Antinuclear

Hundreds of towns across Australia come out for climate change action

Climate change rallies held around Australia, with calls for Coalition to keep carbon tax  (Go to this ABC website to see terrific pictures of the climate cation rallies around Australia)  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-17/thousands-rally-across-australia-for-national-day-climate-action/5097536   Tens of thousand of Australians have turned out for climate change rallies across the nation, calling on the Abbott Government to keep the carbon tax. The National Day of Climate Action was organised by activist groups including GetUp!, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

Organisers say about 60,000 participated at the rallies, which were held in capital cities and more than 130 towns and regional centres. Emergency workers played a significant role in warning about the dangers of unchecked global warming, while Labor and Greens politicians, along with climate scientists, also participated.

The Climate Council’s Tim Flannery told 30,000 people in Melbourne that Australians must make their voices heard.  “The simple truth is this: that we cannot leave a matter as important as climate change to the fickleness and whim of Australia’s politicians,” he said.

“We must stand up and be counted [and take] every effort to speed the uptake of renewable energy.” Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt evoked the memory of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, while firefighters spoke of their fears of increasingly hotter days.

“There is no sceptic at the end of a fire hose,” said Peter Marshall, secretary of the United Firefighters Union. In Brisbane, where an estimated 4,000 people came together, firefighter Dean McNulty spoke of the huge concern climate change posed to his colleagues, who battle natural disasters from the front line.

Mr McNulty says scientists were clear that global warming would make extreme weather events more frequent and severe. “To firefighters, it is not just numbers and statistics, it is very real,” he said.

November 17, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming