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local farms where the animals are treated humanely and the land sustainably.
    I know it’s not much. And I know that, small as these actions are, I am uncommonly fortunate to be able to afford to take them. And yes, I am wellaware that by flying to Australia to give this lecture I just undid a big piece of it. But even if I can’t do everything, that’s no excuse for doing nothing. I will do what I can. And at this inflection point in human existence, I believe that what we can do, we must do. Perhaps an answer to Yeats’s despair lies in the words of the eighteenth-century Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. He said: ‘If you believe it is possible to destroy, then believe it is possible to repair.’ The Jewish idea of Tikkun Olam, of each individual working to gather up and repair the shards of a fractured creation, is a metaphor that I think speaks eloquently to our present circumstance.
    Here in Australia, while the need for individuals to act is great, the potential for concerted national action is greater. The Australian Greens have put these issues at the front and centre of the national policy debate. We have a government willing to enact carbon price legislation and an opposition that at least accepts the broad outlines of the crisis and its causes. But is it the best we can do? Not by a long way. Australia can punch above its weight on this issue,and not only because we are the largest per capita carbon emitter. Our continent covers a vast land mass and our territorial waters represent a significant and critical share of the world’s oceans. Time and chance have made us custodians of a huge and significant piece of the planet. Our national temperament has created a peaceful and prosperous society here.
    We are, by any world yardstick, a rich society and a decent people. Right now, by some metrics, we are the richest people on the planet. Rich enough to expend some of that capital and decent enough to know it is the right thing to do, the right time to act. What we do here matters. What we do here could be a model for the world. It is depressing to hear politicians say that our sacrifices should be ‘in line’ with what the United States does. That’s a mighty low bar. Why should we align our ambitions with a nation that harbours justifiable fears of its own decline, that has created a national atmosphere increasingly hostile to science and reason, and that is locked in an arid political stasis? Please, let’s not line up there.
    What’s wrong with leading the way? Shouldn’t we aspire to set the line, to inspire, to become an example to the world, a byword for what a visionary country can be and do? We’ve played that role before, after all. We gave the world the secret ballot — the Australian ballot, as it was called — that did so much to raise living standards and improve conditions for workers worldwide. We were a leader in extending to women the right to vote. We were barely a nation when we set the bar for bravery and sacrifice by common soldiers in foreign wars. We grew up out of racism and misogyny and homophobia to become a mostly tolerant, successfully multicultural society in a world where, for too many countries, that seemingly modest ambition remains painfully out of reach.
    We did these great things because we know — we have always known — that we are in it together. It is our core value as Australians. And at this moment in history, our core value happens to be the raw, aching truth of the human predicament. It may also be the only belief that can save us as a species. A species that will continue to find comfort and delight in thecompanionship of animals, the miracle of birds, the colours of corals and the majesty of forests. We are in it together, on this blue, spinning marble in the cold and silent void. And we must act on that belief, if we are going to be able to continue to live a good life here, in this beautiful and fragile