Yankalilla Regional News - September 2011 - Normanville Central

y name is Elise Lavers, and I am
M a Yankalilla local working at
Jetty Food Store and Studying a
Bachelor of Health Sciences/ Bachelor
of Secondary Education at Flinders
University.
I grew up in Jamestown; a typical
farming community in the Southern
Flinders Ranges. The whole town is in
existence thanks to the fertile soils,
open plains and reliable rainfall that
make conditions perfect for the mixed
farming of cereal crops and livestock.
Some of my fondest memories of
growing up are of days spent yabbying
in friends’ dams, bike riding the maple
trail in Bundaleer forest, and counting
lambs tails for pocket money at the end
of a long days’ tailing and drenching
(for $1 per hundred tails; big business!).
Jamestown was first recognised as
arable farming land by South
Australia’s surveyor-general, George
W. Goyder. In 1865, Goyder plotted a
line across South which separated the
land that received more than 10inches
of annual rainfall from the land that
didn’t. As Jamestown has always been
South of Goyder’s line, where rainfall
is sufficient for successful crops, when
I first heard that climate change was
threatening to shift the line south of
Jamestown towards Clare……..I was
shocked. For the first time, I was no
longer seeing climate change as just
another issue for developing nations
that I couldn’t do much about, but as a
real issue that could potentially end
farming shut down my hometown. As I
tried to express my concerns to friends,
my words were often dismissed with a
casual laugh and: “ah Lavers, you’re
such a greenie!”. I felt alone in caring,
so being a young teenager, I decided
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Yankalilla Regional News - September 2011 - Page 30
Climate Change
there was nothing I could do and it
slipped away from the front of my
mind.
After obtaining a scholarship to board
at Walford School in 2007, I decided to
join the school’s environmental
committee. We ran cake stalls,
sponsored an orangutan, painted
banners, and started battery, fluorescent
light bulb and newspaper recycling
programs at our school. It wasn’t much,
but it was enough to give me my selfish
fix of warm-fuzzies by “doing my little
bit”.
It wasn’t until this year, my first year of
university study, that I realised it was
no longer enough to just “do my little
bit”. I joined the Flinders
Environmental Action Group (FEAG)
and the Flinders Action Group for the
Australian Youth Climate Coalition
(FLAG), run by Yankalilla local, Isaac
Astill. While only in its beginnings,
FLAG has already run two successful
sign up events, where we spoke with
many fellow students and lecturers
about the benefits of a price on
pollution. We also collected hundreds
of signatures, which we took to a
personal meeting with Federal Labor
MP Anne McEwan to show the youth
support behind a strong carbon tax with
direct investment in renewable
energies. However, despite our work,
there still seems to be a lack of urgency
amongst the population for taking
action on climate change.
I was recently selected by the
Australian Youth Climate Coalition as a
field co-ordinator for the up-coming
Powershift in Brisbane. Powershift is a
youth climate conference/festival,
which will run from the 15th-17th of
October. The program has not yet been
confirmed, though it will consist of
workshops and talks from influential
speakers, before a mass public action at
the conclusion of the conference. In
Sydney’s 2009 Powershift, Al Gore
was one of the key speakers via videolink,
and the public action was a large
flash mob dance with thousands of
youth volunteers on the steps of the
Sydney Opera House, which gained
substantial media attention (with over
134,000 youtube views on one of the
clips alone!).
From what I have seen and heard,
Powershift conferences have the ability
to educate, connect, and inspire young
people to take further action on climate
change within their communities. As a
field co-ordinator, it is my role to
ensure that as many people as possible
are given the opportunity to attend this
year’s Brisbane conference. The
conference is open to anyone under 30.
The early-bird tickets for the three day
conference are $65, and if you require
further financial assistance for travel, I
can help you seek sponsorship. You
don’t have to be a “greenie”. You don’t
have to be a political activist. You don’t
have to be a student. We just want
people who are willing to join us and
become inspired!
The voice of concerned youth is not
being sufficiently represented, so it is
we, the youth, who need to speak up
now to re-shape the debate. It is us who
will have to deal with the consequences
of inaction, so I am making it my
mission to help other young people
move from apathy to taking action on
climate change. I believe that
Powershift is an event that has the
ability to achieve this. If you would like
to get some more information on
Powershift or the Australian Youth
Climate Coalition, feel free to e-mail
me.
Will YOU come to Powershift with
me?
Please do not hesitate to contact me
with any questions you may have.
lave0058@flinders.edu.au.
http://www.powershift.org.au
http://aycc.org.au