Thursday June 23rd 2011
Posted on 23 June 2011 by e-news
Download a pdf text version of this news here. (52 kB)text version enews 23 june 2011
MASG News
Download the 780 renewable energy conversations in Bendigo- Mount Alexander Report below (3Mb)
BSG-MASG Renewable Energy Conversations Report June 2011Membership – Join now and win!
Win a Wattson and support MASG too...a double win for the environment!
If you renew your membership before 30th June you will go into a draw for a Wattson – the leading home personal energy monitor . The Wattson is valued at $220 and will help you see the electricity your home is using.
Join a friend and win!
introduce a friend to MASG! If they join they will go into the above draw, and you will go into a new draw for our Join a friend and win promotion. Ends 30th June.
Over 90% want the government to unlock renewable energy.
On Friday 24th June members of MASG and the Bendigo Sustainability Group will be handing over the results of over 780 conversations with local people around renewable energy to local Federal MP Steve Gibbons. They will be also presenting him a giant key and asking him to unlock clean energy like solar and wind.
The opinions and comments of the hundreds of people we talked with were recorded. The groups were taking part in the National 100% renewable energy campaign along with over 70 other groups across every state and territory. All up nationally over 14,000 conversations were recorded.
Download the local report of the 780 conversations here.(1.8Mb)
BSG- MASG 780 conversations report
Ring Steve Gibbons MP
Will Steve Gibbons stand up for renewable energy
MASG has produced a flyer that we are distributing that calls on Steve Gibbons to stand up to big polluters and support renewable energy. Ring Steve on 5443 9055 and tell him you want $ from the carbon price going to renewable energy, $2 or $3 Billion dollars per annum, to help make renewable energy affordable for all Australians.
Download the flyer here and circulate it in your networks. (700 kB).100percent GIBBONS flyers
Members end of month gathering
Is on tomorrow Friday 24th June from 5pm to 6pm @ The Hub.
The theme this month is waste. What is happening locally and what can you do. Share ideas and find out more. All welcome.
Sustainability Review
MASG members attended the SV review in Castlemaine on 23 June – one of 14 across Victoria. Attended by community groups and business including GWF/Don KR, participants acknowledged SVs past programs and strongly pointed to the need to continue regional representation and the desire to fund sustainability groups for long term projects and capacity in non-metro areas such as Mount Alexander.
News and Events from other groups
Hepburn Wind begins generating clean, renewable energy.
Yesterday Hepburn Wind announced “After six years, we’ve just hit our biggest milestone. We received our final certificate of electrical safety on Tuesday and we generated our first power into the grid this morning at 10.20am!” Congratulations from MASG, we look forward to emulating you if we can !
Food For Thought
Food Forest—Design for Life – Movie
See the movie with the Growing Abundance project
Annemarie and Graham Brookman travelled the world to look for a sustainable way for humans to live on the planet. They adopted the permaculture design system and built an amazing organic home, farm and lifestyle. This beautiful, pacey and inspirational film is rich with interviews, philosophy and practical examples drawn from homes, towns and cities. Sunday 26 June, 4.30pm Castlemaine Continuing Education, 30 Templeton Street. $5. Stay and share delicious seasonal soup.
Regional development in a time of changing climate
Bendigo Think Tank to be conducted by the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research and The Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities at Latrobe University, Bendigo on Tuesday 12th July. A conversation between business leaders, government officials and academics from the region to look at ways to enhance innovative ways to adapt and take advantage of future climate change. There will be an opportunity to participate in group discussions. Please RSVP Patricia Ibbotson at Latrobe University on 5444 7859 or email p.ibbotson@latrobe.edu.au
National and Global news
Green ”finance corporation” ?
The Greens are seeking this to fund and roll out large-scale renewable energy projects as part of a deal on a carbon tax with the federal government and independents. Labor is continuing to prioritise household compensation and jobs, and insisting that assistance should be ”technology neutral” – meaning gas and clean coal should be part of the mix, not just solar or wind. The Greens want the corporation to focus solely on renewable energy. Read more about the Green Finance idea in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Greenhouse gas data on a new CSIRO website for the first time.
CSIRO monitoring station at Cape Grim
This CSIRO website shows the levels of greenhouse gases measured in the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere for the past 35 years. Observed greenhouse gas concentrations – at Cape Grim, Tasmania – can be easily explored by members of the public. Cape Grim experiences some of the cleanest air in the world and reflects global changes in greenhouse gases.
“The atmospheric level of carbon dioxide, which is the most important long-lived greenhouse gas influenced by human activities, is at its highest level in more than a million years,”
Dr Paul Fraser from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research.
Good news 1 : Solar in Africa
Solar Sister is an not for profit group that aims to eradicates energy poverty by empowering women with economic opportunity. They combine the breakthrough potential of solar technology with a deliberately woman-centered direct sales network to bring light, hope and opportunity to even the most remote communities in rural Africa.
Good news 2: Solar in Bangladesh
Renewable energy- a real breakthough for people power !
More than a million households are now powered by solar energy in Bangladesh – the fastest expansion of solar power in the world, according to Bangladeshi officials. Aided by non-governmental organizations that provide low-cost loans to install solar panels, Bangladesh’s rural households — most of which are off the electricity grid — has gone from only 7,000 households using solar panels in 2002. The country reached the 1 million-household milestone 18 months ahead of schedule, and by 2014 Bangladeshi officials are aiming to power 2.5 million homes
Good news 3 – environmental jobs
US National Public Radio (NPR) reports on the work of economist Robert Pollin from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who was recently hired by the US Department of Commerce to work out how many environmental jobs their recent
Green Jobs all over the world- installing panels in Bangladesh
investments in clean energy have generated. “If you took the [US] government’s stimulus program on green activities, you get 17 jobs more or less per $1 million of expenditure,” Pollin reports. By comparison for every $1 million invested in the military creates about 11 jobs. And an investment of $1 million in the oil and gas industry creates just five jobs. And with all the talk about a carbon price in Australia, that’s a good news story that doesn’t make the front page often enough.
Liberally confused
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s push for an $80 million non-binding plebiscite on the proposed carbon tax is dead in the water after key Senator Steve Fielding rejected the proposal as a “political stunt”. Mr Abbott proposed the poll yesterday, but said he would still oppose a carbon tax even if voters gave it the thumbs up. Read the ABC news report on the plebicite you have to ignore the results here.
State of the Oceans – getting warmer quickly
the International Programme on the State of the Oceans has recently brought together coral reef ecologists, toxicologists, and fisheries scientists. When they compared notes, the result was grim. Co-author Professor Ove
Professor Ove Houegh-Guldbert in flattering pose with mask and snorkel
Hoegh-Guldberg specialises in reef ecosystems. Well we’re seeing unprecedented warming, we’re seeing acidification in the ocean and now we’re starting to see a drop in oxygen concentrations throughout the major part of the ocean. It’s impacting directly on sea life but this is a potential early step towards conditions which are associated with so-called mass extinction events.
Dr Alex Rogers, scientific director of the International Programme on the State of the Oceans says when he got together with his colleagues they realised changes in ocean temperatures were occurring much faster than they had expected. “The changes that people had been predicting would happen in the lifetime of our children or our children’s children, are happening really now before our eyes.”
Wet enough for you?
Melbourne’s main water reserve, the Thomson Reservoir has reached 40 per cent capacity for the first time in five years. An official said – “Just over two years ago it was at about 16 per cent and now it’s at 40 per cent. In pure litre
The Thompson Dam- finally filling
terms that’s been a 250 billion litre gain.”
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