• 2020’s singalong.

MEMBERS of Perth’s faith groups were due to gather outside Wesley United Church in the CBD on December 17 to sing reworked versions of Christmas carols calling for firmer action on climate change.

Australian Religious Response to Climate Change WA president Geoffrey Bice said “while we may be singing some light-hearted carols today, we hold deep concerns about the lack of action in WA to prevent the worst climate impacts. 

“WA has major expansions of the gas industry on the cards, while at the same time the International Energy Agency this year called for ‘no new fossil fuel supply projects’ and the IPCC modelling requires an immediate decline in the use of gas to keep within a 1.5C temperature rise. 

“How then is it morally responsible to forge ahead with expansions of the gas industry? When will the WA government draw the line and stop approving new fossil fuel developments?”

Susy Thomas is moderator of the Uniting Church WA, one of the ARRCC’s member groups: “How can we justify to our children, to the people of the Pacific, to the vulnerable in our community who will continue to suffer through heatwaves and other weather extremes, that it is morally ok to expand a practice we know is going to cause harm,” she asked.

Quakers, too, have joined the effort to sing for change: “Perth plays host to head offices for some of the biggest polluters in the country,” Quakers Australia presiding clerk Ann Zubrick said. 

“It is disturbing to us and to many Western Australians that, on the back of international climate talks, Woodside have announced their plans to open a huge new gas field.”