Chance for change

I feel compelled to make some observations on the current status of the world and the possible outcomes once this traumatic period is over.

I do this on the basis of what my generation has endured over the past 88 years.

It all started with the Great Depression in which the unemployment rate hovered around 30 per cent for years. During this period we suffered diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, mumps, poliomyelitis, boils and, once a child turned five, then our tonsils were removed so as to save our lives.

This was followed by World War II — that meant even more belt-tightening including government controlled rationing of petrol, clothing, meat, sugar and butter.

Most able-bodied men went into the armed forces with women filling the jobs usually the domain of males.

This period was followed by our forces being involved in conf licts in Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam where I was fortunate enough to dodge ‘the bullet’.

We survived all this and now we are in another stoush, on two fronts. The obvious one is the coronavirus which has united the world in order to beat this scourge. The other, that I would nominate as the most dangerous, is the continuing change to the world’s climate.

This will not be beaten while the world’s nations remain divided.

There seems to be a general acceptance that this is a critical time of change for our world and there is no doubt the grounding of the world’s aircraft and the greatly reduced motor vehicle traffic should mean a dramatic slowdown in emissions.

This opportunity should not be wasted.

We have to change from the chuck-away society (so much waste) to a more frugal way of living.

A living example: when my old man built a new chook house he used second-hand timber and I had the task of going through all the second-hand nails he had saved so as to straighten them so he could use them again.

And he was not alone.

Letter by Bill Brown from The Shepparton News.

Don’t give up on the mall - letter from Bill Brown

Shepparton’s Bill Brown is sensitive to the causes of climate change and is conscious that there is no silver bullet solution.

The answer, he sees, is multi-faceted and among those things be believes need to be preserved as we attempt to mitigate climate change, are the public spaces in towns and cities, such as Shepparton’s Maude St Mall.

Present discussion appears to favour stepping away from the pedestrian aspect of the mall and again making it a thoroughfare for motor vehicles, albeit slow.

Bill is opposed to that idea and would rather see public transport enhanced in a way that ensured the future of what is now a pedestrian mall.

Read the letter in today’s Shepparton News from Bill Brown - “Don’t give up on the mall.”

Ideas come bubbling up from Beneath the Wisteria

The New York 'carbon clock', similar
 to what Terry Court would like
 to see in Shepparton.

Ideas about raising public awareness and so making them more conscious of difficulties arising from climate change came bubbling up at the November gathering Beneath the Wisteria.

Long-time supporter, Bill Brown, suggested a monthly release on climate events in a brief, readable format that could be posted in regular places about the Shepparton and neighbouring towns.

Bill was also confident some shop-holders would be willing to give the regular update on climate happenings prominence, maybe even giving the A4 size update prominence by framing it.

Terry Court, whose concern that “we were talking to ourselves” led to the Slap Tomorrow forum, suggested a CO2 meter to be displayed in a public and prominent place.

Terry imagined something similar to a rather large electronic sign displayed in New York’s Times Square sponsored by Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management that alerted people, unambiguously, to the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The Telstra tower in the centre of Shepparton was suggested as a possible site to display the “carbon clock’.

Terry will take the idea to Tuesday’s meeting (December 3) of the Slap Tomorrow committee.

Another keen supporter of Beneath the Wisteria, Alan English, discussed that he was hard of hearing suggesting he would like a written list of ideas that people spoke to and then a report of discussions enabling him to stay abreast of the conversation.  

Conscious that nature never sleeps and therefor climate change doesn’t take a break over Christmas, Beneath the Wisteria supporters will gather again in Shepparton’s Maude St Mall at 11:30am on Saturday, December 28.