Aussie Farmer, Former Climate Skeptic & National Party Supporter, Will March For Action On Climate

[hatrack]

A GIPPSLAND farmer for more than 40 years, Bruce Beatson once dismissed talk of climate change. He handed out how-to-vote cards for the National Party and couldn't give "two hoots" about what environmentalists were on about. Then the dams on his family's dairy farm in Toora, in south Gippsland, stopped filling. Rain became more irregular. He learned there had been a decline in local rainfall in the past 60 years compared with the previous 60.

Beatson, 57, was won over by the weight of scientific evidence in CSIRO reports. And he could not understand why politicians were not similarly swayed. "The issue most dear to me is the future of our children," he says.

"If John Howard went to the doctor and was told he had a potentially terminal illness but something could be done about it — it won't be comfortable, it will be painful and there will be consequences but we can save you — he would say, 'right, let's solve this'.

"So why is it when respected scientists come to him and say the planet has got a terminal illness he does nothing about it?" Mr Beatson, having turned his farm into a part-time concern, trained with Al Gore as a climate change ambassador, and now works for a Toyota dealership encouraging farmers to buy fuel-efficient cars. Tomorrow he will take his message to an expected crowd of 30,000 in the Melbourne CBD at the third annual Walk Against Warming, organised by Environment Victoria and Greenpeace, which seek a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse pollution by 2020. The march is one of 55 planned in Australia.

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/once-a-sceptic-farmer-will-march-against-climate-change-inaction/2007/11/09/1194329514542.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Why is it that most people ignore or deny climate change until

it starts to affect their own personal finances??????

Such self-centeredness is disgraceful.

[rodeodance]

2. so so so many years lost (and so many people Dissed!)

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Glad he came around