OK.I’m doing an ongoing series of posts on what you can do to make a difference. I shared my overview of the best way to make a difference here and a great starting point for everyone – a climate daily reading list.
Right now, for Australians, supporting the proposed Climate Change Act by adding your name to the growing support at the Climate Act Now is the number one thing you can do.
Why? How? Well, I made a video to explain things fully.
If you can’t be stuffed watching it, feel free to act straight away and add your name here now.
It takes 2 minutes. Feel free to do it while you’re watching the video. And don’t forget to share it with friends.
Convinced? Here’s the link again.
Here’s a bunch of take homes so you can better discuss it with mates and family
Feel free to copy and paste and use however you need to.
- To save this precious life we must get to net zero emissions by 2050.
- Net zero emissions means producing net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, taking into account removals and eligible offsets.
- Everyone agrees on this target. It’s the Paris agreement and our government signed it (importantly it was signed by the Liberal Government led by Tony Abbott) . Most of the world signed it.
- But, the problem is, we don’t have a Federal Climate Change Act that ratifies it in Parliament. This means business is left uncertain (where should they invest, what technology should they be focused on?), and government bills are not put through a “will it help Australia meet the 2050 deadline?” lens…so we go in circles and leaders argue back and forth to no effect. It’s a waste of time, which we don’t have.
- The crazy thing? Australia’s States and Territories have Climate Change Acts. And 73 parties have committed to legislation and 20 countries now have an Act in place. It’s just what everyone is doing.
- Since the UK Climate Change Act (2008) has been in place, the UK’s GDP has grown by 67 per cent, while emissions dropped by 42 per cent…. just as an FYI.
- It’s kinda embarrassing we don’t and it’s causing a lot of stupid, tedious drama and… wasting of time!!
- Good news! On behalf of so many Australians, as well as businesses and politicians, Independent MP Zali Steggall is putting forward a Climate Change Bill March 23 so that our leaders can sign up to it once and for all. It’s political-neutral. Zali is an independent. Farmers, Doctors, the Business Council of Australia, which represents Woolworths, Qantas, AGL and BHP, and Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes are all supporting it. It’s a no brainer.
- And this Climate Act Now Petition? It’s been done up by a bunch of people I’ve got to know through all this activity who’ve arrived at the same decision as me – this is the best way to make a difference and be heard. We sign it, it takes 2 minutes, you get as many people as you can to do the same.
Why might it work?
Basically if we can get, say two million Australians to sign it, we make it easy for the Government to get this Climate Change Bill sorted. They are ham-strung by all kinds of coal industry and national party interests, but if your local MP (particularly if they are a climate supporter but are not doing anything) can point to this petition page and say that 50,000-100,000 people in their electorate are demanding action on this Bill, they say to their party they have no choice and must support the Bill…and cross the floor in support. The Climate Act Now site has a counter, BTW, where you can see how effective your electorate is being.
…and, well, you can see we enable our leaders to do the right thing.
Which means we feel heard.
Which means we feel like someone – we are all – finally doing something!
And here’s the script I promised in the video.
Click the link here. It’s a rough version of what I say. I don’t ever stick to a script.
Want some more info?
You can read a two page summary of the actual Climate Change Bill here.
You can read which celebrities and business groups have supported it here.
This The Conversation article provides a great overview of the whole debate and Bill.
Here’s a good read about the Business Council of Australia supporting the Bill/Act.
If you are an influencer…
Feel free to share my video to get your community fired up.
Or use the script from my video – here – to make your own and get your crew to sign.
Hashtags #climateactnow #consciencevote
You can get tiles and other bits on this google drive.
Take it further
Write to your MP and let them know in your words how important it is to you that they support the Climate Change Act. There are details for this on the petition you fill in – they’ve made it very very easy. Failing that, here’s a good template so you can get started. And you can find your member’s address here.
I’ve written to my MP Dave Sharma and have arranged to meet him in coming weeks. I’ll share how it goes in another video.
Some great meet-up groups
These various groups are campaigning in key electorates to get Australian to put their name to the Climate Act Now. Join them!
Feel free to post more in the Facebook comments and I’ll add to this list. Go forth! And please do share any techniques you’re using to spread this!
