Anger at Labor's betrayal on North West Shelf

White hot anger best summed up the feeling amongst the 60 local residents rallying outside MP Ged Kearney's office last month to protest against the Federal Labor Government’s approval of Woodside's North West Shelf extension to 2070. This extension will lock in decades of climate destroying pollution which will be very bad for our health, future generations and our environment. It will also damage the World Heritage nominated Murujuga Cultural Landscape, a 50,000 year old collection of First Nations petroglyphs.

DCAN presented a letter to Ms Kearney's office calling on her to publicly condemn the decision and convince her colleagues that it must be reversed. Please express your opposition to this project by emailing Ged Kearney

Read more about this disastrous project here.
If you would like to be part of future actions like this please email us at [email protected]

Call on Darebin Council to fully fund the Climate Emergency Plan

DCAN is deeply concerned at the lack of funds for climate action initiatives in Council's proposed 2025-2026 budget and annual plan. Innovative programs such as providing tailored support to help residents transition away from gas and become fully electric are absent from the budget. The promised delivery of community education and capacity-building campaigns on energy literacy and efficiency for low-income households and renters is also absent, as well as many other priorities listed in the Climate Emergency Plan.

Every delay in implementing the Climate Emergency Plan means that Darebin residents are not receiving the support they need to reduce energy bills and live in healthier and safer homes. Every delay means more carbon pollution in our atmosphere fuelling dangerous climate change. You can find a snapshot of the issues we have identified in the draft 2025-2026 budget and plan here. While public submissions have closed it's not too late to email your local councillor to express your concerns. You can also sign and share this petition started by a local resident.

Woodside scapegoating young people

Meg O’Neill, the chief executive of Woodside, recently attacked young Australians for their “very ideological, almost zealous view of, you know, fossil fuels bad, renewables good” while “plugging in their devices, ordering things from [online fast-fashion stores] … without any sort of recognition of the energy and carbon impact of their actions”.

Hannah Ferguson, 26-year-old chief executive of Cheek Media Co., responded  by asking O’Neill whether it was easier to blame young people for “plugging in their devices” than to acknowledge Woodside’s recent spilling of about 16,000 litres of hydrocarbons off Western Australia’s north-west coast. Ferguson also asked how O'Neill would compare buying a bathmat or earrings online to the 74 million tonnes of CO2 that were emitted by Woodside gas last year alone -- let alone the “carbon bomb” which would be released by extending Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project to 2070, exacerbating the climate crisis while also risking the incomparable First Nations rock art at Murujuga.

Ferguson also reminded people that the term ‘carbon footprint’ was coined by an advertising firm working for British Petroleum, for exactly this purpose, that is, to deflect attention away from fossil fuel production and use, and put the responsibility onto ordinary members of the public.

This debate reminds us of the importance of our roles not only as consumers (which obviously do matter) but also as citizens who can and should take action to influence our decision makers. Take action against the extension of the North West Shelf here.

Thinking about home electrification or energy efficiency and don’t know where to start?

If you live in a typical Darebin home with gas heating and hot water, it is literally like having a tip truck load of coal delivered to your house each year and burning it to make CO2.  DCAN can help you with taking that first step towards canceling the truck load of coal. Retired Associate Professor Graham Moore, formerly an environmental engineering academic and researcher from Melbourne University, can meet with you to chat about your current energy use.  If the professor bit puts you off, think of Graham as the boy who grew up on a farm with the practical skills of a farmer. Meet Graham one-on-one at a location and time of your choice.  All you need to bring is a recent electricity and gas bill, and a desire to save some money and the climate.  This is a free service.  Graham doesn’t sell anything or have any affiliations with any service provider, but he can help build your confidence through education to move towards a better world.  Contact DCAN to be put in touch and arrange a meeting.

