About
We all know that Victoria is at grave risk from the global recession. We believe that the deeper problem of climate change is also bearing down on us and we need to deal with both these crises together, rather than putting off a response to global warming until after the recession is dealt with.
This blog is an introduction to our paper, A Green New Deal for Victoria. It is a first attempt to articulate how we think Victoria can and should respond to the coming crisis of the recession, climate change and peak oil. We have done this as a blog to invite your feedback and involvement in developing this document.
We know there is a huge amount of excellent thinking in the community about how to deal with these issues, and this is an attempt at collaborative, community-based approaches to developing solutions.
It has been developed by Friends of the Earth Melbourne, a community-based activist organisation based in Collingwood and active around the state. We are the local member of Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia, and part of a global network which is operating in 77 countries. Collectively we are the largest grassroots environmental network on the planet.
Lightwood tree
The annual list of the world’s most livable cities was published this week, a list that Melbourne regularly topped. Now it languishes at 18th place, even falling behind Sydney! One of the reasons for this, and the rise of numerous European cities into the top 10, must be the issue of public transport versus car usage.
While we can always blame governments at any level for not putting in the right infrastructure, the population also has itself to blame on this score. Why, when there is a cheap, reasonably efficient system, don’t people use it?
So many of the problems we are now encountering are down to a refusal to change behaviour. People talk about reducing energy usage, yet few are prepared to make any sacrifices.
The power to solve our problems doesn’t just sit with the politicians and corporations. It is within ourselves.
Grafics should include a picture of an overcrowded city of 20 m peple, and a megaslum. (I hav some)
The main reasons for Melbourne’s fall are overpopulating for local conditions – public transport is too little, water getting shorter, losing its special features of gardens, shoddy rebuilding, destroying heritage, lack of innovation in city shops’ merchandise . . on and on