There’s a new series of wild weather fronts heading our way in the next week. It won’t bring the rain that is badly needed by our farmers. Instead, it’s likely to blow away soil and damage fledgling crops.

It could spoil your weekend skiing plans for the Alps and make you turn up the heater by a few degrees, adding to your fuel costs.  

The fronts will sweep across central Victoria like harbingers. All bluster, few results. A good analogy for politics, you could say.

We’ll also see the economic effects of weather having an impact at the polls in November. Food is getting more expensive, heat and storm-related illnesses are on the rise, electricity and gas prices are crippling. The effects of the climate on our day-to-day lives are all around, hitting our hip-pockets. 

Climate change –  whether you believe in it or not – will be a talking point in the election. Summers are hotter. Winters can be both milder and colder. There are droughts in Australia and heatwaves in Europe. Not to mention bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s obvious that something is afoot.

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In Bendigo last night the issue of climate change was put in the political spotlight at a grassroots event ahead of November. 

The Bendigo District Australian Conservation Foundation was getting in early, holding the first of its “Politics in the Pub” sessions, where local politicians will be asked to “please explain” their views on the environment. They will have a chance to lay out their positions. The public will have a change to grill them on it. 

The foundation say that they are looking for “real answers” on the environment from the pollies. That’s a broad target, too easily missed. Real answers to what? That needs to be narrowed down. And for that to happen people need to tell politicians what matters to them and what they’d like to see done on specific climate issues.

If climate change concerns you – and if you want to see plans that you can vote for –  it’s time to get vocal.

Do you have something to say about and issue? A letter to the editor is one way to have your say in the issues that affect you and the place you live in.

All letters must carry the name, full address and daytime telephone number(s) of the author. We will publish the writer’s name and suburb/town. In rare cases, we may consent to withholding a writer’s name and suburb/town.

Letters may be edited for space, accuracy, clarity and legal reasons. Shorter letters will be given preference. Letters which are deemed inappropriate will not be published.

Letters can be sent to the Bendigo Advertiser, PO Box 61, Bendigo 3552 or via a digital form at bendigoadvertiser.com.au