Building climate awareness

There will be several guest speakers and community stallholders who will be available to talk to about positive steps towards sustainability and climate action from 11am until 2:30pm.

All the speakers will address topics relevant to numerous issues pertinent to the planet’s climate emergency.

Much of this will assist the Clarence community to come together and support the ways they can help reduce carbon emissions — if only in small ways.

The Community Expo will also include children’s and young people’s activities, as well as a café.

Clarence Climate Action Group committee member Alistair Primrose said there were a number of climate emergencies around the world at the moment, and the Community Expo would provide the community with some important facts.

“There are many unprecedented events occurring such as huge fires in Siberia, floods and droughts, ocean warming, and the hottest days on some continents ever experienced,” he said.

“The Alaskan Columbia Icefield, walked on by my wife and I 13 years ago, will be banned to tourists in around seven years due to its rate of melting — it supplies fresh water to three great North American rivers.”

“The earth is trapping twice as much heat as in 2015 — weather patterns are changing.

Mr Primrose raised his concerns whether Tasmania could cope with a large influx of mainlanders following the state being recently declared as one of the safest places on Earth if there was an ‘apocalypse’.

“How many people living in Clarence have probably come across people moving south because of excessive heat and humidity, and perhaps having been affected badly by floods and droughts.”

“The economic costs are massive.”

Mr Primrose said the Clarence City Council had made some steps to make a difference by investing in more electric car charging stations and sending all its waste to the Copping waste treatment centre where the methane produced was being combusted to provide its energy supply.

“Active communities like Clarence can work to help reduce fossil fuel emissions for the sake of our grandchildren,” he said.

“Please contact your local politicians and Alderman to seek their support on climate change, and speak to them at the Community Expo.”

Eastern Shore Sun, August 2021, page 11