THE expert consensus from Mallee Climate Action Forum held at the weekend is clear – this is an emergency.
Sustainable Living in the Mallee, (SLIM) the key organisers of the weekend event, will now lobby for the Swan Hill Rural City Council to recognise the climate situation as such.
Thousands of city councils around the world have now declared a climate emergency, and more than 80 local forum attendees are hoping that councils in the Mallee can follow suit.
SLIM will also lobby candidates for the federal seat of Mallee, after only two attended the forum, Independent Claudia Haenel from Horsham and Greens candidate Sam McColl from Ararat.
Mildura councillor Jason Modica, Gannawarra councilllor Jane Ogden and Swan Hill councillor Nicole McKay were also in attendance to hear from experts including the Climate Council’s Will Steffen, Environment Victoria’s Tyler Rotche, Agriculture Victoria’s Mel Cann, Mallee Family Care’s Chris Forbes, Wemen local Andrew Young from Red Gold Farm, Jane Morton from Climate Emergency Campaign, Totally Renewable Yackandandah’s Matt Charles Jones and Colin Lambie from Community Power Hub Loddon Mallee.
“It was incredible to have people attending from all corners of the Mallee including Swan Hill, Maryborough, Warracknabeal, Horsham, Culgoa, Nullawil, Balranald, Kerang, Mildura and Wemen,” SLIM spokesperson Peta Thornton said.
“Rightly, community members are deeply concerned about impacts already being felt around the electorate.
“We are seeing increased heat, reduced rainfall and the inflows to the Murray Darling Basin have almost halved in the past 20 years.
“There are huge impacts on health too, with heat related stress, and even deaths, increasing and affecting the communities most vulnerable.”
Ms Thornton said those at the forum overwhelmingly said they wanted local councils to declare a climate emergency.
People wanting to show support can sign the petition on the SLIM Facebook page where a livestream of the weekend’s event is also available to view.
