"How can we maintain a safe and habitable climate? That's the question we need to pose to build this movement", Kirrliee Boyd from the Adelaide Hills Climate Action Group told a workshop at the Climate Emergency — No More Business as Usual conference on October 10-11.
The conference was a collaboration between the Australian Education Union (SA) and the newly formed Climate Emergency Action Network (CLEAN). More than 250 people from a wide range of organisations and communities participated in a day and a half of plenums and workshops that marked an important step forward in Australia's climate action movement.
Dr Mark Diesendorf from the University of NSW's Institute of Environmental Studies echoed US climate scientist James Hansen's call to ban all new coal-fired power stations and any expansion of existing ones.
He told attendees that, in order to avoid climate catastrophe, "we need a growing social movement, the community at large … to put pressure on those in power [so they know] they will be thrown out if they continue with tokenism on this". The potential of such a movement was clearly evident at the conference.
Professor Barry Brook from Adelaide University described the rapid and drastic changes to the climate. He noted that climate projections demonstrate that within a few decades the summer of 2003 — in which 30,000 people in Europe died from the heat — will be considered a relatively cool one.
David Spratt, co-author of Climate Code Red, reiterated the contents of a recent open letter, signed by 49 environment groups, to Ross Garnaut, saying: "It is no longer a case of how much more we can safely emit, but whether we can quickly stop emissions and produce a cooling before we hit tipping points and amplifying feedbacks — such as large-scale release of greenhouse gases from melting permafrost — that will take the trajectory of the Earth's climate system beyond any hope of human restoration."
He argued, "Stop all greenhouse gas emissions and cool the planet: it sounds impossible, but it is not. I am convinced that the obstacles to such a path are not principally technological or economic, but political and social. Renewable energy is not rocket science, nor is electrifying our national train network, improving energy efficiency or planning to live sustainably …
"Many of the emission reduction opportunities are actually cost-positive (they cost less than they save in energy costs). And rebuilding a post-fossil-fuel economy will be job-rich."
Spratt criticised the "traditional Labor approach" of "something for the environment lobby and something for business. The climate crisis cannot be treated like a wage deal, with the demands of each side balanced somewhere in the middle. It is not possible to negotiate with the laws of physics and chemistry; the planet cannot be bought off."
The necessity for radical, transformative action was firmly on the agenda at this conference.
Permaculturalist and solidarity activist Robyn Francis reflected the outrage of everyone present that hundreds of billions of dollars have been almost instantly found by governments to bail out financial institutions, yet very little money has been made available to tackle climate change.
Francis spoke passionately about the example of Cuba, which overcame a "peak oil" crisis in the early 1990s — when imports of oil, food and goods from the USSR dried up almost overnight — largely through a "permaculture revolution". Today, she said, Cuba is the only country that is "living within its ecological footprint" while also providing good quality health, education and other services to the whole population.
Dave Kerin, convenor of Union Solidarity in Victoria, told conference participants that "growing vegies in the backyard, building actions in your communities … all of these are important. But there's only one group on this planet with the power to save it: organised labour."
Kerin argued that, far from being threatened by the changes to production necessary to avert climate catastrophe, working people stood to benefit from such changes. He quoted Greenpeace research that shows that if Australia adopted a 10% mandatory renewable energy target (the target is currently 2%), more 14,000 new jobs would be created.
"The problem is", Kerin said, "that capitalism is not investing in that sort of industry here, on any appropriate scale. We, the workers' movement, intend to address this, starting now."
Kerin described how sections of the union movement in Victoria are establishing workers' cooperatives to produce solar water heaters. The heaters will be provided on favourable terms to communities and the income generated from the business will be returned to the community in the form of projects to eliminate youth homelessness and reduce hospital and dental waiting lists for elderly unionists.
We need "practical alternatives that people can see, feel and touch", Kerin argued. While the project provides "personal empowerment within the collective", he addded, "I'm not counterposing this to political solutions. To nationalise water is a must. We also must nationalise energy; we cannot have brown coal competing with solar."
Eighteen workshops covered diverse topics including indigenous perspectives, theories of change, population and the environment, and permaculture and environmental education.
The final plenary was addressed by Paul Downton, an architect and urban ecologist who helped to develop the award-winning Christie Walk eco-city project; Elise Harris from the Adelaide University Environment Collective, who suggested a boycott of all major supermarkets; and Marcus Knill, AEU vice-president, who spoke about teachers' struggles to retain environmental education in the curriculum.
Renfrey Clarke, a Green Left Weekly journalist and convener of the Adelaide branch of the Socialist Alliance, also addressed the final session, saying, "When we leave this conference, we need to go back to our schools, our unions and communities, and resume building networks and patiently explaining.
"We can't rely on the existing media to tell the truth. We need our own independent media … We need to be experts at word-of-mouth. We need to be the people who are listened to at the barbecues because we clearly know what we're talking about.
"And we have to be honest with people: humanity isn't going to get out of this easily. Those who have most will need to sacrifice most, nations as well as individuals. Australian lifestyles must become sparing of McMansions and SUVs. Much more of our consumption must be of culture and learning and physical recreation.
"We'll need to be motivated by the rewards of community and by the collective exaltation of struggling together to meet the greatest challenge of humanity's civilised existence. That will need a huge moral and psychological transformation, alongside the political changes. But the cost of failure is unthinkable."
The conference concluded with a unanimous vote in favour of the following resolution:
"In light of the climate emergency that is becoming more apparent week by week, a state-wide community based climate action network is an immediate necessity.
"The conference resolves to establish the Climate Emergency Action Network (CLEAN), which will assist in coordinating and supporting local groups to publicise, inform, lobby, and organise on matters of climate change.
"Organisations and individuals are welcome to join and actively participate."
The next CLEAN meeting will be held on October 23 at 7pm at the South West Community Centre, 171 Sturt St, Adelaide. For more information, visit http://wwwcleansa.org.au.