Melbourne delivered the largest turnout for Sunday’s national day of climate action, with up to 30,000 gathering at Treasury Gardens. One of more than 130 rallies organised by social activist group GetUp!, the Melbourne crowd accounted for half the estimated 60,000 who participated throughout the country.
Dressed in sunset shades of orange, red and yellow, many came prepared with placards. Others without were supplied with posters calling for climate action
The crowd was addressed by several speakers including the Climate Council’s Tim Flannery, Greens member for Melbourne Adam Bandt and shadow climate change minister Mark Butler.
”This rally shows just how much people care about this issue,” Professor Flannery said.
Mr Butler said the coming week would be ”critically important” in the climate debate with 11 bills going before the House of Representatives, including one that would undo the carbon tax.
Mr Bandt said the Abbott government was choosing ”a policy of appeasement” when urgent action was needed.
He said global warming would mean more super typhoons such as typhoon Haiyan, which crashed into the Philippines this month, killing an estimated 4460 people. In Australia, he said, bushfires would increase in frequency and intensity. ”I think people are looking at these extreme events – the bushfires and super typhoons – and wondering, ‘Is this the way we are going to be living our lives?’.”
The national secretary of the United Firefighters Union, Peter Marshall, said his members were witnessing increased frequency of major fires. He said large fires burning for protracted periods used to occur once a decade. But between 2003 and 2012 there had been ”nine major events” nationally.
