My granddaughter will be 35 in 2050. I grieve that she will know silent and empty places | Christine Milne

Australia's white lemuroid possum became my symbol for habitat loss and global warming that will send one-third of species to extinction by mid-centuryIt was 8 November, 2011 and I had just had one of the best days of my parliamentary career. We had made history when the Senate adopted legislation to implement an emissions trading scheme to address global warming. I was both exhausted and excited, having negotiated and shepherded the legislation through the senate for the Greens. It had been a long haul over many years. Then an email landed in my inbox; after some preliminary congratulations, the writer and vice-chancellor of James Cook University, Sandra Harding, asked why I was wearing a polar bear badge in the newspaper photographs and not one representing an Australian animal. Continue reading...