Shepparton Statement

The number one thing that us has individuals can do to help climate change, is to be informed.

I believe the younger generations are being taught only the definition of climate change and not actually the meaning, impact or actions that it actually entails.

Myself being a 24 year old, I have heard other individuals recongise that climate change is caused by extra heat in the climate system due to the additional of greenhouse gages to the atospmhere, but not all believed that the additonal greenhouse gases are primarly input by human activities.

Australia is defaintly being held back by the self interest of only a few politions and only a small network of highly influentcial compaines that are prepared to sacrifice individuals health and well being for their own short term economic gain.

Climate & Health Alliance president, Peter Sainsbury has stated that in the next 10 to 100 years it will be rising which means we will be expecting more severe increased global warming, severe and frequent extreme weather events, more land and marine enviromental destruction, more human injurties, ill health and premature death.

I believe people are not aware on how easy, how little but how far the below sugestions can impact climate change in the slightest way:

Car pool — instead of each member of friendship group, family members or partners driving to the same place in their own cars, designate someone to pick you up on the way or vise verser.

Electricity — Turn off all powerpoints and lights when not in use, replace regular light bulbs with fluroescent bulbs, take shorter showers and dry your clothes outside rather than using a dryer

Food — use resusable bags for every trip to the supermarket and try and buy local and seasonsal produce as it saves energy in transport and storage

Recycle — Placing all recyclable rubbish in the correct bin and hamy-down your clothes so someone else will find love with your items

Household — when purchasing new appliances, make sure you are looking at the energy star rating label and look into solar panels

If these above points are more visable and communicated within workplaces, schools and the community than each individual will be able to make their own contribution to the change of climate change while we wait for a large scale change.

A suggestion may be turning it into a prize winning program of some sort, one for business’s, one for schools. I believe sadly, individuals these days will do what they can when it someone benefits them aka getting resigntion with a prize of some sort. A prize is a small price to pay when all the ‘teams’ will be cleaning up without even realising.

Shepparton needs to realise we’re in a climate crisis. While the federal government isn’t acting or making the immediate changes necessary to reverse the damage done to our environment, we can change this at a local level.

We need to educate children so they are fully aware of the consequences their actions have on the environment. We need to show children how to recycle, how to make compost. How to reduce single use plastics at school and at home. We need to teach them about the consequences of factory farming and the horrendous impact this has on animals and the environment.

The level of rubbish in streets and parks across Shepparton is disgusting. Especially considering how close this town is to lakes and rivers. I personally think, a clean up Australia Day should be organised for Shepparton and surrounding towns. We need to make incentives for businesses to reduce their rubbish, and increase their use of recycled materials.

Please realise how many people want a better future for our children. Thank you for reading.

They say the journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single step. What better way to save the world than to start locally here in Shepparton?

Going carbon-free or taking the necessary first steps towards progression of a better environment could act as the catalyst and inspire neighboring areas to take action, and so on, like a domino effect.

Some ways in which I believe we can achieve this is putting more money towards renewable energy, making it more affordable or free installations of solar panels and development of renewable energy.

We must also must give farmers the support they need and deserve, they’re having enough trouble trying to grow crops or raise animals, not to mention the water crisis, mortgage rates, milk prices etc. Give the farmers the support they deserve and we have more people on board that can work together for more environmentally friendly farming.

We have to also create the market for more environmentally friendly products like electric cars, learn from the countries that are more environmentally friendly and model them. This may result in huge costs and mass amounts of change, two of the most fearful factors people face, but if we don’t change now there will be no food, or an economy, or life as we know it.

MAKE SHEPPARTON CARBON-FREE and let’s save this planet of ours.

I think for a start we should really be using the city's money on things that better our land that we live, not over budgeting on a building that didn't work at the last location and probably won't work at the next.

It is very depressing that our Reef will soon be no more because of the Adani coal minibg, because we have alot of it we can make money from it. But what happens when we run out? What will be the next money maker?

We need to keep our natural resources where they belong in the earth. Our country will never be the same we used to be free but now we are owned by China and other parts of the world, our farmers can't get what they need to grow crops and supply us with the basic food we need to survive and this is not ok, our meet and produce will be coming from over seas.

I can appreciate that we can't live without our technology in today but why can't we use safer energy sources to power them? Money. Thats why, all people care about is money, that's the way it's always been, if it wasn't money it was posessions.

Our parents made a big mess of our world today because they didn't know. They didn't know the back lash it would cause, but now that they know what do they do? Nothing. Because it's not there responsibility once there dead it's ours. They got to live with all the beauty of the earth while we get the ash.

Greed is what powers our world so we need to use it and be greedy ourselves and take what our parents had so the great barrier Reef isn't just a memory and our children don't have the back lash from us.

It's time for change and where the only ones who can do it.

My name is Liaqat and I am student. I am youth leader and a state wise representative for young students in Victoria.

I believe climate change is real and it is happening and will affect all of us in the future if we don't act now. Well, I think students have to play a major role in being a voice for a change, in fact now that there is will be a new super secondary school, currently known as Greater Shepparton College (Intern name).

