MASG news Jan 4th 2008
Posted on 4 January 2008 by e-news
For more details ring 54 70 6978 or dc@masg.org.au
MASG new position – ADMINISTRATION MANAGER
We are growing rapidly and have a range of projects that will be working with local people to take action on climate change. Join us and help us become a more sustainable community. The Administration Manager’s work will complement the projects and activities being undertaken to achieve our goal of a carbon neutral community by 2015.
Click here for a position description and outline of the application process Administration Manager or contact Dean on 54 706978
MASG is still collecting old mobile phones for recycling and every phone brings $5 to our fundraising efforts too! Drop them into our office at 233 Barker St Castlemaine.
Welcome back to 2008
This year we will be launching a series of projects that will need YOUR involvement to be successful. We will be asking our 550 members to choose to support at least ONE project or activity in 2008. Some of the projects include:
Housing: 20 people committing to two afternoons in 2008 to staff the demonstration home in Campbells Creek.
Renewable energy: 10 people committing to do at least one public information stall during the year to get the public more interested in renewables.
Greenpower: at least 200 new greenpower users.
Business: 50 businesses signed up with MASG to grow their business not their emissions
OTHER NEWS AND EVENTS, not endorsed by MASG
V/LINE bans bicycles
V/Line is banning bicycles on public transport during peak hours. Jill Gibson is organizing local cycle commuters and others who are affected by this retrogressive step to meet at the Castlemaine Train Station at 7am this Monday the 8th for a photo. For details contact jillg@vic.chariot.net.au or 5472 3098
Jill recommends that people register their concerns by contacting The Hon. Lynne KOSKY, MP Minister for Public Transport and Minister for the Arts, Level 26, 80 Collins Street Melbourne Vic 3000 Phone 9655 3300 or by contacting V/Line on 1800 800 120 or Write to : V/Line Customer Relations, Reply Paid 5343, Melbourne VIC 3001 or online
Update: Country cyclists win reprieve from railways bike ban – The Age.
Meanwhile car based transport gets more expensive….Oil hits record $US100 mark
Oil vaulted to a record $US100 a barrel overnight as violence in Nigeria, tight energy stockpiles and a weaker dollar triggered a surge of speculative buying, American dealers said.”Oil could rise further from here. It’s simple supply and demand
fundamentals,” said Kris Voorspools, energy analyst at Fortis in Brussels.
Crude oil prices jumped 58 per cent in 2007, the biggest annual gain this decade. Oil has nearly tripled since 2000 – driven by rising demand in China and other developing countries, tight stockpile levels and geopolitical turmoil.
ABC News Thursday January 3, 2008
Bali climate talks analysis and the current US presidential pre selection
From George Monbiot of the Guardian.
America will keep on wrecking climate talks as long as those with vested interests in oil and gas fund its political system. The Bali round of negotiations is not finished but it is currently even worse than the Kyoto protocol. It contains no targets and no dates.
Since 1990, the energy and natural resources sector – mostly coal, oil, gas, logging and agribusiness – has given $418m to federal politicians in the US. Transport companies have given $355m. The other is the width: the undiscriminating nature of this munificence. The big polluters favour the Republicans, but most of them also fund Democrats. During the 2000 presidential campaign, oil and gas companies lavished money on Bush, but they also gave Gore $142,000, while transport companies gave him $347,000. The whole US political system is in hock to people who put their profits ahead of the biosphere.
So don’t believe all this nonsense about waiting for the next president to sort it out. This is a much bigger problem than George Bush. Until the American people confront their political funding system, their politicians will keep speaking from the pocket, not the gut. See the full article.
Coming events for 2008
** ‘The Architecture of Self – how our dwelling places impact on who we are’. Saturday 26th January, 2 – 4pm. Talk by Peter Cowman: an Irish architect who teaches people how to create their own personal space. This ‘living’ architecture is seen as a vehicle for following one’s individual life stream, allowing one to live one’s life in harmony with the outside world. Peter’s work has been featured on Irish television and radio and his writings on Living Architecture have been widely published. This is his first visit to Australia.
** Tours of Melliodora “Melliodora” (Hepburn Permaculture Gardens), on the edge of Hepburn Springs, the spa centre in Central Victoria. It is one of the best documented and well known permaculture demonstration sites in Australia. Passive solar house, mixed food gardens, orchards, dams and livestock, and creek revegetation show how permaculture design can help to restore and improve land, provide for residents’ needs and enjoyment in a cool inland climate. Tour Dates 2008: 3rd Feb, 2nd March, 6th April, 4th May. www.holmgren.com.au
Final Word
“A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.”Texas Guinan, nightclub hostess.
From the Vintage Book of Dissent by M. Rosen and D.Widgery.
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