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Climate Action Now Rally Melbourne 12th March

This morning I attended the Climate Action Now rally to support a pollution tax [1]. The event was well attended, my personal estimate of the number of people there was there there was definitely more than 3,000 people, and maybe as many as 8,000 or more.

I spoke to an employee of the APS who was on guard duty, he described the event as “big” and said that they don’t usually have events that are so well attended. He gave a personal estimate of 5,000 people. While he wasn’t speaking on behalf of the APS he was presumably more skillful at making such estimations than most people. I expect that he also gave a conservative estimate, so it could have been a lot more than that.

There were some people using comedy to make political points. Below is a picture of the carbon monster, what you can’t see is the man who was handing out coal BBQ fuel for people to feed the monster, children appeared to enjoy that! Also there were three people dressed as Gollum representing the Liberal party (the Australian conservative party), I was unable to get all three in one picture.

Carbon monster with sign saying feed me carbonTwo people dressed as Gollum with Liberal Party badges advocating that we die tax-free and that the Liberal party is for famine, fire, and flood

Some vegans had a banner supporting the VeganEasy.org site [2]. Being vegetarian can make a significant impact on human environmental impact including on the amount of electricity used (from coal or other sources).

Vegans waving a banner for VeganEasy.org

Here are pictures taken looking East over the main part of the rally, looking North towards the building at 3 Treasury place from the other side of the road, looking South over the lawns where people who didn’t like being crowded gathered, and looking West over part of the main crowd. The picture looking South shows another view of the Carbon Monster and his accomplice with a sign “haven’t you had enough dear?“.

Looking East over the main rallyLooking North towards the building across Treasury PlaceLooking south over the lawnLooking west over the crowd

When I first arrived there were two main sections to the rally. They weren’t discrete (there was no empty space between them) but they acted separately because there was no PA system that could make enough noise to be heard in both sections. At one stage the West section was chanting while there were speeches in the East section. Below is a picture looking out over the West section as people had just turned to go home. This area was entirely packed when I first arrived.

The rally was really a family event. There were some grey-haired people wearing t-shirts explaining that they wanted to create a better world for their grand-children and there were also some young children. At the end of the event some children used cardboard signs as toboggans to slide down a steep grassy bank near the main rally area – recycling!!! I deliberately chose my photos to try and avoid including children, but even so you can see a few in the background of some of them.

6 comments to Climate Action Now Rally Melbourne 12th March

  • Maree McKeown

    Great photos and commentary. I was there with my two young daughters. Wonderful atmosphere with happy people everywhere. As we were leaving there were still more people arriving – fantastic turnout. Revived my hope in fellow Australians doing the right thing despite the sinister rhetoric from some of our so-called leaders!

  • etbe

    Maree: I’m glad you liked my pictures and I’m glad you had fun at the event with your daughters. Maybe people who attend such events in future could bring some frisbees and balls for kids to play with, it seemed like a good opportunity for kids to have fun.

    Michael: I’m sure that most people on the Internet don’t know who you are referring to. I recommend writing some blog posts about this, if you do so then send me the URLs.

  • Mordd

    I hope you have banned him (michael), he is obviously so set in his agenda he isn’t interested in debating facts, and frankly the fact that you tried to debate him for so long makes a bit of a mockery of your claim that, to use your own words etbe, “I aim for a higher quality in my blog comments than shock-jock radio.”, if this is the case then why did you let his comments go on for so long without any factual basis or referencing of anything he claimed?

    Respectfully, Mordd

  • etbe

    Mordd: I find it difficult to stop such arguments. Sometimes I go back to old blog posts and delete the comments, both mine and the person I was responding to.

  • Mordd

    I just saw Mike’s ridiculous and obviously fantasy filled reply by email, I see you haven’t approved it for posting here which is probably just as well.

    I have no idea how he thinks people got his email from here to supposedly spam him but there is nothing here that identifies him in any way that would allow someone even determined to find this out. As far as I can tell he really is living in a fantasy world and as soon as someone else (me) challenged his comments on this thread he goes all paranoid fantasy land and makes claims about being spammed based on commenting his point of view here.

    Mike if you have this much diffuculty debating on the internet when someone doesn’t agree with you, I think you need to consider not doing it at all, or seeking some help from a psychiatrist who can help you to control these paranoid delusions that people are tracking you down to spam your email based on a differing point of view on a blog which no offense to etbe is proably not even that widely read in the first place. Seriously Mike grow up, sheesh.

  • etbe

    Mike has complained to the ISP that hosts my blog about my reference to his email discussion with Melissa. So I have unapproved all the comments in question as mentioned in the comment which is now #4.

    I will write a blog post about Right Wing people and respect in the near future. The fact that they tend to demand respect without showing any respect to others will be mentioned.