Adrian Whitehead is the only environmentalist I know who has ever harboured credible ambitions to be a paratrooper. We campaigned on forests together in the early 1990s when Adrian was in the Army Reserve. He approaches defence of the nation and of the planet with a consistent moral clarity; if something is valuable and is under threat, then you have a duty to protect it.
Thanks to weak knees and other joys of impending middle age, Adrian never did make it into 3 RAR. But he did start something heroic. Adrian co-founded Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) with current Executive Director Matthew Wright.
Adrian's reasoning was that since greenhouse gases pose an unacceptable threat to the planet and our civilisation, we have to plan an industrial economy that does not cause the release of greenhouse gases. This was too radical for the mainstream environment groups, so he started his own.
Fast forward to June 2010 and BZE is calling for a national debate on its zero emissions plan. More than 40 engineers, scientists, editors, designers and others have volunteered several thousand hours of time to research and generate the best emissions scenario this country has ever seen.
I decided to donate my time to help BZE communicate the plan inside the political beltway, to the wider community and to specialist audiences such as think tanks, technical disciplines and industry.
Tuesday was our first big test. A dozen of BZE's mostly voluntary core team launched Zero Carbon Australia 2020 in Parliament House Canberra. As always, I was optimistic but worried.
Would we be able to take Canberra back from the mob that former Liberal advisor Guy Pearse called the 'Greenhouse Mafia'?
How might we shatter the group think of a press gallery that have bought the myth that renewables cannot deliver reliable,'baseload' electricity?
Could we induce the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader to debate going the full Monty - 100% solar, wind and biomass energy for Australia?
Here are the key episodes from our 15 hour day. You tell me what you think we achieved and what we need to do next.
7:05am - Jennifer Macey from ABC Radio Current Affairs phones me to say that she wants to file a story for AM but cannot get through to the BZE Director Matthew Wright or Professor Mike Sandiford, Director of the University of Melbourne Energy Institute. I give her the mobile numbers but worry that it is too late in the morning and that the Afghanistan helicopter crash will push us from the bulletin. #lose
7:20am - We read Tom Arup's preview in The Sydney Morning Herald and it is very good. #win
9am - The Drum publishes our first salvo in our little online debate about zero emissions or as the Bard might have said, some ado about nothing. #win
10:10am - We are still missing a carload of our team, including actor Tom Long, who is supposed to be the celebrity at the Media Conference, which starts at 11. It is taking too long to get everyone processed through security. The coal lobby never has this problem because they can draw on perhaps a hundred accredited lobbyists who enter Parliament House without restriction. BZE has me. We come across Greenpeace CEO Dr Linda Selvey and her advisors, lining up for security passes. I am relieved that all our boffins are wearing suits for the occasion. #suits #stress
10:45am - Tom Long is in the building, with a box of the reports. I rush around the Press Gallery to remind the media about the Media Conference, hand out the reports and introduce Tom to a few key journalists: Malcolm Farr (The Daily Telegraph), Heather Ewart (730 Reportland), Chris Uhlmann (ABC TV's new 24/7 News channel), Bernard Keane (Crikey) and Tim Colebatch (The Age). Government briefings are occupying Paul Bongiorno (Network 10), John Breusch (Australian Financial Review) and I can't find Kieran Gilbert (Sky News). #win
11:00am - Senator Milne, Professor Sandiford and Matthew Wright are in committee room 2S2, ready to start the media conference. We have news cameramen from ABC and SBS, Tom Arup, AAP and ABC Radio. The AYCC and Union Climate Connecters happen to be lobbying in Canberra today so 25 of these activists crowd into the room. Senator Xenephon and staff arrive. Senator Troeth is missing. Were we meant to confirm with her? Who has her number? We can't find the running sheet or MC's notes. #losers
11:05am - Senator Troeth arrives, the cameras switch on and Matthew Wright starts, without notes. The media conference goes smoothly. But who is the man sitting with the media, who nobody recognises, who is taking detailed notes and wearing a lobbyist's pass? #adlibbing
11:25am - I call Shane McLeod, the executive producer of The World Today to see if there is any chance of getting the dumped AM story up for noon. He's keen and I pass this on to the ABC reporter in the media conference. She races back to the Press Gallery with the recording. #drama
11:35am — Senators Milne, Troeth and Xenophon want a photo with Tom Long, Professor Sandiford and Matthew Wright. I pull Wright away from an interview with AAP reporter Cathy Alexander. After the 30-second photo session is over, the senators rush off and I send Wright and the lead author of the report to run after the media pack again. #soapopera
11:45am - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd walks past with Minister Tanya Plibersek. One of our team wiggles past the media and staff scrum accompanying the PM and hands over our report. #win
