On one level, those who deny the consensus of a vast majority of the scientific community, that human activity is causing negative changes to the world's climate, were highly likely to protest the move.

Those who accept the scientific consensus but are concerned that making too many drastic changes will create an economic disaster were also likely to speak out.

And finally, the fairly common view that councils should not stray too far from their traditional mandate of road, rates and rubbish.

Despite Cr Nugent and his supporters' pleas, council decided that Orange's "established record of environmental work and concerns about future employment" prevented it from declaring a climate emergency.

A number of councillors questioned the impact a declaration would make given it had already been passed at the Australian Local Government Conference last week.

They said that it was up to the state and federal governments to act in a meaningful way.

Councillor Glenn Taylor said he could not support a motion without knowing the full cost implications, while mayor Reg Kidd pointed out the council had been working to reduce its environmental footprint for decades.

Since the meeting last week the Central Western Daily has been inundated with letters, comments and calls from people concerned about climate change and pushing for council to be more progressive when it comes to environmental issues in relation to climate change initiatives.

As reader Charlie Ginty told us in a letter to the editor: "I naively thought that society had moved on and that most of us now accepted that human activity-induced climate change was a reality".

"Blind Freddy can see clearly the effects of rapid climate change in our own backyard over the past 20 years," he said.

No matter where you stand on the issue there's no denying people of all ages are extremely passionate about climate change and future-proofing our city.

This is an issue that's on the national agenda it's about time our community had some meaningful discussion about it.