Today (11th May 2009) Richard Branson pledged his support for the Prince of Wales “Frog” Campaign. Richard stated “As you all know, for many years I have been concerned with climate change and its impact. The plight of the world’s rainforests is a massive influence on this and perhaps the single most important factor in protecting our environment – that is why I have served on the steering group for this project.
“I will use my speeches and contacts to reinforce his message. The Prince is looking for public support across the globe by seeking millions of sign ups for his web based petition.”
Simon Burridge CEO of Virgin Games (poker, casino and bingo games) commented “This is another great initiative by Richard and The Prince of Wales. They are setting the standard when it comes to campaigning on climate change. Virgin Games is thrilled to be a part of helping bring awareness of the devastation that it’s having to rainforests all over the world.”
To find out more and get involved with the The Princes Rainforest Project please go to www.rainforestsos.org and pledge your support to saving the worlds rainforests.
About Virgin Games Virgin Games, a subsidiary of Virgin.com Ltd, launched in June 2004 and has quickly established itself as one of the leading gaming websites in the UK. Virgin Games comprises three distinct entertainment offerings, giving consumers the chance to play their favourite online games the Virgin way:
Virgin Casino, part of the Wagerworks network, provides a taste of Vegas online, with classic casino offerings like blackjack and roulette, as well as popular feature slots like Elvis, Cleopatra and Vegas, Baby!
Virgin Poker, offers a huge array of games and content for beginners through to experienced pros – as well as the most generous loyalty scheme in the industry. The successful Virgin Poker Festivals, which take place in casinos around the UK throughout the year, now allow gamers to experience the fun of Virgin Poker offline too.
Virgin Bingo offers cash prizes worth thousands of pounds in the progressive jackpots, as well as regular promotions and an unrivalled loyalty scheme.
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15 May 2009
28 March 2009
Lights out? Let's party, everybody, by Jennie Curtin - The Sydney Morning Herald - 28th March 2009
As Sydney's ferries sound their horns at 8.30 tonight, they will trigger the start of many activities for Earth Hour.
At the Table Bar on the lower ground floor of the old GPO in Martin Place, the desperate and dateless will begin speed dating by candlelight.
At Sydney Observatory, amateur astronomers will look into a rare Sydney darkness.
And at Circular Quay, treasure hunters will begin to make sense of environmental clues.
Cockatoo Island is fully booked for 280 people to camp by candlelight. And at Taronga Zoo, the Environment Institute of Australia will host a green-tie ball.
A beach party at Avalon will begin an hour earlier, at 7.30pm, with fire-twirling and live music pumped through solar-powered amps. It will follow an eco-living expo, from 3pm to 6pm, at the Avalon Surf Life Saving Club.
At Bondi Beach, Kid Mac, an Earth Hour spokesman, will perform in a concert that also marks National Youth Week.
Mosmanites - notorious for having one of the largest carbon footprints in the world - can take food and candles to the Rotunda at Balmoral Beach and picnic to the tunes of a string quartet.
At Manly there will be music and scuba diving, a sausage sizzle and free candles.
Many local councils have arranged events. Among them, Willoughby will host a free evening of drumming, fire twirling and music at Naremburn Park, on the corner of Park Road and Station Street, from 5pm to 9.30pm. There will be recycling workshops, renewable energy information and sustainable living demonstrations. Jane Caro from The Gruen Transfer will be MC.
At Carss Bush Park, in the Kogarah Council area, people can watch an Aboriginal Dreaming story told through dance, didjeridoos and clapsticks. (Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
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At the Table Bar on the lower ground floor of the old GPO in Martin Place, the desperate and dateless will begin speed dating by candlelight.
At Sydney Observatory, amateur astronomers will look into a rare Sydney darkness.
And at Circular Quay, treasure hunters will begin to make sense of environmental clues.
Cockatoo Island is fully booked for 280 people to camp by candlelight. And at Taronga Zoo, the Environment Institute of Australia will host a green-tie ball.
A beach party at Avalon will begin an hour earlier, at 7.30pm, with fire-twirling and live music pumped through solar-powered amps. It will follow an eco-living expo, from 3pm to 6pm, at the Avalon Surf Life Saving Club.
At Bondi Beach, Kid Mac, an Earth Hour spokesman, will perform in a concert that also marks National Youth Week.
Mosmanites - notorious for having one of the largest carbon footprints in the world - can take food and candles to the Rotunda at Balmoral Beach and picnic to the tunes of a string quartet.
At Manly there will be music and scuba diving, a sausage sizzle and free candles.
Many local councils have arranged events. Among them, Willoughby will host a free evening of drumming, fire twirling and music at Naremburn Park, on the corner of Park Road and Station Street, from 5pm to 9.30pm. There will be recycling workshops, renewable energy information and sustainable living demonstrations. Jane Caro from The Gruen Transfer will be MC.
At Carss Bush Park, in the Kogarah Council area, people can watch an Aboriginal Dreaming story told through dance, didjeridoos and clapsticks. (Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
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19 December 2008
Greenpeace commissions video art by Keith Loutit to shift perspective on whaling - News.com.au - 16th December 2008
Video of anti-whaling protest
Thousands of images used
Highlights cause of the "Tokyo Two"
It looks like a miniature scale model of Bondi Beach, with tiny people and animated that look like a surreal children's cartoon.
But it's all real - even the Tibetan monks standing in front of a giant whale made out of sand.
Thousands of images, put together in a time-lapse video, were taken by photographer Keith Loutit as part of an artwork documenting an anti-whaling protest.
Greenpeace coordinated the protest and artworks to highlight the cause of the "Tokyo Two", a pair of activists who were arrested after investigating corruption in the Japanese whaling industry.
The environmental organisation commissioned Loutit to capture the event as sand sculptors created a 17-metre long whale on Sydney's iconic beach.
The images have a dream-like, miniaturised quality due to a photographic method known as tilt-shift photography, which involves a special camera lens that focuses on very specific areas in the frame.
Loutit said he used 4000-6000 images for the five-minute video, titled Beached II.
The artist became well-known a few months ago when he debuted his unique combination of time-lapse and tilt-shift photography online.
Greenpeace, which held simultaneous protests at Japanese embassies around the world, left the large sand whale on Bondi Beach for over a week.
(Credit: News.com.au)
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Greenpeace
Bondi Beach
Thousands of images used
Highlights cause of the "Tokyo Two"
It looks like a miniature scale model of Bondi Beach, with tiny people and animated that look like a surreal children's cartoon.
But it's all real - even the Tibetan monks standing in front of a giant whale made out of sand.
Thousands of images, put together in a time-lapse video, were taken by photographer Keith Loutit as part of an artwork documenting an anti-whaling protest.
Greenpeace coordinated the protest and artworks to highlight the cause of the "Tokyo Two", a pair of activists who were arrested after investigating corruption in the Japanese whaling industry.
The environmental organisation commissioned Loutit to capture the event as sand sculptors created a 17-metre long whale on Sydney's iconic beach.
The images have a dream-like, miniaturised quality due to a photographic method known as tilt-shift photography, which involves a special camera lens that focuses on very specific areas in the frame.
Loutit said he used 4000-6000 images for the five-minute video, titled Beached II.
The artist became well-known a few months ago when he debuted his unique combination of time-lapse and tilt-shift photography online.
Greenpeace, which held simultaneous protests at Japanese embassies around the world, left the large sand whale on Bondi Beach for over a week.
(Credit: News.com.au)
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Greenpeace
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23 October 2008
Cathy’s celebrity season - The Northern Rivers Echo
A few weeks ago Clunes filmmaker Cathy Henkel was rubbing shoulders with Al Gore in New York. Last week she was mingling with Jane Goodall (pictured) and Jack Thompson at Greenfest in Brisbane, an event promoting solutions to the vast environmental challenges of our times.
Cathy was there promoting her film The Burning Season, narrated by Hugh Jackman, which looks at the destruction of some of the world’s largest rainforests and how carbon trading could play a vital role in saving them, and the animals that call them home, from disappearing.
“Jane gave a resonant and moving speech about her work with chimpanzees in Africa and the plight of forests and other primates, but for me she was most powerful when she spoke of her hope and belief that we can solve the problems, especially if we engage young people,” Cathy said. “She knows about The Burning Season and has a copy, but has yet to watch it. I am hopeful that she will give it her strong endorsement. When she did her press conference after the talk, she was holding a flyer for The Burning Season in her hand, visible to all. Jack Thompson told me he had heard about the film from Hugh Jackman and he now has a copy which he is very keen to see.”