12:00pm - Team meeting, lunch and coffee at Ozzies, the only cafe in the restricted zone at Parliament House. We assess the morning and plan the afternoon. Various other VIPs wandering the corridors are intercepted and given the report, including Treasurer Wayne Swan. I come across Simon Sheikh, National Director of GetUp.#schmooze
12:30pm - Tom Long, Matthew Wright and BZE's media guy Leigh Ewbank come back to the Press Gallery to hand out more reports to domestic media who did not attend the media conference and to the international wires, such as James Grubel (Reuters). Our team is amazed that all these media outlets are there in one place and accessible to anyone with a Lobbyist's Pass. Leigh comments that if we were being filmed as we race around the labyrinth having 20 second conversations with journalists, dodging wandering advisors and equipment, it would be 'very West Wing'. #democracy #adrenalin
12:40pm - Tom, Matthew, Leigh and I crowd around someone's iPhone to hear ABC's The World Today, relayed from a radio in Melbourne. Shane has run an excellent piece by Jennifer Macey, with grabs from the media conference spliced in alongside her morning interviews and intro.#venividivici
1:20pm - More coffees at Ozzies. Tom Long starts to write an opinion piece for the Herald Sun. Leigh calls Triple J. We ask the University of Melbourne to write an opinion piece with Professor Sandiford, for The Age. Mark Ogge from BZE starts on an opinion piece for the National Times. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and his Shadow Ian Macfarlane walk past and are given the report. I am getting annoyed that AAP have still not filed a story. Several activists are dispatched for a quick round of lobbying before Question Time. #coffee #contentisking
2:30pm - Tom Arup calls to say someone has taken his copy of the report. We have run out of spares. Two of the team are sent to run off more copies. We have almost done an 8 hour day. I start to hand out chocolate covered coffee beans bought especially for the occasion, at Jasper Coffee, across the road from BZE HQ on trendy Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. I realise I should have checked to see they are organic and fair trade. Senator Milne's Tim Hollo wanders past and looks overworked, so I give him a whole pack. He perks up and rushes off to write two media releases. #overstretched #beans
3:29pm - AAP publishes Cathy Alexander's piece. It says 'Going Green' would 'cost $1200 a year', as if this is an attributed quote. Using 'Green' as a proxy for climate action makes the piece sound partisan, to make us look bad. Senator Milne is not mentioned, to make the Greens look bad. It says that Senator Troeth launched the report herself, again ruining the apolitical message and somehow weaves Malcolm Turnbull into the story, to make the Liberals look bad. It misses the point about renewable energy and baseload completely, making the whole philosophy of BZE look bad.#fail
4:30pm - We are consulting an environmental economist, to help us formulate the case against the silly $1200 figure. I feel bad because I was the one who forced BZE to reduce the $370 billion total package into a media-friendly figure. More chocolate covered coffee beans. The extra copies of the report arrive. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner walks past looking so dejected that nobody realises he is a VIP and he misses out getting a copy of our report thrust into his hands. #firstdogonthemoon
5:30pm - Tom Long has missed his flight. A car load of our team starts driving back to Melbourne but we still take up two tables at Ozzies. Icecreams and cakes are ordered. Two comrades introduce me to John Sutton, National Secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, who almost acknowledges my presence. I goad him in a friendly way, trying to convey that even though he runs the Union who represent all the industries BZE seeks to close down, we should be civil to each other. He ignores me more emphatically. #solidarity #sugar
6:00pm - I pop up to meet Darcey, the youngest staff baby in Minister Plibersek's office, whose parents are friends of mine. Darcey is oblivious to the AAP story and doesn't dribble on my new suit so things are looking up. I have more chocolate covered coffee beans. The Minister comes into her office and I realise that refusing to hand the cute baby to the Minister for the Status of women might be gauche and bad for my career. #kissingbabies #protocol
6:30pm - Dinner in the swill pit (staff dining room). Cook makes us vegan stir fry, which is not on the menu. An email to AAP Sydney is written, to correct the mistakes in the article but it is too late - the mistakes are now reprinted all over the web and repeated by SBS TV News, who did not send a reporter to the media conference and are relying on AAP to get the story right. #beer #epic fail
7:00pm - I rush off to the airport. Origin Energy CEO Grant King walks past and... #beinginthewrongplaceattherighttime
9:30pm - Conversations are had with AAP. Copy is changed. Corrections are issued. More conversations are had. Phones cut out speaking to the car driving to Melbourne. #fail
11:22pm - AAP reissues story, with all the inaccuracies corrected. SMSs are exchanged. Emails checked. Organic cocoa drunk. Ugg boots put on. #hope
Dan Cass is a lobbyist for the green sector. His clients include Spark Solar and Beyond Zero Emissions.
