Take care.
rosie
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25/11/06
Dear family and friends,
It is two days after my trip to Melbourne for the Australian Youth Climate Change Coalition (AYCCC) founding summit. The experience has been enormously empowering, the relationships rewarding, the discussions thought stimulating. While I feel sad to have left a group of such passionate, skilled, and compassionate people, their absence has not lessened my enthusiasm.
Coinciding with the summit, the Ziggy Switkowski report was released by the Australian government. I'm deeply distressed by the reports’ message that suggests nuclear expansion in Australia is a potential solution to climate change. As you may be aware, the report failed to discuss some of the key issues surrounding climate change such as the limited time-frame in which we have to act and by how much we need to reduce our emissions. It also concerns me that the report clearly reveals the existing vested interests of the government.
Anna Rose, one of the main organisers of the summit, was broadcast on ‘triple J’ (Hack) in relation to the governments’ proposal of nuclear as the solution to climate change. It is the first time an Australian Youth Climate Change Coalition has been established in Australia; over 50 delegates represented 34 youth organisations that will comprise the founding coalition members.
I’m sure you will hear more of us soon, as the government continues to exclude the voice of the generation that will be most affected by climate change.
If the current government had a serious and well-informed concern for climate change, the nuclear debate would not be on the table. It is dirty, dangerous and too expensive.
It is not a solution to climate change…
"The (Ziggy Switkowski) report makes the staggering conclusion that even if Australia was to build 25 nuclear reactors by 2050, it would only cut Australia's emissions by between 8-18%. This shows what a greenhouse fraud nuclear power is when energy efficiency and renewables alone could cut our emissions by 30% by 2020."
-Doctor's nuclear prescription no solution to climate change, 21-Nov-2006.
The draft report of the Uranium Mining and Processing Nuclear Energy Review (UMPNER) published 21/11/06, http://www.dpmc.gov.au/umpner/reports.cfm
Most importantly, Australia does not need nuclear. We have the solutions to climate change. What we lack is not safe technology, but the political will to implement these technologies. Contrary to what the government will try to have you believe, geosequestration (aka "Carbon Capture") is another example of something we do not need, not least of all because it is no solution to climate change. This technology is unproven to be successful (in not damaging the environment). It is not compatible with current generators. It will be ten years or more before this technology proves viable, and judging from the urgent pleas by scientists all over the world we do not have the luxury of time.
The Australian government is stifling the renewable energy industry, denying it much needed funding. This has caused almost all investments into renewables to leave Australia and head for foreign economies. Some US$2 Trillion is to be invested into the renewables industry in the next 15 years, generating many jobs…but not in Australia, unless we change our tactics.
Australia’s current position is tied up in convincing us that capturing carbon and building Nuclear power plants along Australia’s east coast (exact locations as yet undisclosed) are the only viable solutions.
It is just another example of how we alienate ourselves from the global community. We are so far behind, I cannot stress it enough. Solar, wind and geothermal technologies are all extremely viable, successful and safe options. And have insurmountable social benefits as well.
Imagine not having an electricity bill, being able to afford organic food and sponsor a child overseas.
Imagine community centres that are safe, self-sufficient and sustainable, that do not jeopardise your children’s futures and foster sustainability and human connections.
Ask a coal-community what they think of living in an area where the only available jobs are related in some way to a coal mine or power-plant. Are they happy? Imagine if they received the same opportunities to reach their full potential as you are receiving.
Imagine the Australian landscape devoid of radioactive waste with no risk from nuclear fallout.
Imagine seeing the isolated, ignored and highly vulnerable indigenous communities in rural or outer-urban parts of Australia solar-powered and self-reliant (rather than dependent on the polluting diesel engines for their power), with their health improving and culture blossoming…it’s one of the very least efforts we could make for them. It would be a start - a gift that says; we are truly sorry and respect your connection to the land.
There is no doubt that my personal actions and our collective actions as Australians, born 200 years ago of the European mentality, have drastically changed the natural environment of air, water and land in Australia.
I’m so constantly devastated each day that so few people pay attention to this crisis. But more so that I live in a country that is run by dishonest, disconnected and manipulative leaders that have no regard for the interest of my future and my children’s futures.
I have the right to freedom of speech, but it is a hypocritical government who then denies me their listening ears. I’m 19, and one of the politically significant rights that come with adulthood is being able to vote. But it is not enough. I have no visible impact on the leaders who are meant to be representing my interests, or more broadly, the interests of youth. Perhaps if I were the daughter to a CEO of a coal/electricity/aluminium/petroleum/minerals/cement corporation my plea would not fall on deaf ears. Why is the government not listening to the cries of youth? (or have I just answered that question?)
We, youth, care about our future, our planet, and therefore we are willing to put aside any other compromising actions that have the potential to ruin our lives and the lives of future generations.
I have literally been consumed by this issue for the last year or more of my life. I began with nature itself. A hike in the mountains in central Europe sparked something in my heart that I do have words for. On returning to Australia, the fear I felt was nothing in comparison to the deeply personal challenges I experienced in Slovakia. This, to me, says something profound. The contrast between a struggling post-communist country and a wealthy, indulgent, highly ‘removed’ Australia was so severe.
In so many ways I am lucky I went there. Slovakia was just enough political crisis, social division, environmental disregard and emerging western-tainted youth to destroy all my preconceptions about the world, but not so much as to stop my heart from beating.
I believe I went there for a reason. I don’t regret the experience, indeed I must not, for I wouldn’t be here writing this had I not gone. But appreciating and reflecting on such life journeys is one thing; taking action is another.
