A Snake For All Seasons (a crafty draughty activity)
Charmaine (CAM member extraordinaire) was wandering along Sydney Road and noticed a sign outside the Baptist Church in Brunswick. The sign advertised a free drop in session for women interested in learning to sew. “What a great idea,” she thought as she made her way into the building. She met Jennifer, who volunteers regularly with the Sewing Group as well as the Church. They got chatting, and crafty ideas to raise awareness about climate change were soon exchanged. (more…)
Meet the team: Ellen
Every month we get to know a different CAMer, putting them through their paces with our 20 Questions.
This month we find-out about one of CAM’s creators, organiser extraordinaire and late night R’n'B listener – Ellen.
1 Likes
Train travel, dancing around the lounge room, carbohydrates and the novel I’m reading at the moment – A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
2 Dislikes
The fermented products that my boyfriend makes me eat cause their good for me.
3 What do you do?
- For money: a variety of jobs – researcher, conference organiser, composter, refugee advocate.
- For love: climate campaigning with Climate Action Moreland and Friends of the Earth (and most of the things I do for money too…)
4 What do you like about Moreland?
The density of lemon trees per square kilometre. (more…)
Switch off Hazelwood
World Enviroment Day is 10/10/10 this year. And what better way to help the environment than to help replace the most polluting power station in the industrialised world with clean, green – renewable energy.
That’s right CAMsters – it Switch Off Hazelwood time. Last year hundreds of people traveled to the Latrobe Valley to issue the operators of Australia’s largest single source of carbon pollution with a “Community Decommission” order. It was a great fun filled family day with plenty of action from the Carbon Cops, Wombat Warriors, Radical Cheerleaders, Ministers for Energy Resources and Silly Walks, and the Climate Clowns. Check out the ‘flickr photos‘ page from last year. (more…)
Energy Basics
Join us for a concise, practical and easy to understand introduction into how our we produce and use energy in Australia.
How we produce our energy has enormous consequences for everyone, but often we don’t feel confident in our opinions because energy production seems so specialised and complex.
So, to give you the nuts and bolts on Victoria’s energy system, Climate Action Moreland is partnering with Beyond Zero Emissions to present Energy Basics, from 2 pm to 4pm at Ceres Learning Centre next Sunday 3rd October. (more…)
Part 3: Labor’s climate policy: so will we reach our paltry targets?
And we continue our special series on the Labor Party’s 2010 climate policies. Part one is here, and part 2 here. This edition, we discuss rewarding businesses for being responsible, chopping down trees that according to Labor don’t really exist, and we look at where we’re headed under Labor and where we need to go.
Rewarding business for energy efficiency
(hopefully they’ll turn off some lights too)
A one-off bonus tax deduction for businesses that undertake energy-efficiency capital works, starting from mid-2011. Cost of $180 million over four years, and $1 billion over a decade. Plus, in the meantime an extra $30 million for the Green Building Fund, which provides grants for retrofitting buildings. This is sensible, and could go even further. Wonder how long it will be before they start taking funding away from this one?
Rewarding business by freezing time
The government will keep emissions baselines frozen in time, rewarding businesses that reduce or constrain emissions before an ETS is introduced. If only we could freeze the entire world in time until Labor is ready to implement meaningful climate policies.
Green Start
(another embarrassing name change)
This policy replaces the Greens Loans Scheme, which offered interest-free loans to improve household energy efficiency, another scheme which had… issues. To make a fresh start (see what they did there?) Green Start scrapped the loans part and now offers energy assessments and some other vague unspecified energy efficiency help. Nobody knows, basically.
Photo: Peter Halasz
Native forest logging and logging and logging
Labor is arguing in international forums that emissions created from native forest logging should not be counted. Even though Victoria’s native forests are the most carbon rich in the world. And even though deforestation of native forests accounts for 20% of Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions. Labor also says it is committed to a ‛net increase’ in Australia’s ‛vegetation cover’. Oooh, goody, more pine tree plantations where there used to be native forests!
