Maths and volunteers and zero waste and wind!
Posted on 20 June 2013 by e-news
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The next e-news will be published on Thursday, 11 July (or possibly Friday, 12 July), so get your contributions in to us by Thursday, by 11am.
Do your Maths, tonight
Tonight at the Theatre Royal, 7.30pm, the game-changing movie Do the Math. Come out on the darkest day of the year to the Theatre Royal, renew your membership of MASG if you haven’t already and watch the movie.
Introduced by Cr Jess Howard and with a facilitated discussion afterwards led by Susie Burke, Senior Psychologist, public interest, environment, disaster response at The Australian Psychological Society.
Don’t miss this MASG fundraiser.
Volunteers needed!
Fact: people who wash dishes are sexy (see picture)
Wanted, wanted, for the MASG Wash against Waste Trailer for the Winter Village Festival, volunteers!
This Saturday Castlemaine will celebrate the inaugural Winter Village Festival, starting at 5pm.
Contact Nicky Valentini on 0407 715 557 if you can help. It’s fun!
We’re windy
Last Saturday at Wesley Hill Market Mount Alexander residents joined 250 other world-wide celebrations for Global Wind-power Day. The day raised awareness of the fantastic contribution of wind power to clean energy world wide. Mount Alexander Community Wind (MACWind) held an information stall with children’s activities making pin-wheels and animal balloons.
“Wind power has an important role to play in transitioning Australia to safe, clean sources of energy, along with solar, hydro and other renewable technologies,” said Project Officer Jarra Hicks.
We can go below
Another 30 people signed up to the go below campaign recently – 400 to go for us to beat our two bigger neighbours. Get involved! You can register at the Castlemaine information centre in the Market Building in Castlemaine or online at zerowastechallenge.weebly.com
How did you go on getting below that line on the bin? Many of the people who have signed up said they put their bin out every second or third week as they don’t have much rubbish. Congratulations! How would you manage a total zero waste for a short time or longer? One household in Seymour managed to reduce their waste to one bin and one recycled bin for a whole year. See how they did that on their blog
The Hub Plot Jottings
The Hub ‘Street’ Plot
Bringing seasonal and sustainable gardening to the footpath!
Have you seen the fantastic wicking veggie box we’ve installed on the footpath outside the Hub Plot?
Thanks to the perseverance of Neil and with support from Growing Abundance and Sustainable Gardening Australia, we managed to get approval for our first street garden plot.
The Hub owners kindly donated the box and The Hub Plot volunteers worked hard last Monday to complete the wicking fittings, fill it with soil and compost and plant it out.
Please mention to your friendly Councillors how much you love it. This is a trial for Castlemaine and we hope that approval will be given for many more.
Want more info on making wicking beds? Drop in to the Hub Plot on Monday mornings. We have a detailed guide to help you make your own. Or you may be interested to come to the workshop at Bress on the 3 August, (see below).
Natural Pest Control for Fruit Trees at The Hub Plot
The emphasis of this session will be hands on although still covering the essentials of natural pest control.
Sunday 21 July, 10am-12pm.
Cost: $20 / $15 concession
The Hub Plot, Templeton St Castlemaine behind the Good Table
Bookings or call 5472 4842 or drop into the Community House at 210 Barker St, Castlemaine.
Wicking garden beds: theory and practice
Plus an Introduction to seed sowing and planting for spring.
The Hub Plot, with Bress Winery, is running this workshop on wicking beds from IBC food-grade containers and apple crates. Simple and cheap ways to make wicking beds.
Followed by a session by Louise, Bress’s kitchen gardener, introducing seed sowing and planting for successful spring and summer crops.
Saturday 3 August, 10am-2pm, $35 including morning tea and lunch. Bress Winery, 3894 Calder Hwy, Harcourt. Bookings essential with a $15 deposit through Bress on 5474 2262.
Premier’s Sustainability Awards
Entries now open The awards celebrate the efficient use of water, resources and energy, better waste management and recycling practices, fine environmental works and effective, practical community action. Entries close Monday 15 July.
Be a solar chef
SolSource heats up fast. In addition to grilling, you can use it to steam, boil, bake or even fry. Cooking with the sun! It’s now available on Kickstarter and it’s the perfect gift for Father’s Day (if your Dad’s into cooking, that is). SolSource has been taken to low-income families in Asia, and their recent impact studies in western China have shown that families can save up to US$50 a month by using it to cook with clean energy.
SolSource is going global, and you can contribute to the campaign today.
Volunteer positions
Are you interested in being a local organiser for 100% Renewable ? 100% has been busy cooking up some great new campaign directions for the federal election and beyond.
In 2012 Dean (recently gone to Thailand with Kaz and family), Amy Sattler (this year busier than before!) Raph Reed and Bernard Tonkin (now Regional Organiser for West/North Vic) worked with the Bendigo Sustainability Group to organise the Let’s Build Big Solar campaign. We have a great bunch of local MASG 100% supporters ready to make things happen.
100% is a great National campaign working in with other groups and providing a great opportunity to get involved in action and advocacy on key climate issues. See what we did in 2012...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsFxem9IWjU
2013 Federal Election
We will use the “Solar Scorecard” to score federal candidates around the country on their commitment to renewables. We are keeping faith with the people we polled around Bendigo last year, 95 per cent of whom wanted renewable energy. National percentages were similar.
2016 Federal Election
Believe it or not we’re thinking ahead to 2016. Solar Citizens is a longer term initiative leading up to 2016 federal election where we plan to build a political force out of the over a million Australian solar owners, as well as those who aspire to or simply support solar, (our target is 50,000 signed up to Solar Citizens). In the meantime share with your friends and sign up yourself.
Please contact Bernard Tonkin if you’re interested on 0459 472 558
Fossilised news!
Keep coal in the ground, where it belongs Jobs are important but why prop up last century industries, when clean energy is the path to all our survival? Will financial markets veto Australia’s mega coal mines? A new report has raised questions about the economic viability of at least one giant coal project proposed for Queensland’s Galilee Basin, the latest report to question whether the multi-billion dollar projects will get off the ground. China launches carbon trading scheme The world’s largest carbon emitter has launched its first carbon trading scheme as it tries to reduce pollution from greenhouse gases.
Last word
Those extreme, dangerous, carbon-intensive, and polluting resources run the very substantial risk of being stranded assets, because, on one hand, I think the progress of solar and wind is moving faster than most investors realise and, on the other, I expect the continuous rise in the price of hydrocarbons as we continue to move through the cheap stuff and move on to the more expensive stuff.
– Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist of Grantham Mayo van Otterloo (GMO), one of 50 individuals individuals identified by Bloomberg Markets magazine in 2011 as having the “the ability to move markets or shape ideas and policies”.
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