Five thousand people attended the vibrant Climate Emergency Rally in Melbourne on June 5. Grassroots environment activists and groups came from all over Victoria to protest numerous environmentally destructive projects currently underway or proposed, demanding action instead be focused on renewable energy and public transport.
The Your Water Your Say (YWYS) group came from Wonthaggi, where it is fighting the state government's proposed $3.2 billion desalination plant.
Farmers from Gippsland protested the possible installation of electricity pylons on their properties, as well as the construction of another coal power plant.
Inner-Melbourne residents and members of Yarra Campaign Against the Tunnel expressed outrage at the state government's proposal for another tollway costing $18 billion — money that could be used extending public transport to services outer suburbs and increasing inner-city services.
Blue Wedges — the community action group against dredging Port Phillip Bay — were among the others who attended.
Andrea Bolch from YWYS told the crowd: "If you're serious about addressing climate change, then you have to make decisions that don't keep adding to the problem ... what makes this [proposed desalination] plant so abhorrent is the fact that ... it will produce ... only one third of the amount that already falls on Melbourne. But instead of the government investing in infrastructure that captures that water, recycles it, reuses it, we continue to flush it out to sea."
Emeretta Cross, representing communities from the Pacific Islands of Tuvalu and Kiribati, spoke of the increased difficulty of sustaining agriculture and access to drinking water on her homeland and the growing risk of becoming climate refugees.
Greens Senator Bob Brown spoke about the importance of community mobilisation: "People power is what's going to save this planet ... This is the powerhouse for change, the people, not the politicians!"
David Spratt, climate policy analyst and co-author of Climate Code Red said: "Global warming is the greatest threat ever to the human species, but the politicians from all the major parties are refusing to act with the speed and commitment that is now necessary ... we certainly need emergency action now to save the planet!"
The crowd marched to Alexandra Gardens, where a 140-metre-long human "climate emergency" sign was formed.
The rally was the result of great collaboration between numerous environmental and political groups including the Climate Emergency Network, Friends of the Earth, the Socialist Alliance, the Greens, YWYS and many others. It was endorsed by more than 50 groups.
A slide show of the rally and a discussion about future actions will be held at 6.30pm at Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, on Thursday July 24.