Book on climate change a first

The first book in Australia to examine the way in which rural and regional communities respond to climate change was launched yesterday by The Hon Damian Drum, MLC, Member for Northern Victoria Region and Chair of the Rural and Regional Parliamentary Committee.

Edited by La Trobe University’s Professor John Martin together with Dr Maureen Rogers f rom Charles Sturt Universityand Dr Caroline Winter from the University of Ballarat, Climate Change in Regional Australia: Social Learning and Adaptation presents a series of case studies from research in regional locations across Australia that demonstrate the success of a social learning approach in bringing about fundamental change in rural and regional communities.

‘Communities have the capacity to respond in many and varied ways to climate change and this should not be discouraged,’ Professor Martin said.

‘The case studies in this book clearly indicate that the role of governments is to recognise the ability of local communities to capably manage climate change issues through their own social networks and to support them in taking it over.’

Leading researchers from across the nation cover a range of important issues in the book. More information is available at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/csrc/publications/ccbook.html