climate change - our future is in our hands

Today I went along to Climate Change Human Sign event down on St Kilda beach, organised by L.I.V.E. (Locals into Victoria's Environment).

Thousands of people gathered on St Kilda beach to form this human sign. Many thanks to Aerofoto for supplying this image.
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Along with thousands of other Victorians I helped to form the message "Climate Change - Our Future is in Your Hands".

It was great to see Sherbrooke Community School at the event. The students and teachers have a great passion for sustainability and the environment, I congratulate them on their commitment.

There is an ongoing frustration within the community that all levels of government are not doing enough to reverse the dangerous effects of global warming with today's message aimed fairly and squarely at the Federal Government.

The Yarra Valley Climate Action Group were there, the group is made up of concerned citizens based in the Yarra Valley. These citizens, from various walks of life, are deeply concerned about the threat from man-made global warming arising from greenhouse gas pollution.

The Federal government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was deeply flawed and now it is even more so with the latest announcement that the Government will delay the scheme by one year and deliver another $2.2 billion in compensation to Australia’s biggest polluters—in addition to $7.4 billion the polluters are already getting.

As the globe gets hotter more and more species are under threat of extinction.

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The Greens are prepared to support a minimum unconditional 25% target – the bare minimum required by science and the global community – to end 12 years of climate inaction.

After 11 years of climate inaction, Australia cannot afford to delay any longer on emissions trading. The future of our children, grandchildren and their children is at stake.

Me with Janet Rice and Greens MLC, Colleen Hartland.

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Climate action is URGENT. Urgent action is cheaper than delaying action and it provides the green jobs of the future.

A weak 5% target won’t stimulate long term investment in the clean, green jobs of the future.

Today's human sign transformed its message with the 'Y' becoming the underline of our. The future is in our hands, it is up to us to tell our leaders that we want serious action on climate change now.

Many thanks to Aerofoto for supplying this image

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Treasury modeling shows 25% target is affordable; by 2020 Australia’s GDP will be roughly three times the size it is today whether we have a ‘worse than useless’ 5% target or the minimum effective 25% target.

Australia will reduce its emissions by 4% on 1990 levels by 2020. The United Kingdom’s target is 34% on 1990 levels by 2020. It is clear who is leading the world on climate, and it is not Australia.