Making a change to our climate

Western Advocate
Thursday 15/5/2008 Page: 8

HELLO, and welcome to my first column as the publicity officer for Bathurst Community Climate Action Network. Some of you may remember my previous columns on the arts. As an arts lover I certainly haven't changed hats - I've just added another on top of my existing one! To me, both the arts and the environment are intimately connected to our sense of wellbeing. If the arts and the environment are diminished, then we are also diminished.

A recent paper by Dr Grant Blashki of the University of Melbourne argues that climate change is now beginning to affect people's mental health. Leaving aside all arguments about the science of global warming (is it really happening? if it is, have humans caused it?), the fact that we are now bombarded by information about the possibility of catastrophe is depressing even for those with the most cheerful dispositions.

For those with a tendency to gloom, global warming is becoming just another reason not get out of bed. For me, in moments of gloom, I feel very sad about what I've been reading about birds. According to a study by Swedish ornithologist Anders Hedenstrom from the Lund University, changes in global temperature could disrupt annual migration patterns because birds miss their environmental "cues."

An Australian study by PhD students at Macquarie University has confirmed that our own migratory birds are starting to arrive earlier and leave later. Some birds will cope, or even flourish, in changed circumstances, while others will certainly go under. The antidote to gloom? As members of Bathurst Community Climate Action Network have found, it helps to take action, no matter how small. So far this year BCCAN has held two very successful public meetings, one about Cadia gold mine's feelers to take Bathurst's effluent for its mining operations (the feelers went back in, quick smart) and the other about a proposal to create a local wind farm.

Like most BCCAN members, I have no scientific training, only a sincere desire to do what I can about this extraordinary global challenge. Ultimately it is community action and pressure, locally and globally, that will cause the changes we need. If you're interested in BCCAN's activities, go to http://bccan.org.au or write to BCCAN, PO Box 1339, Bathurst, 2795.

*Tracy Sorensen is the publicity officer for Bathurst Community Climate Action Network