Friends: pray join me for a moment to pay homage to Julia Parkin!
She's signed up 19 people in the Solar Our Learning signup challenge so far, so is sitting right on the cusp of a second sticker.
She looks happy to be involved, doesn't she?
Anyway of course I had some questions for her.
Hi Julia, thanks for being part of the Solar Our Learning campaign! I have a few questions. First, I'm interested in why you originally got involved in Parents For Climate?
I have been concerned about climate change for quite a while and supported various organisations financially, but when my daughter was born in 2022, I felt the need to be a more active part of the solution. Climate action felt like an important part of my responsibility as a parent and I wanted to connect with other parents who shared my concerns and who were solutions focused.
It looks like you've been active in the Alice Springs group - why did you get involved, and how have you found the experience?
I live in Alice Springs and there wasn’t an Action Group here yet when I joined PFC so another mum and I got one going about a year ago. We hold a “Playgroup for a Safe Climate” about once a month and a little group of parents get together at the local parents’ centre. It’s just so great to connect with and support other parents. We use the time to sign petitions, write emails, make phone calls and to talk about ways of living more sustainably in our part of the world. We also wrote a submission last year for the senate inquiry into Middle Arm because as Northern Territorians we are extremely concerned about fracking.
Why did you want to get involved in signing up others to the SOL campaign?
The SOL campaign just makes so much sense. It is such a practical, tangible way that we can reduce emissions and benefit schools.
Finally, how have you gone about getting others to sign up?
I have sometimes felt a bit self-conscious about talking about climate change to other people, even when I know they share my concerns. However, I’ve recently decided that I need to work on pushing through that so I just sent the link to my family and some of my friends’ WhatsApp groups. Asking them to help me win a sticker was a funny way of introducing the petition, but I also think the campaign is such a good one that it resonated with everyone I sent it to. It actually wasn’t difficult to get more than 10 signatures once I sent the messages out!
Amazing, thanks so much!