A man who calls himself ‘Australia’s first climate refugee’ after losing his home in the 2019 Black Summer fires spoke in Shepparton recently.
Climate activist Rod Simpson was a guest speaker at a meeting of Shepparton climate awareness group Slap Tomorrow.
Mr Simpson spoke of how he lost everything when fire destroyed his home at Drake in NSW — about three and a half hours inland from Byron Bay — in September 2019.
He said a firefighter at the time dubbed him “Australia’s first climate refugee”.
A long-time activist and follower of climate change, Mr Simpson said all the talk he had heard about the changing climate, combined with the weather conditions at that time, made him think the “flags were lining up” for something to go wrong.
“It was windy, there was an extended dry period, lots of fuel on the ground, and no water in the creeks,” he said.
For these reasons, he made the decision to renew his home insurance on the Monday before fire destroyed his home.
It is since losing his home that he has really focused on spreading the word about climate change to others.
It is something he believes is not being talked about enough by those in authority.
“I saw and had to do some horrible things. I had wildlife die in my arms,” he said.
“I realised I had a role to play.
“Scientists say that we are right at the point of no return.”
He said his hope was to bring a group of people together to “have an honest science-based conversation about climate change” and eventually “rattle cages” about the issue.