The Burning Season will screen as part of the Nimbin Film Festival this weekend.
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Cathy was there promoting her film The Burning Season, narrated by Hugh Jackman, which looks at the destruction of some of the world’s largest rainforests and how carbon trading could play a vital role in saving them, and the animals that call them home, from disappearing.
“Jane gave a resonant and moving speech about her work with chimpanzees in Africa and the plight of forests and other primates, but for me she was most powerful when she spoke of her hope and belief that we can solve the problems, especially if we engage young people,” Cathy said. “She knows about The Burning Season and has a copy, but has yet to watch it. I am hopeful that she will give it her strong endorsement. When she did her press conference after the talk, she was holding a flyer for The Burning Season in her hand, visible to all. Jack Thompson told me he had heard about the film from Hugh Jackman and he now has a copy which he is very keen to see.”
The Burning Season will screen as part of the Nimbin Film Festival this weekend.
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20 October 2008
“BUYING BACK THE RIVER” - 4 CORNERS MONDAY 20 OCTOBER 2008
Is the Murray-Darling doomed? Or can the Rudd Government pull off a radical and costly rescue? Sarah Ferguson tests the water.
Another crisis, another bailout... With liquidity at a critical low, this time it’s the Murray-Darling Basin whose survival hangs on a desperate $12.9 billion injection – a sum that shades what the Rudd Government is spending elsewhere to cheat a worldwide recession.
The Government’s rescue deal for the Murray-Darling – food bowl spanning a seventh of the continent, water source for 3 million people, lifeblood of internationally-recognised wetlands – has met everything from muted applause to outright hostility.
Buying back water from farmers to give the environment a drink might sound uncontroversial. But some farmers and townsfolk claim the Government is wasting big money buying productive land only to take it out of use. Others fear their water entitlements are under threat.
The Government’s water buyback is accentuating divisions between north and south. From the dying Coorong in South Australia to the thirsty grazing and cotton lands of northern NSW, fingers point north towards bigger users upriver. Send water south is the demand.
Some even accuse their neighbours of water theft: “If this was white collar crime in the city they’d throw away the key,” says one cattleman and cropper.
Four Corners goes bush to gauge the opposition to the Government’s water buyback and the sheer magnitude of its task as it spends billions buying back entitlements that were given away in bygone days. “It’s by far the biggest adjustment in natural resource management in our federation. The scale of the task is gigantic,” says scientist Peter Cosier. “It’s a very challenging set of circumstances,” acknowledges Water Minister Penny Wong in a classic understatement.
Back of Bourke, Four Corners meets locals who claim the Government’s purchase of a historic station will damage the regional economy and deliver more air than water.
Most disturbing, as reporter Sarah Ferguson reveals, is a hangover from a federal-state arrangement which means that as quickly as Canberra buys water back, new water licences may be issued by state authorities. It’s yet another hugely frustrating chapter in a sorry history of intergovernmental haggling over the Murray-Darling Basin.
Sarah Ferguson’s “Buying Back the River” – on Four Corners at 8.30 pm Monday 20 October and about 11.35 pm Tuesday 21 October (also 8 am Tuesday on ABC2).
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Another crisis, another bailout... With liquidity at a critical low, this time it’s the Murray-Darling Basin whose survival hangs on a desperate $12.9 billion injection – a sum that shades what the Rudd Government is spending elsewhere to cheat a worldwide recession.
The Government’s rescue deal for the Murray-Darling – food bowl spanning a seventh of the continent, water source for 3 million people, lifeblood of internationally-recognised wetlands – has met everything from muted applause to outright hostility.
Buying back water from farmers to give the environment a drink might sound uncontroversial. But some farmers and townsfolk claim the Government is wasting big money buying productive land only to take it out of use. Others fear their water entitlements are under threat.
The Government’s water buyback is accentuating divisions between north and south. From the dying Coorong in South Australia to the thirsty grazing and cotton lands of northern NSW, fingers point north towards bigger users upriver. Send water south is the demand.
Some even accuse their neighbours of water theft: “If this was white collar crime in the city they’d throw away the key,” says one cattleman and cropper.
Four Corners goes bush to gauge the opposition to the Government’s water buyback and the sheer magnitude of its task as it spends billions buying back entitlements that were given away in bygone days. “It’s by far the biggest adjustment in natural resource management in our federation. The scale of the task is gigantic,” says scientist Peter Cosier. “It’s a very challenging set of circumstances,” acknowledges Water Minister Penny Wong in a classic understatement.
Back of Bourke, Four Corners meets locals who claim the Government’s purchase of a historic station will damage the regional economy and deliver more air than water.
Most disturbing, as reporter Sarah Ferguson reveals, is a hangover from a federal-state arrangement which means that as quickly as Canberra buys water back, new water licences may be issued by state authorities. It’s yet another hugely frustrating chapter in a sorry history of intergovernmental haggling over the Murray-Darling Basin.
Sarah Ferguson’s “Buying Back the River” – on Four Corners at 8.30 pm Monday 20 October and about 11.35 pm Tuesday 21 October (also 8 am Tuesday on ABC2).
WATCH A PROMO ONLINE NOW!
Four Corners
FOUR CORNERS VIDEO ON DEMAND
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Whaling envoy in dialogue with Japan, by Andrew Darby - The Sydney Morning Herald - 20th October 2008
The Rudd Government's new special envoy on whaling, the former Sydney Olympics chief Sandy Hollway, will try to persuade Japan to curtail its Antarctic whaling this summer.
Mr Hollway has opened a confidential new diplomatic dialogue, and the summer's whaling is high on his agenda.
The fleet is due to leave Japan next month for waters south-east of Australia, and into Antarctica's Ross Sea. It plans to kill up to 985 whales. The fleet also faces direct action from Sea Shepherd, and possibly Greenpeace.
Mr Hollway told the Herald last night that Australia should keep working for a whaling suspension, and he would visit Tokyo again before the fleet was due to leave. "It would be statesman-like of Japan if they will. But I wouldn't want to hold out false hope for a cessation. I think we might be past the point where the definition of success is a complete halt."
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
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Mr Hollway has opened a confidential new diplomatic dialogue, and the summer's whaling is high on his agenda.
The fleet is due to leave Japan next month for waters south-east of Australia, and into Antarctica's Ross Sea. It plans to kill up to 985 whales. The fleet also faces direct action from Sea Shepherd, and possibly Greenpeace.
Mr Hollway told the Herald last night that Australia should keep working for a whaling suspension, and he would visit Tokyo again before the fleet was due to leave. "It would be statesman-like of Japan if they will. But I wouldn't want to hold out false hope for a cessation. I think we might be past the point where the definition of success is a complete halt."
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
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19 October 2008
Garrett mute on whaling action, by Nick Butterly - The West Australian - 17th October 2008
The Rudd Government refuses to say how it will respond to Japanese whalers this season, even though they will soon sail for the Antarctic.
Japan says it intends to kill 850 minke and 50 fin whales in Antarctic seas this season, the same number it planned to take last season.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett is keeping secret how the Government will respond to the hunt and insists that Australia could take legal action over the slaughter.
Last season, the Government sent a Customs vessel to track and photograph the whalers.
It said the photographs of bloodied whales being hauled aboard ships could be used in international criminal action against Japan and it had legal advice as to how prosecute the case.
Almost a year later, it has not taken any legal action nor has it appointed a whaling ambassador as it promised.
Mr Garrett ducked questions on whether the Government would send a Customs boat south this season.
“We continue to argue publicly and at a diplomatic level for an end to commercial and so-called scientific whaling and to work in co-operation with other countries to build a new global consensus on whale conservation,” Mr Garrett said through a spokesman.
Shadow environment minister Greg Hunt said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Mr Garrett had been hoping the public would forget about their promises on whaling.
“It is time the Minister and his boss finally stated once and for all whether they will deliver on the promises they made last year,” he said.
Militant conservation group Sea Shepherd said it planned to double its paramilitary-style operations in the Southern Ocean this year in an all-out bid to disrupt the Japanese.
Sea Shepherd, whose tactics have included launching bottles of foulsmelling liquid on the decks of Japanese ships, is preparing two ships rather than one to harass the hunters.
Former environment minister Ian Campbell, an advisory board member with Sea Shepherd, said sending two ships would let protesters follow the fleet better if it split as it did last year in a bid to elude them.
Sea Shepherd hoped to broker a deal with Greenpeace so the organisations could co-ordinate their actions better.
However, a Greenpeace spokesman said the group would not work with Sea Shepherd unless it renounced violence and property damage.
