Beam me to Planet Gore !
I don't mean this the wrong way -- but we need to do better.
So far, 3,440 people have RSVP'd to family climate rallies across Australia next weekend. But I just finished reading the Australian Climate Commission's new climate science report - and frankly, I'm scared. The risks have never been more clear and the case for action has never been more urgent. Scientists know this, you and I know this, but the rest of Australia still needs to hear it.
The stakes are so high, and the opposition to climate action so vocal, that we need more than the usual suspects at these rallies. We need you.
So if you're already planning on coming, thank you. But if not, I hope you'll give this email just 90 seconds of your time and the chance to convince you.
I confess that rallies are not usually my thing. I sometimes wonder who is even watching and if it's effective. But next weekend is an acid test of the community's support for climate action, and we won't succeed by staying home. Tacit support is not enough.
This isn't about angry protest. Our family rallies have face-painting, balloons and ice-cream for the kids - and great live music before and after the rally. Think of it as a great impetus to get out of the house and start a sunny Sunday in a beautiful park with other families!
We've chosen next Sunday, June 5, for the national rallies because it's right in the middle of the final, fragile negotiations of the multi-party climate committee. These are the negotiations that will decide what the price on pollution will be, how it will increase over time, and how much money will go to clean energy versus to big polluters.
The Government and Independents on the committee are under extraordinary pressure to give up on climate action. Climate deniers held a rally against the carbon price last week in the electorate of Independent MP Rob Oakeshott. The Daily Telegraph reported that over 3,000 people attended - even though the official police estimate was under 800. Right now, politicians and the media are gauging support for climate action by which side has the bigger rallies.
Some say putting a price on pollution will send our economy back to the Stone Age. They say they represent the majority of mainstream Australia. We know it's rubbish - but unless we put our faces and voices in front of the TV cameras too, we know exactly what will happen next: an exasperating onslaught of one-sided media coverage against climate action, which will send politicians running scared.
I wish that policy were not so dependent on which groups protest the loudest. But if Australia's climate policy were decided by science and reason, we would have put a price on pollution long ago.
Please join the urgent climate rallies happening across Australia on Sunday week, June 5, and don't forget to bring a friend, or ten!