Call to Action on Climate Change

“No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than Climate Change.” – Barack Obama

Climate Change… it seems to be a buzz word of the 21st Century. Now that (most) people have come to accept that it’s a real thing and it’s REALLY going to affect us, the question remains… what can we do NOW to stop it? In a few days, the world’s leaders will be meeting at the UN’s Summit in Paris to submit their proposals for carbon emissions reductions. And to put pressure on our world leaders to set targets that NEED to be met in order to prevent our world and the people in it from spiralling out of control.

And to implement this pressure, the world united to form The People’s Climate March.  Australian’s ‘marched for a transition to renewable energy, for secure job creation, for clean air, for a healthy environment and a safe climate’ (People’s Climate, 2015). However as I found at the Climate March in Sydney on Sunday afternoon, people were marching for so much more!

Climate Change is more than a polar bear balancing on a piece of ice. There were people at the Climate March marching for the First Australians and their land, people’s culture and heritage from the Pacific Islands, farmers from rural Australia affected by drought, scientists showing us the hard evidence and harrowing predictions, school children concerned for their future, the elderly concerned they’re leaving their grandchildren a messed up world, people of faith and different cultures… the list continues. The face of Climate Change can be found in your mirror. It will affect you. Each and every one of us are responsible for doing our part in the fight to protect our planet!

Along with nearly 50 000 other Australians, it was such an incredible experience to march down Macquarie Street in Sydney. Here we are,          50 000 individuals, all leading our separate lives and dealing with our own problems – yet we managed to take a few hours out of our lives and come together to demand climate action now! Not tomorrow, not next year… today!

The World’s Leaders are meeting in Paris and they have to listen to us. In times of terror, war and inequality, it is now more than ever that we must come together as a world united and ready to make REAL decisions that will make positive change to our world. I am not just one woman demanding Climate Action. The world is screaming! Are they listening?

References

People’s Climate 2015, Australia, http://www.peoplesclimate.org.au/