COP27 was disappointing, but 2022 remains an historic year for international climate policy.

Speakers at a recent forum at the Making Good Alliance premises on Tamborine Mountain offered two radically different, Aboriginal and Western, views of the world, how we have shaped it and how it shapes us – and what we owe the place we call “home”.

COP27 in Egypt is currently concentrating the minds of global leaders about the climate emergency, with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, warning delegates that the world is “on a highway to climate hell”. This warning should send shivers down our spines. Fear can make us turn away and stop our ears, hoping that if we avoid thinking about the problem, somehow (magically) it will vanish.

But there is another, more positive, way of dealing with this warning, by taking note of the encouraging signs of progress towards a cleaner future. Increasing the use of various sources of renewable energy, speeding up decarbonisation, taking protest action, engaging our political and business leaders, and cooperating to effect positive change – all of these are already under way.

The author of a new book argues that in facing the climate crisis we need to accept we feel a range of complex feelings and thoughts – from fear to a sense of powerlessness to denial to hope and (cautious) optimism. And we need to avoid falling into the mistake of seeing anything less than total victory for the environment’s wellbeing as a failure. Honestly acknowledging such contradictory responses can be the key to taking positive action.