Melbourne

On the evening of Friday 27 November, head to the State Library of Victoria for a 5.30pm start, with music, choirs and singingfrom 5.15pm.Bring your friends and neighbours or come straight from work in your suit or scrubs, high vis or high heels.We will march down Swanston St and up Bourke St for a better, safer, and fairer future for all. Will you RSVP to show your support?We want the People’s Climate March to be all over the news. Sign up so we can tell the media how many people are coming and send you important updates.

Feeder marches on 27 November:

Unionists: from 3pm at Trades Hall. Lygon St, Carlton South. BBQ, soft drinks and face painting.

Bicycle users: 4.30pm from Mechanics Institute, cnr Sydney and Glenlyon Rds, Brunswick. Organised by Moreland Bicycle Users Group.

Youth and students: from 3.30pm at Carlton Gardens, cnr Rathdowne and Victoria Sts, Carlton South (TBC). Organised by AYCC.

The Tipping Point

The threshold for dangerous climate change is considered to be a rise in the global average surface temperature of 2.5ºC above pre-industrial levels (or an additional warming of 1.7ºC). In order to prevent the increase in the global average surface temperature exceeding 2.5ºC, the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases would have to be stabilised at a level below 450 parts per million (ppm) of CO 2 -e.

As the current concentration is 430 ppm CO 2 -e, staying within this threshold seems unlikely given the ongoing procrastination by governments to initiate appropriate policy responses.

The Predicted Impacts

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes some startlingly dire predictions as to what will occur once the tipping point is reached. While a global average surface increase of 2.5ºC does not sound much, it is not evenly distributed. Some parts of the planet are heating faster than others – e.g. the poles are heating more quickly than the equator and the polar ice caps are melting. The loss of sea ice is a major threat to the polar bear. The loss of the Greenland and western Antarctic ice sheets would cause catastrophic sea level rises and may change the pattern of global ocean currents.

The CSIRO has translated the IPCC’s predictions for each region in Australia for a range of temperature increases.

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