THE KICK INSIDE
The first time I felt you kick was as I sat down to a seminar on the global carbon cycle. Buoyed by your thump I became acutely aware that I wasn't alone in my body, and this world didn't belong to any one, or any single moment. The joy I felt was tinged with regret; global climate change will drastically alter your inheritance.
Each time your Dad and I discussed having kids we rarely dwelled on balancing fiscal responsibility, risking career trajectories or sacrificing personal freedoms. Instead we struggled to rationalise bringing a child into a planet that is slowly heating up, facing extreme weather events, massive losses of biodiversity, and widespread food and water insecurity. Of course, new parents have always had misgivings for the next generation, but the long reaching consequences of global climate change and the systemic inaction to alter the path we are on seems to be particularly insidious. The sadness I felt in the face of climate change was only surpassed by the ache in denying my most basic instinct.
At the start of the year, around the time you were displaying an impressive fast tracked evolution - a fish, then a lizard, then a wombat-like embryo - and I had my head in the toilet from morning well into the night - 10 000 hectares of mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria died. High sea temperatures paired with two seasons of drastically low rainfall are believed to be the culprit for the die back. The mangroves were not alone; the Great Barrier Reef experienced unprecedented bleaching due to similar conditions, with 93% of the reef impacted. Warmer temperatures have also been linked to the 2 000 kilometre stretch of kelp that disappeared from the Western Australian coast over the last few years. The impact of warmer oceans is not restricted to the Australian coast.
By July you had been growing for seven months. You were the weight of a coconut, and had begun breathing practice in anticipation for the outside world. Around the same time atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached over 400 parts per million. With the current rate of carbon dioxide release, we are set to melt the Antarctic ice sheet.
Recently, an open letter was written to the Prime Minister signed by over 100 Australian climate scientists imploring action to be taken on climate change, as there is “no planet B”. Within weeks of the letter the Queensland Government approved what will be the world’s largest coal mine and the Northern Territory Government signed exploration leases to a Texas based coal company for 1 500 000 hectares of the Territory, despite Australia’s enthusiastic participation in the Paris climate agreement late last year. We know that coal is the worst contributor to greenhouse gases, despite its critical role in history. It no longer has a place in a sane, fair world. You stopped your singular kicks and somersaults, instead you now move tightly in swaying motions in my belly. Constricted, you are outgrowing me.
One of the causes of inaction seems to be the painfully slow pace at which these events occur. The worst effects will be offset to our future generations, to you and your children. Yet from nine months of your creation, the world has seen unprecedented levels of ecological destruction, apparently for our benefit. But this was all set in motion 200 years ago, brought to our attention some 30 years ago, and has been a battle of science, politics and big business ever since. Sadly, it will be a battle for generations to come.
Later this month you will be ready for this world and you will be greeted and adored by your family. I can see a childhood of wonder at this world and I hope to help you fall in love with it. I won’t scare you with stories like this, and will try to keep these expanding summers just that. I will try to keep your childhood blissful and passionate. Keep you safe. But ready.
Madeline Goddard and Aaron Burton welcomed Orlando Finch Burton Goddard into the world on the 7th of October 2016. Madeline is currently on maternity leave from her research on mangroves and the impact of sea level rise as part of her PhD with the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL). Photo credit: Aaron Burton
