Sunrise solar panel petition update

Australian Channel Seven's Sunrise show reaches 55,000 signatures on their online petition against the government's decision to phase out solar panel rebates in 2007.

I am still amazed at the effect the morning TV show, Sunrise (and others) can have on the collective consciousness of the nation. When I signed their solar panel rebate petition two weeks ago (see http://linsdownunder.blogspot.com/2006/10/sign-solar-panel-rebate-petition.html) approximately 3000 people had signed up. Since then Sunrise have relentlessly promoted their Cool the Globe campaign which, incidentally is a crazy name for a climate change awareness campaign. If people think we can actually cool the globe then they're going to be a little disappointed. All we can really hope to do is prevent it from over-heating as much as we can.

This morning they excitedly announced that they had hit the 49,000 mark. We were discussing this in the office when my colleague, Linda decided to sign the petition. After submission of the form she was redirected to the last page of the petition to view her name upon it. Between the form being submitted and the page displaying in her browser approximately 10 others had also signed the petition so her name actually appeared towards the top of the page rather than last on the list. Not only that but, following the hype on TV this morning, they now had over 55,000 signatures. That's 6,000 signatures in three or four hours!! A few minutes later, Linda's signature was about 5 pages from the end of the petition. In the time it has taken me to write this post, which is about an hour and a half as I've been doing it at work whilst waiting for things to load on my computer, another 1,000 signatures have been collected and they are now not far off the 57,000 mark.

Imagine the difference that could be made if these 57,000 people began making small changes to their lives, such as replacing tungsten light globes with fluroescent bulbs, turning the hot water tap down in the shower rather than the cold water tap up, switching lights off when leaving the room, participating in clean energy programs, walking or cycling short distances instead of always taking the car, participating in carbon neutralisation schemes and so much more.

I really feel a change is about to happen and it's a great feeling.