Electrify your home and life - Reservoir Library, 25th June, 6pm

Don't miss out on this great talk at the Reservoir Library on Wednesday 25 June at 6pm. Local residents Jess and Nathan join Tim Forcey, author of My Efficient Electric Home Handbook and creator of the ‘My Efficient Electric Home’ Facebook group, to talk about the ins and outs of their electrification journey. Tickets are free but are bound to book out quickly! Register for this free event here.

Show Your Stripes Day, June 21st

Show Your Stripes is a global moment to share our concern about how the climate is changing and the need for urgent action. Each stripe represents one year. The colours transition from cool blues to warm reds to represent the increases in temperature seen throughout the past 150 years.

In 2020 Common Grace, a Christian social justice group, took up the idea and published a knitting pattern for a striped scarf to convey the reality of our warming climate. Each stripe represents the average global temperature change of around 0.07C, and the scarves show the average global temperature rise of 1.2C from 1919 to 2023.

For more information, see Reading University's Show Your Stripes website  and Common Grace's Knit for Climate Action website

Below: DCAN members Linda Bradburn, Linda Marks and Lesley Walker are proudly wearing their #ShowYourStripes scarves.

People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port

Rising Tide Victoria is hosting a screening of the new film Turning the Ship. It tells the story of Rising Tide and the extraordinary 2024 People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port.

Whether you’ve been to many People’s Blockades, or you’re considering joining for the first time this year, get yourself (and your friends!) along to the screening! Connect with the Victorian Rising Tide community, celebrate the success of 2024 and be part of making the 2025 blockade the biggest and boldest yet.

The Melbourne screening is on Thursday the 26th of June, 6:00pm - 8:00pm at Patagonia, 287-289 Little Collins St, Melbourne.

Wear BLUE if you can! RSVP here

Getting Out of Gas in Song

DCAN is following all the ‘normal’ steps to encourage Australia to move beyond gas. We are encouraging everyone to electrify, we are putting pressure on MPs to reject new gas projects and we are actively engaged in the ‘Beyond Gas Network’. Several members of DCAN are also members of Climate Choir Melbourne which is now singing about getting off gas. In particular, Woodside and their intention to develop the Browse gas field under Scott Reef is one of their targets. This verse from Gas, the Great Polluter fits to the tune of ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon’ by Peter Yarrow. (Full lyrics and music available here)

Woodside is a driller sending gas off-shore
All they want is more and more and more and more and more.
Scott Reef is in danger, sea life will be smashed
While miners smile and save on tax and count their dirty cash.

Smokescreen - a play by Christopher Samuel Carroll

Smokescreen is a powerful play about the dark arts of marketing behind climate denial.

"Compelling, unnerving, and piercingly relevant, Smokescreen is a psychologically-charged battle of wits that unpicks how the climate crisis we face today was shaped by the invisible hands of Ad Men. Searing performances by Damon Baudin and C.S. Carroll ignite a pressure-cooker of manipulation, morality, and earth-shattering choices about controlling the narrative while the planet burns."

Tuesday July 8 to Saturday July 12 at 7:30pm and Sunday July 13 at 5:00pm. Venue: fortyfive downstairs theatre, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Further information and bookings here.

Help DCAN Grow on Social Media!

Exciting news! DCAN is now on Instagram and Bluesky, and we’d love you to join us there. By following and engaging with our posts, you help spread the word about climate action in our community.

Instagram – See inspiring photos, event updates, and climate tips. darebin_climate_action

Bluesky – Join the conversation on policies, actions, and solutions. @darebincan.bsky.social

Every like, comment, and share helps amplify our impact. Follow us today and be part of the movement for a greener future! Please email us if you would like to join the DCAN social media team.

Want to know more about DCAN?

Why not come along to one of our monthly meetings? We usually meet on the second Thursday of each month at 7.00pm at the Bridge Thornbury. Please drop us an email at [email protected] to let us know if you are coming so that we can make sure to welcome you and give you an agenda ahead of the meeting.

Our next meeting will be at 7:00 pm on July 10th at the Bridge, 131 Shaftesbury Parade, Thornbury.