Radical activism centre stage at Climate Summit
Clive Hamilton set the scene for the four day Climate Summit with an uplifting speech that put “radical activism” centre stage.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong would be wise to ask for a briefing on the Climate Summit held in Canberra from January 31 to February 3. Discontent with their government is on the rise.
The Climate Summit culminated in a mass protest around the federal parliament with 2000 people dressed in red linking arms in a powerful call to the nation’s leaders to get serious about climate change.
But back to the weekend Summit. A strong current in formal presentations and the talk over coffee revealed that among the broad spectrum of summit participants representing hundreds of organisations the federal Labor government has lost credibility on dealing with the current climate emergency.
After Australia’s first federal climate change election in 2007 many thought Kevin Rudd was ready to break with the damaging global warming denial policy of the Howard government. Now they thought there was little difference between how Labor and the Coalition were handling the biggest challenge to face humanity.
Clive Hamilton in his address to the plenary session detailed how quickly the Prime Minister has lost ground on this critical issue. Clive reminded us that it was Rudd who said his government would be judged by how it handled climate change and understandably the judgement as shown on the weekend is harsh.
Clive provided an insight into Labor as they have judged that the electoral damage they will suffer because of their climate change policies will not be so bad as the Coalition has an even weaker policy
Anger and distress are part of the climate change debate. The excellent achievement of the Summit is that it gave us all a boost, providing for great information exchange and most importantly an opportunity for some essential capacity building and organisational plans to be put in place.
Christine Milne’s address is also worth checking out. Her speech has invaluable material for all climate change campaigners.
Many Canberra Greens were active in organising the event and a big congratulations to the organising team. They pulled off an amazing event.
The Climate Summit provides an important framework for actions and networking in the months and years ahead. The Summit documents are worth checking out.
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