News January 2017
Special Edition:
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Welcome to the first edition of CCA News for 2017. This month we bring you a 'Special Edition' - rather than the usual format, we've decided to concentrate on Steve Posselt's visit to Port Macquarie this month.
A kayak adventurer and ecowarrior, Steve has commenced the last leg of his Connecting Climate Chaos journey that has taken him around the world. On New Years Day 2017 he brought out his kayak ‘Old Yella’ for the last time and set off from Ballina to collect 100,000 signatures for the Climate Emergency Declaration petition.
His journey is 1,200 kilometres down the coast to Moruya and then 180km dragging the kayak up the mountains to Canberra, where the petition will be presented to Parliament. As part of this journey, Steve paddled in to Port Macquarie and many of us had the opportunity to meet & listen to him.
Kerri-ann Jones
CCA-H Co-ordinator
The arrival: Friday 13th, morning
Although he actually arrived in town the previous day, Steve got back in the water on Friday morning & paddled up to the official welcome at the Westport Park boat ramp. A number of CCA members & supporters were there to greet him, as were a couple of journalists who interviewed him for print & radio media.
Paddling to shore
Some of the welcoming team
Lyn & the van - Steve's indomitable support team!
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The presentation: Friday 13th, evening
That evening, Steve gave a presentation to a group of about 50 people in the CWA hall. His talk generated quite a lot of interest & some lively questions and discussion followed. Lots of signatures for the petition were collected.
Steve's banner advertising the event in Horton Street
Mingling before the presentation
We gathererd in Horton St for a photo shoot (note kayak to the left)
Avid listeners
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The markets: Saturday 14th, morning
On Saturday morning CCA had a stall at the Westport Markets. It was a (very!) hot day and crowd numbers were down. Nevertheless, Steve & his kayak generated interest and many more pages of signatures for the petition were gathered.
Steve & his kayak at the CCA stall at the markets.
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The farewell: Saturday 14th, afternoon
Then, on Saturday afternoon we farewelled Steve before he re-commenced his journey south...
Bon voyage, Steve! Thanks for everything you are doing to raise awareness about the climate emergency.
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Resources:
If you haven't yet signed the petition, we encourage you to do so here: https://climateemergency.good.do/climateemergencypetition/climateemergencydeclarationpetition/
To read more about Steve & his campaigning, visit his website: http://kayak4earth.com/
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With thanks to Lyn Thomson, Steve Wardrop & Frank Dennis for the photos.
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