Vote Climate Neighbours – Glen Iris
Why I’m voting climate – Jackie Yowell
I’m terribly concerned for future generations. I don’t want to leave a legacy of destruction of the environment to the next generation. I think this generation must be responsible for its legacy, and step up to fix the problems we have caused.
What are your main concerns?
I am very worried for future generations because they’re going to have the legacy not only of the consequences of climate change, and how to deal with these, but also of further global issues – some of which are already emerging. It’s the world these young people around the globe are going to have to live and work and have families in.
We have one son who hasn’t given us any grandchildren yet, but we’re crossing our fingers for his future and perhaps their futures too.
It takes all of us to make the changes necessary to maintain a habitable planet, and it takes responsible government to manage such change.
Tell us some more about why you are voting for the climate?
Climate impacts are happening right now as we have seen with the floods and fires and cyclones and inundation in Bangladesh and in the island states around us. It’s just wicked to leave that to the next generation to fix. So, we’ve got to be responsible.
We may not have known we were causing the problem, but we know now, so we can no longer kick the problems down the road.
Surely, the best remedy for carbon emissions is not producing and using fossil fuels in the first place. So it’s crucial we use energy efficiently in our homes, businesses and transport, thus reducing demand for these polluting fuels and making renewables comparatively even cheaper.
What can we do to help?
“I feel very deeply that we must attend to the problem now and not have them say: How could they cause that and not fix it?”
How can we depart this planet thinking that’s what the next generation will say? That’s why Guterres’ quote about ‘sleep-walking into a catastrophe’ has resonated so strongly with me.
And yet the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports show how slow progress has been. I realised that if we are to get our Australian political leaders to act more decisively, there must be a groundswell of motivation. We all need to work on both ‘the big picture’ and at the local level too. I’ve recently joined two local organisations where I’m meeting committed people and working collaboratively with them.
With Australia’s great advantages of generous sun and wind, we could, as energy guru Saul Griffiths urges, electrify everything and no longer be subject to global fossil fuel prices.
The solar panels on our roof have already served our family well for a decade, but until recently, our home had a gas heater and gas cooker. We made the Big Switch, and we’re now cosily saving costs, and I’ve learned to love the induction cooker. We would have bought an EV after the 2019 hail-storm wrecked our car, but that is still so costly and impracticable here in Australia.
Read more about Jackie Yowell’s journey on our local climate action pages here.