A little while back I organised a benefit concert for Friends of the Earth raising funds for the Climate Justice Tour. Well – the day has arrived! I received this from Stephanie today:
[The Climate Justice] tour will start on 24th April in Melbourne and travel through capital cities in Eastern Australia. It hopes to show how people are going to be affected by climate change; specifically peoples of the Pacific Islands given the severity of impacts predicted for this region, and the comparatively minor greenhouse gas emissions from these communities. The tour aims to bring the experience of living with climate change into the public debate on climate change in Australia, as well as highlighting the impacts of the oil industry of communities in the global South.
Our key speakers include:
- Fiu Mataese Elisara- Laulu (Fiu) , community advocate from Samoa as the director of O Le Siosiomaga Society, and president of Samoa Umbrella of NGOs (SUNGO) and Pacific Concerns Resource Centre.
- Siuila Toloa, a school teacher and the secretary of Island Care, a Tuvaluan environmental NGO. Siuila has been actively involved in Tuvalu community life for several years and one of the founding members of the Tuvalu Association of Non Government Organisations (TANGO).
- Nnimmo Bassey, oil and human rights activist from Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria
This is great news – and the culmination of a tonne of hard work by Steph and co. The tour is moving through Sydney at three venues on the 3rd and 4th of May. Details at the Climate Justice Tour page.