As climate catastrophe looms ever closer, some opinion leaders still hold fast to the view that we must not mention the seriousness of our plight for fear of demoralising people.

But how could we explain to our children, in some dystopian future of runaway global warming, that we held back from telling the truth at a time when human action could still have made a difference? It’s time to talk honestly about the climate emergency and what we need to do to save human civilisation and the precious eco-systems on which we depend.

Download ‘Don’t mention the emergency?’ and give a copy of the booklet to others in your local networks.

Contact the author, Jane Morton at DarebinCAN@gmail.com if you would like her to lead a group discussion on climate emergency messaging, or if you would like hard copies of the booklet for an event.

Use your vote this state election to call for emergency climate action. Here are the Vote Climate scorecards for Northcote & Preston districts as well as the North Metro Region.

Northcote

Preston

North Metro

"Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences” says Hans Schellnhuber in the foreward to a new groundbreaking critique of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) written by David Spratt and Ian Dunlop. What Lies Beneath - The Understatement of Existential Climate Risk is essential reading for everyone concerned about the lack of action on climate change and what we are up against.

Here's our Vote Climate scorecard for the Batman by-election which is being held on the 17th March 2018. This election will be very close and every vote will count. Please help us get the message out - we need strong political representatives and parties who will take action on the climate emergency. Send us an email to find out where you can pick up the scorecards and maps for letterboxing. 

Here's a pamphlet explaining the need for the strongest possible action on the climate emergency. 

Download it as a two-sided A4 page that looks like the one below here, or as an A4 page that you fold into three here. 

The Northcote by-election Vote Climate scorecard shows how all twelve candidates compare on action on the climate emergency. Local groups, including Darebin Climate Action Now, are delivering the scorecard to all 30,000 households in the electorate.

The Northcote by-election Vote Climate scorecard shows how all twelve candidates compare on action on the climate emergency. Local groups, including Darebin Climate Action Now, are delivering the scorecard to all 30,000 households in the electorate.

Eight of the twelve candidates in the Northcote by-election are supporting the call to declare a climate emergency: Bryony Edwards (independent – Save the Planet), Lidia Thorpe (Greens), Clare Burns (Labor), Joseph Toscano (independent), Russell Hayward (independent), Nevena Spirovska (independent), Nina Lenk (Animal Justice Party) and Laura Chipp (Reason). 

The campaign is supported by eminent people from across the political spectrum including John Hewson (past Liberal opposition leader), Carmel Lawrence (past Labor premier of Western Australia), Rob Oakshott (past federal independent) and Christine Milne (past leader of the Greens). Read more here. 

Join the campaign by signing on here. 

Help us make the climate emergency the central issue in the Northcote state by-election on 18 November. Please volunteer to assist with Vote Climate house signs, letter-boxing Vote Climate scorecards, attending a candidates’ forum, supporting a musical fundraiser or donating to help cover campaign costs.

Let your neighbours know you are putting climate first when you vote. You can collect house signs from the front verandah at 12 Auburn Avenue Northcote or 56 Lucerne Crescent Alphington, or email us your address and we will come to your house and put the sign up on your fence. We need volunteers to deliver house signs too, starting this weekend, 21-22 October. Can you help?

Candidates have been contacted with a climate questionnaire. We will also be asking them to support the call for declaration of a climate emergency. Their responses plus our research into the positions of the various parties will provide the basis of our Vote Climate scorecards. We will need 60 volunteers to letter-box them over the Cup weekend (November 4-7) and during the rest of that week till we have covered all 30,000 households. Please email us if you can help.

We are joining with 11 other community groups to hold a candidates’ forum on Thursday 9 November from 7pm till 9pm at the Northcote Town Hall. The Northcote by-election will be a close contest between Greens candidate Lidia Thorpe and Labor candidate Clare Burns, and both of these candidates are confirmed for the forum. All the other candidates are invited as well. The forum will be chaired by eminent human rights lawyer and former Victorian Public Advocate, Julian Gardner and will include two songs from special guest, singer and songwriter, Shane Howard. There will be one hour for questions from the floor. Show the candidates that you care about climate action, by coming and asking a question. Invite your friends via Facebook