Blog 2: September 8 Lauren Epperson Renewable Energy Social Movement

Australian Senator Milne is urging the Australian environmentally friendly organizations to get involved in the political debate what should be done about climate change. On Monday through Wednesday an EcoGen conference was held in Brisbane to discuss how to create clean renewable energy for the future (http://www.ecogen2011.com/index.php). The reason something has not been done at this point is because environmental groups have faced opposition from the Coalition Party. The Coalition Party of Australia is a party that believes that government should not have inference in citizen’s lives and relies heavily on the use of incentives (Abbot). Senator Milne believes that the industry has been scared to speak out about climate change because the fear of losing funding and that the Coalition Party is trying to stop the government in investing in industries that use environmentally friendly projects. The Shadow Environment Minister was at the EcoGen conference and supported the efforts of the Coalition Party. The Minister believes that Australia economy could not handle climate change policies like the United States or Chinese’s because they do not have the same resources. On top of this, a five percent decrease in Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2020 would not be helpful if China was continually increasing its Greenhouse Gas Emission that the rate it was going now.

The issue of climate change is being debated worldwide. This is an environmental problem that affects everyone and needs to be involved in the solving. The Shadow Environment Minister was correct in saying that it would not matter the changes that Australia if other countries were not making the same effort. What Senator Milne was suggesting was following the latest global social movement, to create greener forms of energy for industries to use. One of the videos for Module One we watched was about “How to Start a Social Movement”. In the video it describes the steps needed to start a social movement. It all starts with a leader being brave and putting themselves out in the open for everyone else to see. The United States was the leader of this social movement by first making changes in different industries to promote green energy. The next step is to get one follower and show them how easy follow. China was the next country to get on board and try to implement changes to promote the social movement. Now, Australia is looking at all of the changes that the United States and China have made to try to solve the problem of climate change. Senator Milne is trying to convince the Australian Government to join the global social movement. Hopefully, if she is successful more countries will join and this social movement will be very successful.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/renewables-should-get-political-greens-20110906-1jvr5.html

Abbot, Tony. "The Party - Liberal Party of Australia." Home - Liberal Party of Australia. The Liberal Party of Australia. Web. 08 Sept. 2011. .