Amanda McKenzie is the National Director of AYCC and 2009 Banksia Joint Young Environmentalist of the Year.
This week Tony Abbot gave us an absurd insight into our ancient climate, the budget came up short on climate and Rudd got angry on the 7:30 Report. Over in the US, the long-awaited climate bill made its debut. Here at the AYCC, we’ve finished an amazing Climate Reality Week and sent hundreds of postcards to MPs of young people demanding climate action.
The week started strange with Tony Abbott pronouncing to school students that it was warmer “at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth”.
There were some great quotes in response, here are just two:
Professor David Karoly said: “It seems strange to me that the leader of a political party would be seeking to disagree with Australia’s chief scientist, the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists and Australia’s support of the work of the IPCC. He obviously knows better.”
The president of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Kurt Lambeck describe Abbott’s statement in the following words: “To make these glib statements to school students, I think, is wrong. It’s not encouraging them to be sceptical, it’s encouraging them to accept unsubstantiated information.”
On Tuesday the “No Frills” budget was announced. Unfortunately, despite the Treasurer describing climate change as a key priority of the Rudd government’s third budget, this was simply not what eventuated. Sure there was a little bit of money thrown at renewables – a 40th of what was given to roads – and it pales in comparison with fossil fuel subsidies. Check out our more detailed analysis of the budget for more.
Share On Wednesday night KRudd got angry at Kerry on the 7.30 Report trying to convince the nation that he is still committed to climate change action. The government is feeling the community pressure on climate change. This is just the time when it is most crucial that we pull out our phone or type up a quick letter and let our local member of parliament know that we want to see a comprehensive response to climate change. The pressure from citizens over the last couple of weeks is making a big difference – let’s keep it up! Consistently politicians over the last year have told us that they rarely hear from young people. While the polluting lobbyists are always banging down their door – they don’t hear from the people that will suffer the consequences of a changed climate.
Meanwhile, overseas there have been some important developments in the US. Senator Kerry has finally released his draft of the bill to the senate, a year after the house version reared its head. Kerry’s bill has been through the sausage factory. Whether it’s good or bad is a long conversation, (see the excellent overview on WonkRoom), but in Australia we should emphasize the fact that the American leadership is moving forward with legislation despite a tough political situation, whereas Australian politicians canned the whole CPRS.
– Amanda McKenzie
