2019-05-14
By the Green Issue Editors
Certainly for The Greens, but apparently also for many others, 18th May is the ‘climate change election’. The stakes have been raised by publication last October of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report indicating the perils of raising mean global temperature above 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels, considering we are already at 1°C above and rapidly rising. We include some impressions of why this matters, based on recent presentations of some of the co-authors of the IPCC Report.
We have a comparison of climate change policies of the major parties contesting the election, and how those policies square up with the IPCC Report. Of course, young people have the most to lose, over their lifetimes, if global temperatures continue on their now seemingly relentless rise, and there is a plea for young people to speak up via the ballot box. And we also have a plea from a very young person to do the right thing by her generation. And there are even younger people out leafleting.
Doorknocking is perhaps the most effective means of engaging with voters and we present a report from the Curtin Regional Group who have been doing just that.
In this Green issue we introduce a new component – Letters to the Editors – which encourages feedback on previous articles.
We include updates from our Greens (WA) MPs, for the March-April period. There are reports from Senators Rachel Siewert and Jordon Steele-John and our Members of the WA Legislative Council Robin Chapple (Mining and Pastoral), Alison Xamon (North Metropolitan), Diane Evers (South West) and Tim Clifford (East Metropolitan).
Header photo: Curtin door knockers meeting at Luketina Reserve, Wembley Downs. Left to right, Steven Mansfield, Patricia Armstrong, Gillian Stroud, Benjamin Mayne, Nikola MacLennan, Renata Whittle, Liam Higson, Daniel Grosso, Cameron Pidgeon, Laraine Newton, Heather Lonsdale, Chilla Bulbeck, Laurel de Vietri. Photo taken by Lucy, a student at ECU