The local paper isn’t usually the place one expects riveting news but I was this week it was. The local government, Shire of Yarra Ranges, has decided it is sick of waiting for the state and federal governments to stop placating the Bush regime (our government appears to have an almost ridiculous need to agree almost carte blanche with current Bush-regime US policy) and sign up to the Kyoto protocol. Shamefully, Australia is the only other western country other than the US to consider itself too special to implement the same planet saving strategies as the 160 countries globally which have enough conscience to do so.

The Yarra Ranges isn’t a big place. It’s a hills district full of little villages. So when it comes to the cop out justification that Australia’s population is too small to make a global difference in signing up to the protocol (Australians have the highest energy use per capita in the world), clearly the Yarra Ranges is even smaller! But the Yarra Ranges Shire Council is putting their brave hands in their small village purses and contributing almost $800,000 in their first year of a new move to support implementation of the Kyoto protocol locally. This includes alternative transport options such as a bicycle trail, incentives for car pooling and increased use of public transport as well as a program to covert council vehicles to cold fuel technology and develop an inventory of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions in forming a comprehensive plan to reduce them in the shire.

Congratulations to the little guy. Now lets see if they live up to their promises when the ratepayers decide they’d rather look the other way than contribute to solving the problems of human contributions to climate change.

Donna Williams

http://www.donnawilliams.net