‘Requiem for a Species’ author resigns, says Australian government not serious about climate change

Published: 14 February 2017

Last updated: 4 March 2024

Prof. Clive Hamilton has been watching climate change for years and was one of the truly qualified members of the original Climate Change Authority. This was established by Parliament in 2012 to provide independent, evidence-based advice on Australia’s climate change policy options but has been sidelined by recent governments, ignored and had some appointed to it who seem to be fossil fuel advocates. The Authority released a review last year that so outraged Professors Hamilton and David Karoly, two remaining true climate scientists, that they issued a dissenting minority report [see first link below in this post].

In the preface to his 2010 book, Requiem for a Species, Hamilton said: ‘The Copenhagen Conference in December 2009 was the last hope for humanity to pull back from the abyss. But a binding commitment … proved too hard … there was a sense at the Copenhagen conference that we were witnessing not so much the making of history but the ending of it.’

One of the reviewers of his book put it this way: “When future generations look out on a planet ravaged by climate change, they will ask of our generation ‘When you knew what was happening – surely the greatest debacle since we came out of our caves – why didn’t you stop it?’ "

Now, finally Hamilton has had enough. He explains why in this resignation letter: