What we each do matters

The start of this year challenged us all by bringing climate change and its devastating effects front-of-mind for all of us with the ongoing bushfires, as smoke enveloped Melbourne to remind us of what is happening hundreds of kilometres away. If nothing else, these events made it clear how important it is to act in reducing and reversing our impact on the planet. If we don’t urgently and decisively act on every level from individual decisions to collective actions and force our decision makers to do something then we are bound to see these catastrophic events repeat until we reach the point of no return. It is a point much closer to us now than previously predicted, making the next two to three years critical. While it’s natural to fall into despair and apathy, feeling that this is too big to handle, we need to pick ourselves up and think “what can I do to reduce my impact and bring positive change while we still have the chance to shift the tide?”. Because if we do nothing, we can expect nothing. We’ll just allow things to get worse until we eventually take the right to life away from the next generation of humans and the millions of other species we are sharing this planet with. The bushfires are the big wakeup call we all needed to realise the immediacy of the climate crisis we are currently facing and how we need to act now as if our life depends on it. Because it does. The Southbank Sustainability Group’s philosophy has always been about staying focused on solutions and taking positive action, while building a support system of like-minded people to help us stay motivated and learn from one another. While sometimes what we do seems small in the grand scheme of things, when wondering if what we do matters or makes any difference, we remind ourselves that the solution to this big environmental problem lies in lots of small, compounding actions. That all we can do is do our part. Something that we’ll continue to do throughout the year and invite as many of you to join us and participate. This month, we are kicking off the Community Education Days for which we won a grant to bring to Southbankers throughout 2020, with a Practical Guide to Zero Waste Living talk. The talk will take place on either Saturday February 15 or 29 at 10.30am. We are still ironing out venue details so keep an eye on our Facebook page or email us for the final date and come join this free event. We’ll cover the basics of living zero waste and provide a practical Melbourne guide of how and where to purchase to easily reduce your waste output and use of virgin resources. Apart from this education day, our group will be focused on making a Southbank communal composting hub a reality and ongoing work on our neighborhood’s vegie garden for the month. If you want to get involved, email us or better yet come join one of our meet-ups. This month we will meet on Saturdays February 8 and 22, 10am at Boyd. February as you probably already know is a month dedicated to sustainability through the National Sustainable Living Festival. A month-long event with plenty of activities all around Melbourne, dedicated to helping us navigate through these difficult times and provide us with the tools to get out of it. You can see all activities at slf.org.au. Finally, we want to acknowledge and excitedly congratulate Southbank News for its beautiful new look and feel! Cleaner, refreshed, and more focused - it represents exactly what we want to see more of this year in everything around us and within ourselves. About the group: A solutions-focused community group of Southbank residents working to bring positive change in sustainability practices and education to our neighborhood, while building a wonderful community of like-minded people • Reach us at: [email protected] or facebook.com/SouthbankSustainabilityGroup   Artemis Pattichi Southbank Sustainability Group