WHAT’S ON
Save our wildlife rally Rally to be held NSW Parliament House Macquarie St at 12.30pm on 19 October to call on the government to stop Baird’s land clearing laws.
Farms or Coal mines? The Lane Cove Coal and Gas Watch Group (formerly Our Land Our Water Our Future group) will be hosting a public forum and afternoon tea on Sunday October 23 at 2pm at the Greenwich Community Hall, 46-48 Greenwich Road, Greenwich about the need to protect our farming land from mining. For details and to RSVP go to
http://www.lockthegate.org.au/farms_or_coal_mines_public_forum
Fracking ban in NSW? Victoria has banned CSG mining. Is it possible in NSW? Stop CSG NSW is hosting an event on how Victoria did it. It will be on 28 October at 6.30pm at 22-36 Mountain Road, Ultimo. To register interest go to https://www.facebook.com/events/1763817477225627/
National Environment Meeting Greenpeace is hosting this event on 20 and 22 October at University of Sydney. The first event is free at 6pm (but you need to RSVP). The second day is a whole day of discussions including Christine Milne, John Hewson and Tony Windsor as panelists. For info and tickets https://nationalenvironmentmeeting.com.au/
Holy Cross Family Day Holy Cross will be holding a family day to celebrate its 125th birthday and we will be there. It will be on 20 November 10am-4pm at 517 Victoria Road, Ryde. Lots of fun for the family. Come and say hello.
Insects in the garden The Habitat at 251 Quarry Rd, Ryde at the entrance to Santa Rosa Park is holding an information session on the benefits of insects in your garden on Saturday 29 October 10.30am-12.30pm. RSVP by 21 October at http://info@iewf.org
Shrimptons Creek Planting Day Come and help extend an area for small native birds by planting native plants on Saturday 5 November 1-2pm. For information contact Bev at http://info@iewf.org
NEWS AND EVENTS
NSW Land Clearing Legislation Within the next two weeks of sitting, Mike Baird’s government will present legislation for drastic and environmentally irresponsible land clearing laws. Let him know that you don’t want to see this tabled either by Facebook, tweet or email. http://www.standupfornature.org.au
South Australia storms The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Environment minister and numerous LNP members as well as Nick Xenophon have blamed renewable energy for the horrific storms in SA which brought down power lines. The emergency energy ministers meeting last week saw the state governments which had strong renewable energy targets (SA, Victoria, ACT and, Queensland) stand by their targets. We have written to Mr Turnbull, Mr Frydenberg (Environment Minister) and Mr John Alexander (Bennelong federal member), strongly voicing our concerns about the government’s attack on renewable energy. During the recent election campaign Turnbull praised SA’s renewable energy target. Read the transcript of his speech at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/30/ignorant-rubbish-daniel-andrews-slams-malcolm-turnbull-over-sa-blackout-comments
If you’d like to see an article as to why the transmission towers went down, have a look at http://https://medium.com/@andynehl/why-did-so-many-of-south-australias-electricity-transmission-towers-collapse-1604702516b1#.gfgffswql
If you would like to read about the benefits of wind power, read this US Climate Reality’s report https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/six-wind-power-faqs-will-make-you-major-fan
If you’d like a laugh about what to blame on renewables, go to https://twitter.com/search?q=%23stuffwecanblameonrenewables&src=typd
Adani The Queensland Government has given the Carmichael Mine another leg up by declaring the mine is ‘critical infrastructure’. Sign the petition to tell the premier it’s the wrong way to go. https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/great-barrier-reef–3/adani-is-back–3/adani-are-back
If you’re feeling really fired up about it, you can call the Queensland Premier and leave a message. It’s an effective way of voicing your concerns and is easy. For how to do this go to http://fightforthereef.org.au/call-premier-palaszczuk
BP in the Great Australian Bight At last some good news! BP has pulled out from its plan to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight. However, there are other oil companies that may want to do it instead. Sign the petition to Malcom Turnbull asking he rule out that possibility https://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/prime-minister-step-save-bight
Fossil fuel executives bonuses Market Forces studied 25 companies that have spent more than $27 billion exploring for more coal, oil and gas in Australia since 2012 and found over half of them explicitly reward exploration as part of their executive’s renumeration packages. This will affect your super. Tell your super fund to stop these bonuses by going to http://superswitch.org.au/campaigns/exploration
AGL Is the biggest polluter in Australia. At its recent AGM the company’s board tried to justify paying its CEO $6 million. It was also announced the appointment of a long-time oil executive so it’s obvious that AGL thinks it can continue business as usual for a long time. Outside the AGM was a large protesting group. Join 350.org’s campaign to ask AGL to close down their coal and gas exploration by 2025 by going to http://dirtyagl.com/take-action
Aussie Backyard Bird Count The annual Aussie bird count is on 17-23 October and is a great way to observe the birdlife in your backyard. For info and the app go to http://aussiebirdcount.org.au/
Nature Conservancy Nature Photography competition Here’s a fun competition for those who love to take photos of nature. Competition closes 4 November. For details go to http://www.natureaustralia.org.au/photo
Solar powering East Timor In Remexio, one of the poorest districts in East Timor, every household will be powered by solar panels by the end of this year through an initiative of a group in Kangaroo Valley who have been working on this project since 2009. http://www.kangaroovalley.nsw.au/directory/community-groups/kangaroo-valley-remexio-partnership/
The Vatican to divest? Seven Catholic institutions all over the world have announced they are divesting from fossil fuels. It is hoped that the Vatican will follow suit. https://350.org/press-release/catholic-institutions-around-the-world-announce-they-are-divesting-from-fossil-fuel-extraction-marking-the-largest-faith-based-divestment-announcement
Carmichael Mine NAB is the only Australian bank which has ruled out financing the Carmichael Mine. Send an email to Commonwealth, Westpac and ANZ banks to ask them to do the same.http://action.marketforces.org.au/page/speakout/two-degrees-means-no-carmichael-finance
Capture the Sun 2030 Instagram photography competition This competition was organised by Solar Citizens. You can look at the winning entries. http://www.capturethesun2030.com The competition was supported by Diamond Energy which is a renewable energy provider. You can switch to them by going to https://diamondenergy.com.au/capture-the-sun-2030
Save the planet by changing economics? Maybe it’s time to rethink economics and endless growth if we want to save the planet. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/jul/15/clean-energy-wont-save-us-economic-system-can