News Nov 23rd
Posted on 30 November 2006 by e-news
MASG NEWS
It congratulations week for the Mount Alexander Community
1. Movie Screening of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” Nov 23rd
Congratulations to over 300 people attended the Private Screening from a broad cross section of business and community leaders. Dave Stretch proprietor of the Theatre Royal said it was by far the biggest private screening of any movie they have had…so much so that the distributor of the movie has extended the season in Castlemaine for another week. Congratulations to the 12 Volunteers, the MASG executive and David Stretch that made this event so successful and a special thanks to Bindy Gross who was a major instigator and sponsor of the evening.
It is of course not the beginning of the end of our work and conversations around climate change, rather the end of the beginning (to badly paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill !!) Congratulations also in order to the volunteers who will staff a MASG table at all public screenings of the film up until Wednesday the 29th.
2. Commitment to combat climate change
Congratulations to the 19 individuals/businesses/organisations that have committed themselves to reducing their emissions by 30% by 2010 and are aiming for zero net emissions by 2020, all following the film night on Thursday.
3. Castlemaine North Primary School goes Carbon neutral
We congratulate the Castlemaine North School Council who decided on Wednesday the 15th that the school would aim to become Carbon Neutral. This is the first school in our area to go carbon neutral, and will be a great leadership example for the pupils and the rest of the community.
4. State Festival Food Working Group met this week and altered the draft food programme for the State Festival. We will be using the idea of the Carbon Neutral Hub as a venue to engage the community in the concept of local food and beverages rather than primarily working with local food outlets. Will keep you posted. If anyone is interested in joining any of the Carbon Neutral State Festival Working Groups, contact Carolyn 54706978 dc@masg,org.au
MASG EVENTS
1. Final Quick and Clean Friday for 2006 Next Friday the 1st of December will be our last Q&C for 2006. Bring some food to share and some celebratory drinks as we toast to a great first year for MASG and thank all the volunteers who have worked on projects.
MASG REQUESTS
1. Staff a table. At the Inconvenient Truth public screenings. With the extended season we need more volunteers to staff a MASG table during the screenings. From Thursday the 30th onwards. Ring Dean @ office 54 70 6978 or email dc@masg.org.au
2. One paragraph success stories We want some short stories of how you were inspired to do something and what you did to reduce your ecological footprint for our sustainability stories on our funky website. See Just do IT on the website www.masg.org.au for an example and email or drop your contribution into us.
3. Distributing MASG newsletters to noticeboards round Castlemaine we need someone to distribute our weekly newsletter and other MASG material to prominent noticeboards etc around town on a weekly basis. Call the office 54 70 6325 or dc@masg.org.au
4. Climate Change Joke Competition. Come on we need your creative efforts to help bring some levity into our wacky ride to global meltdown. Submit your offerings to the office 54 70 6978 or dc@masg.org.au.
5. The Carbon Neutral State Festival Food Working Group is working on a comprehensive local food producer directory to enable us to produce “100km” meals as part of our State Festival food programme. If anyone has contact details for any food producers within 100km of Castlemaine contact Carolyn 54706978.
OTHER:
Please note these events are not MASG endorsed and are for members information only.
1. Council to vote on real reduction targets and going Carbon neutral
This Tuesday the 28th the Mount Alexander Shire Council will vote on a greenhouse gas emissions reductions motion that targets a 30% reduction by 2010 and zero net emissions by 2020. Let’s hope they make the right decision. The meeting starts at 7.30 pm @ Elderly Citizens next to the Phee Broadway.
2. Peter Shmigel, Liberal candidate for Balmain, has pledged to run the world’s first carbon-neutral election campaign. The announcement was made in the presence of Peter Debnam, NSW Liberal Leader. “Climate change is the largest challenge ever faced by humanity. We each need to take responsibility for our own greenhouse gas impacts and this is my small way of doing it during my election campaign for NSW Parliament,” Peter Shmigel said.
FINAL WORD
Our thoughts on the findings of Nuclear Energy Inquiry released this week are clearly summed up by Mr Twain
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please”
Mark Twain 1899