The Year That Was

Climate Reality 2012

This year we have watched our athletes compete in the Olympics, Queen Elizabeth had her Diamond Jubilee, NASA landed a mobile space lab on Mars, Australia put a price on carbon and the biggest power outage in history left 620 million Indian residents in darkness. The first ever bionic eye transplant happened and a human broke the sound barrier diving out or a helium balloon.

Much of the big news on a global level has been echoed by the herculean efforts made by our more than 300 Climate Leaders across the Asia Pacific region, as they delivered more than 3,000 activities in the year that was 2012.
This year The Climate Reality Project welcomed 28 new Climate Leaders who travelled from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam to be trained by Mr Gore in California. Climate Leaders maintained their resolve to be the voice of reason on climate change in their communities in the face of devastating floods in Australia, the Philippines and Pakistan. Wild storms and heat in the US served as stark illustration of the resilience needed to carry out the challenge of delivering the presentation we all know so well.

And in the face of ever present scepticism. In Geelong, at a well-attended public event, Climate Leader Damian Paull was able to speak reason to an invited and well known climate sceptic who attended his scheduled Climate Reality presentation at the local TAFE.
This year, the most visible outcome of the combined efforts by Climate Leaders was the delivery of the carbon price for Australia. At this milestone, former US vice president Al Gore was able to personally congratulate the quorum of Climate Leaders who attended a catch up with him at Sydneys iconic Bondi Beach. By September, the first permits had been issued to Australias top polluters. Climate Leaders in Pakistan made the most of the opportunity which arose with the appointment of a new Climate Change Ministry and set up a What you Want survey. The Pakistani Climate Leader community gathered the publics views on climate change and summarized them in a letter to the Federal Minister for Climate Change. Since then the Ministry has since launched the first ever climate change adaptation plan.

We welcomed the arrival of baby Zoe, born to Victorian based Climate Leader Prue Robinson.
The year brought with it many firm reminders of the compelling science behind the ongoing challenge of the climate crisis. Experts at Australias CSIRO released State of the Climate 2012, which set out the statistical evidence that each decade in Australia has been warmer than the previous decade since the 1950s, and that this was consistent with warming trends globally.

Soon after, our Climate Leaders had a chance to ask their questions directly to friend of the Climate Reality Project and world renowned climate scientist Professor David Karoly, who conducted an exclusive and personalised phone link to Climate Leaders in the region.
2012 was The Year Of The Farmer. Regional Climate Leader veteran Rebecca Phyland concluded her presentation to deafening silence after presenting to an audience of dairy farmers. Her response was to remind the audience to first breathe, then do something to act on climate change.
Filipino stalwart and veteran of many presentations Rodne Galicha set himself a new challenge of presenting with no electricity. Without a microphone, or a projector, but with nature as a backdrop and the sun substituting for a power point presentation his audience of more than 200 students watched captivated and in silence.

Across Australia, Lee Stewart featured on the front page of the Money Section of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald - pictured with his young family explaining how energy efficiency is easy to do and saves any household money.
And soon after, Australias Renewable Energy Target (RET) review kicked off, amidst negative calls for the target to be abandoned. By October it was announced that the RET was safe. And many Climate Leaders had participated in the Peoples RET review, as a method of strengthening the important outcome.
Throughout the year, Climate Leaders met to participate in skill sharing workshops to develop and share strategies on communicating and campaigning for a clean energy in Australia. In Melbourne, a Climate Reality workshop facilitated the introduction of the Common Cause approach in Australia. People representing the environment, development, psychology, marketing, fundraising, government, research and travel sectors found ways to work towards a common purpose. Meanwhile Climate Leaders Andy Best, Linh Do and Gary Warden told their stories to an audience of more than nine million listeners via a broadcast feed to a network of 276 community radio stations throughout Australia.

Indigenous Climate Leader Jocelyn Uibo spoke with Deadly Vibe Magazine about why she does this work to give presentations on Country to those who rely on traditional lands, who are noticing the effects of climate change.

In his first ever Climate Reality presentation newly trained Bangladeshi Climate Leader Dr Bidhan Chandra Das presented to an audience of 200 government officials, teachers, administrators, intellectuals, cultural workers and students.
In Sumatra, Climate Leader Azizah Nasution worked with her friends to play and learn together and talk about climate change to a posse of 200 children on Samosir Island. While in Australia, Climate Leaders Simon Bradshaw, Sue Martin and Keryn Hassall delivered a weeks worth of presentations during a Sydney schools Science Week.

By now, Mr Gore was in New Zealand, where four Kiwi Climate Leaders attended his Leadership in a Changing World event in Auckland. The event was hot on the heels of the news that South Korea would double its 2013 emission reduction targets in the lead-up to adopting a 2015 cap-and-trade scheme.
Shiela Castillo-Tiangco was described as unstoppable and amazing after delivering a series of Climate Reality presentations to an organisation called MISSION, based in the Philippines. Almost 3,000 students, businessmen and professionals, church workers and indigenous youth attended the series of seven presentations.

November has just gone. And we were all watching an important part of the reprise of the 24 Hours of Reality, an updated version of the global event which first happened in 2011 on the eve of passing of legislation, which lead to Australias carbon price.
Climate Leaders in Australia, Pakistan and South Korea participated in panel discussion throughout the 24 Hour event, which, with the help of Mr Gore and Australian Conservation Foundations Don Henry, successfully highlighted, to a global audience, how climate change and extreme weather events are inextricably linked.
As 2012 draws to a close what next? The word is that Climate Leaders should get ready for a major training in Australia, and a year of extending our ties with the Asia-Pacific region. If this year was anything to go by, anything could, and probably will happen.