Rising Tide Australia

Australia's Federal Government is awaiting the results of another report before they commit to action against climate change. But did you know that you can have input into this report, being prepared by economist and mining company executive Ross Garnaut (pictured right)?

Why not take a few moments to make yourself heard. Rising Tide has made it easy for you to tell Garnaut what you think is important. Below you will find a ready-made submission to the Garnaut Review. You can send it as-is if you like, or alternatively you can change it as much or as little as you like. When you click the button at the bottom of the page, your submission will be sent to the Garnaut Review, as well as to your email address, and one to us as well.

Find out more about the process here. Submissions close April 11th.

Your name: *

Both of them please

Your email address: *

Your postal address: *

Not much point sending a submission without your address.

Your submission: * This is a submission to the Garnaut Climate Change Review. -- CLIMATE CHANGE IS AN EMERGENCY, AND REQUIRES AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE. Climate change is already dangerous, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are already too high. Australia's State and Federal Governments must announce and lead a national public mobilisation on the scale of the war effort of the 1940's in order to make the transition to a post-carbon society as fast as possible. This will involve not only technological change, but lifestyle change and reduced consumption. -- RICH, INDUSTRIALISED NATIONS LIKE AUSTRALIA HAVE THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE. Australia must not only make an emergency transition to a post-carbon society, we must help poorer nations to do the same – including helping to pay their costs. This must include paying developing countries to take action against deforestation, in addition to – not instead of – reducing our own domestic emissions. -- COAL EXPORTS CANNOT BE IGNORED. Australia's coal exports produce as much greenhouse pollution as all domestic sources combined. To ignore our coal exports would be to ignore half of our contribution to the problem. New coal mines and export facilities must be urgently banned, as our rapidly expanding coal export industry is Australia's fastest-growing contribution to climate change. -- NEW COAL-FIRED POWER STATIONS MUST BE BANNED. Australia's greenhouse pollution levels must be stabilised immediately, which cannot be achieved if new coal-fired power stations are built. -- A JUST TRANSITION AWAY FROM COAL IS NEEDED. Coal – both domestic and export – must be completely phased out as fast as possible. Communities and regions that are currently dependent on domestic and export coal industries must be provided with a fair and smooth transition into sustainable alternative industries. -- "CLEAN" COAL IS A DANGEROUS DISTRACTION. Carbon capture and storage technologies are demonstrably incapable of reducing greenhouse pollution in the medium term, and may possibly never be capable. They are a waste of time and money, and are consuming resources that would be far better spent on already existing or more promising technologies. No more public money or research institutions should be wasted on CCS technology. -- DEMAND FOR STATIONARY AND TRANSPORT ENERGY MUST BE STABILISED AND REDUCED. Technological development alone is not sufficient to meet the challenge of climate change within the time-frame required. Australian's consume far too much energy per capita, and an equitable solution to climate change requires us to reduce that consumption. This must include transport as well as stationary energy, and must also include aviation, which is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse pollution in the world. -- ALL SECTORS OF SOCIETY MUST BE ADDRESSED. Climate change is a profound problem because the sources of greenhouse pollution are many and varied. The scale of the problem means that all sources must be addressed. This must include legislation to stop clearing of remnant native vegetation, and logging of oldgrowth forests. It must also include a program to scale back Australia's grazing industry (meat and dairy), which is responsible for 12% of Australia's emissions. There needs to be a concerted government campaign to promote vegetarianism/veganism and move graziers into more sustainable areas of agriculture. -- MARKET MECHANISMS WON'T WORK. Carbon trading schemes are indirect and ineffective at stopping the causes of climate change, and are incapable of facilitating the necessary social changes. Relying on carbon trading also displaces the effective more direct intervention that is required, and can also have negative environmental and social fallout. -- ECONOMIC GROWTH IS UNSUSTAINABLE. The government obsession with economic growth is incompatible with creating sustainable societies in Australia and the world, since a growing economy requires growing consumption of materials and energy. The urgent problem of climate change should serve as a profound challenge to the economic orthodoxy of perpetual growth. A new economic paradigm is needed. -- OVERCONSUMPTION IS A KEY DRIVER OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Australia's obsession with cheap consumer products is a key driver of climate change. Ballooning emissions in industrialising nations like China and India result from their ballooning manufacturing industries supplying ballooning consumption in the developed world. While the emissions may originate in poorer countries, it is consumer nations such as Australia that fuel the problem. Australian government's should wage a major public campaign to discourage and stigmatise over-consumption of resources, in addition to making legislative interventions to stem the problem. Thankyou for the opportunity to have input into the Garnaut Review process.

You can send it like this or change it. "Sincerely"; your name; and your address will be automatically added to the end of the email.

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