Run for a Safe Climate Passes Through Byron Bay
Some of the runners arriving at the Beach Hotel in Byron after the relay leg from Brisbane.
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Today at around 5pm The Run for a Safe Climate reached Byron bay. About 20
or so runners arrived at the Beach Hotel and were welcomed by Byron Shire
Mayor Jan Barham.
Jan congratulated Brendan Condon (CEO of Safe Climate Australia) and
crew to Byron and noted that they, the 'Fireies' and the police
were at 'The Coal face' of climate change, especially in
Victoria where this year looks like it will be a worse bush fire season
than last year.
Run for a safe climate aims to highlight the impacts and solutions to global warming in a way that captures the hearts and minds of all Australians.
The runners are mostly Fire fighters and special duty police who were involved in the recent disastrous bushfires in Victoria. They plan to run 6000Km from Cooktown to Melbourne. They have already covered 2000Km from Cooktown and run approximately 400Km a day in relay, a real marathon effort.
The run started in Cooktown on the 2nd of November and will finish in Melbourne on the 29th of November. The route goes down the Queensland Coast to Brisbane, then through NSW, including Byron Bay, Lismore, Sydney then inland through the Snowy Mountains, and on to through The Murray Darling Basin to Adelaide then back via Mildura to Melbourne.
I spoke to Brendan Condon the CEO of Safe Climate Australia who stressed the urgency of taking climate action and reducing CO2 emissions, so the CO2 level in the atmosphere can be restored to less than 400ppm. He stressed that they are seeing this as a safety/emergency issue. Brendan seemed a bit uneasy about referring to climate change as a Green issue, maybe because calling it a safety issue is a more dramatic way of getting the message home.
Local Greens turned out to meet the runners however not many locals were there, except for the hundreds of tourists in the Hotel. I must admit that I only heard of this event through the Greens network. I am sure if the event had been more effectively publicised in the local media many more would have turned up. (Ed)
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