The Albanese Government is now very well placed to encourage and assist the United Nations, to prevent human extinction, and make our planet habitable for future generations. It has also, now become very urgent that we take comprehensive action on the issues discussed below.

Australia was a founding member of the UN and played a prominent role in the negotiation of the UN Charter in 1945. It was also one of eight nations involved in drafting the Universal Declaration.

The problem that now threatens the future of our species, is that there are ten, interacting Existential Threats, none of which are being adequately dealt with by any country on Earth. They include:

• Climate change;
• Depletion of essential resources;
• Destruction and extinction of other species;
• Uncontrolled technology, including artificial intelligence;
• Widespread chemical poisoning;
• Weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons;
• Pandemics of new and well-known diseases;
• Insecurity of food supplies;
• Excessive human numbers; and
• Widespread misinformation and wenial about the threats.

Most Australians now recognise the seriousness of climate change, and the impact it is already having, not only in Australia, but around the world. And it is just one of the 10 problems that we can and must address, and that many people, including the current US president, are ignoring or denying

Science communicator Julian Cribb AM, who was for six years, director of National Awareness for the Commonwealth, Scientific and Industrial Organisation, has published a series of books about existential threats and their manageability.

His most recent book, published by Cambridge University Press, is entitled: “How to Fix a Broken Planet: Advice for Surviving the 21st Century.” It brings together, in a short and highly readable volume, his conclusions about the survivability of the human species. It offers the reader a sensible and practical path away from early human extinction and presents detailed actions for individuals, community groups and governments.

Cribb writes: “The problems we face are global in nature. They cannot be fixed by nations or corporations working alone, or in small alliances. They cannot be fixed by well-intentioned people acting, while others sit and watch, or try, from selfish motives to undermine them. These challenges must be tackled by all of humanity acting together for the first time in our history. They call for the greatest act of single-minded collaborative action and caring that humans have ever undertaken. Fixing our broken planet is not going to be easy but it is achievable if we all act together with determination and goodwill. It will be the greatest thing our species has undertaken.”

Cribb describes 10 solutions that could put us on a survivable path. They include the following.

1. Outlaw all nuclear weapons and eliminate their stockpiles and safely recycle or bury their materials.

2. End all extraction and use of fossil fuels and their byproducts: pesticides, plastics and petrochemicals by 2030. Replace them with renewable energy and green chemistry. Rewild half the earth’s land area to drawdown and lock up carbon.

3. Create a circular global economy, in which every resource is recycled, and nothing is lost, wasted or allowed to pollute. Introduce a green new deal that reduces inequality, ensures sustainability, triggers investment and transitions economics into a new model of prosperity and abundance.

4. Develop a renewable global food system that includes regenerative agriculture and climate proofing of urban food systems that use recycled water and nutrients. And embark on deep ocean farming of plants, fish and marine animals.

5. Return half of the world’s current farmlands to forest or wilderness, to end the sixth extinction and restore the habitability of the biosphere. Create a “Stewards of the Earth” program to carry it out.

6. Create a new human right not to be poisoned and a “Clean up the Earth Alliance” to eliminate all forms of toxic pollution. Introduce a global inventory and universal safety testing of all manufactured chemicals.

7. Introduce a world plan to progressively and voluntarily reduce the human population to a sustainable level.

8. Prevent future pandemics by ending environmental destruction, performing dangerous scientific experiments, discouraging global travel, creating early warning systems and reducing the human population.

9. Give women a greater role in world and community leadership. Unlike men, women tend not to start wars, wreck oceans, fell forests, ruin landscapes, pollute and poison everyone. They often take thought for the needs of coming generations.

10. Develop and draw upon an “Earth System Treaty:” an integrated survival plan at the global level, that addresses all risks outlined here and their solutions, to be signed by all countries and their governments and able to be signed by all citizen bodies and corporations if they so wish.

All of this, is a huge task, but it is all potentially do-able. And in his book, Cribb goes on to show how individuals, groups and civil agencies could become involved and demonstrate to the rest of the world, how to do it.

Despite his success at the recent federal election, our prime minister, like most political leaders, has not yet seriously addressed this enormous challenge to human survival. The very least he could do would be to acknowledge the threats described, and the proposals made by Julian Cribb and others for a “Global Earth System Treaty.” He could propose that Australian scientists be funded to engage actively with the UN in promoting a major global inquiry into long-term human survival.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.