Greenpeace would not say whether it planned to send a protest ship this year because it wanted to keep its plans secret from the whalers.
The Japanese fleet generally leaves port in early November and takes about four weeks to reach the Southern Ocean killing zone.
Although the Japanese planned to take 850 minke and 50 fin whales last year, they fell well short of that target because of the harassment from Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.
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Japan says it intends to kill 850 minke and 50 fin whales in Antarctic seas this season, the same number it planned to take last season.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett is keeping secret how the Government will respond to the hunt and insists that Australia could take legal action over the slaughter.
Last season, the Government sent a Customs vessel to track and photograph the whalers.
It said the photographs of bloodied whales being hauled aboard ships could be used in international criminal action against Japan and it had legal advice as to how prosecute the case.
Almost a year later, it has not taken any legal action nor has it appointed a whaling ambassador as it promised.
Mr Garrett ducked questions on whether the Government would send a Customs boat south this season.
“We continue to argue publicly and at a diplomatic level for an end to commercial and so-called scientific whaling and to work in co-operation with other countries to build a new global consensus on whale conservation,” Mr Garrett said through a spokesman.
Shadow environment minister Greg Hunt said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Mr Garrett had been hoping the public would forget about their promises on whaling.
“It is time the Minister and his boss finally stated once and for all whether they will deliver on the promises they made last year,” he said.
Militant conservation group Sea Shepherd said it planned to double its paramilitary-style operations in the Southern Ocean this year in an all-out bid to disrupt the Japanese.
Sea Shepherd, whose tactics have included launching bottles of foulsmelling liquid on the decks of Japanese ships, is preparing two ships rather than one to harass the hunters.
Former environment minister Ian Campbell, an advisory board member with Sea Shepherd, said sending two ships would let protesters follow the fleet better if it split as it did last year in a bid to elude them.
Sea Shepherd hoped to broker a deal with Greenpeace so the organisations could co-ordinate their actions better.
However, a Greenpeace spokesman said the group would not work with Sea Shepherd unless it renounced violence and property damage.
Greenpeace would not say whether it planned to send a protest ship this year because it wanted to keep its plans secret from the whalers.
The Japanese fleet generally leaves port in early November and takes about four weeks to reach the Southern Ocean killing zone.
Although the Japanese planned to take 850 minke and 50 fin whales last year, they fell well short of that target because of the harassment from Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Environmentalists and the environment
Green News Media
17 October 2008
Sea Shepherd Event Invitation - A night with Captain Watson in Sydney
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in Sydney Australia would like to invite you and to an inspiring evening with our President and founder Captain Paul Watson, on the 18th November, 2008 at The Argyle, The Rocks.
A renowned ocean warrior, inspirational speaker, founder of Sea Shepherd and Co-Founder of Greenpeace, Captain Watson will be the star attraction at our fundraising event where he will speak about our upcoming Antarctic whale defense campaign, Operation Musashi, and talk about his life time experiences defending and protecting our precious oceans worldwide! The evening will also include Sea Shepherd films, Lush gift pack giveaways, fundraising auctions, delicious food & drinks and much more.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) was established in 1977 and has gained a reputation as one of the most effective direct action law enforcement organizations in the world currently defending marine wildlife. After a highly successful and visible campaign last year (Operation Migaloo) where we stopped the Japanese whaling fleet from taking half their Antarctic quota, this year we have the ambitious goal to shut them down completely. Sea Shepherd is the only direct-action movement prepared to expose and confront illegal activities in the Australian Whale Sanctuary. There are no governments or organisations in the Australian Sanctuary protecting these Whales...the Steve Irwin and her crew are the last line of defense.
This will be one of Paul Watson's last engagements before he departs Australia on board the Sea Shepherd flagship the "Steve Irwin" to shut down illegal whaling in Australia's Whale Sanctuary.
For more information about this year's campaign to stop the Japanese whaling visit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society website - http://www.seashepherd.org
Media Man Australia Profiles
Sea Shepherd
A renowned ocean warrior, inspirational speaker, founder of Sea Shepherd and Co-Founder of Greenpeace, Captain Watson will be the star attraction at our fundraising event where he will speak about our upcoming Antarctic whale defense campaign, Operation Musashi, and talk about his life time experiences defending and protecting our precious oceans worldwide! The evening will also include Sea Shepherd films, Lush gift pack giveaways, fundraising auctions, delicious food & drinks and much more.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) was established in 1977 and has gained a reputation as one of the most effective direct action law enforcement organizations in the world currently defending marine wildlife. After a highly successful and visible campaign last year (Operation Migaloo) where we stopped the Japanese whaling fleet from taking half their Antarctic quota, this year we have the ambitious goal to shut them down completely. Sea Shepherd is the only direct-action movement prepared to expose and confront illegal activities in the Australian Whale Sanctuary. There are no governments or organisations in the Australian Sanctuary protecting these Whales...the Steve Irwin and her crew are the last line of defense.
This will be one of Paul Watson's last engagements before he departs Australia on board the Sea Shepherd flagship the "Steve Irwin" to shut down illegal whaling in Australia's Whale Sanctuary.
For more information about this year's campaign to stop the Japanese whaling visit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society website - http://www.seashepherd.org
Media Man Australia Profiles
Sea Shepherd
13 October 2008
Activist misses out on award, by Alby Dallas - Green Left Online - 11th October 2008
A Students Against the Pulp Mill organiser, Gabby Forward, was a finalist in the “Junior Hero” category of news.com.au’s Green Awards. Announcing the winner on September 23, presenter Axle Whitehead described it as “the hardest category to judge”.
Yet despite receiving 57% of the readers’ vote, Forward, who has played a leading role in organising young people to protest against Gunns pulp mill, did not receive the award. Instead, Alastair, Freya and Imogen Wadlow and their environmental website won, with just 7% of the vote.
This is not to dispute the wonderful effort the Wadlows have put into saving the planet, but it does beg the question: What is the point of voting in a poll to select our junior green hero, when News Limited is going to tell us who it thinks is the best environmentalist anyway?
The corporate media outlet rewarded a website focussing on individual lifestyle change — which does not challenge big business — instead of drawing attention to a mass movement aimed at stopping a corporate juggernaut like Gunns and its dirty pulp mill.
Yet despite receiving 57% of the readers’ vote, Forward, who has played a leading role in organising young people to protest against Gunns pulp mill, did not receive the award. Instead, Alastair, Freya and Imogen Wadlow and their environmental website won, with just 7% of the vote.
This is not to dispute the wonderful effort the Wadlows have put into saving the planet, but it does beg the question: What is the point of voting in a poll to select our junior green hero, when News Limited is going to tell us who it thinks is the best environmentalist anyway?
The corporate media outlet rewarded a website focussing on individual lifestyle change — which does not challenge big business — instead of drawing attention to a mass movement aimed at stopping a corporate juggernaut like Gunns and its dirty pulp mill.
12 October 2008
A sea of green, by Katherine Feeney - Brisbane Times - 10th October 2008
Genre Event
Location South Bank and surrounds
Address South Bank Brisbane
Date Until October 12
Tickets Entry free to all areas, exhibits, concerts and speakers
Online bookings http://www.greenfest.com.au
Greenfest is Brisbane's free green festival and place for fresh energy poised to give residents the chance to come together and express how they care for the planet.
Comprising music from over 50 of Australia's top emerging acts, a host of celebrity talks an a mix of West End's cabaret tribes in one great show on Saturday night.
Festival-goers will also have the opportunity to enjoy over 150 exhibitors of organic food, greener cars, fashion, building, careers and more along with interactive sessions on organic food with The Bud Cafe.
For more information or a full list of festival events, visit http://www.greenfest.com.au.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Location South Bank and surrounds
Address South Bank Brisbane
Date Until October 12
Tickets Entry free to all areas, exhibits, concerts and speakers
Online bookings http://www.greenfest.com.au
Greenfest is Brisbane's free green festival and place for fresh energy poised to give residents the chance to come together and express how they care for the planet.
Comprising music from over 50 of Australia's top emerging acts, a host of celebrity talks an a mix of West End's cabaret tribes in one great show on Saturday night.
Festival-goers will also have the opportunity to enjoy over 150 exhibitors of organic food, greener cars, fashion, building, careers and more along with interactive sessions on organic food with The Bud Cafe.
For more information or a full list of festival events, visit http://www.greenfest.com.au.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
11 October 2008
Free green stuff, by Graham Readfearn - The Green Blog - The Courier-Mail
GREEN ideas - there’s an awful lot of them.
Brisbane marketeer Colman Ridge is bring most of them together in Brisbane this weekend for the inaugural Greenfest event - an expo-style festival with free music, speakers and truck loads of information on products and initiatives that are out there trying to make a difference.
Gust blog - what if
Guest blog from Sonya Wallace and Janet Millington, Transition Sunshine Coast – Australia’s first Transition Initiative.
What if we could build resilient communities?
What if we, government, business and community, worked collaboratively toward solutions to climate change and peak oil? What if we planned ways to avoid dangerous climate change across all sectors? What if we all contributed toward ensuring our communities were robust, resilient and well prepared for a post carbon future?
What if we put the planet and future generations first?
We have become dependent on fossil fuels. We are dependant on centralised, ‘mega’-systems to supply our basic needs; food, water, energy… we allowed ourselves to be put in a very vulnerable position, one dependent on an ongoing supply of cheap, easy to find energy – oil.
But what could the future look like? What if there was a plan for people to move from oil dependency to local resilience?
Transition Town Initiatives are a community-driven framework to move toward local resilience and have become an international phenomenon. It’s about reducing consumption and building local strength and diversified supply systems for all our needs. It’s about combining community action and legislative changes to bring about real change.
Sonya and Janet are speaking at the Greenfest Speakers Festival on Saturday October 11 at 4pm as part of Greenfest.
Guest blog - one atom and one molecule
Guest blog from Professor Hugh Possingham, Director of The Ecology Centre at the University of Queensland and member of The Wentworth Group of concerned scientists.
SO when did the environment debate become all about one atom and one molecule?
Recently the whole environment movement seems to have become obsessed with just two things - climate change and water. But water and climate change are short term problems that we will easily overcome, largely because they affect us directly and quickly. However, in 1000 years, I am sure that our time in history will be known for just one thing - the time of the human-induced mass extinction.
Biodiversity loss recovers on a time scale of millions of years, water problems and climate change can be reversed quite quickly.
Professor Hugh Possingham is speaking at the Greenfest Speakers Festival on October 11 2008, from 11.00am to 12.30 pm as part of Greenfest.
Graham Readfearn is on leave
Guest blog - Risk of booming birth rates
Guest blog post from Simon Baltais, president of WPSQ and executive officer of Queensland Conservation Council.
EVERY day, more people need more space, consume more resources and generate more waste as world population continues to grow at an alarming rate.
This is not only a problem of the third world but also for countries like Australia. It is of great concern that the Queensland Government is trying to convince us that our declining third world population growth rate of 2.4per cent to 1.5per cent growth by 2031 means all is well, when this could not be further from the truth.
The fact is a growth rate of 1.5 per cent means that the population of four million in southeast Queensland in 2031 will increase to eight million by 2078. This growth will be disastrous to our biodiversity and SEQ residents’ entire way of life.
This kind of growth is why human population is considered the greatest threat to biodiversity. Such growth in human numbers will continue to erode our environment and will result in a decline in the health of our communities and economy.
Clearly a sustainable future can only be found when we find a socially acceptable way of achieving an ecologically sustainable human population and only a fool would suggest endless growth is both possible and desirable.
Simon Baltais is the MC of Greenfest, which runs this weekend at Brisbane’s South Bank.
Guest blog - Eat greens to be greener
GUEST blog post from Andrew Bartlett, patron of the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland and former Queensland senator.
Few people dispute that the number one overarching environmental issue facing us all is climate change. Out of all the different things we do which have a direct impact, for better or worse, on climate change, the one which is literally right in everyone’s face every single day is food.
There are few things more immediate and personal to our lifestyles than food. Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of this, it is often the one given least attention in public debates about how to reduce greenhouse emissions. This is despite the fact food production is responsible for greater levels of greenhouse emissions than all forms of transportation combined and that’s even if you count the transportation of food in the transport category, rather than the agriculture category.
The fact emissions from livestock (mainly methane) on its own exceeds all transport emissions has rarely been given much attention, even by environment groups. It is far easier to campaign on saving the whales or the forests than it is to confront ourselves directly about the food we eat.
Yet the simple fact is that adopting a low greenhouse diet and looking for food this is produced more sustainably is the easiest, cheapest and most immediate way we can make a positive personal impact on reducing greenhouse emissions. We don’t have to wait for new technologies or the Emissions Trading Scheme. The choices are there now.
Andrew Bartlett is chairing a debate on 12 October at 9.30am as part of the Greenfest Speakers Festival at Brisbane’s South Bank Piazza.
Out of office
OFF for some leave for a week, but The Green Blog stays open.
Next week we have some guest blog posts covering challenging environmental debates including population booms, ecology loss and vegetarianism. The blog will be moderated in my absence so please be as vocal as ever.
All the guest bloggers are appearing at the free Greenfest Speakers Festival in Brisbane from 10 to 12 October.
(Credit: The Green Blog - The Courier-Mail)
Brisbane marketeer Colman Ridge is bring most of them together in Brisbane this weekend for the inaugural Greenfest event - an expo-style festival with free music, speakers and truck loads of information on products and initiatives that are out there trying to make a difference.
Gust blog - what if
Guest blog from Sonya Wallace and Janet Millington, Transition Sunshine Coast – Australia’s first Transition Initiative.
What if we could build resilient communities?
What if we, government, business and community, worked collaboratively toward solutions to climate change and peak oil? What if we planned ways to avoid dangerous climate change across all sectors? What if we all contributed toward ensuring our communities were robust, resilient and well prepared for a post carbon future?
What if we put the planet and future generations first?
We have become dependent on fossil fuels. We are dependant on centralised, ‘mega’-systems to supply our basic needs; food, water, energy… we allowed ourselves to be put in a very vulnerable position, one dependent on an ongoing supply of cheap, easy to find energy – oil.
But what could the future look like? What if there was a plan for people to move from oil dependency to local resilience?
Transition Town Initiatives are a community-driven framework to move toward local resilience and have become an international phenomenon. It’s about reducing consumption and building local strength and diversified supply systems for all our needs. It’s about combining community action and legislative changes to bring about real change.
Sonya and Janet are speaking at the Greenfest Speakers Festival on Saturday October 11 at 4pm as part of Greenfest.
Guest blog - one atom and one molecule
Guest blog from Professor Hugh Possingham, Director of The Ecology Centre at the University of Queensland and member of The Wentworth Group of concerned scientists.
SO when did the environment debate become all about one atom and one molecule?
Recently the whole environment movement seems to have become obsessed with just two things - climate change and water. But water and climate change are short term problems that we will easily overcome, largely because they affect us directly and quickly. However, in 1000 years, I am sure that our time in history will be known for just one thing - the time of the human-induced mass extinction.
Biodiversity loss recovers on a time scale of millions of years, water problems and climate change can be reversed quite quickly.
Professor Hugh Possingham is speaking at the Greenfest Speakers Festival on October 11 2008, from 11.00am to 12.30 pm as part of Greenfest.
Graham Readfearn is on leave
Guest blog - Risk of booming birth rates
Guest blog post from Simon Baltais, president of WPSQ and executive officer of Queensland Conservation Council.
EVERY day, more people need more space, consume more resources and generate more waste as world population continues to grow at an alarming rate.
This is not only a problem of the third world but also for countries like Australia. It is of great concern that the Queensland Government is trying to convince us that our declining third world population growth rate of 2.4per cent to 1.5per cent growth by 2031 means all is well, when this could not be further from the truth.
The fact is a growth rate of 1.5 per cent means that the population of four million in southeast Queensland in 2031 will increase to eight million by 2078. This growth will be disastrous to our biodiversity and SEQ residents’ entire way of life.
This kind of growth is why human population is considered the greatest threat to biodiversity. Such growth in human numbers will continue to erode our environment and will result in a decline in the health of our communities and economy.
Clearly a sustainable future can only be found when we find a socially acceptable way of achieving an ecologically sustainable human population and only a fool would suggest endless growth is both possible and desirable.
Simon Baltais is the MC of Greenfest, which runs this weekend at Brisbane’s South Bank.
Guest blog - Eat greens to be greener
GUEST blog post from Andrew Bartlett, patron of the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland and former Queensland senator.
Few people dispute that the number one overarching environmental issue facing us all is climate change. Out of all the different things we do which have a direct impact, for better or worse, on climate change, the one which is literally right in everyone’s face every single day is food.
There are few things more immediate and personal to our lifestyles than food. Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of this, it is often the one given least attention in public debates about how to reduce greenhouse emissions. This is despite the fact food production is responsible for greater levels of greenhouse emissions than all forms of transportation combined and that’s even if you count the transportation of food in the transport category, rather than the agriculture category.
The fact emissions from livestock (mainly methane) on its own exceeds all transport emissions has rarely been given much attention, even by environment groups. It is far easier to campaign on saving the whales or the forests than it is to confront ourselves directly about the food we eat.
Yet the simple fact is that adopting a low greenhouse diet and looking for food this is produced more sustainably is the easiest, cheapest and most immediate way we can make a positive personal impact on reducing greenhouse emissions. We don’t have to wait for new technologies or the Emissions Trading Scheme. The choices are there now.
Andrew Bartlett is chairing a debate on 12 October at 9.30am as part of the Greenfest Speakers Festival at Brisbane’s South Bank Piazza.
Out of office
OFF for some leave for a week, but The Green Blog stays open.
Next week we have some guest blog posts covering challenging environmental debates including population booms, ecology loss and vegetarianism. The blog will be moderated in my absence so please be as vocal as ever.
All the guest bloggers are appearing at the free Greenfest Speakers Festival in Brisbane from 10 to 12 October.
(Credit: The Green Blog - The Courier-Mail)
Greenfest - words and music and deeds, by Andrew Bartlett
The Greenfest being held at Brisbane’s Southbank over this weekend has been getting a lot of media coverage around town. Organiser Colman Ridge has obviously pulled out all stops (and a lot of his own money too by the look of it) to try to make the event a success and help encourage people to improve their awareness and actions about how to live in a more environmentally sustainable way. When I look at all that’s going on, it’s a pretty huge festival and all for free. I’ll be interested to see how well it’s attended, although there are usually heaps of people around Southbank on a weekend in any case.
I’m chairing a session of speakers talking about food, starting nice and early at the Southbank Piazza at 9.30 on Sunday morning. That session is part of the speaker’s festival which goes throughout the weekend, covering heaps of topics. The Courier-Mail’s environment blog has featured a few posts from some of the speakers this week.
There are lots of bands playing on two separate stages across the weekend too, in case the thought of listening to all those speakers sounds a bit too dry or overly worthy. They are billed as new and emerging bands, so I don’t know a lot of them. But I did get to hear the debut album from Melbourne band Skipping Girl Vinegar recently and it sounded pretty impressive. I’ve played some Andi & George on my radio shift a few times - it’s nice folky sounds and singing if you like that sort of thing (which I rather do these days).
(Credit: Andrew Bartlett)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
I’m chairing a session of speakers talking about food, starting nice and early at the Southbank Piazza at 9.30 on Sunday morning. That session is part of the speaker’s festival which goes throughout the weekend, covering heaps of topics. The Courier-Mail’s environment blog has featured a few posts from some of the speakers this week.
There are lots of bands playing on two separate stages across the weekend too, in case the thought of listening to all those speakers sounds a bit too dry or overly worthy. They are billed as new and emerging bands, so I don’t know a lot of them. But I did get to hear the debut album from Melbourne band Skipping Girl Vinegar recently and it sounded pretty impressive. I’ve played some Andi & George on my radio shift a few times - it’s nice folky sounds and singing if you like that sort of thing (which I rather do these days).
(Credit: Andrew Bartlett)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
10 October 2008
09 October 2008
Organic food feast for a cooler planet – a 100% certified first! - Hospitality - 7th October 2008
GREENFEST, the largest free community green festival to hit the banks of Brisbane is the first mainstream event in Australia to guarantee the organic origins of festival food.
Greenfest has enlisted the aid of the Biological Farmers of Australia Group (including organic certification arm ‘Australian Certified Organic’) to make sure sustainable food featured in the organic ‘Green Bake’ section is just that.
From 10-12 October, Green Bake will provide food produced by certified organic farmers and operators, with an emphasis on local supply.
Visitors with an eco-conscious appetite can expect to be treated to everything from organic ice-cream, to the best of certified cheeses and yoghurt, to spelt waffles, fresh fruit, chemical-free beetroot chips, wine, and no-preservative BBQ meat.
Dr. Andrew Monk, BFA Director, says inclusion of organic at the green event is recognition of the sometimes hidden benefits of organic food.
“Increasingly, people are starting to value what is not immediately observable – that food produced organically is part of a sustainable solution that addresses a range of challenging issues - from climate change, to lowered chemical run-off into waterways, land and soil health, to animal welfare.”
Event Details:
Greenfest, a place for fresh energy, will be held at South Bank, Brisbane:
Friday 10 October 12:00pm - 10:00pm
Saturday 11 October 10:00am - 10:00pm
Sunday 12 October 10:00am - 5pm
Showcasing the best in living, Greenfest includes environmentally friendly fashion and food, to art and film for the future, and low-emission transport. For more information visit www.greenfest.com.au.
(Credit: Hospitality)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Greenfest has enlisted the aid of the Biological Farmers of Australia Group (including organic certification arm ‘Australian Certified Organic’) to make sure sustainable food featured in the organic ‘Green Bake’ section is just that.
From 10-12 October, Green Bake will provide food produced by certified organic farmers and operators, with an emphasis on local supply.
Visitors with an eco-conscious appetite can expect to be treated to everything from organic ice-cream, to the best of certified cheeses and yoghurt, to spelt waffles, fresh fruit, chemical-free beetroot chips, wine, and no-preservative BBQ meat.
Dr. Andrew Monk, BFA Director, says inclusion of organic at the green event is recognition of the sometimes hidden benefits of organic food.
“Increasingly, people are starting to value what is not immediately observable – that food produced organically is part of a sustainable solution that addresses a range of challenging issues - from climate change, to lowered chemical run-off into waterways, land and soil health, to animal welfare.”
Event Details:
Greenfest, a place for fresh energy, will be held at South Bank, Brisbane:
Friday 10 October 12:00pm - 10:00pm
Saturday 11 October 10:00am - 10:00pm
Sunday 12 October 10:00am - 5pm
Showcasing the best in living, Greenfest includes environmentally friendly fashion and food, to art and film for the future, and low-emission transport. For more information visit www.greenfest.com.au.
(Credit: Hospitality)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Organic is growing, by Claire Bruynius - Sunshine Coast Daily - 9th October 2008
Gone are the days when buying organic produce carried a hippy stigma and you had to travel to poky corners of the Sunshine Coast to find it.
In the lead-up to National Organic Week, to be held from November 11 to 19, Shane Stanley, creator of the Sunshine Coast Farmers’ Markets, expects the organic fruit and vege business to boom.
Having grown up on a farm, Shane is no stranger to the delights of eating fruit straight from the tree, bread straight from the oven, and veges straight from the garden – all free from preservatives and that powdery, metallic taste which comes after eating an apple which has been sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals.
After moving to the Sunshine Coast 11 years ago, Shane decided not enough organic produce was being offered to the public in the region, and so began a small monthly farmers’ market.
This gave producers a chance to make a real profit outside the supermarket trade and gave residents of the Sunshine Coast a chance to experience the delight of eating farm-fresh produce.
“It definitely tastes much different,” Shane said about a certified organic apple.
“It’s a totally different texture, too (to other varieties).”
The markets were started in 2002, and on average saw about 60 customers a day. Now, six years later, they are held every Saturday or Sunday (depending on the venue) at Noosa, Nambour and North Lakes, with each venue welcoming up to 8000 people per day. Shane also said people were beginning to support organic farming because of the environmental benefits.
He believes the environment won’t be able to sustain current farming practices for more than 25 years, but if the public embraces organic farming and more environmentally friendly and natural farming methods, that support will revolutionise the industry.
“The next five years will see major changes in the industry,” Shane said.
“Research has shown that soil and water quality has a big impact on the problems farmers have with pests, so many of them are fixing those problems before they begin to grow.
“If there is no pest problem, there is no need for all the other chemicals and pesticides.”
Shane said that some of the farmers had interesting ways of restoring nutrient levels in their soil.
“I know a guy who will pack bull horns will a concoction of things, and then plant them in his field under a full moon,” he said.
“They swear by it, and if it means they don’t have to use pesticides, I say go with what you know.”
The markets are not only for people hunting for fresh fruit and veges, though. They also offer a huge range of gourmet products including jams, condiments, and meat pies, as well as a range of wines from local winemakers – all of which promise an assault on the senses.
Up until a few months ago, the Nambour markets were being held at the Big Pineapple, but they have now moved to the Nambour school grounds. This has enabled Shane to build a hub which he hopes will help localise the industry and allow him to conduct research to better educate and raise awareness of the benefits of organic farming.
“We still have a long way to go, but the awareness and demand of organic produce is increasing every day, and before long, I think the inferior supermarket produce will be replaced totally by organic products,” Shane said.
