He and his sister Anika look after injured wildlife and contact wildlife rescue services when critters are hit by cars in their street. This happens too often.

Toby, 8, wrote a letter to City of Newcastle councillor Peta Winney-Baartz asking for signs to be installed to warn people in their cars to slow down.

Toby's letter explained that children like to play in Freyberg Street, which also has "ducks and their babies, blue-tongue lizards, possums, peacocks and cockatoos".

"There are many people who speed up and down my street as they enter Richley Reserve. When the animals are on the road, the speeding drivers do not slow down. It makes me worried and sad that these animals could get run over, hurt or die," he wrote.

"I would like you to please consider putting wildlife animal signs up, asking people to be aware of the animals and to slow down."

Councillor Winney-Baartz put Toby's case to council. She and Toby had a win.

The pair met in his street, as the wildlife warning signs were erected.

"I was happy and shocked when I got a reply to my email," Toby said.

Two large, yellow reflective signs now warn people that there are native animals in the area. As a memento of Toby's activism, he was also given a special sign to hang in his bedroom.

Toby's mum Joanna was proud of her son's initiative and his caring nature.

"It doesn't matter how old you are, you can still make a difference," Joanna said.

"We hope it makes people aware and more conscious of wildlife when they are in their cars."

Wonder where Toby will next turn his attention. How about climate change?

As we choked on smoke that squeezed its way through nooks and crannies inside our house, we read Nicholas Stuart's opinion piece in the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday morning about climate change.

It mentioned how governments knew the environment was changing 30 years ago.

Around the same time, in a bit of a coincidence, a Topics spy sent us this clipping from the Newcastle Herald in 1980.

It described the "mounting sense of global crisis over climate change and how people and nations are beginning to respond".

"The 1980s was the decade of recognition. In the 1990s we will be taking those first teetering steps," the story said.

As we report live from inside the ashtray, where it feels like the apocalypse has arrived, we do wonder whether humans have the capacity to solve the climate crisis.

Which reminds us of a profound joke.

Two planets meet. The first one asks: "How are you?"

The second one replies: "Not so well. I've got the Homo sapiens."

The other one says: "Don't worry. I had the same. That won't last long."