News Thursday August 4th 2011
Posted on 4 August 2011 by e-news
MASG News & events
Goldfields Solar Hub Sunny Information Sessions.
Saturday 6th August from 2 to 4pm, Christ Church [Anglican] Parish Hall, 8 Mostyn Street. Bring your electricity bills and discuss what size system and feed-in-tariff would suit your situation, ask about tariffs, pay back periods and what to do if you’re in a heritage area. We’ll also cover the process of connecting to the grid after your panels have been installed. Mike Reeves, our Goldfields SolarHub Technical Officer, will be at the Castlemaine Sunny Sessions.
Comfy Homes: It’s what you know AND who you know!
Jo, Teresa and Eva at Green Goes the Grocers, helping you with your home window glazing solutions!
Comfy homes is gathering quite a collection of photo profiles of the local businesses and tradies that provide us with sustainable and energy efficient products and services to make our homes more comfy in summer and winter. And they’re people that we know and trust! Take, for example, the crew at Green Goes the Grocers. Jo, Teresa, Eva and the other friendly staff are getting in another order of affordable plastic double glazing that, once installed, stops heat escaping through your windows. Have a look at the Comfy Homes Project link for other window and secondary glazing options, as well as the list of 20 pages of products and services. If you know of anything else that we can list contact deanna@masg.org.au
Sustainable House Tours: Volunteer and be part of the action
Saturday October 15th: As a major fundraiser and inspiration for action MASG will be running tours of 4 local houses that demonstrate sustainability features. The tour is a joint event with the Mount Alexander Shire Council and will be advertised in ReNew Magazine and elsewhere. We hope to attract people from across Victoria and will be looking for volunteers who want to help showcase the best of our region’s housing and help raise $ for MASG. For more details contact Carolyn 54 70 6325 or e: kaz@masg.org.au
MASG – advocacy update: Street stalls and porky pies competition
MASG members will be on street stalls at the Wesley Hill market this Saturday the 6th and in Mostyn St Saturday the 13th.
We will be helping people write letters in support of getting on with tackling climate change and passing the Carbon Price package as well as taking nominations for the biggest lie or “porky pie” heard in the last few months as part of a 100% Renewables Campaign Porky Pie competition. Watch this YouTube of local identity Rich Crooke from the Multibillionaires Council of Australia explain the Porky Pie competition.
Jottings from The Hub Plot.
There’s been lots of action at The Hub plot this week : turning the compost, a welcome supply of horse manure arrived, picking the red cabbages, planting yacon, planting our beetroot seedlings and planting a loquat tree. However the greatest excitement was welcoming our newest member Patrick, the scarecrow. Thanks to our
Mo and Kat cuddle the headless Patrick
scarecrow team Mo and Kat.
Mo shows off his scarecrow Patrick
The Hub Plot garden group meets every Monday morning to garden, swap produce, share garden ideas and have a cuppa. If you’d like to meet Patrick the scarecrow or join in the gardening drop in.
Monthly Produce Exchange
Bree invites local gardeners to share their produce in the last winter exchange starting at 11 o’clock in Victory Park this coming Sunday the 7th of August.
Congratulations to Solar Powered Castlemaine Goldfields Soccer Club
New clubrooms with 3kW of solar flat mounted on the roof....to avoid damage from stray balls
MASG congratulates the local Chewton based soccer club for the recent commissioning of a 3kW solar PV system on the new clubhouse roof. The club acknowledged supporting grants from the Council, Maldon Community Bank and assistance & a great discount price from local PV supplier Steve Breheny.
NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS
Beaufort Hospital to use biomass for heating
The Pyrenees Shire Council has secured $600,000 of State Government funding for an innovative bio-energy project at the Beaufort Hospital and Community Precinct to test and monitor the practical issues involved in bioenergy.
Malcolm Turnbull defends the science
Last week Malcolm Turnbull made a passionate defence of climate science at the Inaugural Virginia Chadwick Memorial Foundation Lecture. Download the transcript here (63Kb) Malcolm Turnbull aug 2011
35 sustainable living brochures in 11 different languages
let people know how to live more sustainable in languages from Amharic to Zomi. Created by Environment Victoria as part of the GreenTown program you’ll find ways to save energy and money, to keep warm in winter, to grow a healthy sustainable garden and more. Feel free to print on recycled paper and share these with your networks.
NZ trading scheme slashes carbon emissions
NZ trading scheme includes agriculture....for obvious reasons!
New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme has helped boost investment in renewable energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a review by the country’s conservative government as reported in the AGE NZ trading scheme story.
Tax said to boost, not kill, steel city
Whyalla Steel works at night
Tax that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said would turn Whyalla into a ”ghost town” will improve profits at the steel-making town’s major employer, analysis shows as reported in the AGE Steel City story.
Hot water to boost jobs
LATROBE Valley residents will have an opportunity to purchase a stake in their future following the launch of an innovative campaign to establish a solar hot water factory in Morwell. The Earthworker Cooperative plans to establish the solar hot water factory in Morwell and last week launched its 100,000 Australians Campaign aimed at gaining financial backing for the project.
Solar skylight takes the heat off
A skylight that generates solar energy and lights rooms at the same time could be a boon for commercial buildings and airports as reported in the NewScientist.
Germans get on their e-bikes
Electric bikes may be the bicycle industry’s next big thing if German users are anything to go by with 300,000 electric bikes sold this year, a 50% increase on sales in one year. Read more in the Electric Bike Age story.
Otway mining plan scrapped
A MINING company boss has ditched his firm’s plans to dig for coal in the Dean’s Marsh area of the Otways after hundreds of concerned residents voiced their opposition at a dramatic community meeting this week as reported in the Weekly Times.
Unburnable Carbon :what if major companies can’t sell their listed fossil fuel assets?
The Carbon Tracker Initiative has released a detailed Unburnable Carbon report outlining which companies and stock exchanges are exposed to dramatic write downs on the values of their fossil fuel assets if we are to take the warnings of climate scientists seriously and limit the burning of coal, oil and fossil “natural” gas.
If we are to try and keep our climate within a safe 2o warming limit it is estimated that we cannot burn more than a 1/5th of all listed reserves of oil, gas and coal on existing company registers. That means that companies whose business is in extracting fossil fuels and whose value is linked to the size of their reserves will only be allowed to sell 20% of those “assets” if we are to stop climate change.
Do Rio Tinto, Santos and the others hold "unburnable" assets ?
What does that mean for the ultimate share price of Xtrata, or BHP Billiton? What will happen to the Australian Stock exchange which has between 20 to 30% of the total listed market capitalisation based on fossil fuel reserves?
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