Val Wheatley

ICAG: How did you find out about climate change?

VW: It was a gradual process over many years. I have always been interested generally, in nature and protecting the environment.  I grew up on a wheat and sheep farm in central NSW and my father was then relatively enlightened about protecting wildlife, for example calculating how much kangaroos ate of his wheat crops and planting extra to compensate.  As an adult I became aware of many issues, such as land degradation and tree loss, pollution, as I grew older and travelled about. Then there were those intense years of study, working, marriage, children and eventually building a home on 40 acres of bush (irbyana tea tree, brigalow and eucalypts) at Mt. Marrow near Walloon.  

From the late 1980s to the early 90s, I began to sense and feel a change in the weather, wildlife disappearing, loss of native wildflowers, changing rain patterns and increasing heat.  In my small world, we were all too busy, no one was talking about it, there was nothing in the news I accessed.  Then came the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001.  Air travel in the U.S. was stopped completely for 3 days. The lack of contrails in the sky caused the atmosphere to heat over 1.1 degrees C.  This was also measured in central outback Australia.  This was my first, real, gut-wrenching moment of realising the enormity of pollution for our planet.  The second, soon after, was discovering just how destructive the burning of fossil fuels is.

Then, like so many of us, once my eyes started to open, the information came trickling and then pouring in.  Independent media played a crucial role.  Remember Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’?  Then came the third biggest gut punch - that of discovering the existence of ‘climate tipping points’ and that we are facing the sixth mass extinction on earth.  

ICAG: What does it mean to you personally?

VW: Incredible grief, sense of loss and guilt. There is a concept called ‘Solastalgia’: the anxiety we feel in the present about not only what is happening now but what will happen in the future.  Like living in the house you love and mourning its loss as it disintegrates around you.  

ICAG: What are your fears?

VW: Simply for the future of the people I know and love, for those who will bear the full brunt of this climate catastrophe.  I fear for every living thing and for the whole of this beautiful planet that we have used and abused.  I fear we are doing too little, too late.  I fear that individual, government and corporate need and greed will continue at an unabated pace.  I fear that true and real leadership to counteract climate change globally will not occur hard enough or fast enough.  Time is running out.  We are hurtling towards 2 degrees in the near future and then onward to 3, 4, 6 degrees by this century’s end.

ICAG: What are your hopes?

VW: That my fears are groundless.  That all that is good and wonderful about the human race will rise up and we will all join together to create a sustainable world in which we can all survive and thrive.  We have everything right now to do this if we choose.  Love, drive and determination, resources, knowledge and technology.

ICAG: What actions are you taking?

VW: Everything and anything that I have the small capacity to do.  Far from perfect and never enough.  Protesting, lobbying, being active in our community, trying to reduce my carbon ‘footprint’.  Connecting with others and raising awareness.  Driving everyone crazy with my constant ideas and suggestions….

ICAG: What sustains you, gives you joy and motivates you?

VW: Beautiful people and this beautiful world.  Friends and family.  I am so grateful and admiring of everyone in ICAG and elsewhere, for their passion, skills, hard work, courage and drive.  We are an amazing bunch and we are achieving so much.

My joys in life are good food, wine, chocolate, books, film and a slow emergence from my bed in the morning and breakfast outside with my Ipad and a small thermos of tea.  Having fun, laughing and trying out new ideas. My wild and woolly garden, the trees I have planted and all the birds, possums, bats, rats, lizards, etc. that come looking for respite, food and hopefully my company.