“We also hope that the research the hub will help us generate will help us improve our own methods. I’d really like to see an increase and improvements in the use of solar energy and things like that.”
So whether you want to grab yourself some truly organic fresh fruit and veges at an old-fashioned price, are looking for something fantastic and unique to indulge in on a sunny Saturday or lazy Sunday, or even just looking for something different to do, it is definitely worth the drive to the beautiful countryside to support and experience what local producers have to offer.
GREENFEST
The largest free community green festival to hit the banks of Brisbane starts at Southbank on Friday and runs through the weekend.
Greenfest has enlisted the aid of the Biological Farmers of Australia Group (including organic certification arm Australian Certified Organic) to make sure sustainable food featured in the organic Green Bake section is just that.
Showcasing the best in living, Greenfest includes environmentally friendly fashion and food, art and film for the future, and low-emission transport.
(Credit: News Limited)
For more information, visit www.greenfest.com.au.
Profiles
Greenfest
In the lead-up to National Organic Week, to be held from November 11 to 19, Shane Stanley, creator of the Sunshine Coast Farmers’ Markets, expects the organic fruit and vege business to boom.
Having grown up on a farm, Shane is no stranger to the delights of eating fruit straight from the tree, bread straight from the oven, and veges straight from the garden – all free from preservatives and that powdery, metallic taste which comes after eating an apple which has been sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals.
After moving to the Sunshine Coast 11 years ago, Shane decided not enough organic produce was being offered to the public in the region, and so began a small monthly farmers’ market.
This gave producers a chance to make a real profit outside the supermarket trade and gave residents of the Sunshine Coast a chance to experience the delight of eating farm-fresh produce.
“It definitely tastes much different,” Shane said about a certified organic apple.
“It’s a totally different texture, too (to other varieties).”
The markets were started in 2002, and on average saw about 60 customers a day. Now, six years later, they are held every Saturday or Sunday (depending on the venue) at Noosa, Nambour and North Lakes, with each venue welcoming up to 8000 people per day. Shane also said people were beginning to support organic farming because of the environmental benefits.
He believes the environment won’t be able to sustain current farming practices for more than 25 years, but if the public embraces organic farming and more environmentally friendly and natural farming methods, that support will revolutionise the industry.
“The next five years will see major changes in the industry,” Shane said.
“Research has shown that soil and water quality has a big impact on the problems farmers have with pests, so many of them are fixing those problems before they begin to grow.
“If there is no pest problem, there is no need for all the other chemicals and pesticides.”
Shane said that some of the farmers had interesting ways of restoring nutrient levels in their soil.
“I know a guy who will pack bull horns will a concoction of things, and then plant them in his field under a full moon,” he said.
“They swear by it, and if it means they don’t have to use pesticides, I say go with what you know.”
The markets are not only for people hunting for fresh fruit and veges, though. They also offer a huge range of gourmet products including jams, condiments, and meat pies, as well as a range of wines from local winemakers – all of which promise an assault on the senses.
Up until a few months ago, the Nambour markets were being held at the Big Pineapple, but they have now moved to the Nambour school grounds. This has enabled Shane to build a hub which he hopes will help localise the industry and allow him to conduct research to better educate and raise awareness of the benefits of organic farming.
“We still have a long way to go, but the awareness and demand of organic produce is increasing every day, and before long, I think the inferior supermarket produce will be replaced totally by organic products,” Shane said.
“We also hope that the research the hub will help us generate will help us improve our own methods. I’d really like to see an increase and improvements in the use of solar energy and things like that.”
So whether you want to grab yourself some truly organic fresh fruit and veges at an old-fashioned price, are looking for something fantastic and unique to indulge in on a sunny Saturday or lazy Sunday, or even just looking for something different to do, it is definitely worth the drive to the beautiful countryside to support and experience what local producers have to offer.
GREENFEST
The largest free community green festival to hit the banks of Brisbane starts at Southbank on Friday and runs through the weekend.
Greenfest has enlisted the aid of the Biological Farmers of Australia Group (including organic certification arm Australian Certified Organic) to make sure sustainable food featured in the organic Green Bake section is just that.
Showcasing the best in living, Greenfest includes environmentally friendly fashion and food, art and film for the future, and low-emission transport.
(Credit: News Limited)
For more information, visit www.greenfest.com.au.
Profiles
Greenfest
Up-and-comers - Revolver with Noel Mengel - The Courier-Mail - 8th October 2008
Another of the bright stars among the new breed is Melbourne's Skipping Girl Vinegar, who return to Brisbane this weekend for shows on the back of their excellent debut album, Sift The Noise, which has a couple of tracks on high rotation on Triple J.
The band's songwriter, Mark Lang, concedes his share of looking back for his musical foundations.
"I'm a melody nut, anything with a good tune is right up my street," Lang says. "As a fan and a writer, that's what I'm attracted to and strive for. It's something to do with the music I heard from my parents: The Beatles and the folky stuff like Simon and Garfunkel. Those albums still hit you, however many years down the track."
No doubt SGV's Sift The Noise will be among the contenders for this year's The Amp music prize, previously won by The Drones, Augie March and The Mess Hall.
Which seems as good a reason as any to plug the event. The prizemoney is up again this year, to $30,000 for the winners, judged on an album of original music. Judges are a cast of music obsessives, including me. Details on how to enter at australianmusicprize.com.au
Skipping Girl Vinegar play at Greenfest, South Bank, tomorrow and Saturday nights, and at the Powerhouse, New Farm, on Sunday afternoon. Greenfest music, arts and film festival, South Bank, Friday to Sunday. More info at greenfest.com.au
The band's songwriter, Mark Lang, concedes his share of looking back for his musical foundations.
"I'm a melody nut, anything with a good tune is right up my street," Lang says. "As a fan and a writer, that's what I'm attracted to and strive for. It's something to do with the music I heard from my parents: The Beatles and the folky stuff like Simon and Garfunkel. Those albums still hit you, however many years down the track."
No doubt SGV's Sift The Noise will be among the contenders for this year's The Amp music prize, previously won by The Drones, Augie March and The Mess Hall.
Which seems as good a reason as any to plug the event. The prizemoney is up again this year, to $30,000 for the winners, judged on an album of original music. Judges are a cast of music obsessives, including me. Details on how to enter at australianmusicprize.com.au
Skipping Girl Vinegar play at Greenfest, South Bank, tomorrow and Saturday nights, and at the Powerhouse, New Farm, on Sunday afternoon. Greenfest music, arts and film festival, South Bank, Friday to Sunday. More info at greenfest.com.au
Greenfest green at heart, by Sarah Warne - The Weekly Times - 9th October 2008
Greenfest is not only a cool music festival, organisers say it will be one of the largest free "green" events ever held in Australia.
More than 50,000 people are tipped to join in this weekend's Brisbane celebration that has environmental awareness at its core.
"There will be over 50 musical acts and 150 exhibitors," volunteer organiser Steve York says.
"It's a great cause and a fun way to get the green message across."
Greenfest aims to unite the young leaders of tomorrow, joining them in a celebration that aims to save our planet.
Exhibitors will be represented in a range of categories including cars, clothes, housing, homewares and food.
Steve says it will be a great weekend for all ages.
"I can't wait to meet the other volunteers," he says.
"They are the inspirational and positive young people and who will be our next generation of leaders."
The event opens on Friday, October 10 with an address by world-renowned naturalist and UN Peace Ambassador Dr Jane Goodall.
Dr Goodall described Greenfest as a wonderful grassroots initiative that highlighted Brisbane's leadership and commitment to conservation.
Aussie actor Jack Thompson will also attend.
Thompson says he has become a passionate environmentalist since his days in The Man from Snowy River.
Complete with music, art, speakers, film and fun Steve says he is looking forward to also having a dance.
Greenfest runs until 10pm on Friday, 10am to 10pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday.
For more information on all the Greenfest attractions, including exhibitors, speakers, music acts and more, visit www.greenfest.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
More than 50,000 people are tipped to join in this weekend's Brisbane celebration that has environmental awareness at its core.
"There will be over 50 musical acts and 150 exhibitors," volunteer organiser Steve York says.
"It's a great cause and a fun way to get the green message across."
Greenfest aims to unite the young leaders of tomorrow, joining them in a celebration that aims to save our planet.
Exhibitors will be represented in a range of categories including cars, clothes, housing, homewares and food.
Steve says it will be a great weekend for all ages.
"I can't wait to meet the other volunteers," he says.
"They are the inspirational and positive young people and who will be our next generation of leaders."
The event opens on Friday, October 10 with an address by world-renowned naturalist and UN Peace Ambassador Dr Jane Goodall.
Dr Goodall described Greenfest as a wonderful grassroots initiative that highlighted Brisbane's leadership and commitment to conservation.
Aussie actor Jack Thompson will also attend.
Thompson says he has become a passionate environmentalist since his days in The Man from Snowy River.
Complete with music, art, speakers, film and fun Steve says he is looking forward to also having a dance.
Greenfest runs until 10pm on Friday, 10am to 10pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday.
For more information on all the Greenfest attractions, including exhibitors, speakers, music acts and more, visit www.greenfest.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
08 October 2008
Nature tourism boils in the Green Cauldron, by Rudi Maxwell - Northern Rivers Echo - October 2008
The Federal Minister for the Environment Peter Garrett and Federal Minister for Tourism Martin Ferguson joined Richmond MP Justine Elliott and Forde MP Brett Raguse at the base of Wollumbin (Mt Warning) on Monday to announce Australia’s ‘Green Cauldron’ being included in the National Landscapes program.
Branded as a “partnership between conservation and tourism” the initiative aims to market regions of Australia – Kakadu, the Red Centre, the Great Ocean Road, Flinders Ranges, the Australian Alps, Australia’s Coastal Wilderness (Croajingolong National Park, Gippsland) and the Greater Blue Mountains – as ecologically diverse holiday destinations.
Chair of the Green Cauldron Steering Committee Robyn Rae said the project would allow the region (described as “stretching from Byron Bay to the Gold Coast and west towards the Great Dividing Range”) to promote its incredible biodiversity.
“Amazing, wild, diverse, elemental, mystical, breathtaking, special, very, very real and very, very green; this spectacular land is part of a living Gondwanan rainforest,” Ms Rae said.
Uncle Doug Williams, senior custodian of the Ngarakbul Githabul Moiety, gave a Welcome to Country.
“We need to remember Aboriginal people have an awesome amount of respect for this place and it needs to be preserved for the future,” Uncle Doug said.
Mr Ferguson said it was important to see first-hand how tourism could work when local councils and the state and federal government worked together.
However, despite claiming the program was specifically targetted at people who liked to travel with a “soft” carbon footprint, Mr Ferguson refused to commit to greater spending on public transport to the region, saying that groups were welcome to put in submissions to the federal government for infrastructure spending and that they would all be judged on their merits.
Mr Ferguson, a former president of the ACTU, encouraged people to take a holiday in Australia rather than jetting off overseas.
“The National Landscapes program ensures the Australian Government works with local councils and business representatives to promote Australia’s iconic landscapes,” Mr Ferguson said. “For the traditional owners, the Bundjalung and Githabul, the land here provided wealth, food, medicine, and is a sacred site.
“We need to encourage high-yield long-stay travellers to experience Australia first-hand, so they spend more and stay longer.
“Australians, at large, need to have a holiday at home and look after their mates.
“People are stockpiling too much long service and holiday leave. It’s better for business and better for workers to take their leave.”
Mr Garrett said it was important to work towards a sustainable economy that could appreciate natural assets.
“Australia is blessed by its natural environment. This rainforest is now heritage-listed and it’s of priceless value and importance,” Mr Garrett said. “It’s a large world with an extraordinary geological history.
“Nature-based tourism can continue to grow and contribute to the economy, which is critical to education and conservation and ways of building sustainable tourism for the long-term.”
Ms Elliott said she was proud to be able to share the experiences of the region with people from other parts of Australia and the rest of the world.
(Credit: Northern Rivers Echo)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Githabul people
Eco tourism
Branded as a “partnership between conservation and tourism” the initiative aims to market regions of Australia – Kakadu, the Red Centre, the Great Ocean Road, Flinders Ranges, the Australian Alps, Australia’s Coastal Wilderness (Croajingolong National Park, Gippsland) and the Greater Blue Mountains – as ecologically diverse holiday destinations.
Chair of the Green Cauldron Steering Committee Robyn Rae said the project would allow the region (described as “stretching from Byron Bay to the Gold Coast and west towards the Great Dividing Range”) to promote its incredible biodiversity.
“Amazing, wild, diverse, elemental, mystical, breathtaking, special, very, very real and very, very green; this spectacular land is part of a living Gondwanan rainforest,” Ms Rae said.
Uncle Doug Williams, senior custodian of the Ngarakbul Githabul Moiety, gave a Welcome to Country.
“We need to remember Aboriginal people have an awesome amount of respect for this place and it needs to be preserved for the future,” Uncle Doug said.
Mr Ferguson said it was important to see first-hand how tourism could work when local councils and the state and federal government worked together.
However, despite claiming the program was specifically targetted at people who liked to travel with a “soft” carbon footprint, Mr Ferguson refused to commit to greater spending on public transport to the region, saying that groups were welcome to put in submissions to the federal government for infrastructure spending and that they would all be judged on their merits.
Mr Ferguson, a former president of the ACTU, encouraged people to take a holiday in Australia rather than jetting off overseas.
“The National Landscapes program ensures the Australian Government works with local councils and business representatives to promote Australia’s iconic landscapes,” Mr Ferguson said. “For the traditional owners, the Bundjalung and Githabul, the land here provided wealth, food, medicine, and is a sacred site.
“We need to encourage high-yield long-stay travellers to experience Australia first-hand, so they spend more and stay longer.
“Australians, at large, need to have a holiday at home and look after their mates.
“People are stockpiling too much long service and holiday leave. It’s better for business and better for workers to take their leave.”
Mr Garrett said it was important to work towards a sustainable economy that could appreciate natural assets.
“Australia is blessed by its natural environment. This rainforest is now heritage-listed and it’s of priceless value and importance,” Mr Garrett said. “It’s a large world with an extraordinary geological history.
“Nature-based tourism can continue to grow and contribute to the economy, which is critical to education and conservation and ways of building sustainable tourism for the long-term.”
Ms Elliott said she was proud to be able to share the experiences of the region with people from other parts of Australia and the rest of the world.
(Credit: Northern Rivers Echo)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Githabul people
Eco tourism
Green cars on show at Greenfest, by Mark Hinchliffe - The Courier-Mail - 7th October 2008
A hybrid car, four diesels, five light cars, two vans, and two electric bikes will be on display in the Green Motor Show at Southbank from Friday.
The Green Motor Show is part of Greenfest, which exhibits environmental solutions for all facets of life.
Organiser Colman Ridge, who drives a Toyota Prius hybrid, has poured $250,000 of his own money into next weekend's environmental festival at the South Bank forecourt.
"The green motor show has a very practical objective, to demonstrate that emissions can be reduced by up to 50 per cent today without any level of discomfort, new technology or new policy; it is just a matter of choice and aligning actions with words," he said.
"If the average driver changed their automotive habits from today's average profile to a more fuel efficient car such as the one ones on display and considered other methods for some of the trips such as walking, bike or public transport this level of reduction could be achieved today."
The free festival is a non-profit venture with funds raised for habitat protection and green education projects. It will feature displays from more than 150 exhibitors of green products, jobs, foods, power, habits and lifestyles, including practical exhibitions to encourage greener consumer preferences.
There will also be music, dance, film and photography, and a Nope 1500 electric moped will be given away in a draw.
Greenfest is on at South Bank on Friday from noon until 10pm, Saturday from 10am-10pm and Sunday 10am-5pm.
Website: www.greenfest.com.au
(Credit: The Daily Telegraph)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Colman Ridge
The Green Motor Show is part of Greenfest, which exhibits environmental solutions for all facets of life.
Organiser Colman Ridge, who drives a Toyota Prius hybrid, has poured $250,000 of his own money into next weekend's environmental festival at the South Bank forecourt.
"The green motor show has a very practical objective, to demonstrate that emissions can be reduced by up to 50 per cent today without any level of discomfort, new technology or new policy; it is just a matter of choice and aligning actions with words," he said.
"If the average driver changed their automotive habits from today's average profile to a more fuel efficient car such as the one ones on display and considered other methods for some of the trips such as walking, bike or public transport this level of reduction could be achieved today."
The free festival is a non-profit venture with funds raised for habitat protection and green education projects. It will feature displays from more than 150 exhibitors of green products, jobs, foods, power, habits and lifestyles, including practical exhibitions to encourage greener consumer preferences.
There will also be music, dance, film and photography, and a Nope 1500 electric moped will be given away in a draw.
Greenfest is on at South Bank on Friday from noon until 10pm, Saturday from 10am-10pm and Sunday 10am-5pm.
