Since the week commencing Monday January 27th 2020 BSFG has been collecting signatures from Benalla Residents requesting our Councillors Declare a Climate Emergency.

The wording on the petition is;

CLIMATE EMERGENCY DECLARATION PETITION

We, the undersigned residents of Benalla Rural City, request our Councillors to:

• Acknowledge that human actions have contributed substantially to the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the warming of the planet, and leading to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events
• Declare that the Earth is facing a Climate Emergency.

The main location to sign the petition is outside the Bendigo Bank in Bridge Street Benalla and this was done during the following two weeks.  There may be other opportunities to sign the petition here.  The petition is also available to sign at North East Artisans in Bridge Street Benalla.


Additional times and locations to sign the petition. Bendigo Bank from 13th until 27th February 9.30pm until 4.00pm, the Food Co-op, Swanpool Cinema, the Lakeside Market on 22nd February, and at the Public Meeting “Climate - Present Facts and Future Predictions”at BPACC on March 19th (see below and more details to follow).

Download our climate change flyer.

See https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/.

Presentation of Petition to Council Wednesday March 25 2020.
BSFG will present the Climate Emergency Declaration Petition to Benalla Rural City Councillors at the Council Meeting on Wednesday March 25th 2020 from 6:00pm at the Council Meeting Room, Mair Street Benalla.

Public Meeting “Climate - Present Facts and Future Predictions” Thursday March 19 2020.
Prior to the presentation to council BSFG is hosting a public meeting titled “Climate-Present Facts and Future Predictions” from 7.00pm until 10.00pm on Thursday March 19th 2020 at the Benalla Performing Arts and Convention Centre.

Our guest speakers are Dr Leanne Webb from CSIRO Climate Research Institute in Aspendale, and Dr Lynette Bettio from the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne.  This is a rare opportunity to hear about Climate Science first hand, from scientists at the forefront of climate research, together with an opportunity to ask them questions.

State and Federal Members of Parliament (Steph Ryan, Jaclyn Symes and Dr Helen Haines) have also been invited to attend.  There will also be a brief talk by the Mayor of Indigo Shire, Jenny O’Connor, related to her Shire’s declaration of a Climate Emergency, and their proposed actions related to that declaration.

We will be publicising more details about this most important event through the BSFG website and newsletter, social media, the Benalla Ensign, Benalla P-12 College, Benalla FCJ College, and elsewhere.

Peter Maddock
Secretary
0418 135 330

The BSFG Committee is preparing a Climate Emergency petition requesting Benalla Rural City Council Declare a Climate Emergency, joining in excess of 80 in Australia and 1,315 jurisdictions and local governments globally covering 810 million citizens.

The petition is for Benalla Rural City residents to sign and we are seeking assistance from BSFG members to go on a roster to collect signatures and hand out our flyer, initially next week on Tuesday (28th), Thursday (30th), and Friday (31st). Hours would be from 9.00-12.30 and 12.30-4.00 i.e. 2 separate shifts preferably with 2 people on each shift.

Peter Holmes has permission to set up a table and small A-frame outside Bendigo Bank to collect signatures for the CE petition.

We also need to organise the delivery and collection of the card table, chairs and sandwich board on each day – again by roster.

Please contact Peter on 0438 625 6358 to be added to the roster.

This media release was prepared for and published in Benalla's 'Ensign' on 15 January 2020. 

"Benalla Sustainable Future Group (BSFG) wrote to Benalla Rural City Council last week, asking them to exercise their discretion to allow the image of Greta Thunberg to remain on the window of the Council Customer Service Centre.
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The group wrote: "We view this painting as a powerful statement that here is a community that cares, not only about the present wellbeing of its citizens, but the future as well. Greta is a beacon of hope for millions of people, both young and old, around the world, and a hero for them as she challenges the world's leaders to take immediate and urgent action to mitigate climate change.
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Climate change action is not a political issue, as some would have us believe. It is an environmental, social, economic and ethical issue, and we are right now experiencing one of the most devastating effects predicted long ago by climate scientists, as a result of the warming and drying of our part of the Earth.

We need to take a stand on the issue of climate change, and what better way can there be for Council to demonstrate their support for action, than to leave Greta's image on the window."