I would like to ask Shepparton Statement to put forward an idea to the Department of Education not to use plastic in the canteen because waste generated every day in the canteen, not only in the canteen but other waste materials contains readily biodegradable organic matter such as kitchen waste, garden waste and paper, which on average accounts for about 5% of the total weight of waste generated only at one school so, following that multiply that percentage to 3 equals to 15% from just schools.

Think of waste generated from Hospitals, Aged Cares, other institutes, factories and many more...

We need to start from from where and this new school would be the perfect start off controlling of the plastic waste.

I believe climate change is a world wide issue affecting each and every human, animal and our environment.

We can end climate change in so many ways but first, we all need to come together to make that change.

Please, cut out cO2, deforestation, plastic, think about your future and how we might be destroying it.

I think about climate change every single day. It scares me so much.

Go carbon free pls

I am Sterling, I believe in a carbon free Shepparton, climate change is real and this will give us a chance.

Go carbon free ✌🏼

It only takes one minute for Australians to produce one tonne of plastic waste.

The ‘Three Rs’ of sustainability were identified by members of our school community as the best way to improve the outlook for our planet, as they are simple but practical principles that can be implemented not only on a small-scale household basis, but by the community at large with the help of the Council. We have modelled our statement on the principles of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ and grouped our suggestions under these headings. We would like to highlight the significance also of the order of operation of these principles; reducing should always be the first point of action, what cannot be reduced, should when possible, then be reused, and finally recycled. We have included dot point lists under each section of our suggestions.

Reduce

Recently, Australia has seen the introduction of legislation to ‘ban the bag,’ which has evidently had a huge impact on the collective environmental footprints of Australian citizens. It is an example of the success of widespread implementation of ‘reduce’ initiatives. If different forms of reusable packaging were more widely available or promoted in the Greater City of Shepparton, then the residents would be more likely to invest in such products and thus reduce waste production.

• Reduce the amount of litter in our waterways by cleaning them, and other natural habitats, regularly, such as every two weeks.
• Reduce the footprint of local businesses by introducing a mandatory recycling rate.

Reuse

This action will form part of an initiative to encourage basic sustainable behaviour, which will not only be comprised of ‘reducing,’ but also ‘reusing,’ as follows:

One billion coffee cups are used in Australia every year, and these are not recyclable, a fact only now appearing in the collective consciousness of the nation. The significance of raising awareness and encouraging ‘sustainable swaps’, such as the increasing trend of reusable coffee cups, is understandably paramount. Similarly, the current overuse of plastic water bottles bears many similarities to unsustainable coffee cup habits. The successful national ‘ban the bag’ movement, hasn’t only been an effective ‘reduce’ campaign, but has encouraged ‘reusing’ of shopping bags. With more people buying reusable shopping bags and thus a significant reduction in the previously excessive ten million plastic bags a day statistic.

• Distribute Council-branded reusable coffee cups at events, similar to what occurs at university open days, etc.
• Expand services to manage used batteries.

Recycle

In Australia, we are facing a crisis as, despite having authorities and resources to sort our recycling, we have always then exported these materials to other countries to be converted into new materials. The implications of China no longer accepting Australia’s recycling, as of January 2018, render the efforts to promote recycling in the community, insufficient to deal with our increasing waste crisis. As a result, countries such as Malaysia have become “dumping grounds” for often illegal waste from Australia. This is only a temporary solution; sooner or later Australia will have to take responsibility for our own waste.

We do stress the importance of publishing recycling guides, as a significant proportion of the problem is a lack of education about what is appropriate to be disposed of in specific bins. Our community needs to supplement such an initiative with a greater awareness of where our waste and recycling goes, as Greater City Shepparton is maintaining its status as one of the most successful municipalities in this issue, and remains largely unaffected by the recycling crisis since January last year. Shepparton has the opportunity to capitalise on its great work by becoming involved in the push to create recycled material in Australia. Because we are no longer able to export our recyclables to other countries to be used in the creation of new materials, setting up the infrastructure to do that work in our own country prevents the millions of tonnes of recyclables that are successfully recovered by the facilities we do have from going to landfill.

• Set up the infrastructure to create new materials from recycled materials in our municipality.
• Use such materials to use on roads and create public spaces such as playgrounds.
• Develop and send out recycling handbooks.
• Achieve/maintain a recycling rate of 30% across all goods and infrastructure as per the National Waste Policy of 2018.

Goulburn Valley Grammar School is proud to be involved with the Shepparton Statement and is excited to learn how we can support the Council in creating a more sustainable City of Greater Shepparton.

References:

ABC News. 2019. You Ask We Answer: What do the major parties think of recycling and waste in federal election 2019? - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-11/election-recycling-and-waste-policy-you-ask-we-answer/11092608. [Accessed 24 May 2019].

Shepparton Statement workshopped ideas to tackle climate change and solutions to save our environment with 200 Year 10 students at Notre Dame College.

Shepparton Statement workshopped ideas to tackle climate change and solutions to save our environment with 200 Year 10 students at Notre Dame College.