I had a lovely diary written, linkies and all, but somehow the draft diary monster ate it.
So I'll keep this brief.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum is about to take place, and this year it's in Sydney, hosted by Bush's biggest fan, Australian Prime Minister John Howard. On their agenda is more bullshit and obfuscation to undermine global efforts to negotiate the post-Kyoto climate change agreement. Their number one aim in this area is to resist efforts to set meaningful global greenhouse gas reduction targets.
And that's where you come in.
Getup!, an Australian organisation similar to the USA's Moveon, is running a campaign to collect 500,000 signatures to present to the APEC leaders, demanding that they set clear, meaningful climate change targets.
It's a global action, and I encourage you all to take the all of 3 minutes it takes to fill in the form, and please do remember to send it on to friends and family.
It's not going to change everything instantly of course, but it will help keep the media coverage at APEC focussed on citizens demanding real action, rather than just blandly accepting the steaming piles of nothing that Howard and Bush will serve up instead.
The added bonus is that Howard is finally looking down the barrel of election defeat, including the very real and humiliating possibility of losing his own seat (if he does, he'll be the first sitting Australian PM to lose his seat since 1929 - please please pretty please!). APEC is his final chance at a decent electoral poll bounce, as he ponces around looking all statesmanlike (cough cough) - most of the major pundit expect him to call the election straight after APEC.
So the more signatures we can get, the more we turn the media attention away from Howard's glorious pomp and circumstance, and instead focus them on the non-action he and Bush have taken on climate change. It's a fabulous chance to make them both look as bad as possible.
So please, take action now. Don't forget to put a photo up, or download and use Getup's default target logo.
It's not often we have a chance as progressive activists to work together like this, across the globe. I hope you take the opportunity.
many thanks!