May 20 2009
A new movement of Australian women of all ages and backgrounds – from school girls to celebrated elders, and local community stalwarts to business and political leaders – will unite today to drive practical action on climate change.
The 1 Million Women campaign will engage, empower and motivate women to cut carbon pollution in their daily lives by demonstrating how individuals can slash their emissions by one tonne each via home, food, shopping, transport, travel and more.
The goal is to stop 1 million tonnes of CO2 pollution from entering the atmosphere - the equivalent to taking 250,000 cars off the road for 12 months - enough pollution to fill 2.1 billion wheelie bins or 20 billion balloons.
1 Million Women has been created by the non-profit, non-partisan group Climate Coolers.
It launches at the University of Sydney with the support of Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir – Chancellor of the University and Governor of NSW - and over 100 influential ambassadors from Australian business, sports, arts, politics, science and the media.
The CEO and co-founder of Climate Coolers - businesswoman and mother of four Natalie Isaacs - will kick-start the campaign by issuing an open letter of invitation to all female State, Territory and Federal politicians to join.
Natalie will also unveil www.1millionwomen.com.au - the central hub of information and activity - and call on women from all walks of life to sign up.
Natalie was galvanised into action on climate change after realising that she was totally disengaged from an issue of critical importance to everyone.
“I had my head completely buried in the sand,” said Natalie. “Although I heard a lot about climate change, it wasn’t connecting. I didn’t really know what I was doing to cause the problem, or what I could do to make an impact on solving it. So like many others I just carried on and did nothing.”
1 Million Women addresses this common issue of “disengagement” by providing women with access to activities which they can implement in their daily lives to reduce their negative impact on the environment.
Each activity is linked to a tangible reduction in CO2, allowing women to select a range of activities which add up to a total CO2 reduction of 1 tonne (and if they choose more, all the better!).
1 Million Women aims to recruit women both online and offline to ensure a truly national reach and engagement of women from diverse backgrounds across metropolitan, regional and rural areas.
“Recruiting 1 million women means that we have to engage one in every eight women living in Australia,” said Natalie. “It’s a daunting objective. As a consequence, this campaign has to cross numerous boundaries to reach communities of women from all walks of life.”
The University of Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, the NSW Government and Queensland Government are major partners of the campaign. Women can join the campaign at www.1millionwomen.com.au from 19th May 2009 and commit to start cutting carbon.