Emissions target shooting
(too little, too late)
Just to recap. The IPCC is a group of scientists who issue comprehensive assessments on climate science. Their report states that to keep global warming at under 2 degrees celsius, Australia as a developed country needs to reduce emissions 40% lower than 1990 levels by 2020. HOWEVER, the IPCCs reports are always on the conservative side because it is a U.N. body and the world’s governments must approve their contents.
So here comes the really hard to take bit. Don’t worry, we’ll get through it together. (more…)
Part 2: Labor’s climate policy funding shuffle dance
This is the second part of our special series on the Labor Party’s 2010 climate policies. Part one is here. This edition, we discuss the funding shuffle dance that is Labor’s renewable energy policies.
Renewable energy (which includes ‛clean coal’ – who knew?)
Renewable Energy Future Fund (is this superannuation for wind farms?)
Well, it’s $652 million to support renewable energy projects, and development of low emissions technologies. It will also be used for energy efficiency programs for households and business. Sounds good, investing in new renewable technologies, doesn’t it? Except, as the Beyond Zero Emissions report outlines, we already have the technology to transition Australia to 100% clean energy.
But hey, we can always improve on existing technology, right? And household energy efficiency is a really effective, cheap way to reduce emissions, so that’s a great use of taxpayer dollars. Only problem: $9 million of this renewable energy money will be used to pay for the Big New Focus Group (BNFG) Huh. Wonder what else they’ll drain this one for. Don’t worry, it’s just a Future Fund, and the future never arrives! Right?
Connecting to the matrix
This is a new policy announcement – $1 billion over a decade to connect renewable energy projects to the electricity grid. Now, if we could only take that $2 billion going into ‛clean coal’ research and put it into actual renewable energy, we might have something substantial to connect to the grid. And how about the rest of the $9 billion we spend on fossil fuel subsidies? We could connect up a lot of renewable energy projects with $9 billion!
Solar Flagships (conjuring up confused images of ships with flags and solar panels)
This was announced in last year’s budget and was supposed to be a $1.5 billion program to establish large solar-power stations. This is great, yes? This is what Australians want – large scale renewable projects! So how’s it going so far? (more…)
Part 1: Labor’s climate policy – moving backwards, fast
This is part one of our special 2010 federal election climate policy series. Part 2 is here, and part 3 here.
It’s all very confusing. So many schemes, funds, initiatives and flagships. Taking money from this one to pay for that one. So here’s a straight-talking summary of Labor’s climate policies, including previously announced schemes.
A Big New Focus Group (BNFG)
Labor’s most immediate and pressing climate change measure is to hold off on pricing carbon until after they open the phone book at random pages, point to 150 names, and have these people represent the general population (hang on, isn’t that what politicians are for?) then let them talk about the science (!!!) and the policy options (???) so they can come to a consensus. Over a period of twelve months. Come on, it’s only going to cost 9 million dollars! Money that would otherwise be supporting renewable energy development, since it’s coming out of the Renewable Energy Future Fund.
Has 150 random people ever come to a consensus on anything, ever? (more…)
Vote Climate icons for Facebook and Twitter
We have developed ‘vote climate’ icons for you to use as your Facebook and Twitter profile pics in the days leading up to the election. This is another great way to get the message out there!
Meet the team: Andrew
Every month we’ll be getting to know a new CAMer and putting them through their paces with our 20 Questions.
This month we ask CAM’s video producer, online magazine editor and op shop lover –Andrew , the hard questions.
1 Likes
The ocean, summertime, responsible and active people, fair trade, live music, inspirational and informative Youtube, people who speak another language than me.
2 Dislikes
The way both major parties treat refugees, cold hands and feet, waste, fossil fuels, heartbreak.
3 What do you do?
I am the editor of the Vagabond Online, which involves promoting ethical choices through articles, videos and the website. MAKE CHOICES YOU CAN FEEL GOOD ABOUT! www.vagmag.org I also run a range of youth development programs through the YMCA. (more…)
Vote Climate this election
Both of the major parties are trying to sweep climate change off the election agenda, but CAM has noticed the bulge under the carpet and we’re doing our bit to pull it out! Over 70% of Australians support action to tackle climate change, but you wouldn’t guess it from the policies of Labor and Liberal. (more…)
