List of Photographer’s Demands
When photographers submitted images they were asked to provide and few words about what they would like see change in the Australian Federal Government’s stance on climate change. I have collated the list here below, in no particular order.
Nadia Stone
The way we build house, ( I am fervent of Passive house and wish that all houses were build with this concept in mind), No more plastic bag at shops…. Lunches for kids should also be rethink as packaging is terrible….. and so much more. X
Zorica Purlija
……my plea is not to allow our earth to turn to cinders, where our beautiful bio sphere dies through our neglect and stubbornness to address the Huge Climate Emergency we are facing.
Saskia Haalebos
To remove the ego, ulterior motives and religion from the equation; provide political donations transparency; focus on what can be done; and hurry the fuck up, because there’s already been 33 years of faffing about.
https://science.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/how-we-discovered-climate-problem
Beryl Mitchell
I want to see an end to fossil fuel investment and bipartisan support for cleaner and greener energy policies with real and substantial investment in these technologies. We need future focussed leadership that inspires all of us to take an active part in our daily lives to create the changes required to safeguard our grandchildren’s futures and their grandchildren’s and so on. We all have a part to play.
Bhavana Moylan
Australia’s Climate Policies & Strategies should prioritise the end to native forest logging and clearing. We must preserve with the highest value and protection, our remaining wild places. We must protect our endangered animals plants and animals. Once this is gone we cannot bring it back.
Water is precious and should never be traded as a market. The health of our rivers is so vital for this country and great care is needed to keep them alive.
Caren Florance
Change everything. We need clean air, water and land; proper funding of emergency services, especially volunteer emergency services; clean air; sensible social policies around the pandemic; increased funding for health services to give us more healthy people (no healthy economy without them) and a government that wants to give back to society and the environment rather than line the pockets of their mates.
Carolyn Tow
In terms of climate policies and strategies, I would like to see
- the government facilitate renewable sources of energy more effectively, particularly through policies that support industries trying to make the transition;
- design of cities so that energy use is reduced through infrastructure planning (housing, transport, work, retail);
- greater change in people’s attitudes towards energy use and consumption of goods;
- protecting and preserving species habitat and biodiversity.
Cat Leedon
Honestly, everything needs to change. We need to agree to the international targets and then put policies in place to exceed them. Incentives, training and support for workers in environmentally harmful industries to retrain and transition to environmentally friendly employment. Pass laws that no more fossil fuel or gas mining sites be approved, and those that exist already need to wind down and close. Invest in sustainable energy and other technology and research so that Australia can become a world leader, draw in investment and talent, and reduce and then end our economy’s reliance on fossil fuels and minerals. Programs to end deforestation, stop farmers damaging our land and water supplies, and protect World Heritage Listed sites; noting that we should be increasing the number of Heritage listed sites. Less roads, more trains. Subsidise and support infrastructure, manufacturing and purchase of electric vehicles, solar power and home battery storage, along with other environmentally friendly changes around the home. Vastly improve our recycling capabilities as a nation, while introducing laws to reduce single use plastics and harmful products in general. Force companies to remove the ‘green tax’ on vegan produce/products so that it is an affordable and viable option for all, not just the wealthy. Make all businesses accountable for their environmental impact, while offering support to small businesses to reduce their impact as market prices adjust to reflect an eco-friendly society.
We need our politicians to think beyond their short term in power and think about the longevity of life for all living things in this country specifically and on this planet generally. We need to end oppositional politics about whether the climate crisis exists, the extent of its impact, and whether it is caused by humans. We need bipartisan politics where debate is on how best to achieve targets, not whether the targets should be met at all. We need the ‘leaders’ of our country to stop Australia from becoming an international joke and completely isolated economically as other nations refuse to trade with polluters.
Celia Furt
Is educating people on this climate crisis, global warming, plastic pollution, fossil fuels, bird feeding, enough to change bad habits?
How do we get governments to take huge, efficient, drastic and long lasting ACTION?
Charmaine Lyons
Australia’s climate policies and strategies – I’m not at all sure whether this fits into climate strategies or not, but for me, seeing the effects of natural disaster, here the flooding in the local area of Gympie, is devastating enough, but to witness the tragic unfolding of the manmade disaster during these times needs to be addressed. State, Federal and local governments I believe need to assist “environmentally compromised” businesses to relocate out of the areas that have time and time again been inundated during a major flood. The smell of fuel so prevalent, the oil-stained environments and the volumes of debris is so devastating to see.
