CLIMATE ACTION SHOW

APRIL 21ST 2025

Produced by Vivien Langford

"YOU ARE NOT ALONE"

This episode of the Climate Action Show is part of the 89%Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

The idea is that although between 80 and 89% of people worldwide want more effective climate ACTION they do not know that they are the majority.

At the National Press Club Lunchin April, Greens Leader Adam Bandt reassured voters concerned about the climate crisis, by repeating... "You are not alone." Knowing that we are the majority could create a social tipping point that motivates action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y69TTh__Npw

With the headlines predicting minority goverment after the coming election, we explore what a hung parliament might achieve taking the urgency of the 89% to those who want to keep business as usual.

1.We will hear extracts from Allegra Spender's Climate speech in Parliament in May Allegra urges the government to get off fossil fuels, to stop opening new coal and gas projects, and to move as quickly as possible to renewables. She criticises the Labor Government's lack of a future gas strategy. She argues that their increase of fossil fuel projects creates more climate pollution and is a great disappointment for those who hoped for better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTodgadZupg

2. Nick Ward standing for the Greens against Independent Allegra Spender in the Sydney Seat of Wentworth

Our community is facing significant challenges, from housing affordability to the pressing need for climate action. The scourge of racism and antisemitism will weigh heavily on this campaign. I believe in proactive, evidence-based solutions that address these issues head-on. I aim to bring a fresh perspective to Wentworth, advocating for Greens policies that reflect our shared values of fairness, sustainability, and community well-being.

3. Hannah Thomas standing for the Greens against the PM in the Sydney seat of Grayndler

In 2022 she wrote in Independent Australia

"Tuesday was also a heartbreaking day for the most vulnerable of individuals, children, standing up against the state in the courts of the colony. The Full Federal Court unanimously overturned an earlier finding that the Minister for the Environment has a duty to take reasonable care to avoid causing personal injury to children when deciding to approve a coal mine extension.

The decision was essentially a green light to the Government and corporations to continue wrecking the climate in the face of overwhelming evidence that doing so would have catastrophic consequences for children.

All of the evidence of the existential threat posed by climate change, and the fact that climate change is caused by fossil fuels, was accepted by the Court. And yet, the Minister for the Environment, who holds enormous power and discretion to perpetuate climate change, was found to owe nothing to the children whose futures are being irreparably harmed by climate change.

I have no doubt that any number of legal experts would be able to defend each of these decisions based on the most sophisticated of technical arguments. 

But who cares about finessed points of law when ultimately, these decisions are all patently unjust to anyone with a functioning moral compass?"

4. Music by Eskimo Joe "Say Something" " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtWeAspTz0g