A climate activist’s guide to beating the heat this summer

Australia is set to scorch in the coming months. Intensifying global heating, the return of El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole mean the stage is set for climate carnage. Spring has already been scary enough, with bushfires raging and temperature records tumbling.

Extreme heat kills, and this summer will be deadly. Fire is an added risk. The Prime Minister, even as he runs a government that continues to approve new fossil fuel developments, has warned we must expect climate disasters, saying this fire season could be “every bit as dangerous” as 2019-2020’s Black Summer. (He wants you to think he’s not the type to be found on a deckchair in Hawaii during a national emergency, even if his government’s policies make such emergencies more likely.)

How are we meant to cope? Electrolytes, siestas and evacuation plans, yes, but what if we’re also concerned by the long-term trajectory? What if we’re not content to face a future where the climate reliably becomes more and more inhospitable?

The public will be angry and hurt when Australia’s toxic affair with the fossil fuel industry continues unhindered while lives are lost, homes are destroyed, and habitats are decimated. This country’s climate movement will have an opportunity to capture public sentiment and turn it into productive political pressure. If we play it right, I suspect climate activism could be back in a big way in 2024, with numbers on the streets surpassing their most recent peak pre-Covid.

If you want to be part of it, here are some tips on how to beat the heat this summer:

Don’t leave it to the NGO-industrial complex

There are talented people doing important work in NGOs, but let's face it: the big enviro orgs aren’t going to lead the climate revolution. NGOs are notoriously slow and will shut up shop for at least part of the summer, potentially letting the flashpoint pass by. Plus, their preferred tactics of petition signing and submission writing won’t be enough to prise away the fossil fuel industry’s tight hold over our governments. In many cases, NGOs are too worried about losing their funding, their tax-deductible status, or their respectability to show solidarity with the grassroots activists and direct action campaigns doing the heavy lifting.

You’re going to have to do it yourself, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. Join or start a group of people you get along with and can pool your skills and resources with, and start getting stuck into the job at hand.

Get an early start

Don’t wait until disaster has struck to get your group going and get out there in the community. When the temperature and the public mood heat up, you want to have a vehicle built and ready to go. Have some conversations with your group about what you want to achieve, how you might do it, and how you’ll make decisions together. Then, get on with it. Call all your friends to a meeting or start knocking on doors in your neighbourhood. Explain what you know about the risk posed by the summer ahead and what you propose to do about it. Start collecting phone numbers and email addresses.

When disaster strikes, act with urgency

Crisis demands action. Don’t hesitate. After a disaster, if anyone tries to say it’s too soon to be talking about climate change while people mourn or rebuild, ignore them. They’ll be correct in saying it won’t be the ideal time to have big conversations about climate. That would have been 40 years ago. At this point in history, we need to take every opportunity we can to prevent further suffering.

Know who and what to blame

Don’t forget who’s responsible for the lives that will be lost. Go after the fossil fuel companies who’ve gaslit us for decades, knowing full well what their products do to the ecosphere. Brand these big polluters as toxic, so we reach a point where it’s clear companies like Woodside and Santos don’t have the support of the public, and any politician who continues to kneel before them is at risk of getting chucked out.

At the same time, remember that big companies are legally bound to maximise profit for shareholders, and appealing directly to them to ask for change won’t work. Governments are the ones who can force change through legislation and regulation - if they’re forced into it by the public.

Remember that underlying all of this is the structural nightmare of capitalism, which relies on never-ending growth that cannot be sustained.

You’re not going to be able to convey all this all the time, but let it shape the stories you tell and the actions you take.

Have the next thing lined up

Let’s say climate disaster strikes and you call a snap protest. Thousands of people might show up. The punters will feel catharsis, the cardboard placards will be witty, and the news crews will get good footage.

Then what?

You’ve got to have a next step on offer that feels like a progression. That means you don’t just get people to scan a QR code to sign a petition, and you don’t just ask people to come and do the exact same thing next week. People came to your protest because they wanted to feel some power over a horrific situation: they don’t want to follow up by doing more of the same or something that feels like a waste of time.

So, what can you ask them to do? That depends on how you think social change works. I believe that, at this point in history, one of the more impactful responses to the climate crisis is to non-violently disrupt systems and institutions causing harm.

Remember what is possible

What I’ve outlined might sound fantastical to you, but change is the most common thing in the world. Humans are forever remaking the world around them, and when the stakes are so high, what other choice do we have? In the Netherlands this year, thousands of people have been arrested in repeated disruptions of major motorways, forcing fossil fuel subsidies to the top of the political agenda. In New York, tens of thousands recently took part in a huge march against fossil fuels, the most who have gathered in a climate protest in the US in five years. There is momentum building throughout the world. Why can't Australia be next?