The purpose of this campaign is to make it easy for grandparents who are worried about climate change to send 2 letters a fortnight, researched and written by us to our political leaders, to pressure for urgent and effective action on this critical issue. If you would like to have our letters emailed to you for you to print and post, just enter your email address in the box to the right, and click Follow Us. –> –> –> –> –> –> –>
Most of us who are now grandparents in Australia would agree that we have lived through the best of times in this country, in peace and prosperity, and for much of the time with hope for a better future. Author Clive James has described us as “lucky members of a lucky generation in a land of abundant natural blessings; a blessed land in a blessed time”. But so many of our friends speak to us these days of their total frustration about the lack of vision or significant action by our political leaders on the threat of climate change, which will so dramatically change the ability of our much-loved grandchildren to enjoy a life similar to the one we have had. So we thought, instead of just talking to each other about it, let’s start getting our message out to the people who need to hear it, our political leaders. Let’s take some real action to help leave a world our grandchildren can survive in. Unfortunately, the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry are still hugely influential in shaping government policy on climate change. However, it is important to remember that influence on governments comes from 2 sources:
– vested interests (the power of the dollar)
– the people (the power of the vote)
Pressure from the people is steadily mounting. However, people pressure is clearly going to have to get much stronger before either Federal or State governments put serious measures in place to address climate change. Our website www.genequity.net provides a quick and easy way for us to send a message every few weeks to our governments to let them know that climate change is the top priority concern of the voting public. This is how it works. Every 2 weeks we research an aspect of the current climate change situation, and write 2 short letters about it, one for each political party. If you have signed up with us, you then will get printable copies of these 2 letters in an email. Just print them off, add a comment of your own if you wish to, sign and send them. We find it helps to have a supply of envelopes and stamps at the ready. We are offering this option of ‘letters only’ as our political advice is that they have more impact than emails. Letters have a physical presence. They are delivered to the recipient, they have to be opened and read, and can’t be blocked or deleted like emails. It really maximises the impact of your action in sending a message if you do it by letter. The more people who make the commitment to join this campaign, sign on to the website to get their fortnightly email message and send their letter/s, the more effective we will be. If thousands start doing it, from all around the country, it will have a significant political impact.
Bob Debus, retired NSW Attorney General and Environment Minister, launched our website, and gave it a ringing endorsement. After all his years in both State and Federal politics, he believes that grassroots action, taking governments head on, is the only way climate change will be controlled. He said that this campaign could be particularly effective because of the number of grandparents across the country, and the fact that they are distributed throughout all electorates And we’re not ageist! Anyone can use this tool, it doesn’t matter how old or young you are. This is an extraordinarily easy way to really hammer our politicians. The information is researched for you, the points made. All it takes is 15 minutes a fortnight every fortnight from enough of us, and there can be a tsunami of letters deluging our politicians.
If you’re a young person, show it to your grandparents and ask them to do it for your sake. Show them how to do it if their computer skills aren’t great! If you’re a parent, do it for your kids. Will you send the word on through your friends, your networks? Economist Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the Stern Report, said in a recent TED Talk: “The depth of understanding of the immense risks of climate change is not there yet. We need political pressure to build. We need leaders to step up. “Are we going to look our grandchildren in the eye and tell them that we understood the issues, that we recognised the dangers and the opportunities, and still failed to act?” Grandparents of Australia, unite!