sarren

Watching the Copenhagen Conference, I picture a scene like from one of those post-apocalypic films where several generations later, some remnants of society picking through ruins find references in old newspapers to the disaster that destroyed civilisation.

( At a time when Australia should be leading, we've been recognised as the worst country in the world for actively seeking a bad outcome. )

(from Get Up)

Something very troubling is happening right now in Canberra, as our pollies put the final touches on next week's Budget. It only became clear to us while delivering your People's Budget Submission - the halls of Parliament are crawling with lobbyists from the powerful and well-resourced polluting industries, using their industrial muscle to aggressively argue against climate change action.

We urgently need an active people's movement to counter the largest and best-funded lobby in Australia. Next Thursday, the Government will meet with environment groups to discuss climate change solutions. We want tens of thousands of signatures to bring to the table, calling for emissions to begin declining by 2010, and be cut in half by 2020. Nothing less will do.

Will your signature be one of those countering the polluters' push for short-term profit?

Sign the petition

All the polluting industries have combined their resources to trump the will of the people: coal, aluminum, cement, electricity generators, mining, and many more. But our politicians work for us - they need to set targets and pass laws that reduce emissions, not reward polluters.

We are much closer to a crisis tipping point than previously thought. It's now possible that there will be no Arctic summer ice by 2013, 90 years earlier than IPCC predictions. With existing projections being viewed as the minimum changes we can expect, Australia must adopt a science-based emissions reduction target - and nurture a green economy with green jobs to get us there.

Our economic prosperity and our environment depends on it, and that depends on our politicians being willing and able to resist the powerful self-interests of the polluter lobby. Help swing the debate back in favour of the people, by signing this urgent petition today, before next week's meeting:

Sign the petition

The polluter lobby must not set the terms of the debate around climate solutions. We know that the costs of inaction are catastrophic and will affect every aspect of our economy and our lives. Kevin Rudd is making decisions this year that could help avoid that - but only if you demand it. He needs you to let him know you expect corporate greed to not trump climate need.

Thanks for being a part of the solution,
The GetUp team
PS - To read the full version of your People's Budget Submission, based on your Biscuit Budget results and People's Agenda process, click here.

__________________________

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations.

OF COURSE it's going to be 36 degrees for the Walk Against Warming tomorrow.

Who's up for a walk?

Date: Sunday 11th November
Perth Venue: Fremantle Esplanade Park
Time: 1:00pm
Travel: Free travel for passengers on the Transperth train network between 11am and 5pm on Sunday 11th November 2007.

So election day is 24th November.

Walk Against Warming is two Sundays before that so *counts back* that'd put it, let's see..

on REMEMBRANCE DAY

mr_booboo accompanied me to the screening of Climate of Hope.

Speaker introduces the film - 'The government are looking towards using nuclear power because it's clean energy with zero greenhouse emissions!'

Me *thinks* Wow really! That's good news!

Speaker - Let me first explain that in the past I was an Anti-Nuclear protester.

Me *thinks* Wow, this must be good!

What we got was 27 minutes of how EVIL AND TERRIFYING NUCLEAR ENERGY IS and how it's totally NOT EMISSION-FREE and three minutes of these-are-the-clean-alternatives-yay!

Me *bangs head repeatedly on desk*
mr_booboo WE ARE NOT DOOMED!!!

Of course, then I had to go tell the guy that the title of the film was misleading and really, I needed more than three minutes of hope at the end, and his explanation? He ran out of time. Then I gently explained how he could improve his speaking voice, because I'm helpful like that.

But then we had dinner and cake and coffee with special_trille and haunted_attics which cheered me up until an accidental lapse of attention at a crucial moment put me behind in the Token White Girl (TWG) running.*

Then mr_booboo and I went back to her place and watched the new Heroes episode and it featured my two favourite characters a lot and it was GOOD, even if it did make me shout at the telly a lot.


*Mr Booboo and Haunted Attics haven't made up their minds who gets to replace Special Trille as their TWG friend while she's in China next month. It's between me and dark_squire.

I chose the excerpt about computers because I had been leaving both my laptop and my desktop in sleep mode most of the time, and I hardly even use the desktop anymore. Dragonfly's been reminding me to turn off the power at the wall for YEARS, but somehow in my mind computers just automatically got an exemption. So I was good last night and turned them off and then this morning I got up and it was too much effort to turn one on again to check my email and now I'm at work and clearly not working. *headdesk*

Must rethink this.


Another totally random example of stuff I didn't know -

...if your prunings and leaves go to landfill instead of composting, they will decay without oxygen, generating more greenhouse gas than was stored in the plant material as it grew.