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“Hi! I am Suzie Brown. I am one of the founders of Australian Parents for Climate Action. I live in Ocean Grove, which is near Geelong in Victoria, Australia. I’ve got a five-year-old daughter and I am extremely concerned about the future for her. Will there actually be a liveable planet? Will she have anywhere to even survive?
I have joined with a large number of other parents from around Australia to form Australian Parents for Climate Action, because we are all really scared for the future. Climate chaos is happening now. Like, we are seeing things collapsing all around us. Heatwaves… Melting ice caps.
I was walking along Barwon Heads near my house, yesterday, and I can see sea level rise right in front of my eyes. This is not something that might happen in the future, it is happening right now.
So, we are really concerned. We are angry that the government – particularly the Federal Government – have done nothing about climate change. Australia is absolutely missing in action on this issue.
Not only are we not cutting our own emissions – our emissions in Australia are going up and up. But at an international level we are not out there, with other countries, saying: “We need to act!” We are not forming a team effort on this, which is what Australia needs to do. We are an influential country. We need to be talking to every other country and saying, ‘Yes, together we will act and fix this problem and have a safe planet for our children.’
I am extremely angry about this issue, and so are other mothers and fathers of Australia, whose children may not have anywhere to live.
So, we have formed this group, and we are going to be pressuring all candidates and parties in the federal election campaign this year – in 2019 – that if they do not come up with some serious climate emergency actions and policies and get on with it now, we will not vote for them. So they need to get on board and show us what they are going to do if they want to win any votes from the parents of Australia.
I am holding here a photo of my daughter who is a five year old beautiful girl called Lila. I am doing this for her. She will not have anywhere to live… – I’m going to cry – if I don’t get something happening… I want the federal politicians to listen to this. This is serious.”
AP4CA Statement
“To all Australian Parliamentarians and Councillors,
I am a parent, guardian or grandparent and I am deeply concerned about the threat that climate change poses to my children and grandchildren.
The future safety and survival of our children – and their future children – is under direct threat by the excess carbon emissions in the atmosphere, which is destroying the ecosystems on which we all depend for our survival. (…) It is inexcusable to continue with climate-damaging policies that put us all in even greater peril. The Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal is not a safe goal.
We call on all Australian federal, state, and territory parliaments and all local councils to:
• declare a climate emergency
• commit to providing maximum protection for all children, adults, economies, species, ecosystems, and civilisations, and to fully restoring a safe climate
• mobilise the required resources and take effective action at the necessary scale and speed
• transform the economy to zero emissions and make a fair contribution to drawing down the excess carbon dioxide in the air, and
• encourage all other governments around the world to take these same actions.
We’ve risen to big challenges in the past when an emergency has been declared, with citizens and all sides of politics rising to the occasion and working together for the common good.
We call on all levels of government to do what is necessary now. This is an urgent threat to us all, especially our children.”
» Add your name here:
www.ap4ca.org
“AP4CA is the voice for all parents and grandparents in Australia to show their deep concern about the impact of climate change on our children’s safety and survival, now and into the future. Together we demand immediate emergency-scale action from all levels of government and from business to safeguard the future for our children by cutting atmospheric greenhouse emissions to safe levels and protecting the ecosystems on which we all depend.”
» Read more:
» Facebook page (public):
www.facebook.com/ap4ca
» Facebook group (sign up for membership):
www.facebook.com/groups/1563257827306784
Related
“A letter to my new nephew about a future that people are worried about”
By Ian McBurney
“Dear Alexander,
Welcome to a beautiful world, my love. A world of flowers and winds and rainbows and mountain views. A world of laughter and connection and cuddles. A world of birds and wind blown leaves, of waves and the moon…”“My advice to you on your journey is to strive to live these four qualities every day:
Be Connected: with people, with neighbours, with friends, with community, with nature.
Be Curious: always ask why? How? What? When? Who? What if?
Be Creative: find new ways, new paths, new ideas, new possibilities, new imaginings.
Be Passionate. Find your element. Follow your dreams. Explore what you love. And make a difference there.
And Alex, make sure you fall in love with this world and the people in it. Be in it and live it and breathe it and drink of it and eat from it and do this together with loved ones.
Have you sat with your mum and dad under a wattle tree in the spring whilst a cool breeze made the leaves dance, Alexander?”
Ian McBurney wrote about the blogpost that it was published last week, has been viewed 500 times and shared 21 times on Facebook.
“There are lots of people worried about the future. I wrote it because I know many parents who oscillate between hope and despair when they think of their children’s future.”
~ Ian McBurney
“A reason to fight”
“In the book, you ask whether it is moral to have children in this climate. In the past year, you have done just that. What hope do have that your child won’t live in the uninhabitable world of your title?”
David Wallace-Wells: “I come at the question of hope from the perspective that truly total devastation is possible and something close to that is where we are heading now. So every degree cooler, every tick of temperature that we prevent, is an improvement and therefore a reason for hope. So, if we stabilise the planet at 3°C that is better than 3.5°C, 2.5°C is better than 3°C, and so on.
For reasons independent of climate, I wanted to have children. Most people do. I don’t think this is an impulse we need to disavow before we have finished the final act of this story. I think it is a reason to fight now so that we can continue to have those children and continue to live in the ways we want to live. It is possible regardless of how bad the news from science is.”
» The Guardian – 4 February 2019:
David Wallace-Wells on climate: ‘People should be scared – I’m scared’
“The journalist and author has claimed climate change will soon render the world uninhabitable, leading his supporters to say he’s telling the terrifying truth and critics to brand him a reckless alarmist. Why is he so worried?”
» Read more on climatesafety.info: What parents can do