Chelle Wallace
Dismantling the current Capitalist system for now is a dream too far, so I ask you government to –
- Cease all coal related mining, and commit to only renewable energy, and the Paris agreement.
- Zealously protect every green space.
- Adopt the Uluru Statement ensuring our First People have a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament.
- Finally prioritise earth and humanity at every turn.
Christine Harris
Some changes I would like to see with Australia’s climate policies
- Bring back a carbon tax
- Increase the speed of transition from fossil fuels to renewables, NO gas led recovery.
- Incentives to buy EV’s (including electric bikes)
- Improve public transport and bike infrastructure
Claire Grant
I hope that Australia’s climate policies will shift away from the destructive extraction of resources, towards exploring new forms of renewable resources and clean energy.
Claire Williams
What I want to change with Australia’s climate policies and strategies?
Fossil fuel subsidies should be redirected towards making Australia a leader in renewable technologies. This includes reskilling impacted workers, boosting manufacturing capability and number of tradespeople, and a new export industry. A lower emissions vehicle scheme similar to the UK should be introduced, combined with a greater investment in rail infrastructure to remove the dependence on road freight.
Elise Derwin
Develop Australia’s abundant renewable energy resources to reduce emissions.
Indya Connley
The transient nature of politics fosters an environment where the policy makers who are responsible for climate change action are guilty of making shortsighted and uninformed decisions, more heavily influenced by factors like retaining leadership, and lining pockets – not sustainability and long-term outcomes.
Joanna Immig
Australia’s climate policies and strategies: Australia needs brave and generous climate policies and strategies that face the existential realities of the climate emergency locally and globally. We need to look beyond election cycles and plan for our grandchildren and their children and all life on the planet. We must embrace the Uluru Statement from the Heart as the way forward and foster our collective creativity and ingenuity to confront the challenges ahead. We need policies to rapidly decarbonise our economy and lives and ensure a just transition for those directly impacted. Strategies are needed to help communities adapt to weather extremes and to build resilience in their local communities and to re-generate damaged ecosystems. We can’t go back to ‘normal’. Normal means death. We need to entirely re-think the way we live our lives and priorities. Everything is up for change and we need leaders ready to lead.
Joanne Gittoes
I would like to see the Australian Government commit to real climate change targets that the rest of the world are. And make stronger policies to reduce emissions and protect the environment.
Julie Millowick
I live in regional Australia. Over the past 20 years I, and many others in the regions have seen and often documented indisputable change to the environment. Farmers particularly are dealing with these challenging changed conditions on a daily basis. I want Governments to acknowledge this and to actually act on it in a constructive and long term way.
Julie Shiel
I want climate change to be a bipartisan issue. I want net zero emissions by 2030.
Karen Brown
I long for better quality and a return to more locally manufactured goods. International trade has its place, but it is from the governments and policies that we can obtain and retain a better quality of products and in turn help reduce pollution and landfill.
Not that long ago it would be more common and economical to repair a large appliance; sadly today it is cheaper, faster and easier to replace them with new.
Things definitely don’t last as long as they used to.
I would love for government to implement policies to address the quality of our consumer goods, thus ultimately helping to reduce pollution and landfill.
Better made items that last longer may cost more in the short term, but are worth fixing, renovating, selling. The long-term benefit is less pollution.
Nobody (not even climate deniers) can deny the urgent need to address pollution and landfill.
Kate Gardiner
Recommended change to Australia’s climate policies and strategies;
- Put a price on carbon emission.
- Require all land holders, either private, public or not-for-profit, to monitor and publish results for how they are measurably improving soil quality and increasing biodiversity.
- Fund renewable energy infrastructure, ie solar panel technology, on all public buildings.
- Disband all feedlots for bovine livestock.
Katherine Boland
Phase out coal
Strengthen climate targets
Invest in new technologies that will lower emissions
Zero emission electricity
Electric and fuel cell vehicles
Eliminate deforestation
New low carbon factories
Better farming practices
Adopt indigenous fire management practices
Renovate buildings for efficiency
Ban all single use plastics
Improve recycling capacity
Leeza Wishart
I would like to see all political parties ban donations from mining companies and others contributing to climate change, especially coal and gas. Mining should never be allowed in important fauna and flora habitat or prime agricultural land. I would like to see the Government invest in renewables and ban all future coal and gas projects.
