By John Seed

Ever since I joined the struggle to defend Terania Creek in August 1979, I have devoted my life to the protection of forests and other wild nature. Last year, suddenly, I was working on climate change and someone asked whether I was just jumping on some new band wagon? Sadly, there is a profound connection between what happens to the climate and what happens to the forests. And vice versa.

On the one hand between 20% and 30% of polluting greenhouse gasses stem from the logging, burning and clearing of forests. On the other, climate change threatens all of the forests, including those that have been “saved” during the last 30 years as countries dry out and fires become more frequent and intense.

Some of the possible scenarios involving catastrophic climate change are truly horrendous. However, there may be a silver lining in the spectre of cyclones and melting ice caps, rising sea levels and environmental refugees. This issue is bringing Australians together in a way that nothing has done since WW2. Consider the following:

The Australian newspaper, November 15, 2006 reported CSIRO research has found that 93% of Australians are concerned about the issue. The Australian went on to wonder when was the last time that 93% of Australians agreed about anything???

On Nov 18, while Al Gore was in Australia, the ABC reported him as saying that “Australia has experienced a recent and significant shift in focus on climate change” http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1789448.htm . He went on to say that "It's true in some other parts of the world, but I don't think there's any place in the world where the change has been more pronounced than here,"

Of course Gore’s incredible film “An Inconvenient Truth” has had a lot to do with this as have the record drought and bush fires in this country. Consider the box office revenue from “An Inconvenient Truth”: While England has more than 3 times the population of Australia,
,twice as many people have seen this film here as in England http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=inconvenienttruth.htm In fact, more people have flocked to An Inconvenient Truth here than any country in the world except the US and France.

Consider also that when word got round that Gore would train 85 Australians to present the Australianised version of “An Inconvenient Truth”, 1700 people applied. Volunteers from the Rainforest Information Centre are organising dozens of multi-media presentations by some of these Gore-trained people including at least 8 on the N Coast next month

Climate Action Groups are forming around the country to allow people to study the issue and decide what kind of actions we need to take and what kind of policies to ask our politicians to implement. To find out about local Climate Action Groups and what you can do, visit www.rainforestinfo.org.au/climate or call 66897519.