Sunday just past, I had the pleasure of being invited to an under-the-radar shindig hosted by the Climate Reality Project. It was an amazing opportunity to be present.
The highlight, besides catching up with other Climate Reality Leaders, was that Al Gore presented for just over an hour to the 150 gathered invitees.
Mr Al Gore presenting
Now besides being the inspiration for my green epiphany via his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, the man is a fantastic orator and motivator. He gave us a message of hope regarding action on climate change.
The last time I had the opportunity to see him was at the Climate Reality Leadership training that I attended in June 2014. His message has changed little since then.
It is one of hope and action against climate change of a global nature that will help us overcome this time of climate crisis. The climate science only gets stronger year after year.
Anyway, he spent the hour telling us that change is happening for the better as individuals, businesses, and governments begin to kick lowering their greenhouse gas emissions into high gear.
Lets just say that the Afternoon with Al Gore relit the fire in my belly and gave me renewed hope that we will solve this crisis before it becomes too late.
I did manage to record the audio of the session so that I could bring you a special podcast episode, however I am still waiting permission to release it.
However, I will share this amazing quote with you that Mr Gore spoke of. It was a quote by Rudiger Dornbusch, and economist, who said,
Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.
Mr Gore continued to say that he believes we are now in the momentum phase of action on climate change the began with the historic agreement between China and the United States which will lead to an agreement at Paris and subsequent continued actions afterwards. Time will tell, but I do believe he is right.
Examples he gave that momentum is building is with the use of solar, wind, and battery storage, energy efficiency, sustainability, agriculture, in every part of our lives. It is going to happen. We can see it happening.
Just think of this. 1 in 7 Australian homes now have rooftop solar, and in some suburbs 1 in 2 have it installed. Thinking back to when I first got my PV system installed in September 2007, I never thought I would see the day that it was so prevalent in our town. But as history shows, it is now the homes that don’t have solar PV that now stick out and are becoming the minority.
It is people like you and me that are moving the needle with our daily actions by demanding that products we purchase are green, and the energy we consume is renewable, and the food we eat is organically grown or grown in our very own backyards.
People like you and me are making a big difference. Lets keep the momentum going, each and every day by living a little more sustainably and taking action with every dollar we spend on the good, and avoid spending it on the bad like our planet depended on it.
In fact our global civilisation does depend upon it! Keep going. Don’t stop now, as the momentum of change is happening.
Hear, hear!
Way to go Gav!
It was amazing Sarhn!