Popular action can overcome existential despair

October 20, 2025

Julian Cribb has, in recent articles, summarised with authority the dangers we now face with our oceans , with our forests , and with our water. His summary of imminent tipping points encapsulates the urgency of our predicament.

David Spratt has highlighted the shortcomings of the National Climate Risk Assessment. Cribb details the risks of misinformation.

Our future looks grim, but policymakers — disproportionately influenced by vested interests — seem reluctant to explain this clearly to the electorate. Popular scepticism continues to hamper effective environmental protection. Despair reflects the sense of an individual’s incapacity to generate change in a world where those in authority refuse to accept the scientific reality that we all face; despair becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Action is the most effective response to despair. No one person can fix our climate and environmental problems alone, but many people working in concert can carry real impact. Write to a politician or a newspaper; speak on talkback; rally in the streets. Speak up, demand urgent, substantial change. Policymakers must embrace the existential reality we all face, and confront this popular scepticism. We must unite to overcome these threats to our precarious world.