Climate Change is upon us - a local call to arms

I have been wondering about the heading for this article. But really it doesn’t need a lot of thought – it’s a straight forward call to action from our members and the Granite Belt Community.

The global news is not good. The Antarctic ice registers a record retreat, the Mediterranean is ringed by fire caused by record temperatures, the Gulf Stream slows and the US and Canada experience devastating forest fires (the list is much, much longer but I won’t go on). There appears to be little concern locally with the possible exception that a few farmers who are nervous about what the summer may bring.

Interestingly it appears that even in spite of the record 2019 drought, Stanthorpe running out of water and the subsequent record wet season our community hasn’t started to engage on action dealing with climate change.

As the Australian transition toward a renewables dominated power grid gathers pace on the back of Federal and State targets it’s about time we got active locally or the Granite Belt will miss the boat in regards to the possible economic benefits offered by this transition in addition to the need to understand the predicted impacts and start to prepare for the inevitable change in our local weather patterns – water security being a case in point.

A shining example of local action can be found in Goondiwindi where Mayor Lawrence Springborg announced that Council’s intention to construct a green-hydrogen project integrated into their waste water treatment plant. This will improve the efficiency of the waste plant, produce a saleable commodity – hydrogen – reduce operating costs and save rate payers millions over the longer-term. If Gundi can do it, what can we do?

So this is a “call to arms”. There are plenty of opportunities for GBSAN influence how our community engages in the transition to a fossil free fuel future and starts to get our collective heads around what climate change means for the Granite Belt physically and socially. As a first step we need to revitalize our energy and climate team as the foundation for engaging our community on climate change and the promotion of positive action.

I’m asking any of you that are concerned about climate change to get in contact with me at richardhumphries@bigpond.com and commit to getting involved in GBSAN’s energy and climate team. There’s lots of opportunities to get involved in some pretty exciting projects, meet new like-minded people and even have some fun!

Look forward to hearing from you!

Rick Humphries