Refuting Coalition claims on their climate policies – a guide

Many people are now writing to their local MPs demanding climate action. Coalition MPs are responding with claims of what they are doing. Here we make suggestions on how to challenge these responses – or much better, to use when talking with friends and family, who may be swayed by Coalition rhetoric.

This upsurge in climate concern is great. But please don’t just write letters to politicians. We suggest people join a local group. There are lots of groups working on various aspects of climate change. Contact us if you would like some suggestions.

The Coalition quotes below are from a letter sent to a constituent by a Coalition MP.

Read the story from Climate Action Moreland - “Refuting Coalition claims on their climate policies – a guide.”

Let’s Pretend Climate Change Isn’t Real

“Yeah, but it won’t be that bad.”

“Yeah, but it won’t affect us.”

“Yeah, but we’ll adapt.”

For many people, climate change just doesn’t feel like a big issue. Unless you happen to have experienced a wildfire, a drought or a flood, it still seems quite far off. We can spend a lot of time talking through chains of cause and effect but if someone — be they a member of a public, a businessperson or a political figure — has decided for themselves that climate change isn’t a big deal, it can be pretty difficult to convince them otherwise.

So maybe a different tactic is required. What if we just pretend climate change isn’t real? What if we pretend that sea levels aren’t rising, that oceans aren’t acidifying, that global temperature isn’t creeping upwards? This might seem perverse at first — the fundamental science is, after all, unequivocally robust — but as we have seen, people often just don’t respond to problems unless they have an obvious or immediate effect. This explains a lot of life: it’s why we drink alcohol, eat cake, and spend way too much time on social media. People are great at discounting — that is to say, going for short-term gains even if they incur long-term losses. If we accept this as an unavoidable truth, the only way to prompt action is to focus on the short term. How could we make lives better — now?

Read the story from Medium by Jacob Ashton - “Let’s Pretend Climate Change Isn’t Real.”

Paul Hawken to visit Bendigo in February for Drawdown Summit

Paul Hawken first brought the Drawdown message to Bendigo in 2009 and changed the minds of many people.

And now the American environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author will be back next month at the Bendigo Climate Drawdown Summit.

Mr Hawken’s latest book,”Drawdown” is described on its cover as “The Most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming”.

The Thursday, February 22, event is being staged by the Bendigo Sustainability Group, which it says, will allow Mr Hawken to provide insights on how Bendigo, and regional communities with clear goals, targets, actions, and projects will reap the economic, social and environmental benefits of the fast increasing global shift to a zero emissions economy.

The international Drawdown organisation is a group of qualified and experienced researchers from around the world to identify, research, and model the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change. 

The Bendigo group said: “What was uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global warming within thirty years. It shows that humanity has the means at hand. Nothing new needs to be invented.

“The solutions are in place and in action. Our work is to accelerate the knowledge and growth of what is possible. We chose the name Drawdown because if we do not name the goal, we are unlikely to achieve it.
“We’ve had global climate summits. We’ve had national targets and goals that come and go. 

“The real action however is happening and will continue to happen at the city and local community level,” the group added. 

The February 22 event will be held at Ulumbarra Theatre on Bendigo’s Gaol Rd with the two-hour session to start at 7:00 pm.

General admission is $32.65 and concession is just $22.45 and tickets can be secured from
https://goo.gl/DXdxW3