Strike for Climate Justice! December 11th 2009 – Jeffrey Luers, May 09.
Around the world people are beginning to feel the heat of global warming, entire nations to tiny communities are suffering the effects of climate change.
With the Herald Sun and The Age hyping a threat by the Earth Liberation Front against the Hazelwood power station's boss it looks like we now have the equivalent of the 1950's red scare going on. Death threats are something that are sent to public figures everyday, but rarely reported. In this case the government and coal companies are attempting to smear anyone opposing coal and particularly those who use direct action.
On June 13, 2009 thousands of people around Australia rallied for action on Climate Change, calling for 100% renewable energy by 2020 and demanding that Australia must make the shift from fossil fuels to wind, solar and other available renewable technologies. Rallies were held in capital cities around Australia, with people siting down outside Kevin Rudd's city office in Sydney and a sitdown protest in front of the Melbourne Town Hall where the Victorian State ALP conference was ocurring.
Perth Indymedia | Melbourne Photos, Takver's Photos, Melbourne Protests, Rally Video, Damien Lawson video | Sydney Report, Youtube Video | Brisbane Report
At the National Climate Emergency Rally in Melbourne on Saturday 13th July (see: http://indymedia.org.au/national-climate-emergency-rally-melbourne) organises said at the Town Hall there were up to 5,000 people present on the march - listening to speeches and walking from the State Library, stopping at Melbourne Town Hall where the Victorian ALP was meeting, before heading to Treasury Gardens.
See also Climate Emergency: Thousands march for action across Australia, for another Melbourne report.
Thousands of Melbourne people rocked up to St Kilda Beach to be part of a Climate Change Human Sign near the St Kilda Sea Baths. The event was organised by Locals into Victoria's Environment and promoted by the Climate Emergency Network and is a call for politicians at all levels of Government to make the hard decisions by legislating to drastically reduce carbon emissions and negotiate meaningful international carbon reduction targets at the Copenhagen Conference of Parties in December 2009.
The Federal Government has been much criticised for its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in that too many free permits were handed out to business and targets were set far too low. In the budget handed down by the Rudd Labor Government the environment and climate change funding was relegated to second fiddle to economic recovery.
In Victoria the Brumby Labor Government is proceeding with a Desalination plant for Melbourne which will boost carbon emissions. Alternative water sources that are less costly and more environmentally friendly, such as stormwater harvesting, rainwater tanks and tertiary treatment and purification water recycling have been passed over in favour of a high tech, high cost and polluting solution.
Photo by Aerofoto
One person was arrested when protesters carrying two banners walked onto the Desalination Plant proposed site near Wonthaggi on May 9. The occasion was a rally at the gates of the proposed site organised by Watershed Victoria and Melbourne supporters.
Photos on Flickr | Action: Get Real on Climate Change | FoE
Both the Arctic and Antarctic are experiencing noticeable changes in climate attributed to human induced climate change and global warming. The Arctic Sea Ice extent is still shrinking according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. While the collapse in early April of an ice bridge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula has raised the growing impact of global warming on polar regions.
"Switch off Coal and Switch on Renewables" was the very clear message being sent to State and Federal Governments this Earth Hour by community climate activists who occupied Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley on Saturday March 28.
View the video - http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/bento/videos/Hazelwood.m4v/view
Switch Off Hazelwood Blog - http://switchoffcoal.wordpress.com/
Melbourne Critical Mass has a reputation for visiting the site of the Melbourne Grand Prix, which takes over Albert Park for eight months of the year for staging the Formula 1 race in March.
With the world moving into a period threatened by dangerous climate change due to a failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, it is about time this event was shown for what it is: a waste of resources, a gross contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and fostering a culture and behaviour of alcohol abuse and unsustainable car use.
The Sunday Age has revealed that the State Government was told that with more investment in water saving the desalination plant would not be needed. However if they followed that advice how they could privitize our water and make money for multi-nationals.
