Sydney Climate Change Demo

Sonnet 7: Demo

Ten thousand had, today in Sydney,
enough sense to stand in the rain
and twirl umbrellas, not stay hid. We
rallied, one link in a chain
of rallies all around Australia
crying out against the failure
of governments who play the role
of sycophants to Old King Coal.
Ten thousand stood with rain god Hughie,
sixty thousand nationwide
who’ll vote, divest, protest, decide
to use renewables, get more cluey.
There’s climate change, heat’s on the rise.
It’s time to change, to organise.

[Courtesy Jonathon Shaw]

Fire Fighters at the Rallies

Organisers say about 60,000 people participated in Sunday's mass rallies, at which emergency workers played a significant role in warning about the dangers of unchecked global warming.

In Brisbane, where an estimated 4000 people came together, firefighter Dean McNulty spoke of the huge concern climate change posed to his colleagues, who battle natural disasters from the front line.

Mr McNulty said scientists were clear that global warming would make extreme weather events more frequent and severe.
"To firefighters, it is not just numbers and statistics, it is very real," the United Firefighters Union (UFU) representative told AAP.

Before 30,000 people in Melbourne, Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt evoked the memory of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, while firefighters spoke of their fears of increasingly hotter days.
"There is no sceptic at the end of a fire hose," UFU secretary Peter Marshall told the Melbourne rally.