Last night the Global Climate Change Cafe took place as part of the ‘Make Poverty History – See the Bigger Picture, Act on Climate Change’ campaign. It was held at the University of Technology, Sydney. To kick start the evening a diverse range of speakers canvased the issue of climate change and the inevitable consequences on developing nations if we do not step up and take action.
The stand out messages from each of the speakers were – Julie-Anne Richards of CANA, the point that an increase in Australia’s economy (in particular reference to Australia’s migration programme) does not have to mean an increase in greenhouse emissions, therefore Australia should not be given special targets, as is recommended by the most recent Garnaut Report; Maria Tiimon an I-Kiribati woman working on the Pacific Outreach project – put into perspective the severe impacts that are already happening to this small island nations, and that we risk loosing not only the land but the culture and history of the people; and lastly, Anna Rose -a moving talk, urging each and every one of us to take action, and instead of telling us what we can do, Anna rightly pointed out that we all know what we can do, how we can contribute, it is simply a matter of taking that step into action. Anna also launched Power Shift 2009 by announcing it publicly for the first time.
Following the key speakers, five different workshops were held, including the topics Roadmap to Copenhagen 2009; Loosing Your Land and Country, the Pacific experience; Climate Change, equity and human rights – moving beyond the science and economics; Climate change as a feminist issue; and a discussion on the significant impact of deforestation on greenhouse emissions, and on steps Engineers without Borders are taking to implement sustainable development in developing countries.
It was a provocative and stimulating evening with a range of participants. Overall I think the event made a sizable contribution to peoples understanding of some of the wider issues involving climate change. We also got a great number of sign ups for the Power Shift 2009!