More investment in research and development is critical. CSIRO and our universities need a massive increase in funding to look at ways to combat climate change. Wouldn’t it be great for Australia to be a world leader in renewables and technology to help save our planet. New technology in new and emerging industries could be a game changer for Australia. All we need is a Government with the initiative and drive to make it happen.
Liz Reen
Our Federal Government needs to
- Recognise the need for urgent action
- Support renewable energy for every possible usage including electric vehicles
- Stop subsidising all forms of fossil fuel.
- Stop accepting donations from fossil fuel companies
- Develop and fund transition plans and local authorities to manage them for all the regions currently depending on fossil fuels.
- Start campaigns to move away from usage of gas both domestically and in industry
- Promote the opportunities and support the development of our new export industries such as hydrogen
Lou Carroll
What I, and many people, want from all levels of Government is to stop politicising the subject of climate change and to start acting. Committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2030 is just the start. We need to prioritise rewilding our planet and increasing biodiversity which is what all life on this planet depends on, including ours. Preserving and increasing the tree cover and biodiversity on this planet will go a long way to solving most of the environmental problems we are currently facing. The time for talk is over as we are now at the 11th hour of this crisis. It is now time for action and we the public are eager and willing to get behind this. All we need is the guidance of our elected officials. While we need further and more urgent action from our Government, as individuals we can also do our bit to protect the reef. These include applying reef-safe sunscreen and wearing SPF protective clothing instead of sunscreen when visiting the reef, not littering and being aware of what goes down the drain, as this will end up in our precious waterways.
Louise Faulkner
I want to see the Australian Government take significant and meaningful action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate conversion to renewable energy sources.
Currently there is simply no national policy in this regard. Resistance to this seems based on short-term economic thinking, rather than a commitment to actions to reduce climate change impacts.
Australia has no renewable energy targets and no coal phase-out plan. As electricity generation is about one third of our total current greenhouse gas emissions, we should be planning for, and adopting, renewable energy now.
Madeleine Smith
I’d love to see our government commit to zero net carbon emissions by 2030. I’d like to see more community engagement. I’d like to see all coal and gas power plants transition immediately to renewables. Something close to me at the moment is the need for smart water solutions to accommodate the ever growing urban sprawl in the Northern Rivers.
Melanie Cobham
would like to see policy changes that reflect the urgency of this matter. Quicker actions to go Carbon Neutral, banning or replacing materials that cannot be recycled, improving the recycling system as we have seen other countries do, restricting the consumption of meat, the list is endless. While everyday citizens do a lot, it will not be enough until there is an actual commitment from politicians at the top.
Meredith Schofield
We need real, decisive action on climate in this country not just make-believe targets that do nothing to stop the impeding threat. We need better fire hazard reduction plans, green energy initiatives, higher taxes on polluters, but most of all we need people elected to parliament who are actually going to take fast and immediate action.
Mimmalisa Trifilo
I would like the government to put more policies into place that guarantee protection of our water, air, wildlife, forests, and National Parks. We must ensure that endangered species continue to exist. Everything is interconnected.
Miranda Lawry
Climate Change policies
As a parent, grandparent, educator and world citizen I want our Neo Liberal western politic to be overturned.
The politics of consumerism, growth and profit are destroying our fragile planet. Science and education are our way to a new future and the arts have always and will always offer new vision and possible futures and well as helping to wake peoples senses.
Nichola Clark
Australia being such an extraordinary country is blessed with such diverse and unique natural beauty, species and ecosystems (such as the Great Barrier Reef) unlike anywhere on the planet. It should be leading the world in climate change strategies and policies to protect these natural gifts and our planet.
Nikki McGregor
My hope is that our governments will really listen to the majority voices, especially the young, who want more urgent action to reduce carbon emissions, move our country to clean energy and protect our natural heritage.
Paula Broom
The argument goes that Australia’s emissions are tiny compared to some countries. This ignores the fact that our political masters are planning for a “Big Australia” – ie a population of probably more than 35 million by 2050, whilst per capita we are the second largest greenhouse gas emitters globally!
Bearing this in mind, Australia’s climate policies have been woeful to date. I fear that globally we are too late to act anyway now. That is not to say we can’t or shouldn’t as any mitigation is better than none. Industry and business are now leading the way on this whilst Australian politicians adopt ideological posturing, nonsensical infighting and pandering and capitulating to political donors. Frankly, it’s embarrassing and has left me disillusioned and bereft with solastalgia.
