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Well, that backfired!
Below is a message from David Bruer, a GetUp member and grape farmer from South Australia. Your details have not been shared with David or anyone else.
NEVILLE – earlier this week, when Brisbane Airport banned the billboard featuring my story, I asked if you’d lend a hand to help get my message across. I’m writing to let you know how it all went down on Tuesday when I delivered our petition and to share some good news. I got off the plane on Tuesday morning and went straight to meet with the executives at Brisbane Airport. When they banned the billboard I reckon the last thing they would have expected would have been a farmer from South Australia rocking up on their doorstep! I gave them the petition organised by Earth Hour and GetUp, with 40,000 names on it including yours, and asked them to put the billboards they banned back up so world leaders arriving for the G20 summit would see my story, and how climate change is already affecting the Australian land. They accepted our petition and there was some media to capture the moment. They didn’t change their mind and the airport billboard is still banned. The funny thing is though, if they had let the billboard up, the airport staff reckon it would have been seen by about seven thousand people, max. But because they tried to silence our campaign, the #onmyagenda billboard and my climate story has reached more than 4 million people through media coverage of the event. And do you know what else? Since I delivered our petition, nine billboards in Brisbane have been donated to display my story, including three in high-traffic, densely populated areas. It’s not the aiport, but it’s still a fantastic result! Here’s a photo of me with our petition:
You and I both know that this climate change thing is the greatest threat to human civilisation. I’m 69 years old, so statistically speaking, I’ll be pushing up daisies in about 13 years or so, but I have two kids. One day I might have grandkids. I’m so concerned for their future and have to do as much as I can to right the wrongs of my generation. Getting my climate story up on these billboards while Brisbane is the focus of world leaders and the international media is an incredible way to show the world that climate action is on everyday Australians’ agenda. We’re just a day out from the G20 now. We’ve seen external pressure from governments such as China and the US, who have just come out with a plan for strong action on climate change — and we’ve seen internal pressure from the hundreds of thousands of Australians fighting for climate action here at home. Combined, that might just be enough for our government to take a long, hard look at themselves. It’s not going to happen overnight, but I haven’t given up. I’m a farmer – there’s no such thing as “giving up”. Thanks for standing with me, and if you’re in Brissie keep your eyes peeled for one of our billboards! David Bruer, grape farmer and GetUp member from South Australia PS from GetUp – Let’s show our government that no banned billboard, and no summit agenda will stop us – we’re not going away. Click this link to ask our Prime Minister to put climate action on Australia’s agenda. |
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