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Line in the sand: No future for fossil fuel sponsors in surf lifesaving

Posted on November 5, 2023 by admin

In the other parts of our website you can read about why climate change is a threat to surf lifesavers, our clubrooms and beachgoers. There are now over 5000 surf lifesavers, nipper parents and supporters who have signed our petition demanding Woodside get off our children’s bodies!

SIGN THE “Free the Nippers” PETITION HERE

Surf Lifesaving has one of the most respected and iconic brands in Australia – because it is an amazing, positive movement of legends. We must be careful who we lend our brand to, as some sponsors will use our iconic reputation to try to improve their (less iconic) reputation. If we lend our brand to fossil fuel companies or other companies that drive climate change, we are shooting ourselves in the foot: as they become more successful, our movement incurs greater risk of harm from climate change.

That is why we are taking a stand: companies which continue to advocate for fossil fuel project expansion should not benefit from the support of surf lifesavers. Much like we removed tobacco sponsorship from SLS in the 80’s and 90’s we must do the same for fossil fuels – a greater hazard to community health and wellbeing.

You can watch a video of nipper parents explaining their concerns about the woodsidenippers sponsorship here

Click above to sign our petition for no more fossil fuelling of our nippers

This is not to say the people who work in those companies are bad people or that the companies must close down immediately -we need some fossil fuels now, but the International Energy Agency, UN and others are clear – we cannot have expansion of fossil fuel projects and keep climate change under control. As of January 2023, we have a carbon budget of around 250 billion tons of CO2 we can emit and have a chance of keeping warming below 1.5˚C; Woodside’s Burrup Hub is estimated to contribute 6 billion tons to global warming, which is greater than ten years of Australia’s total annual emissions.

SLS should not be endorsing companies who are expanding fossil projects which will, through climate change, threaten our long term success as a movement. Using our child members (Nippers) as billboards for fossil fuel companies is particularly hard to tolerate. Our Nippers will be the ones who have to fundraise to rebuild our clubrooms, face extreme weather and all the other challenges of climate change. The nippers do not get to choose the impact of climate change when they are adults – we are making those decisions for that generation now.

Perhaps our activity will help some of our fossil fuel focussed sponsors to re-evaluate their strategic activity and choose a sustainable future – one we would be proud to support.

The majority of Australians support a ban on fossil fuel sponsorship in sports, this is no longer controversial.

You can read the issues with Woodside’s Scarborough Gas plans on this flyer, or the Burrup Hub here or this report by the Australia Institute.

We started with This GETUP PETITION HERE but have now moved onto the larger Greenpeace petition.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Greenpeace Australia Pacific (@greenpeaceap)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Greenpeace Australia Pacific (@greenpeaceap)

Media Associated with petition

Our media activity in early 2023 caused quite a stir and wider debate about the ethics of using children to promote fossil fuels. There were 141 media mentions across Australia. Some highlights

The Guardian September 2023 – ‘Walking billboard’ for Woodside: parents want end to fossil fuel company sponsorship of WA Nippers

Opinion piece in WA Today, You wouldn’t put a cigarette company logo on your child’s uniform, so why is Woodside OK? This was syndicated to fairfax papers across Australia
Interview on ABC 720 Perth mornings
Interview with 6PR, where there was some interesting banter about whether sustain surf members have BBQs…. (not sure they understood the issues at play)
Article on Sky News
Panel discussion on Sunrise, Channel 7 where they concluded that Woodside should take the logo off Nippers!

Greenpeace has now commenced a petition called “Free the Nippers” you can add your voice here

The Guardian – “Nippers Parents speak out against Woodside sponsorship deal”

ABC Perth – Woodside Sponsorship divides community

The Guardian – Fossil Fuel Interests in community organisations

If you are keen for SLSWA to be more careful in which sponsors they lend our iconic brand to – please consider giving them feedback via signing our petition and Greenpeace’s petition

  • When will we have an electric IRB or jetski?
  • Line in the sand: No future for fossil fuel sponsors in surf lifesaving
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