Town Beach Reserve was transformed into a colourful wonderland as part of a worldwide day of action organised by 350.org in the USA.
The theme of the day was ‘Join the Dots’, to raise awareness about the link between global warming and wild weather. Members of Climate Change Australia Hastings Branch (CCA-H) created a large banner with dots on it — when joined they read — ‘Join the dots — climate change is real’.
People were invited to mark a dot on the banner in colourful paint and there were a number of other activities, including a display called ‘canaries in the coal mine’ and a ‘footprint meter’ which measures how sustainable a person’s lifestyle is.
President of CCA-H, Harry Creamer, said children especially enjoyed putting the dots on the banner, and people were enthusiastic in their support for the event.
“People were interested to hear how rising CO2 levels from burning fossil fuels are making the greenhouse layer thicker, causing the world to warm up. This feeds more energy into the atmosphere and creates vastly more water vapour so it’s no wonder that, when it rains, it pours,” Mr Creamer said.
“Conversely, if the natural system is in a dry spell, we can expect more severe droughts because higher temperatures dry out whatever moisture is in the atmosphere.
“This happened in Australia during the 2000s, ending with the disastrous Victorian bushfires which were off the scale.
“The claim made by climate change sceptics and deniers that the planet has not warmed since 1998 is a dangerous lie.
“Several years in the 2000s broke temperature records. This summer was the hottest on record for Perth, and it’s only going to get hotter.
“That’s why we have to get smart about this and cut our carbon emissions, along with the rest of the world. As a rich country and a leading polluter (when coal exports are included), we cannot expect other countries to always go first. Do we stand for anything other than preserving our way of life which, as far as energy goes, is so twentieth century?”
A website has been set up especially for this campaign — www.climatedots.org
Anyone wishing to join CCA can go to the website www.climatechangeaustralia.org
