More than 10,000 people are expected to rally at Sydney's Town Hall tonight and demand politicians at both state and federal level do something about the bushfires and smoke haze plaguing New South Wales.
A Facebook event, titled NSW is Burning, Sydney is Choking - Climate Emergency Rally, has attracted loads of interest since being posted on the social media site.
It reads: "The climate emergency has arrived in NSW, with unprecedented fires raging across the state. Now millions in Sydney and surrounding regions are choking on toxic clouds of smoke, ash and dust, rated as hazardous by the NSW Health Department, and set to poison us for months ahead as conditions worsen.
"Year after year, governments have denied the approaching climate emergency and expanded the fossil fuel industry while cutting funding to fire and other essential services and mismanaging vital river and water systems.
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"Now the result is here: unprecedented drought, bushfires, and now a massive health crisis, with millions choking, with no escape, and severe consequences for people's immediate and long term health."
Organisers of the rally will be calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to enact policies that would go towards preventing the catastrophic bushfires that have claimed several lives and hundreds of homes.
The organisers are also requesting more funds be sent to the Rural Fire Service and NSW Fire and Rescue.
They're calling for measures to be put in place to protect people from the smoke haze that has been a regular sight in Sydney and regional NSW ever since the bushfires began in October.
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The haze was particularly bad yesterday with one Sydney suburb recording levels 11 times higher than 'hazardous'.
The rally organisers want employees to have the ability to walk off the job if the air quality gets dangerous, special allowances to be made for additional, paid, sick leave for people suffering from the effects of air pollution and all hospitals, aged care facilities, schools and child care centres to be fitted with proper HEPA filters or air conditioning.
The rally will get underway at Town Hall at 5:30pm.
Featured Image Credit: PA