Around 600 people demonstrated outside the NSW Parliament this morning to demand action on the unfolding climate emergency.
As bushfires raged across the country - in one of the nation's most catastrophic fire events ever - the NSW parliament was in the process of passing legislation that will remove considering the issues of climate change and greenhouse emissions when approving new coal mines and gas-fields.
NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian said that now was not the time to talk about climate change. She backed her deputy this morning on ABC radio, saying that she didn’t blame him for describing people who wanted to raise climate change now, as “a bloody disgrace“.
Meanwhile, in Canberra today, the Upper House of Federal Parliament passed the government’s so-called ‘big stick’ legislation, which will keep old coal-fired power stations open longer, further contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and to climate change. Elsewhere, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce claimed that two of the victims of yesterday’s fires “most likely” voted Green.
Speakers at today’s rally in Sydney included those living in the affected bushfire areas and families who had lost their homes. They urged that now was precisely the time to talk about climate change.
Fiona Lee, her partner Aaron Crowe, and their daughter Pepper had their family house completely destroyed after fire tore through the tiny rural community of Warrawillah on the state’s mid-north coast on Friday. They emptied a bucket of ashes they brought with them from their burnt out property in front of Parliament to demonstrate the devastating effect of the fires and of the current environmental catastrophe.
With no substantial rain forecast for the the foreseeable future, the fires in Queensland, NSW and Western Australia are predicted to burn on in coming days, and possibly for weeks.
*click through images for full screen view
^ To help Fiona, Aaron and Pepper, you can donate here.
