Crikey.com.au is calling for ideas to mark the anniversary of the Labor Party’s victory over Liberal PM John Howard last year.

Crikey is taking pithy comments from the public and will select the best and publish them next week in the high-falutin’ subscriber-only email.

This is a great chance to put the pressure on Rudd to actually DO something that lowers emissions and switches to clean energy, not just create policies to inflate costs to alter prices to encourage action some time in 2010…

Read the Crikey brief and have your say, straight into the in-boxes of all those important journalists, advisors and pontificaters:

Monday is the first anniversary of the 2007 election, a year since Kevin Rudd was elected Prime Minister. What has that meant to you, dear Crikey reader? What have been your impressions of this first year of the post-Howard era? Let us know.

Has your sense of the country changed? Has Kevin healed — a la Obama— the national soul? Is he a policy dud, all talk and no action? Has he delivered what you thought he might? Are you sick of him already?

We’re keen to have your views. Send closely reasoned, tightly expressed contributions to boss@crikey.com.au with “Kevin07″ in the subject field. We’ll publish as many as we dare through next week

Photo: Danish windfarm at Nysted, which puts out 160 MW

Here are a few ideas from the USA to get the ideas flowing:

• The Gore plan to end fossil fuels within a decade

• Media backing for a Green New Deal

• Proposals for Obama to make urgent environmental shifts as soon as he is elected:

1. An Energy Security Council headed by Al Gore (who has already declined): read more
2. The easy, immediate, legislative roll-backs of the anti-environment legacy of the prior administration: read more

Enjoy!!

PS: Copy your Crikey submission as a reply to this post and let everyone read it!

This week has seen yet another round of protestations from the big end of town about how difficult it will be to cut greenhouse emissions, and how they are going to have to move offshore if a decent emissions trading scheme is introduced. Meanwhile, another renewable energy manufacturer has just announced that they are actually doing it - shutting up shop and moving overseas. BP Solar will be closing their Sydney factory with a loss of 200 jobs. Well Kevin, where is that bailout plan for renewable energy? How many other renewable energy companies will relocate overseas before Australia adopts sensible policies for renewable energy (like a national, gross metered feed-in tarrif).

Meanwhile, seemingly on another planet, local communities are getting on with the job of creating a renewable energy future. There is a growing movement of people all over the country that are taking action in their own local communities to get off the grid. One inspiring example is the Hepburn Wind Co-operative in Victoria, which is Australia’s first community owned wind farm.

Community ownership of renewable energy has been widespread in Europe but has been slow to develop in Australia. It presents a stark contrast to the centralised provision of coal powered electricity from massive, far flung, polluting power stations. There is a growing ‘localisation’ movement that includes sourcing food from farms in the local area, through to buying locally made goods and soon it will include locally generated community owned electricity. This is one of the real advantages of renewable energy. Not only is it pollution free but it also has the potential to provide decentralised energy and enables individuals and communities to take responsibility and have control over their own power.

It is easy to keep on polluting if the source of that pollution is distant, and people don’t see or experience the effects directly. We see with all kinds of environmental issues that when the feedback loops are closed, and people experience the consequences of their actions, change happens quickly. It’s a kind of stewardship ethic where people take responsibility for their relationship with and impacts on the natural world.

So wind co-ops and other local renewable energy projects are an encouraging sign. While the Hepburn Wind project is still in development, once it is up and running it is likely to provide an inspiring model for other communities around Australia.

The energy revolution will not be centralised!

I personally got involved in WAW because I’m concerned about how climate change is going to affect future generations. When I think of potential conversations with children who will inherit this planet, I want to say that I did everything possible to encourage the government to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

Keeping up with WAW tradition, the Brisbane walk was a colourful umbrella parade, which provided some respite from the blazing hot sun.

Approximately 1500 people attended the WAW in Brisbane. We had blue skies and a light breeze developed at the end of the day.

There was a representation of Pacific islanders from Kiribati, which is already experiencing the impacts of climate change, as well as West Papua. Some “penguins” also came out for the day, searching for anything icy on such a hot day!

After creating a huge map of Queensland’s, walkers were informed about the impacts on the Great Barrier Reef and Pacific Islands, as well as the concerns of young people. Speakers from the Queensland Conservation Council and Make Poverty History Coalition expressed what people could do to to encourage our federal government to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Cassie McMahon, Brisbane