DCAN meets with Darebin Council CEO

DCAN members Ann Sanson and Linda Bradburn recently met with Darebin Council CEO Mr Peter Smith, and Ms Vanessa Petrie, Manager of Council’s Climate Emergency and Environment Program. Besides informing Peter about DCAN’s long and active history and current concerns, we discussed ways in which Council could help householders reduce their emissions. We also discussed the potential for linking Council’s placemaking strategies for East Preston and East Reservoir with climate action. We shared this Scottish example which is being used in Glasgow for community engagement around mitigation and adaptation to the climate emergency. Peter is highly committed to placemaking as a way of creating healthy and inclusive communities and is chair of PlacemakingX - a global network. Peter invited us to meet again in a few months’ time. We will also meet with Vanessa and her team in the interim.

Coal companies are under-reporting emissions

A recent ABC study has shown that Whitehaven Coal, Adani, Anglo-American and, most likely, many other coal companies are dangerously under-reporting their emissions and levels of methane leaks.

Methane has been 85 times more potent than carbon dioxide over the last 20 years.

Just a few months ago DCAN supporters were involved in a successful national campaign to strengthen the Carbon Safeguard Mechanism, the main way the government gets companies to reduce their emissions. If, as the ABC study shows, coal companies are under-estimating and under-reporting their level of emissions, the whole Climate Safeguard Mechanism is put at risk.

We urgently need an overhaul of the emissions reporting measures, especially for super-polluting methane. For more information and to take action click here.

Invitation to free film screening - 15 June at 7pm - Thornbury

Come along to Span Community House in Thornbury for a FREE film screening of Regenerating Australia. This gem of a film presents a possible view of what Australia could look like in 2030. It provides an excellent example of the changes we need to make to ensure a liveable future for all of us. A tabletop discussion will follow the screening to generate ideas on the actions we can take. Brought to you by the Darebin Climate Alliance, City of Darebin and Span Community House. RSVP here.

Don't miss out on seeing The Giants!

A hot tip from several DCAN supporters is to get yourself along to this awe-inspiring portrait of Bob Brown. From a seedling to forest elder, The Giants interweaves Bob’s story with the life cycle of the ancient trees he is fighting for. Drawing on Bob’s lifetime of activism, from the Franklin to the Tarkine, The Giants ignites an urgent conversation about the right of the Forest to exist and challenges the audience to write the next chapter. Check here for film screenings.

Do you enjoy doing a bit of writing and feel like being an activist from home?

Want to join with others “going hard and honking” and helping one another to write to newspapers all over Australia?

The Lighter Footprints writing team monitor The Age, Australian, Financial Review, Herald Sun, West Australian and Weekly Times newspapers. Around breakfast-time they send subscribers interesting articles or letters, mostly related to climate matters. In the afternoon another eagerly-awaited email arrives with details of the group’s published letters for the day.

If this type of home-based activism appeals, go to the Lighter Footprints website, click through to actions, choose the letter writing group, fill in the form etc.

If you use Facebook, you might like to join one or two other climate letter-writing groups: Paper Pixies (aka PP National) post prompts from Sydney Morning Herald, the Oz, AFR, Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Canberra Times. PP Community posts from smaller regional papers. Both these Facebook groups are “Closed” but easy to join by answering a couple of questions.

Get off gas: Email your state MP

Currently 61 per cent of Victorian fossil gas use is in homes and small businesses. Environment Victoria are running a campaign to push for stronger action from the Andrews government to support these users to get off gas.
Environment Victoria have asked us to email our local MP, Kat Theophanous, to let her know the community shares their concern about fossil gas.

We are in the climate endgame - emissions reductions alone are not enough

While it’s easy to feel comforted by the increasing action that governments and corporations are now taking on the climate emergency, climate scientists continue to remind us of how dire and complex the situation is and how much faster we must act.

Scientists are warning that we are in the climate endgame whereby very soon we must take unprecedented action or accept it is too late and live with the consequences. As we head into a warmer El Nino year with tipping points tipping, the +1.5C limit now likely out of reach, and little time left to prevent runaway warming, it is now too late for emissions reductions alone to preserve a liveable planet: large-scale greenhouse gas drawdown and temporary cooling measures are also required – and soon. Read more here.

Sir David King, former Chief Science Adviser to the UK government and founder of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge, says we must urgently pursue ‘3Rs’: (i) reduce emissions (ii) redraw (draw down) the excess greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere till pre-industrial concentrations are reached) and (iii) repair the damage we have done. This is in line with what DCAN and the climate emergency movement have been advocating for many years. (See, for example, the mission of the National Centre for Climate Restoration, Breakthrough.)

Fortunately there are technologies available, or under development, that can be used for the large-scale drawdown and cooling measures that are urgently needed to prevent runaway warming. Several groups of scientists are looking into measures to refreeze the Arctic. Sir David King and the Centre for Climate Repair propose to whiten marine clouds (and reflect more sunlight) by creating fine spray of seawater with pumps and nozzles on a flotilla of boats. Similar methods are being explored to help protect the Great Barrier Reef. There are also many exciting proposals for large-scale and permanent drawdown. [You may need to click on ‘Browse' in YouTube to get past the initial screen to watch these videos.]

However, unless our governments acknowledge the potentially catastrophic risks we face, these measures will not be deployed in time to prevent runaway warming.

Take action

DCAN continues to try to build the momentum for emergency action, and each one of us can play a part. One of the most powerful actions you can take is to help sound the alarm. A number of climate emergency groups around Australia, including Extinction Rebellion, are reaching out to politicians and journalists with this science and solutions update and an offer of a briefing by David Spratt, Research Director from Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration. Want to help? Join the Tell the Truth group chat on Signal or contact us via email.

Sitting in a circle, and singing, for climate justice

Mothers Rebellion is a peaceful gathering of concerned mothers, grandmothers, aunties, sisters and caregivers who sit together in a circle to share their concerns for the uncertain environment we are entering.

The next gathering will be at 11:00 am, Saturday 8th July, in front of the Arts Centre, St. Kilda Rd. Everyone is welcome. Maybe bring a placard with an image or name of your family members if you can.

The Chalking Collective

Thursday 10am to 11am finds 4-8 people on the St George’s Road bikepath talking to passers-by to promote DCAN, picking up litter, occasionally weeding, and chalking climate action messages (in washable chalk!). At 11am we go to a local café for a drink and catch up; it changes depending on which tram stop we are at. For more information contact Linda Bradburn (email [email protected]). You are welcome to come for chalking or just for a drink!