We did it – around 30 or so parents, grandparents and an aunt, gathered in Springwood today with 16 of our children, to give Kerry Bartlett our Federal MP the message that we are very, very worried about Australia’s political response to climate change and how it impacts on our children’s futures. Lots more wanted to come but couldn’t because of work, sick children etc. Click here for the slideshow! After a few talks and speaking to lots of interested passersby, we moved into Mr Bartlett’s office and presented our letters which asked him to personally contact Prime Minister John Howard with our requests:
• Help Australia move away from coal, the primary cause of climate change, to clean affordable renewable energy such as wind and solar by supporting a 30% cut in greenhouse pollution by 2020.
• Join with the rest of the international community in dealing with climate change and, as a first step, ratify Kyoto.
More and more groups are springing up around the world highlighting how urgent it is to act immediately. Speaking about Darfur, probably the worst humanitarian disaster and genocide in the history of the world, Mia Farrow said today:
“Patience is not the virtue we need now.”
Much of what is happening in Darfur is linked to the damage we are doing to the environment by our inaction on climate change.
Even Montgomery Blair High School in the USA organised a Students for Global Responsibility Campaign in which they made 250 calls on their cell phones to senators and congressmen urging them to take action to help Darfur.
Climax, a group in Stockholm formed a month ago. It is the seed of a direct action-movement against the root causes of climate change in a country which has just recently woken up to the facts of ongoing global warming. Climax is inspired by Planestupid and Rising Tide and on their site I found links to other great sites with information about how much harm flying is doing to the planet:
On a personal level I was forced, yet again by circumstances, to make another change. I dropped and broke a jar of Green Tomato Relish and used all my sponges to wipe up the relish and the glass. I nearly wept at the waste but also had to deal with the fact that suddenly we had no more sponges. Instead of going out and buying more I managed to persuade Ian (without a marital eco-fight) that we should now use old washers to do the dishes. He actually seemed quite happy about this and I’m happy too because I’ve gathered a pile of old towels over the years and always wondered what to do with them – now I’m going to chop them up and make washers!
In the meantime the kids had a ball reusing old wood and sheets and building themselves a teepee in the backyard – no plastic anywhere!
Oh wow, Lis, that is sooo great! Considering how concerned you were that people weren’t going to turn up they did!! What a great photo! Also, old washers and towels, that is brilliant! I am going straight to my parents linen closet for that one!! Thanks.