Environmental

ENVIRONMENT STATEMENTS

Ann Nguyen and James Park- Community

We’re Ann and James. Ann is a Science student who has spent the last three years advocating for environmental issues through her involvement with Vegan Club and Effective Altruism. James is a Commerce student who is passionate about social impact, and hopes to shift the paradigm with which today’s youth view environmental justice. Our experiences have taught us the value of a supportive community in achieving sustainable impacts. No one has to be a perfect environmentalist; the Enviro Office needs to foster consistent effort and a willingness to engage. We want the Enviro Collective to be a welcoming space for all students, regardless of experience or knowledge of environmental activism. By collaborating with UMSU INTL, alongside like-minded clubs and societies, we will platform the grassroots initiatives already flourishing on campus. We want to make sure the journey towards being a better activist is an engaging, not exclusionary process. We hope to diversify environmental education- in a way that recognises the barrier faced by international students, people of colour, and all those from diverse backgrounds in accessing these spaces. We want to run workshops to highlight the growing trends in environmental activism, and make this knowledge accessible to all. We will still be fighting for the ‘big issues’ that face our environment today. We want to pressure the University to follow global trends and declare a Climate Emergency, seizing on this momentum to divest from destructive multinationals once and for all. And because there can be no environmental justice in an oppressive world, we want to foster a truly intersectional understanding of our Department. We want to engage in dialogues with allies, and centre marginalised voices in the struggle for environmental justice in all work we do. Vote [1] Community, your community fighting with you!

Briana Symonds-Manne & Emma Dynes (Stand Up!)

We’re Emma and Bri! We’re radical climate activists running for the Environment Office next year. Capitalism is destroying the planet. The system’s endless search for profit has already created rising temperatures, savage bushfires, and extreme floods. Events like this are going to become the ‘new normal’ globally. Last year we organised university contingents to all the school strikes, Extinction Rebellion protests, blockaded the world’s largest mining conference in Melbourne, IMARC, and helped found Uni Students for Climate Justice, which organised huge protests over Scomo’s mishandling of the bushfires. On campus, we protested the university’s sponsorship of IMARC and Rio Tinto at the Careers Day expo. This year we crashed the ‘commencement ceremony’ to remind everybody that Melbourne University is complicit in climate destruction through its undisclosed investments in fossil fuels, arms manufacturing and sponsorship of mining conferences. Greta Thunberg’s school strike rebellion that mobilised millions globally is the mass movement we need to fight climate change. We can’t rely on politicians when support for coal, gas and oil is bipartisan politics in Australia. The Liberal government is for a gas-driven economic recovery, and the Adani coal mine is being built under Queensland Labor. Fossil fuels are at the heart of Australian capitalism. Real resistance will only come from below. If elected we’ll dedicate the Environment Office to fighting for climate justice. We will demand that the University divest from fossil fuels and arms manufacturing, and end collaboration with climate criminals like Rio Tinto. From the Government, we’ll demand an immediate stop to the construction of the Adani coal mine, an end to coal and gas extraction, and a just transition to 100% renewable energy. We’ll fight in solidarity with Indigenous struggles and for the millions of refugees displaced by environmental destruction. Vote [1] Stand Up! Keep up the Fight!

Ezra Bangun – VVholesome

Welcome back to my Ted Talk. Last year I gave the fun fact that Dendrophilia means someone that is (sexually) attracted to trees. This year, my fun fact is Rafflesia Anorldi is a very smelly flower. It’s named after British botanist and statesman who collected its specimen. To be honest, I have no idea why they want their name to be related to a not so nice thing. It’s like naming UMSU “Scott Crawford Student Union” since he’s the reason why we have UMSU instead of MUSU. Thank you for listening to my second Ted Talk. Always be VVholesome, and don’t forget to vote [1] (and [2], and [3], and etc.) for the ticket you prefer (it can be us, or anyone else)!

Gabrielle Kennedy No statement recieved

Michael Thomas PlantAmplify No statement recieved