wonderful wildlife. And yet we've failed to act in any meaningful way. And maybe it's just that some problems are too big for the human imagination. But that's not an excuse.

So there's a temptation, particularly people of my generation, we're not going to be here to see the worst of it. But if you care about your kids, if you care about nature, if you care about all the other things that share this planet with us, this beautiful planet, you know, if we found a bit of bacteria on another planet, we'd be all excited about it. And yet we've got this planet still bursting with life and diversity. And as far as we know, so far, unique in the universe. Why wouldn't we do everything in our power to protect it?

RUBY:

Geraldine, thank you so much for your time.

GERALDINE:

Thank you Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

More charges have been laid against 83-year-old veteran broadcaster Alan Jones.

On Monday, New South Wales police revealed Alan Jones had been charged with a total of 24 offences against eight complainants.

Police say, following further legal advice, they can reveal Jones has been charged with two additional counts of ‘assault with an act of indecency’ relating to a ninth alleged victim.

And, the Australian privacy commissioner has ruled that the hardware chain, Bunnings Warehouse, breached the privacy of potentially hundreds of thousands of Australians through its use of facial recognition technology.

In 2022 it was revealed Bunnings was a number of retailers using facial recognition in stores to check the face of every customer entering the store against a database of banned customers.

The commissioner has ordered Bunnings to destroy all personal information collected.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7amThanks for listening.

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