Antinuclear

Lindsay Soutar’s drive for renewable energy, making life uncomfortable for politicians

Her 100% Renewable campaign, which she began from scratch two years ago, now has about 100 groups with tens of thousands of members nationwide, making life uncomfortable for politicians with actions that go well beyond demonstrations and banner waving..

She argues some in the climate movement are naive because they think making a persuasive case without applying political pressure is enough, when ”massive vested interests” such as mining companies run counter-campaigns…..

Knocking on doors of change, SMH, February 4, 2012 No topic is off limits for the environmental optimist who thinks it’s time to stop ‘scaring the pants off people’, writes Debra Jopson. – Lindsay Soutar…. the Young Environmentalist of the Year…..Soutar, 30, is something of a legend in green circles for giving up her paid work advising local councils on emissions reductions and then creating a national campaign aimed at shifting Australia to 100 per cent renewable energy. ….
she sees herself as a door-knocker and political agitator who
harnesses the power of thousands of voters in disparate electorates
into networks that will lobby politicians so hard they commit the
nation to a total shift to solar, wind, geothermal and wave power.
While using online media, much of what her network does is good
old-fashioned face-to-face contact, like the 15,000 conversations
about renewable energy it conducted in 2010, boiled down in a message
to Canberra just before the federal government announced a carbon
price.
Her 100% Renewable campaign, which she began from scratch two years
ago, now has about 100 groups with tens of thousands of members
nationwide, making life uncomfortable for politicians with actions
that go well beyond demonstrations and banner waving……
She argues some in the climate movement are naive because they think
making a persuasive case without applying political pressure is
enough, when ”massive vested interests” such as mining companies run
counter-campaigns…..
Her organisation now has four paid staff and she gets an annual salary
of $40,000 for her six-day week. Funding flows in from grants,
philanthropists, donors such as Greenpeace and GetUp, and renewable
energy companies. Is there a danger the corporate dollar will
compromise the network?
”No. Obviously we had to think quite carefully … but these are the
companies building the energy future we want. Where it would be a
problem is if we were advocating one technology over another or one
company over another, but they are untied donations,” she says.
This year her organisation is launching a ”Big Solar” campaign,
aimed at bringing large-scale sun-powered plants to Australia, which
she argues can provide baseload power by storing heat overnight in
salty water, generating enough steam to drive turbines similar to
those used in coal-fired power stations.
: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/knocking-on-doors-of-change-20120203-1qxh6.html#ixzz1lRtllU3V

February 3, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News