Firefighter Alan Glover and opera singer and mother Karen Fitz-Gibbon, sentenced last April for blocking Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of an聽Fireproof Australia action, were fined $3000 and given an 18-month community service order on March 8.
Fitz-Gibbon said she was聽鈥渞epresenting all the parents of school-aged kids and young adults 鈥 worried about the impacts of climate change and our governments鈥 refusal to properly prepare [for it].鈥
She said the climate movement lacked people her age because they are too exhausted 鈥渏uggling jobs, rent, mortgages, groceries and all the rest鈥 to join protest movements.
鈥淲e see a lot of incredible young people sacrificing what should be their most carefree years and many retirees who are sacrificing what should be their most peaceful.
鈥淏ut the government ignores my demographic at its peril. Research shows that two thirds of Australians want more action on climate.鈥
Fitz-Gibbon said the week before she glued herself to the road, she was isolating while nursing my mother through COVID-19.
鈥淎nybody who thinks we are participating in these actions because we are troublemakers, with nothing better to do with our time, is very far off the mark.鈥
She said governments spend $22,000 a minute on subsidising the fossil fuel industry 鈥 鈥渕oney which could be spent on shoring up our future and keeping our babies out of a fire-and-smoke-filled sensory hell鈥.
Meanwhile,聽several environment groups, representing thousands of people, protested outside the electorate offices of all four聽federal Labor members in the ACT on March 10.
The Australian Conservation Foundation, Community Canberra, Australian Parents for Climate Action Canberra, Move Beyond Coal, 350.org Canberra, Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion ACT, Peoples Climate Assembly (PCA), and Climate Action Network Australia took part.
Spokesperson John Wurcker聽from PCA聽said: 鈥淲e are deeply concerned the proposed Safeguard Mechanism would permit unfettered offsets for Australia鈥檚 top polluters to pay off their emissions bill with dodgy carbon credits.
鈥淚n line with safeguard mechanisms across the world, carbon offsets should only be used as a temporary last resort, for the few essential industries where transition technology is still in development.鈥
New research from found 63% of ACT voters strongly support a ban on new gas and coal projects in federal climate laws. It also found the聽overwhelming majority (82%) oppose the unlimited use of carbon offsets to account for polluting projects.