When my presumably yet-unconceived grandchildren say to me “Nanna, what did you do about climate change?” I shall say to them “Well, I bought strange light globes and I walked backwards in the City Square on the weekend before the 2010 election.”
Yes, there we were on a day that seemed particularly un-globally warm, with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us, walking back wards along the length of the City Square.
Walk with the people, not the polluters! Climate action now! (Ouch, ouch!)
as the person in front of me (aka Mr Judge) stepped on my toes as we were were “moving backwards” for climate change, as distinct from “moving forward” as we all were at the start of this election campaign a very l-o-n-g five weeks ago.
(There’s Mr Judge looking all rugged up for global warming to the left of the woman holding the white banner). Back, back we shuffled, “walk with the people…” etc. until I could feel the crowd pressing behind me. Was there about to be a dreadful crush? “Tree, tree” hissed someone behind me, and sure enough I turned round to find myself pressed up against one of the few spotted gums that survive the blasted heath of our so-called City Square.
Yes, grandchildren of mine (one day), when the planet was there to be saved, your Nanna was there.
Later postscript:
And for those of you who may have arrived at this site through other links, I do want to make it clear that I am deeply concerned about the lack of leadership and mealy-mouthed response to climate change from our major parties- the Labor Party in particular. I feel disempowered as a citizen by the money and influence of the fossil-fuel and mining corporations. This was a quirky and in many ways incongruous public event, and I’m glad that I attended it.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 
I am a paid up member of the Labour Party and would never vote for a conservative party, if my life depended on it. Yet the government’s new policies on preventing global warming and reducing carbon emissions are a shame 😦 A just step backward, indeed 😦
Yes, I don’t know what to do either. I’ve been to quite a few of these rallies (which had no impact whatsover on the policy of either party) and I’ve given up. Not completely, I hasten to add – I have a solar HWS, solar panels on the roof are on the shopping list, and in the meantime I offset all my emissions, yes even the plan flights *ouch* with Greenfleet. But for as long as my fellow Australians go on driving large 4WDs in town and building McMansions and being the worse emitters on the planet, without a price on carbon, my efforts are feelgood only.
Everyone says vote Greens – but they voted with the Libs against the ALP’s ETS – go figure!
Australia will be unliveable when I’m an old lady, with or without grandchildren….
Unsure here too. We do now have solar panels on the roof, and like you, Lisa, have been offsetting plane flights of late … but there’s a lot more I can do I know. What I don’t know, though, is how best to vote! It’s all so uninspiring …
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I can understand your concern, but let me assure you that Australia will be stilll very habitable into the distant future. I have lived on and by the land for the last 40 years and climate changes, always had and always will. australia’s contribution is tiny to a world contribution which is tiny to the natural forces at work. If you are serious about your concern may I suggest you visit some of the skeptic’s sites to ensure your fears are based on reasonbable science. I started my journey of elightenment on climate change 4 years ago and the science is changing almost daily. It is wise to know if your beliefs are built on rock or sifting sand!
Oh please, Quiet Farmer, spare us! The UN Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change and our own CSIRO are not a bunch of comspirators trying to scare us; they are experts who have been studying the *science* and have been trying to warn the heads-in-the-sand about just how awful it will be and that we need to act. I think they might know a bit more about it than you, even if you have been on a ‘journey of enlightenment’ with your second form science.
I do not have ‘beliefs’ about climate change, it’s not like astrology or feng shui. I have a clear understanding which is based on credible evidence from credible science.
There was nothing habitable about 44 degrees in Melbourne on Black Saturday, and there will be more of that, for sure.