BSFG President, Peter Holmes, says the group is extremely disappointed with Council's response, in which they simply reiterated that the painting was part of the Window to Window Festival, and would be removed this week. He noted that none of the reasons BSFG offered in the letter to Council were addressed in their response, and hoped that this is not indicative of Council's attitude towards addressing the issue of mitigating climate change.

"Seven years ago, I was part of a community consultation group, organised by Council, to develop a Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Back then, we were probably thinking that the world had until about 2050 to make things right! Well, things have changed drastically, even in that short space of time, with temperature records being broken virtually every year, rainfall decreasing significantly, and now Australia is in the grip of a wildfire crisis that has cost at least 26 lives directly, burnt over 10 million hectares of forest and farmland, destroyed over 2000 homes and many more buildings, and killed an estimated 500 million creatures, many to the point of extinction," Mr Holmes said.

BSFG says that there is no longer room in our parliaments or local governments for debate about whether climate change is real. The discussion and the action must now be about urgently mitigating the causes of climate change, and not about "papering over the cracks" every time we experience another disaster. This discussion must be bipartisan, and above party political motives.

Mr Holmes indicated that BSFG believes, along with many others in the community, that an excellent way for Benalla Rural City to respond, is to declare that there is a Climate Emergency (as have 85 other local government councils in Australia). BRC should then convene a group of community leaders from business, health, energy, transport, environment, and most importantly, youth sectors, to work with Council officers to develop and implement initiatives that will rapidly make BRC a zero emissions community, and therefore make a major contribution to the mitigation of the worst effects of climate change."

"As we approach the end of another calendar year, the evidence grows ever so much stronger that the Earth faces a climate crisis due to human induced activity, and yet, our political leaders still refuse to acknowledge that strong action must be taken to arrest the escalation of the problem.

This year, we have seen fires in the Arctic, the continued melting of the ice caps and glaciers, including the Earth's thickest glacier, sea levels continue to rise, record temperatures around the globe, catastrophic fires in California, and over the past few weeks at home in NSW and Queensland, with the real fire season yet to commence! For the first time, NSW was faced with a catastrophic weather forecast day on the 12th November - a combination of high temperatures, no humidity and high winds, with around 40 fires already burning out of control. Coincidentally, in the same week, the whole of Australia recorded its first ever rain free day!

I am not going to be restrained in what I write about the pathetic and disgraceful lack of leadership we have in this country.

For starters, Deputy Prime Minister McCormack, and his National Party cohort, Barnaby Joyce, should both be expelled from Parliament for their senseless and outrageous comments in the midst of the bushfire crisis in NSW. Prime Minister Morrison refused to be engaged on whether the early onset of the fires and their intensity could in some way be attributed to climate change. "Now is not the time to talk about climate change", he opined!

But Prime Minister, you never want to talk about climate change, unlike your counterpart across the Tasman! You don't want to upset your mates in the fossil fuel industries. You are more concerned with pretending to keep electricity prices down by a few dollars by propping up coal power, than by supporting renewable energy, which will make the planet safer and ultimately, the cost of living cheaper, because renewable energy will be cheaper, and our insurance premiums won't skyrocket, as they will under your disaster laden policies (that's something politicians haven't been talking about).

Why also, is the Labor Party even talking about emulating the Liberal Party's policies, on exporting coal (Albanese's reasoning that, "if we don't do it then another country will, and Australia will miss out", beggars belief), and on renewable energy and emissions reduction, when climate scientists universally are saying this is not within a bull's roar of being enough?

​The time for political argy-bargy is over. All parties must come to their senses and show some statesmanship on this crisis. Isn't that what they called it during the World Wars when the world was in the grips of a different crisis?

​In the coming weeks, BSFG will be seeking agreement from Benalla City councillors to pass a motion declaring that we have a Climate Emergency, as over 75 local government areas around Australia have already done. This will mean that all management and planning decisions made by Council need to consider the impact on greenhouse emissions, with the aim of reducing and even eliminating them. I ask all members and supporters to be encouraging of this action. Please take whatever opportunity you may have to talk to Councillors and communicate the urgency of the situation.

Finally, I acknowledge that all of us have been contributing our own personal efforts over many years to reduce the levels of greenhouse emissions, and to live a more sustainable lifestyle, but we have now reached the point where micro efforts are no longer enough. Only the macro changes that can be enforced by government legislation and political common sense will now turn the tide.

Peter Holmes