Rachael Willis
My hope at this point is quite simple. Let’s elect people to Parliament that give a toss about the environment, before it is too late for more than just the Alpine Ash.
Samantha Kent
Those who dismiss it make a choice to leave a legacy with resonating impact and very long-term implications for their children and grandchildren for generations to come. It is not too late for every one of us to take individual action on climate change and sustainability in our daily lives. Together we can become our own ‘force of nature’ and work collectively around the world to save ourselves from this climate crisis.
Sandy Scheltema –
I believe our government needs to urgently phase out fossil fuels and commit to renewables. They need to ensure systems are in place to protect our precious ecosystems; our rivers, wetlands, grasslands, oceans and forests. Governments need to support sustainable agriculture and green energy, and conduct land restoration and stop land degradation. They need to think in decades, not just short erm.
Sarah O’Neill
We need the Australian Government to acknowledge the destruction of our climate and act now to prevent further depletion of our precious natural resources.
Everyone can play their part locally to come together for the common good of our planet.
Small changes every day can reduce our footprint, whether it is refusing fast fashion by shopping small & local, to planting native flowering plants for our bees.
We can become the majority and change the narrative by instilling these basic skills in schools and at home with our children.
Selena Quintrell
I want the blinkered, economic-driven stalwarts currently sitting in our government to be able to see past their shares and bank accounts to open their minds to new ideas to save our dying planet. There is so much that can be done by just a change of perspective. Adding just a bit of curiosity, listening to other people’s ideas rather than shutting people down. The silencing of the innovators needs to end.
Silvia Velez
I want EVERYTHING too change in Australia’s climate policies
The current fossil fuels, jobs-and-growth discourse is short sighted, environmentally catastrophic and economically unsustainable. The fossil fuel industry does not generate the most jobs, and most of the profits do not add value to Australia. We need systemic and radical change – all the way from top of government/ business to every industry and individual.
Stella Pretty
I would like to see urgent Government support prioritising communities and lives who have been impacted by natural disasters with immediate on the ground assistance.
Dr Susan Belperio
We need widespread change in the thinking of the each and every Australian, with our governments leading by example and by creative policy making to address the apparently ever-increasing issue of climate change. Of course our country has been subject to cyclical droughts, floods, cyclones and fires. What has changed is the severity of these events. Act now.
Susan Henderson
Change that happens slowly can pass unnoticed and might not be happening at all. We are told the climate is changing due to anthropogenic behaviours, but there are many doubters. The summer of 2019-20 provided dramatic evidence that something is stirring – after 17 years of drought in the preceding two decades, much of eastern Australia was tinder dry – a few lightning strikes and it exploded and burnt with ferocity, only stopping at the sea’s edge. Unprecedented in recorded history and with intensity and scale, vast areas of NSW and Victoria were devastated, the fires raged for months, millions of animals perished, thousands of properties were destroyed, towns devastated, many people died and many more were traumatised.
My submitted personal photo essay is a journey from the unspoilt beauty of flowering wattle in spring, through the lacework of embers from the vast fires in national parks blown far out to sea and brought back by the tide to the ocean beach at Moruya, through the portentous walls of smoke advancing on the town, visiting the evacuation centre, the long self-evacuation trip home, and a record of devastation and the first green shoots of recovery.
Are these changes natural or caused by man, or a bit of both, and what can we do about it? There are many doubters, vested interests are deeply resistant to any adaptation in the way we live and work, our politicians prevaricate lest they show leadership that offends a powerful patron. Opportunities to become a global superpower in “green” energy have been ignored or undermined. The scale, duration and intensity of the fires of Christmas 2019-20, and the unprecedented devastation caused by similar conflagrations in southern Europe and the west of North America should not be ignored. There are many individual changes we can make to live more gently with nature, but it will take far more strategic actions to stabilise the natural and human drivers of climate change.
To view the devastation of the Black Summer bushfires is a sharp insight into what climate change will do to many parts of Australia and other vulnerable countries and fragile ecologies. It is well past time to wake up because there will be no jobs or economic good news coming from the Earth that awaits future generations if we ignore the changes happening now.
Virginia Star
Our world is in crisis and the future of the planet we leave for our children and grandchildren wholly depends on what we choose to do or not do today.
Make the right choice. Now.
Virginia Walsh
We need governments, Federal, State and Territory, to step up and acknowledge the impact of climate change and provide leadership and policies that will work to limit global temperature increases.
