Amanda Anastasi was commissioned to write a poetic call to action for COP30 that was a clear, urgent summary of climate impacts across the Oceania region. It was written in response to speakers ranging from policy experts to Indigenous elders at the Global Ethical Stocktake (GES) – Oceania Region. The GES was held in every region globally, aiming to draw attention to the human and ethical aspects of climate change decision-making. The resulting poem, ‘The Last Call’ was displayed in the Oceania pavilion among other contributions, and presented to the UN as part of the region’s GES.

The Last Call

Let it not be said that when called upon to act
in this moment of urgency, we stagnated.

As the oceans gather heat, lifting the waters
of the Pacific upon low-lying islands,
as the coastal barriers of coral and mangrove

are thinning, let it not be said that we retreated
from new thinking until the water lapped at our door,
for we cannot live without what we are destroying.

Let it not be said that we could not find funds
for liveability, for energy sources gentler on land
and sea, drawing on the knowing of First Peoples.

Every tree removed is a lodging, a giver of oxygen
to the lungs of men and women forgetful of the gift
of a eucalypt, a merbau, a kauri tree; the sound

of a kingfisher and honeyeater. Let it not be said
that when met with the science, we chose denial,
for the land we nurture will in turn nurture us.

Let it not be said that our consumption continues
to stand on the back of another damaged village,
another homeless creature fleeing fire, flood,

tsunami or hurricane; on the continued beating
of the worn-out drum of an industry set to decline
yet clinging. Let it not be said that we did not think

of the heat of our grandchildren’s summers keeping
them behind a closed door; how they’d see the world’s
seventh wonder as patches of diminishing colour.

Let it not be said that we could not find the will
to do the work of reforesting, of decarbonising,
of transitioning to the sun and wind and wave.

Let it not be said that we were not ambitious
for humanity; for our child’s air, water and soil
and the spaces they will think and create in.

On the morning after the cruellest bushfire,
listen to how the currawong and crow circle
above the scorched ground, beginning a call

for life to return. Note the persistent budding
from black; the green pushing through despite us.
Let it not be said that our inertia was too strong

to keep home habitable. Let it be said we chose |
courage. We chose unity. We chose survival.

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Amanda Anastasi is a Melbourne poet and the author of Taking Apart the Bird Trap (Recent Work Press, 2024) and The Inheritors (Black Pepper, 2021). Her work has appeared in Australian Poetry Journal, Griffith Review, The Massachusetts Review, Best Australian Science Writing 2021 and 2022, and Best of Australian Poems 2025. She was Poet in Residence at the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub (2019-2022) and has been the recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship and a Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Grant to write at the Great Barrier Reef.

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