Glimpses from the climate change and sustainability forum ‘Care for Our Common Home’ at Geelong West Town Hall on 11 October 2018.
Jasper Harris
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15-year-old Jasper Harris’ five-minute speech at the climate change and sustainability forum. Jasper is a Year 10 student at Geelong College. In his speech he reflected on this video-clip with climate-striking Greta from Sweden, which had just been screened.
Alex Marshall
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19-year-old Alex Marshall’s five-minute speech at the climate change and sustainability forum.
Alex Marshall was the 2017 School Captain of Sacred Heart College.
She talks about here experience with Generation Waking Up and how – and why – she started to care about sustainability and climate change.
» Generation Waking Up’s Australian home page:
www.bethechange.org.au
» Generation Waking Up’s Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/generationwakingup
Lis Bastian
Half an hour’s radio interview with Lis Bastian, who spoke at the event about The Big Fix, a media and education initiative in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.
Lis Bastian was guest in The Sustainable Hour on 94.7 The Pulse while she visited Geelong. You can listen to the full podcast hour here:
We hope to be able to post more speeches, interviews and songs as audio excerpts and video clips on this page in the coming months.
Background for the event
Praise of an ecological teaching letter to the world from the Pope
Coming event in November
Call to action on climate change
Join TAKE2 to pledge to take action on climate change
Victorians are concerned about climate change, and 78 per cent of Victorians believe that climate change is an issue that requires urgent action now.
To help you take action on climate change, the Victorian Government’s TAKE2 website will give you free information and a personal action plan to reduce your emissions and help limit global temperature rise to under 2 degrees.
So far, over 12,000 Victorians have joined the TAKE2 network and pledged to take action – this includes households, businesses, community groups and councils.
If you’d like to pledge the actions you’ll take to reduce emissions, sign up and set your action plan
» Find more information about TAKE2 on www.take2.vic.gov.au
» The Guardian – 6 August 2018:
Most Australians want more renewables to help lower power prices – poll
“Survey comes as Victoria and Queensland urged to block national energy guarantee and business groups call for deal to be approved.”
Invest in solar power for your home
Solar panels are a great way to reduce your emissions, save money and improve the value of your home. Now is a perfect time to get solar, because the Victorian Government is providing rebates through the Solar Homes Package.
Eligible households can claim a 50 per cent rebate on the cost of a solar panel system – up to a maximum rebate of $2,225 – or a $1,000 rebate for the replacement of hot water systems with solar hot water.
Rebates are available for systems installed from 19 August 2018.
» Visit Solar Victoria’s website to check your eligibility and find out how to get started.
• Power your house with clean energy: Install solar if you can, or buy renewables-friendly electricity. Disconnect from gas – see www.greenelectricityguide.org.au.
• Make your house energy efficient: For a start, take a look at www.energyfreedom.com.au – and have listen to what Dan Cowdell tells us about this topic:
Dan Cowdell: How to make your house energy efficient
Geelong Sustainability’s energy assessment expert Dan Cowdell was interviewed in The Sustainable Hour on 94.7 The Pulse on 10 October 2018
Dan Cowdell’s presentation at the climate change forum on 11 October in Geelong West Town Hall
Transition Streets Geelong
The concept of Transition Streets has really taken off in Geelong. It is a grassroots initiative that focuses on connecting and supporting neighbourhoods around the issues of sustainability, giving real meaning to the phrase, “think globally; act locally”.
The group has become a flagship project of the City of Greater Geelong’s Community Zero Carbon Action Plan, and is a recipient of funding from the Victorian State Government’s ‘Pick My Project’.
You can also join Transition South Barwon, regardless whether you live in the 3216 area or not.
» See more about the Geelong initiatives on www.transitionstreetsgeelong.org
» Connect with Transition Streets Geelong in its Facebook group
Community Action in the Climate Emergency – CACE
Podcast: The Sustainable Hour with Adrian Whitehead
Adrian Whitehead: Climate emergency message will be unstoppable
Adrian Whitehead and CACE is “building the safe climate campaign from councils up”. The website www.caceonline.org includes the steps to take to build the campaign to get a council into climate emergency mode.
This link includes ‘motions of acknowledgement and commitments to action’ that can help with the wording of any motion, and CEDAMIA – Climate Emergency Declaration and Mobilisation In Action – has this local council action kit
You can join the Facebook page and sign up to the email list for updates on www.fb.com/CommunityActionClimate
The Darebin Council website has lots of resources, including their Climate Emergency Plan. Australia’s first council-led Climate Emergency Conference was hosted by Darebin City Council on 11-12 September 2018. Resources from the conference – some presentations and footage – are available here: www.darebin.vic.gov.au/climatechange
Here are four wonderful climate emergency documents you could read:
[one_half]
(PDF, 16 pages)
(PDF, 118 pages)
[one_half]
(PDF, 44 pages)
(PDF, 24 pages)
A newly started Geelong Climate Emergency group is convened by Alex Marchall who spoke at the town hall forum. Read more about it on www.geelong.climateemergencydeclaration.org
Other simple personal actions
you can take for reducing carbon emissions
• Minimise transport emissions
For example, walk, ride, take public transport, use an electric vehicle, avoid air travel. Instead, use video conferencing, skype for business, etc, whenever possible.
• Divest – Move your money out of fossil fuels
For banks see www.marketforces.org.au, for superannuation see www.superswitch.org.au.
• Be a conscious consumer
For example, buy only what you need, and buy things that last. Recycle. Upcycle.
• Plant trees
For drawing down excess carbon in the atmosphere. See for example Earth Day, Trees for Life
• Eat less meat
For example, meat-free days, vegetarian, vegan
• Promote the Geelong Climate Emergency Declaration campaign. This might ultimately prove to be the THE most important climate action you can take since our governments have the power and resources to make the big changes we need.
• Get involved: