Global Climate March Bellingen, Nov 2015

More than 400 people marched through Bellingen chanting and then listening to speeches. This year looks like being the hottest year on record. This December hundreds of world governments will meet in Paris to try to strike a global climate deal. Governments do sometimes listen to people. Howard didn’t back in February 2003 when a million people marched around Australia to protest against the looming US-led invasion of Iraq . I was one of an estimated 500,000 in the Domain Sydney. I was Sydney convenor of Poets against the war and we sent Howard 10,000 poem. We all know what as happened since, what we don’t know is the long-term future of people and other species on this planet.

I drove to Bellingen for the march using about 0.01 metric tons of CO2. I then went into Coffs on other business and then to Toormina to launch a new workshop series at the Coffs Coast Writers Centre.

Posting this is like driving a small car a km. Whether we like it or not we are consumers of earth’s resources and have to start thinking about how we live our lives.

I should be vegan from the point of view of climate change, but we never buy steaks, cut down on meat, sometimes sausages or a free range chicken.

I have just been involved with the Tern Up project: ‘Birds which nest on beaches, such as the Little Tern and Hooded Plover, will be adversely affected by rising sea levels, as will other species which live in low-lying coastal areas, such as the Capricorn subspecies of the Yellow Chat. Rising sea levels may also cause increased erosion of mudflats currently used as foraging grounds by vast flocks of waders.’ Birdlife Australia