I was living in California and gave birth to my twins the week Al Gore became Democratic nominee for the 2000 Presidential election. He lost. Bush Jr won, narrowly, in one of the most controversial elections in US history.In 2006, I read An Inconvenient Truth – and frankly it was inconvenient, I was busy building a life and raising a young family. Years living surrounded by the Redwood Forests of Northern California had already influenced my eating habits and consumer behaviour so I guess I thought I was doing good in my own way. Fast forward 13 years later and I found myself at Climate Reality Leadership Corps in Brisbane - a long way from Northern California. Listening to Al Gore speak, I did find myself wondering on several occasions through his two and a half hour opening presentation how different the world may be if he had become the 45th President of the United States?
It has taken me some time to digest the experience of Climate Reality Leadership Corps conference and to be completely honest I found it overwhelming. To be part of the 800 strong delegation, you had to submit a lengthy application. Delegates were chosen to attend the free training (from some 5000 applicants) with the expectation that they will take their learnings from the event and move forward in our communities, sharing the information and influencing action on climate change in our own ways. For my part, I was particularly impressed by how much of the information focused on our human connections; we heard stories from Torres Strait Islanders that were deeply moving as they talked about their challenges in the face of climate change; we were given hope from leaders driving policy change and a move toward renewables.
We spent three days working with Gore and world-renowned scientists and communicators learning about the climate crisis and how together we can solve it – or at the very least, make a positive contribution. At the conclusion, the commitment of the corps is that we agree to perform 10 “Acts of Leadership’ over the next 12 months. These Acts of Leadership might include giving presentations, writing a blog (like this one), writing a letter to the editor, organising a climate action campaign, or meeting with local leaders.
This is a growing global movement. Across our planet people are now recognising the scale of the danger a heating planet presents to humanity. In Australia, following the lead of the ACT, the Sydney City Council became the latest local government to speak the truth and declare a climate emergency. Around the world, climate emergency declarations in 740 jurisdictions and local governments cover 136 million people. Scotland was the first country to declare. These local and territory governments are being straight and honest with their residents about the urgency and scale of the climate reality and have declared a willingness to act.
It’s a long and winding road ahead, but it is becoming clear that many local governments and communities are stepping up and taking the lead on the climate conversation and turning those conversations into action. In turn, it is the role of everyone to use the power they have to put pressure on state and federal governments and big business increases as denial is no longer an option. We have to act.I was asked at the summit why I stepped into the Leadership Corps and joined the Climate Reality movement? The answer is one of my favourite quotes, “leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another”.