Jim Thompson
Jim Thomson
In 1958, at a lava field near Hawaii’s imposing Mauna Loa volcano, scientists began measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The same year, in November, electrical contractor Jim Thomson was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Forty-eight years later, in 2006, the two events took on particular meaning for Jim while at a screening of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Jim drove six hours to Perth to see the film, aware climate change existed but not fully versed in its implications. The screening, he says, brought about the realisation that he had personally contributed to the increase in carbon dioxide levels recorded between 1959 and the year 2000.
“After the movie I was thinking about the graph showing readings of atmospheric carbon taken above Hawaii,” he says. “The graph started in 1958, the year I was born. I thought of all the things that I had done over my life that had resulted in the release of carbon. I immediately took a personal responsibility for those steadily climbing emissions.”
A man of his word – Jim’s first move was to spread the reach of Al Gore’s film. An Inconvenient Truth was not slated for screening in Kalgoorlie, so Jim personally underwrote the expense of hiring a cinema and bringing a print of the film to the mining town. With no guarantee he would cover his costs he made the arrangements only to find that the one off event was so well attended he had to arrange a second screening!
Part of that responsibility involved applying to be a volunteer presenter with The Climate Project – Australia, Al Gore's climate change leadership program with the Australian Conservation Foundation. “My chief motivation was my desire to have the opportunity to raise the level of awareness in the community of climate change, the effects of climate change and the need for action to both reduce greenhouse gases and to begin the adaptation process,” he says.
In 2007, Jim was personally trained by Mr Gore to become a Climate Project presenter and deliver the slideshow known to many as the basis of An Inconvenient Truth. He has given five presentations, the most memorable being one given to the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCI). “We had around 50 business and community leaders attend and feedback was very strong,” Jim says.
So much so that the Kalgoorlie-Boulder CCI has asked Jim to implement a business model to lower the carbon footprint of 453 businesses in the district.
“I want to give people the tools that allow them to do their research (on climate change) or provide them with the answers and sources they can go to so they can actually start taking action on a personal level, on a company level, on a society level, straight away,” he says.
“I want to see that society shifts away from having to have the latest plasma TV to putting the eight grand that they spent on their home theatre system into something that’s going to make their world a better place for generations to come.”
In his working life, Jim is already behind efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “I started my company Outback Energy Supplies way back in 1999. We do solar and wind power and heavily promote the renewable. We refuse to install down lights, spa heaters etcetera, preferring to offer energy efficient options,” he says.
“The greatest job satisfaction I get out of this is driving into a station where they have a dirty old diesel generator banging away … and I drive out and they’ve got 24-hour power and its silent and it’s clean. It’s just too good.”