Baglady [Shirley Lewis] writes:

Elections over. ‘Australia’ has a new PM: Tony Abbott, who’s still saying: ‘Climate Change is Crap’- after 4 years.

It’s encouraging that Tony went out for a bike ride with friends, the morning after the results, but that’s about it for his Greenness.

Unfortunately, Tony Abbott has not been voted to power by an intelligent, aware, caring nation of informed adults. He has simply played the game and waited his turn in the top seat. The issues which shape our children’s future were barely mentioned in the election run-up. And the voters don’t care. Not enough of them.

So we are caring, out loud. The GLObal TV SHOw /GLO online features voices, faces and important stories of Living ASAP = As Sustainably As Possible, from Northern Ireland and Australia, RoI [Ireland], Britain and many other countries (webstream; podcast).

My Baglady claim 2 weeks ago, that NI politicians are streaks ahead of Aussie politicians, is turning out even more horribly true than I realised. Here’s NI’s 5th Envirominister to Pledge ASAP – Mark H. Durkan.

Mark is Giving Up: Leaving electrical appliances on standby at home and in the office;
And Taking Up: Decreasing the amount of waste we produce at home that includes buying goods with less packaging.

The world desperately needs this kind of leadership. Our children’s whole future is at stake – not next year/month/week: NOW.

It was the children in NI who, with their teachers, in June 2010 took Pledge ASAP to the NI politicians at Stormont; and, led by the schools, by June 2011 over half the MLAs in the NI Assembly had pledged ASAP. With few exceptions, they seem to be taking their pledges seriously.

Very soon, our new GLObalvision Song&Dance Contest challenge will go out to 240,000 Eco-Schools children in N.Ireland – 12 million children in 55 countries round the world. So get ready to sing and dance with Baglady!

And, as Professor Kevin Anderson says, we need to ‘be courageous, and lead by example’.

‘For policy makers the message is simple but uncomfortable:

• They should avoid 4°C at all costs
• We need ~70% decarbonisation over next decade or so
• Only a small % of the global population need to mitigate
• Low carbon energy supply is too little too late in the West
• The principal response is to reduce energy demand now
• Carbon trading & prices are not viable for non-marginal (large) reductions

For politicians:

• Lead by example
• Don’t be the exception (cars, planes, ships – all argue to be treated leniently)
• Don’t hide behind or blame others (UK blames China, China blames US… )
• Consider the system (e.g. shale’s impact on coal use, etc.)
• Acknowledge it is not going to be easy; it will often hurt

Baglady adds:
Very soon, I shall personally approach both PM Tony Abbott and Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, among many others, to invite them to Pledge ASAP. To do 2 little non-controversial things, to live more sustainably. Because our children’s future is at stake.