With the election again of Donald Trump as president of the United States, and our own federal election coming very soon, we need to think about to the sort of future we want for our children and theirs.

Our link to the United Sates has always been an important one, and we are spending massively on the AUKUS agreement with the US and the UK, and the development of nuclear-powered submarines. Are we Australians comfortable with Trumpian policies on issues like Gaza, immigration, and the Russian war in Ukraine? What will it cost us if we stand firmly against US policies?

More importantly, how can Australia most effectively contribute to global peace and sustainability at this critical moment in the history of our human world? No country on earth (and certainly not Australia or the US) is yet dealing adequately with a group of existential threats that stand in the way of a sustainable human future. I share the views of Canberra science communicator, Julian Cribb in his 2023 book How to Fix a Broken Planet, that without drastic new remedial action, our human species could be extinct in the relatively near future.

In his chapter Tools for repairing the Earth, Cribb says, Above all, human civilisation needs a coherent plan for its own survival, that is acknowledged by all nations and corporations, and to which they willingly and sincerely contribute. It needs to be practical, achievable, fair, and likely to receive the support of most citizens. And it should make none of the catastrophic threats worse and be integrated across all the threats. Such a plan will not arise on its own and it will need universally agreed instruments or tools to set it in motion."

The author then proceeds to develop what he describes as an Earth System Treaty which would embody:

• a universal ban on nuclear weapons,
• an international plan to combat climate change,
• an international plan to restore forests, soils, fresh waters, oceans, the atmosphere and biodiversity to stable sustainable levels,
• an international agreement to operate a circular economy and end waste,
• a plan for a renewable world food supply, sufficient for all,
• a plan to end chemical pollution in all its forms,
• a plan to voluntarily reduce the human population to a sustainable level,
• a global plan to anticipate and prevent pandemic disease,
• a global technology convention to oversee the safe development and introduction of advanced sciences and technologies and minimise harms,
• a World Truth Commission, and an Earth Standard Currency, all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

As political parties and candidates develop their strategies for the election, it is to be hoped that they will do much more than they have yet done, to prepare us for a safe and sustainable future.

A careful read of Cribbs widely praised short book, that is published by Cambridge University Press, would be an excellent way to begin.