This is the last issue of Green Left Weekly for this year. Our small staff which works very hard, week after week, to get out this publication will take a much-needed break after a hectic political year, and get ready to relaunch in mid-January.
The 2012 Green Left Fighting Fund has now raised about $193,000 so we have to try to raise a further $57,000 by the end of the year to get to our $250,000 target — or as close as we can get.
It may seem like an impossible amount of money to raise in less than a month. But it is not as impossible as you might think. Green Left Weekly has a large and committed base of supporters. We have a core of active supporters — spread all around the country — who battle to get Green Left around, collect stories, pictures, poems, cartoons and video footage. And then we have our loyal subscribers, who we turn to for support again and again.
We sent out a letter of appeal for donations to our Fighting Fund in last week’s Green Left Weekly subscriptions. And this week a few donations have been made in response.
So far, we have had a couple of $1000 donations and one generous $10,000 from long-term subscriber. Thank you very much KE.
The strong support Green Left receives from its regular readers is a testimony to the crucial role this project plays in keeping many people, who yearn for the real change that the world desperately needs, informed, inspired and connected.
“Thank goodness for Green Left Weekly,” is a comment that we hear over and over again from readers we meet in the streets, at rallies, marches and meetings. The same encouraging sentiment is expressed in numerous letters and emails.
It means much more than a simple statement of appreciation. As the year closes, many readers in Australia are following the human rights nightmare that is the ALP-resurrected “Pacific Solution” to this country's minor refugee “problem”. Our readers are horrified at the accelerating global climate crisis.
When CSIRO executive-director Dr Pep Canadell released the Global Carbon Project's latest report on December 3, he said: “Emissions trends over the past 10 years are tracking consistently with the most carbon-intensive pathways ... leading to 4 to 6°C warming over pre-industrial times by the end of this century...
“It is clear that the type of transformation needed would require the world to wake up tomorrow and embrace a new green industrial revolution whereby new economic development is focused on establishing a large and rapidly growing non-polluting energy sector as the vehicle to meet new energy and jobs demand … In all cases, there is the need for high levels of technological, social, and political innovation, and the increasing likelihood of the need to rely on net negative emissions in future.”
This is yet another urgent warning from the scientists the world cannot afford to ignore.
So as we prepare to hit 2013 running, Green Left Weekly needs all the support it can get.
Even if you can't afford to match the generosity of KE, you can donate to the Green Left Weekly fighting fund this week. Every dollar counts. Direct deposits can also be made to Greenleft, Commonwealth Bank, BSB 062-006, Account No. 00901992. Otherwise, you can send a cheque or money order to PO Box 515, Broadway NSW 2007 or donate on the toll-free line at 1800 634 206 (within Australia).