“We don’t need new technologies to solve our problems…we just need the political will to apply solutions already available” said Dr Jared Diamond, author of Collapse; How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. When asked at the 2005 Sydney Writers Festival what ordinary people can do, Dr Diamond said: “You live in a democracy. Influence your decision makers.”

Dr Tim Flannery in his ‘Climate Change Checklist’ at the end of “The Weather Makers”, says that writing to a politician can change the world.

Citizens Climate Campaign has evolved from the decision of a group of citizens to take action on this advice. The aim is to encourage thousands of ordinary Australians to send a Message a Month, by letter or email, to our elected representatives, to let our government know that climate change is an issue of major concern to the voting public.

If enough people do this, and keep doing it, in time government policies can be changed.

We're a small group, all members of the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, and all with long histories of significant environmental and social activism.

As a group we have no political affiliations - we're just citizens concerned about climate change, doing what we can do, which is to write letters to relevant politicians and help other concerned citizens to do the same if they want to. We hope that in the process people will become more educated about climate change. The number of people registering to receive our information is growing steadily. We will let you know our numbers each month.

To make it quick and easy for you to write your message, we will send you a short email at the beginning of each month with:

information about some aspect of climate change
a few points to make in your letter (or write your own)
contact details of the relevant politicians

contact us at climatez@aapt.net.au if you'd like to participate

The information is fairly basic, mostly about aspects of climate change that have been reported in the Herald during the previous month - the sort of thing any ordinary person might have picked up on from reading the paper. We ourselves read more widely on the subject in order to inform ourselves better, but we are not experts and do not claim to be.

Some basic advice to help you maintain your commitment (remember, a Message a Month!):

Don’t let writing the letter be a chore – just do it quickly! It's the number of letters and the continuity that matter
Keep your message to 3 points – a sentence or 2 for each point
If you don’t have time to do even this, just send a message such as ”I am very concerned about climate change and want the government to be doing a lot more to deal with it”
If you can’t even do that some months, don’t beat up on yourself about it, but try to fit it in the next month
You may find it useful to print out the information we send and keep it as reference, to keep track of how the issues are developing
We welcome feedback - just email us at climatez@aapt.net.au

Congratulations on your decision to become actively involved in fighting climate change!

Citizens Climate Campaign

Message of the Month – October 2006

Australia Left Behind

On ABC’s Four Corners What Price Global Warming? (28.8.06) John Howard said “I want to see the evidence, I want to see the science, I want to see the proposition. I mean, these sweeping generalisations are next to useless”. He also dismissed calls for Australia to cut its greenhouse emissions by 60% in order to combat the effects of global warming, saying that “60% would have enormously damaging impacts on our economy”.

He should take the advice of Professor Matthew England, Director of the Climate and Environmental Dynamics Laboratory at UNSW and see Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth. “Don’t be fooled by self-anointed experts telling you he (Gore) has got it wrong. He hasn’t”, said Professor England.

Also, The Climate Institute has recently stated that “the uniquely Australian notion that reducing greenhouse gases harms economies and corporate profits is being blown out of the water by a surge in corporate activity to exploit the upsides of climate change. Carbon has a price, it is profitable and global companies are setting the pace.”

“Companies around the world are using climate change as a strategic business driver across not only emissions reductions, but also the development of new markets, technologies and investment opportunities. The global response is, to a large degree, being driven by business. For example, there is a rush to invest in clean energy, a global market now worth $74 billion. The global carbon market was worth $13 billion last year and grew to $18 billion in the first half of this year.”

The Australian government is increasingly alone in its position. There has been a strategic shift in the position of the US on climate change, says the Climate Institute, and there is strong belief in corporate circles that the first action of the next President of the United States, Republican or Democrat, will be to initiate urgent action on climate change.

Send a short message to the Prime Minister using some, or all of the following points:

Ask him to go to see An Inconvenient Truth. Ask him exactly what more scientific evidence he needs before he will join other nations in taking drastic action to deal with global warming.

Ask him to look at what is happening in the economies of other countries which are already responding to global warming.

Ask him to take immediate action to stimulate the Australian economy by adopting renewable energy targets of at least 10% by 2010 (Italy has just decided to double its renewable energy capacity to 22% by 2010).

It is important that the Federal Opposition also understand our concerns about global warming. You might like to send a copy of your message to them too.

Contact Details:

Post to Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600, or email:

The Hon John Howard: http://www.pm.gov.au/email.cfm This is the only way you can send an email to the Prime Minister.

The Hon Kim Beazley: Kim.Beazley.MP@aph.gov.au

For information on how you can reduce your personal contribution to greenhouse emissions, visit the ACF Greenhome Guide at www.acfonline.org.au/greenhome