My next step was educating myself. I felt, and indeed there was, an enormous void in my understanding of the planet, of the physical make-up and function of life itself. For the last year I have not only been soaking up wells of knowledge from lecturers and text-books, but I have pursued other forms of media to expand my knowledge of the existing environmental crisis that each day knocks more loudly on Australia’s and the worlds’ door.
I would not be exaggerating when I say that each lecture has been immensely frightening. To gain this knowledge and to have it affirmed by subsequent events such as dam proposals, droughts, severe storms, cyclones, species extinctions, our pacific neighbours losing their homes from rising sea-levels (!), media propaganda, acute lack of political will and much more, has been both motivating and enormously disempowering.
I distinctly remember one afternoon waiting for the bus to uni and wanting to run out onto Corronation Dr and stop all the cars in my path. These ineffective measures did cross my mind. I am not stupid, I can clearly see that in the long run this would have made little if any impact, but this gives you an idea of the emotions that flood me when I can no longer take the complacency that surrounds the Australian culture.
We have and are witnessing destructive forces of nature now arising around the world. These have been caused and amplified by us, humans. And we are all responsible for the mitigation of these disasters.
Australia has contributed microscopically to climate change mitigation but grossly to plundering the atmospheric makeup. Our nation’s emissions have increased 20% since the Kyoto protocol was born. We are the largest per capita emitters of CO2 in the world! We are perpetuating global climate change due to our lack of engagement in environmental issues in addition to social and political issues.
They say that change comes slowly. I accept that maybe that has been the case in much of our history as a species. But during the last hundred years of our 150 thousand year existence, women have gained the right to vote, Apartied has been defeated (almost overnight), slavery has largely been abolished; on a smaller more personal scale this year I think I helped deeply changed at least one persons’ mind-set toward the environment. Imagine if all these transitions had not occurred?
Stopping climate change is one such transition that needs to occur. But it is complex.
It encompasses our self-identity and challenges (yet again) humans’ perception of their place in nature.
It encompasses the divide between the 80% of the global population that has 20% of the global wealth and the other which is drowning in its own domestic and industrial waste due to massive consumption patterns.
It encompasses our economic strategy and foundations.
It encompasses the relationship and moral obligation between different generations.
It encompasses the way our societies are run and the very fact that they are just such, run by an elite few. Where is a true participatory democracy?
It encompasses our personal actions, relationships, and attitudes.
In short, it encompasses everything and everyone.
A short while ago, I heard a discomforting statement made by a person I work with. He proclaimed his strategy to gaining followers as such that one should talk about something as if one knew everything about it, leading the listener into a sense of agreement. I hoped at the time that it was merely a joke, but it struck me how evident this tactic is in our society and how accurately this describes the leading politicians in Australia.
The fact that they advocate nuclear and geosequestration as the two most important solutions to climate change clearly demonstrates their immense lack of understanding in the issue.
Do you know what I love? I love that this is not the kind of situation where I must say, “I don’t know the answers”. I do. After learning the concepts of how global ecosystems are failing, I began to search for solutions and found them to be bountiful. I joined a group of students on campus that convened together once a week. I sat. I listened. I observed their passion, their different backgrounds, their expressions when a consensus on a decision was reached. I listened and questioned their views on the world.
I continued to sit with them each week, hopeful and willing to do whatever it took to make some positive change. I have learnt so much from this group of people and the subsequent events, talks, conferences, conversations, films and books that either fell into my lap or came to exist in my brief possession because of my hard-headed search.
The solutions. Yes, there are many. And they are staring us in the face. There are many ways by which we as a people and individuals can steer our cities, our land, our air, our waterways, our oceans, our biodiversity, our forests towards sustainability. Towards a condition that will allow these things to remain. Because this is what we’re facing; the question of “will we choose to survive or will we let our human frailties cause collapse?”
Short-term interests are of little relevance. When the oceans lap over our coastal habitat inundating infrastructure, when cyclones cause further damage to our homes and croplands, when more sever droughts cripple agriculture and displaces loyal farmers, then might we realise that economic growth, watching our favourite sitcom or the new car we desire are sources of momentary happiness that ignore the bigger picture?
In this last week, I have joined with more than 50 other youth representatives to discuss problems and create solutions to climate change. At every moment of the summit I wished everyone that I have ever loved and hated in my life was there. It would have been bliss to see both my mum and John Howard in the room at once.
I am past the division present in our societies. Climate change demands that we all begin to cooperate, not aggressively with only our own interests at heart, but compassionately with the interests of ALL at heart.
It has been a year since I have written anything personal to the people I know. I have been consumed by learning and acting upon information. I have bombarded you all with facts and upcoming events, in the vain hope that you will respond to my impersonal call.
I thought wanting to save the planet whilst maintaining relationships and my creative outlets was a pitiful dichotomy. But I am realising that without these emotional life-supports I cannot save the planet, nor vice versa.
Like the ever-evolving cicadas that adorn the mango tree in our northern Queensland backyard each year, I will shed many layers throughout my life, I’m certain. These represent my weaknesses, my naivety, my grudges and my insecurities. But like the cicadas hard yet fragile epidermis, the recycling of matter will ensure that new skins are formed, giving renewed strength, or in my case, renewed knowledge, purpose and hope.
Soon, the Australian Youth Climate Change Coalition (AYCCC) declaration will be released to the public, a firm and open statement by youth of what is wrong and what desperately needs to be done in Australia to stop climate change. This is my personal declaration to all persons I know and love.
There is time to waste, but we would be self-condemning if we waited the time away. I’m but one person who is needed to solve climate change. We are in this together.
