‘I am not an optimist. I am an activist.’

David Patterson (Sydney, 1955) is an activist. He was involved with the movement against the war in Vietnam, the anti-nuclear movement, the gay rights movement and fought the HIV epidemic. Now he pleads for urgent climate action. He wrote his thesis about the climate crisis and the right to health. “Right now we are going in the wrong direction.” 

_{Text: Esther van der Meer}

You begin your book with an Epigraph. Why is that?

“An Epigraph hints at the core ideas and deeper meaning of a work. I was struck by the statement on the commemorative plaque marking the death of a glacier in Iceland in 2014, framed as ‘A letter to the future.’ The plaque tells us this is the first Icelandic glacier to lose it’s status and that all glaciers are expected to follow the same path the next 200 years. And then it says: 

‘This monument is to acknowledge that we know
what is happening and needs to be done.
Only you know if we did.’

We are racing towards climate tipping points. It is well possible that we are the most technologically advanced species anywhere in the universe but we are creating a world where human culture and science can no longer flourish.”

What makes climate change so close to your heart?

‘’I  have a feeling about what it is to be a global citizen and not just a privileged guy sitting in The Hague. Think of the people in the global South, how vulnerable they are. We had a hot summer, they had much worse. My spouse comes from Tunisia. It was 46 degrees there last week. We face several existential threats: nuclear war, pandemics, AI. But climate change is the only one on the horizon which is scientifically inevitable if we continue as we are now doing.” 

You write in your preface that you experienced a life-changing event in Cairo in 1983. What happened, and what conclusion did you reach?

“At that time I was deeply affected by the poverty and environmental degradation that I saw in Egypt. I realised that I had privileges through which I could make a difference. I went back to Australia in the early 1980s to study law. I wanted to work at Greenpeace. But when I got back to Sydney it was in the middle of the HIV-pandemic. I had many friends who got ill and died. That was my introduction to activism.” 

What made you decide to embark on a PhD at the age of 65?

“My work took me to over twenty countries in the global South. I met so many people working so hard to improve the health of their people. But now climate change is descending on them. Look at Nepal and Tibet: the glacier swept the hydropower plant away. The climate crisis is the most important crisis in the world. I want to contribute.”  

You have spent many years working on HIV and health law. What led you to focus on climate change?

“I was profoundly impressed by the achievements of the HIV response. In the eighties and nineties, HIV spread terror globally. At the end of the nineties we found a treatment, but it was very expensive. In the global South people were screaming for help but the pharmaceutical companies wanted to control the prices. Through social mobilisation the treatment became available worldwide for a reasonable price.

I think there is a lot to learn from this approach to tackle the climate crisis: how social mobilisation can be grounded in the concepts of universal human rights and sound science, the right to health as a composite right and the power of strategic litigation.” 

Based on your  thesis, what do you think needs to happen now to tackle the climate crisis?

“The foundations of our response must be through education and civil society mobilisation. As with the HIV pandemic, we need strategic alliances across the widest range of global South and global North civil society organisations. We have the tools to do this. For example, there are over 6,500 International, regional and national NGOs, non-profit public or voluntary organizations with consultative status with the United Nations. 

We need also to implement a parallel, complementary, human rights-based monitoring and reporting mechanism through the UN General Assembly. And all tertiary education should frame the climate crisis as a cross-cutting theme.” 

You conclude your preface with: “The conclusion of this dissertation thus closes one chapter, and opens another.” What is that new chapter?

“Last year I was elected President of the Law and Public Health Section of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) 2026-2028. I will use this position to advocate for greater engagement by the public health community in advocacy for climate action. And I hope to continue as a member of the research team at the Groningen Centre for Health Law.” 

Are you confident that we can turn the tide in time?

“No, overconfidence would be foolish and is not justified by the current science. Right now global greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing. Over the past twelve months the climate crisis has become even more evident: wild fires, drought, extreme heat, floods, glacial collapse. But my experience of the HIV pandemic is that with social mobilisation and legal action we can still limit climate change and its harms to human and planetary health. 

I like the approach of Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director, which I cite in my thesis. This is the short version:

I am sometimes asked whether I am an optimist or whether I am a pessimist. The answer is that I am an activist, because success depends on rising to the moment, on recognizing the urgency of now.”