The Hills Community for Climate Action

This new group was established at a public meeting held on Saturday, May 25th as a response to the federal election one week previously. Some 85 local people attended, all of whom expressed their dismay that this election which some had dubbed 'the Climate Election', had been won instead on issues of taxation, rather than on policies addressing the climate crisis.  The group is still planning strategies but in the meantime, SDLG contributed to the cost of making  Climate Crisis lanterns for Belgrave's annual winter solstice lantern parade. The Hills Community for Climate Action lanterns joined our "Creatures of the Creek".  Each year at our Mini-Beasts Festival, local artist, Glenn Scollyer, creates another creature which lives in or near our waterways. Another outcome of the creation of HC4CA is the application for funding for a Hills Youth Environmental Advocacy Group SDLG is making with some parents concerned that environmental issues are being perceived as overwheming by their children. We want to establish a group for young people wanting to learn more about climate activism to empower them to represent their peers and hopefully, to succeed the current  ageing group of environmentalists.

It was great to see how many groups were represented at the inaugural meeting and how many are going to mobilise to bring climate action issues to the fore in the public debate.  Three weeks later, some of us attended the founding meeting of the Yarra Valley Community for Climate Action.