Sally Gillespie
Sally Gillespie
While I do not live in a bushfire region, I frequently travel to the South Coast of NSW where the trauma of last year’s bushfires is palpable. As it is in numerous other places in Australia. Contributing to this trauma is the knowledge that as the climate increasingly heats and dries, the exceptional fires of 2019-2020 will become regular events, as will severe droughts. The news that even in this cool La Nina year, temperatures records are still being broken, underlines the urgency of climate action. As does the news that CO2 levels in the atmosphere continue to rise despite the short term reductions of greenhouse gas emissions due to COVID lockdowns.
While tragically there is far too little climate action at the level of the Federal Government in Australia, a groundswell of action is growing through community projects and actions. These initiatives are vital for driving social change towards ecologically responsible and sustainable societies. They work by magnifying the individual actions of many into a social movement of transformation. Nothing less is needed to protect your family and community’s future.
There are endless possibilities for community action when you understand that effective climate action requires changing the systems within which we live. The first action I suggest to people when they ask what they should do is to start talking with others about this, at home, at work and with your friends and neighbours, as well as listening to climate leaders. The second is to find a group who are lobbying for or initiating climate action and join up with family and friends.
Australia has a host of inspiring climate action communities. Here are a few who would love to have you and your family’s support and participation, while they empower you to become part of a lifesaving movement for our world:
1 Million Women (https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/) in the words of its founder Natalie Isaacs, is “about amplifying the strengths of women, mobilising our power as change makers and using that to shape the world we want to live in.” Over time, 1 Million Women’s campaigns have extended beyond helping women to reduce their carbon footprints to more systemic approaches including letter writing campaigns, consumer boycotts, advice on transferring into fossil free superannuation funds and banks and supporting students to do climate presentations in their schools. 1 Million Women ambassador Rachel Perkins observes “One woman can do a lot when you look at one woman with another million women who stand alongside her.”
Australian Parents for Climate Action https://www.ap4ca.org/ is a volunteer-run group of parents from around Australia who are acting to ensure a safer climate for their children’s future, motivated by love for children, families, and the natural world. They run campaigns ranging from lobbying State and Federal politicians to install solar panels and batteries in schools and early childhood centres to empowering parents to find a political voice through making submissions, writing letters and initiating community conversations
Australian Youth Climate Coalition https://www.aycc.org.au/ is a social movement which empowers young people to take the lead in a “a groundswell of support and momentum that is powerful enough to inspire the change we need and hold decision makers to account.” Their focus is on educating, inspiring and mobilising young people to run campaigns to keep fossil fuels in the ground, build a future powered by clean energy and to restore natural environments and biodiversity.
The Knitting Nannas https://knitting-nannas.com/ aim to save the “land, water and air for the kiddies”. This group of women, who originally came together to oppose coal seam gas mining on their farms in the Northern Rivers of NSW, now has Knitting Nanna loops (or groups) across Australia. Decked out in their official colours of black and yellow, the Knitting Nannas conduct knitting sit-ins outside politicians offices, carry out cheeky stunts, support younger protestors at blockades and cheerfully chat to anyone they encounter from local shoppers to the police about what they are doing and why it is important.
