Thousands attend Moving Planet Climate change actions in Australia and globally

Did you miss the action over the weekend? Thousands of people around the world from Cairo to Canberra participated in events to move the planet beyond fossil fuels. There were over 2000 events in more than 175 countries with more than 40 Moving Planet events taking place across Australia from the Blue Mountains, Hobart, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne joining the thousands of events taking place around the globe.



Melbourne photos by Takver | Moving Planet

Combet cool on Hazelwood closure

Hundreds of activists travelled to the Hazelwood brown coal fired power station, 180 km east of Melbourne, for the 101010 global work party on Sunday.

Environmental groups in Victoria are behind a campaign to replace the aging Hazelwood power station with renewable energy. Premier John Brumby wants to close the power station down in stages and wants Federal Government financial assistance in doing so. But the new Federal climate change minister Greg Combet is decidedly cool on the idea.

Scientist: Extinction threatens Coral Reefs unless CO2 limited to 350ppm

COPENHAGEN. Dec 9, 2009. Extinction of Coral reefs and 10-20% of marine species is likely if greehouse gases aren't brought down to 350ppm, warned Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland. He gave a presentation at the US Pavilion at the COP15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen about the threat of climate change to the world's coral reefs. Over 500 million people living in approximately 90 nations are dependant in some way on coral reefs.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg was a contributing author to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007, which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore.

Tuvalu makes a Stand at Climate Talks

The UN climate summit in Copenhagen came to a temporary halt on December 9 as the small Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu demanded commitment to a legally-binding agreement while industrialised nations refused to express an opinion.



Tuvalu is demanding a new treaty to run alongside the Kyoto protocol that would set the maximum allowable temperature increase to be 1.5 degrees Celsius, instead of 2 degrees Celsius rise usually put forth by developed countries and big emerging economies like India and China. In addition, they requested that atmospheric carbon levels be set at 350 parts per million (ppm) instead of 450 ppm.

Hundreds of events round Australia call for climate target of 350ppm

From Alphington to Warrawong, Broome to Wagga, Townsville to St Helens thousands of people across Australia attended a diverse variety of over 175 different climate action events calling on politicians to set the target for CO2 emissions to 350 parts per million (ppm) for a reasonable chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. CO2 emissions are already at 387ppm so we need to have negative emissions through active programs to draw down and stabilise carbon from the atmosphere. Photos on Flickr

In Sydney 1500 people gathered at the Sydney Opera House forecourt and made a human sign spelling '350' with blue Umbrellas. The rally was addressed by speakers including Lord Mayor Clover Moore and ABC Science journalist Robyn Williams.Photos

A rally, march and human sign ocurred in Perth.(Photos).read more details from www.safeclimate.org.au

Melbourne

In Melbourne events included

• Friends of the Earth Anti-Nuclear Community BBQ at Batman Park
  
• Belgrave rally demanding 350 climate action
  
• Climate protest by cyclists in Melbourne
  
• Over 100 people had their photo taken on Saturday outside Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station, sending a message to Kevin Rudd for science based climate change policies. (Get the Picture Kev! Visual petition) Organised by Yarra Climate Action Now
  

The international climate action event was organised by 350.org.

Hundreds of cyclists gathered and rode through the city of Melbourne before forming '350' as a human sign to call on the Australian Government and politicians from other nation states for substantial CO2 emission reduction targets to reach the 350ppm CO2 level, regarded by many scientists as the safe level to avoid dangerous climate change.

Photos | Video

This was one event of many in Melbourne held on October 24, 2009 of a global protest in over four thousand locations calling for climate action.

Much of the ride was led by the seven seater Bikezilla accompanied by lots of kids, here outside the Victorian State Parliament. The State Government and energy minister Peter Batchelor has been advocating for a new coal export industry for Victoria, from the vast reserves of brown coal.

Greenpeace climate change campaigner Julien Vincent has urged the Premier to instead invest his government’s efforts and resources into generating opportunities for the manufacture and export of proven renewable energy technologies.

“If the state government wants to be taken seriously on climate change, we should be hearing announcements about turning the Latrobe Valley into Victoria’s renewable energy manufacturing hub,” he said according to a Friends of the Earth Media Release.

At the end of the ride through the city cyclists gathered in a park on the south side of the Yarra river and constructed a huge human/bike sign calling for the 350ppm CO2 target to send a message to world leaders in Copenhagen in December. A blimp took an aerial photo of the human sign.