Are you willing to take a pledge to help tackle climate change and raise awareness?
Friends of the Earth have developed a campaign that will do just this, it’s called ‘The Green Pledge’.
The Green Pledge involves taking five personal commitments for one week to limit your carbon emissions to 50 per cent of the average Australian.
By getting friends and family to sponsor you for your efforts, you can raise awareness and funds to help tackle climate change.
This year The Green Pledge is taking place from the 17th to 23rd of October.
To take part is easy, you must choose at least five pledges from the following options:
- Transport – getting around solely by foot, bicycle and local public transport. This means no planes, long distance trips or cars, people.
- Veg Out – eating tasty veg food.
- Second hand consumption – ideally you won’t be consuming any new products! BUT, if necessary, you can buy second hand items (includes clothes, furniture, electronic appliances)
- Rug up / Strip off – this means not using heating or air conditioning
- Two minute showers daily
- Put your bank on notice – The big four banks are loaning billions of dollars to destructive coal projects, time to send them a powerful message and divest. Read more
- Get green power – Green power is a great way to cut down on emissions long term. Read more
- Zero waste week – simply create no waste, includes no food packaging
- Write three letters – Activism has always been a driver for positive change. Write letters to your MP and local media about climate change
- Just be creative – if you’ve got any cool ideas then go for it! Some ideas
We hope that beyond the week, participants will adopt some of these changes into their everyday lifestyle.
Funds raised will go directly to Friends of the Earth, a grassroots advocacy organisation that runs a number of crucial environmental and social justice campaigns. These range from Yes 2 Renewables, which campaigns for strong investment in renewable energy, to Quit Coal, which is leading the way in ensuring coal mining and Coal Seam Gas explorations are halted.
Last year the Green Pledge saved 10 tonnes of carbon emissions and raised $10,000.
So, join us in this project as we take a pledge to work together to implement change.
» Victorians, click here to register
» Green Pledge home page: www.thegreenpledge.net
Thanks!
From Cam and the team at Friends of the Earth
P.S: Friends of the Earth’s Green Pledge launch party is in Melbourne this coming Thursday, on 16 October from 7.30pm onwards at 312 Smith St, Collingwood. There will be great local bands and DJs, so come on down if can. Click here for more info
Friends of the Earth Melbourne · 312 Smith St, Collingwood, VIC 3066, Australia
Why individual action matters
“Forget politics. Forget the failures of leadership at national level. Forget the United Nations and the fruitless international climate negotiations which are compromised by vested interests in the fossil fuel industry. The solutions lie in individuals taking action and showing leadership by example at the community level.
I can hear many who’d be saying: “No way. How can what we do as individuals possibly have any meaningful effect on the 98 million tonnes of carbon pollution we collectively put into the atmosphere every day? What will it matter if I change my ‘carbon behaviour’ as long as everyone else doesn’t? My actions will always just be an insignificant, tiny drop in the sea.”
The thing that you have not taken into account, then, when you think like that, is the power of exponential growth. Also called The Domino Effect. The Snowball Effect. The Butterfly Effect… It has many names. Scientists call it Trophic Cascades, and they are able to show how trophic cascades can create dramatic changes in nature.
If we can find the right domino to knock over, the resulting cascade of reactions can – and will – change the world.”
» ‘The Solution’: a short story about the Leadership By Example Principle
KEY POINTS
- Dirty energy is threatening communities locally and globally. Extracting, transporting, and burning fossil fuels has serious impacts on communities by polluting water, causing asthma and other respiratory ailments, and creating toxic waste products. Meanwhile, fossil fuel dependence is driving dangerous changes to the climate by dumping carbon dioxide, methane, and other pollutants into the atmosphere.
- Momentum is building worldwide as citizens pressure world leaders to abandon polluting fossil fuels. Just last month, more than half a million people marched around the world for policies that will reduce carbon pollution and speed the transition to a renewable-powered future as investors, philanthropies, faith leaders, health experts, businesses and global institutions called for urgent action on climate change. Now, during the Reclaim Power week of action, the people are again speaking with a united voice to demand new energy policies that replace dirty fossil fuels with the efficient use of clean, renewable energy resources.
- Action to address climate change can’t wait—as emissions climb, climate impacts worsen, and projections become increasingly dire. Within the last few days, a new analysis revealed that oceans are warming faster than anyone had predicted. Meanwhile, scientists say that carbon emissions will reach record highs before the end of the year. These worrying trends, along with the overwhelming scientific consensus about the looming impacts of climate change, underscore the need for leaders to accelerate the ongoing transition from dirty fossil fuels to a 100 percent renewable energy future and agree on a global action climate plan in Paris next year.
» Read more on: www.treealerts.org