I actually don’t consider myself an environmentalist. I come to this work from a social justice background.

I was pleased to see my friend and local activist Lindsay Soutar in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald. I love her quote above because I feel the same way — I never think of myself as a “greenie” or environmentalist although I live like one. For me, being kind to the planet is absolutely about social justice and human rights. Having the ability and opportunity to eat home-grown food or walk in rainforests is an added extra.

I also love Lindsay’s positive, proactive attitude to improving this country:

This year her organisation [100% Renewable] is launching a ”Big Solar” campaign, aimed at bringing large-scale sun-powered plants to Australia, which she argues can provide baseload power by storing heat overnight in salty water, generating enough steam to drive turbines similar to those used in coal-fired power stations.

”We did the climate change stuff for a long time and we were very effective at scaring the pants off people. I personally felt quite a bit of despair for quite some time that this problem was too big, we were moving too slow … I made a choice. I could despair and go into misery – and I’ve seen people do that – or I could say I’ll do whatever I can to tackle this problem … and I’ll probably feel a whole lot better.”