Droppert, Graham --- "President's page: A hot topic" [2021] PrecedentAULA 61; (2021) 167 Precedent 3

---

A HOT TOPIC

By Graham Droppert SC

The land and seas we all share are the foundation of our very existence and yet the impact of humans on our environment is continuously modifying the world to the point where the lives of many are in jeopardy.

There are lessons we can all learn from the Indigenous custodians of lands, here and around the planet, which start with connection to mother earth. For this and many other reasons, I acknowledge that the land I live on is and always has been the land of First Nations peoples. I pay my respects to the Elders – past, present and emerging – throughout Australia.

As predictions for a 1m rise in sea levels remain ominously real, islands in the Torres Strait which sit 1.5m above sea level will become uninhabitable. Extreme weather events will inevitably result in the displacement and destruction of the culture of First Nations peoples. This loss would be a loss for all Australians.

Already the impacts of climate change have surfaced in the daily lives of many across the globe in the form of intense wildfires, coastal residences under threat, droughts, catastrophic storms, loss of animal habitats and mass loss of fish stocks. These tangible events are early symptoms of what will challenge our global community in the coming decades.

I write this page a few days before COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. By the time you read this edition of Precedent, you will know whether the world’s leaders have kicked the can down the road to 2050 or whether they have heeded the warnings of scientists which report that ‘there is also mounting evidence that we are nearing or have already crossed tipping points associated with critical parts of the Earth system, including the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, warm-water coral reefs, and the Amazon rainforest’.^[1]

The contributors to this edition are leading commentators and their articles raise important environmental and legal issues. The daily interaction between agriculture, mining, communities and the environment gives rise to many legal concepts, at times conflicting, which are explored in the following pages of Precedent.

Do corporate property interests, human rights and farmers’ reliance on and commitments to the land have a place in environmental decision-making? How are these conflicting interests reconciled? Lawyers are not only the servants of those seeking redress, compensation or clarity, but can also be part of a wider discussion of what environmental sustainability means in the context of the law.

There are many organisations contributing to this debate and action to safeguard the environment. From the Environmental Defenders Office with its pledge to use the law ‘to protect and defend Australia’s wildlife, people and places’^[2] to Extinction Rebellion with its direct action to challenge existing laws, the opportunities to make your voice heard are wide and varied. As lawyers, we need to know what the law can do to influence our interaction with the environment and advocate for change. The articles in this edition provide information to use when representing those who seek to access the law to protect the environment.

Graham Droppert SC is a barrister practising from Albert Wolff Chambers, Perth, specialising in personal injury. PHONE [phone] EMAIL [e-mail].

---

^[1] WJ Ripple, C Wolf, TM Newsome, JW Gregg, TM Lenton, I Palomo, JAJ Eikelboom, BE Law, S Huq, PB Duffy and J Rockström, ‘World scientists’ warning of a climate emergency 2021’, BioScience, Vol. 71, No. 9, 2021, 894–8.

^[2] See <https://www.edo.org.au/about/>.