I went to see Bill McKibben last Friday when he was in Melbourne ‘rallying the troops’ with his Do The Maths tour. Very engaging (but alas not techno savvy) he painted a very sobering message to a packed Atheneum Theatre.
He had just 3 numbers he wants us to be aware of …
a. The number 2. This is how many degrees we DO NOT want our world average temperature to increase by. At present, we are almost at 1oC increase and already can see the affects across the world.
b. The number 565 (gigatons). This is how much fossil fuels we can burn if we want to keep below the 2oC increase.
c. The number 2795 (gigatons). This is how much mining companies around the world have in their reserves and planning to burn. That is 5 times over the safe amount.
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]Running for parliament this year.
Bill spoke of Clive Palmer who want to extract so much gas and coal that he will destroy our beautiful Queensland. And for what ?? So he can build a replica of the Titanic with his massive profits.
The problem seems overwhelming until ..
You realise how much power we have if we Divest our money (e.g. Super) into ethical investments (great Forbes article here on divesting).
And over at A Vital Few, you can send off a letter to your own super fund with a few clicks of your mouse. They have made the process so easy. The generic letter can be modified to suit yourself and it goes straight into the inbox of your Super provider.
It isn’t too hard to do some investigative work and start asking where your money is being invested.
Slainte – Colleen[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
According to Sustainability Victoria, the average Australian lifestyle produces 15,000kg of carbon per year. If that sounds like a lot, it is! Over its lifetime, a tree can collect and store 268kg. This means, we each need to plant 58 trees per year to bring our individual carbon production down to zero. A little tricky for most of us to do in our own backyards, and this is where ‘A Subscription for the Planet’ comes in. (Feature image from Mt Worth Landcare).
Individual actions really do matter! Individually we can really only make small differences to the world around us, but collectively our numbers add up. And if enough individuals are involved then forests can be grown!