Website: www.greenfest.com.au
(Credit: The Daily Telegraph)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Colman Ridge
06 October 2008
West End Cabaret at Greenfest - The Westender
A showcase of West End's musical talent - Free event at Southbank Piazza Saturday 11th October
A West End Cabaret at Greenfest is a joint community festival event between the Brisbane Cabaret Festival and Greenfest.
It brings a creative mix of Boundary Street’s musical treasures from a number of local music tribes, including:
Blind Dog Donny & Friends
Linda Neil and guests
Greg Bird as “Cliffy” (Golden Gibbo Award Winner for best independent act Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2006)
Leah Cotterell & Jamie Clark
Its all local, local, local surrounded by the organic food stalls of Greenfest and out to the great outdoors of South Bank on Saturday night – all free all welcome!
About Greenfest
Greenfest is about attracting a critical mass of positive energy in one place at one time through creativity, innovation and working together to win the race against climate change. Get into Greenfest!
An emerging green generation may be our first psychographic generation, a grouping of like minds from many ages and origins, committed to finding a new consensus that protects diversity of life on earth.
The knowing of this feeling however, is most unmistakable and uncompromised in the art and music of younger people. Greenfest provides a stage for this fresh energy to engage all of us, around inspired consumer products for a greener future and respected speakers taking a fresh approach.
Greenfest is free, outdoors, participation based and experimentally presents tomorrow’s leaders to share the stage today. It’s a formula for resonance between different elements of the community and by just turning up you will have taken action for a greener world.
The festival also meets current best practices in green event management through:
Use of green power
Recycling and waste management
Green printing
Fair trade uniforms
Minimizing production beyond function
Carbon neutral event
For more info, check out www.greenfest.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
A West End Cabaret at Greenfest is a joint community festival event between the Brisbane Cabaret Festival and Greenfest.
It brings a creative mix of Boundary Street’s musical treasures from a number of local music tribes, including:
Blind Dog Donny & Friends
Linda Neil and guests
Greg Bird as “Cliffy” (Golden Gibbo Award Winner for best independent act Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2006)
Leah Cotterell & Jamie Clark
Its all local, local, local surrounded by the organic food stalls of Greenfest and out to the great outdoors of South Bank on Saturday night – all free all welcome!
About Greenfest
Greenfest is about attracting a critical mass of positive energy in one place at one time through creativity, innovation and working together to win the race against climate change. Get into Greenfest!
An emerging green generation may be our first psychographic generation, a grouping of like minds from many ages and origins, committed to finding a new consensus that protects diversity of life on earth.
The knowing of this feeling however, is most unmistakable and uncompromised in the art and music of younger people. Greenfest provides a stage for this fresh energy to engage all of us, around inspired consumer products for a greener future and respected speakers taking a fresh approach.
Greenfest is free, outdoors, participation based and experimentally presents tomorrow’s leaders to share the stage today. It’s a formula for resonance between different elements of the community and by just turning up you will have taken action for a greener world.
The festival also meets current best practices in green event management through:
Use of green power
Recycling and waste management
Green printing
Fair trade uniforms
Minimizing production beyond function
Carbon neutral event
For more info, check out www.greenfest.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
02 October 2008
Hope found in whale dreamtime, by Greg Tingle - The Bondi View - October 2008
I found Whaledreamers to be a powerful, thought provoking and relevant film.
Featuring Julian Lennon, Jack Thompson and Bunna Lawrie, its indigenous and environmental messages were presented without hype and without preaching. And there were just enough celebrities to give the film mainstream appeal.
Directed by Kim Kindersley, Whaledreamers explores the intricate connections that link humans to nature, themes that permeate indigenous thinking and spirituality. Everything and everyone is connected.
Just as people communicate with their pets, Whaledreamers makes the case that some indigenous people have the power to communicate with whales.
The film is not a technical masterpiece but it does deliver a powerful message: we really need to listen to the traditional caretakers of this land. While it is not a sermon, the film invites the viewer to consider whether the Mirning tribe and the whales could teach us a thing or two about living on this planet.
The highlight of the film for me was when the elders called out to the whales, and they emerged from the ocean.
In an age of environmental degradation and threats posed by climate change, the film offers hope, and the world owes Lennon and Kindersley gratitude for this magnificent effort.
See this film. It just might change your perspective.
Whaledreamers headlines the Greenfest Film Festival in Brisbane from October 10 - 12.
For more information go to www.whaledreamers.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Greenfest
Featuring Julian Lennon, Jack Thompson and Bunna Lawrie, its indigenous and environmental messages were presented without hype and without preaching. And there were just enough celebrities to give the film mainstream appeal.
Directed by Kim Kindersley, Whaledreamers explores the intricate connections that link humans to nature, themes that permeate indigenous thinking and spirituality. Everything and everyone is connected.
Just as people communicate with their pets, Whaledreamers makes the case that some indigenous people have the power to communicate with whales.
The film is not a technical masterpiece but it does deliver a powerful message: we really need to listen to the traditional caretakers of this land. While it is not a sermon, the film invites the viewer to consider whether the Mirning tribe and the whales could teach us a thing or two about living on this planet.
The highlight of the film for me was when the elders called out to the whales, and they emerged from the ocean.
In an age of environmental degradation and threats posed by climate change, the film offers hope, and the world owes Lennon and Kindersley gratitude for this magnificent effort.
See this film. It just might change your perspective.
Whaledreamers headlines the Greenfest Film Festival in Brisbane from October 10 - 12.
For more information go to www.whaledreamers.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Greenfest
30 September 2008
ANIMAL PLANET LAUNCHES A BOLD NEW LOOK
10th September 2-008
ANIMAL PLANET, the world’s only entertainment brand dedicated to the unique relationship between people and animals, will officially launch a bold new look in October 2008 in New Zealand. Celebrating 10 years of broadcasting in international markets, the new ANIMAL PLANET will highlight gripping and exciting stories designed to appeal to an adult audience seeking compelling entertainment.
“We are transforming the look, feel and storytelling of ANIMAL PLANET in order to deepen our relationship with audiences, affiliates and advertisers alike and target more adult viewership,” said Phillip Luff, SVP and General Manager, Animal Planet International. “The new ANIMAL PLANET is full of exciting, instinctual stories that will bring out the raw, visceral emotion in the natural world and lead viewers to see animals as characters, not merely creatures. ANIMAL PLANET is a place where animals rule and viewers are captive.”
In addition to a dynamic new logo and a vibrant on-air graphics package, the new ANIMAL PLANET will offer viewers a variety of new programming including the stunning, immersive nature films for which the network is renowned as well as quality doco-soaps, doco-dramas and ground-breaking CGI that brings to life the amazing diversity of the animal kingdom. The new slate will tap into the primal instincts that drive us all – maternal, survival, social, killer and sexual – with fascinating stories that resonate with what it means to be human. Ranging from raw, emotional and passionate to fun and humorous, the new content will explore close-up encounters with wildlife, follow heroic crusaders as they go into battle to protect the animal kingdom and highlight the joy of sharing life with devoted animal companions.
Lester Mordue, Creative Director, Animal Planet International, oversaw the development and international rollout of the new identity in partnership with ANIMAL PLANET in the United States, which launched the new look earlier this year. “The new creative package is much more than just a fresh look, it’s a revolution,” said Mordue. “After conducting extensive audience and trade research, we knew we had a unique ability to connect on an emotional level with our audience and the new logo, developed by London-based Dunning Eley Jones, enabled us to explore a more revolutionary direction.”
Other components of the new look were created by London-based Duke (on-air and off-air toolkits), Lipsync (on-air teaser campaign) and Milton Mordue (channel idents and bumpers).
About ANIMAL PLANET
ANIMAL PLANET is the world’s only brand that immerses viewers in emotional, engaging and passionate content devoted to animals – from wildlife to pets. ANIMAL PLANET connects humans and animals with rich, deep content and offers animal lovers access to entertainment, information and enrichment via multiple platforms including television, online (at discoverytv.com) and merchandising extensions. ANIMAL PLANET is available in over 315 million homes worldwide. First launched outside of the United States in Europe in 1997, ANIMAL PLANET is a joint venture between Discovery Communications and BBC Worldwide in all international regions except the UK and Italy.
www.animal.discovery.com
www.skytv.co.nz
For further information, please contact:
Anna Lovejoy
Publicist - SKY Television
t : +64 9 579 5793
e : alovejoy@skytv.co.nz
Media Man Australia Profiles
Green News Media
ANIMAL PLANET, the world’s only entertainment brand dedicated to the unique relationship between people and animals, will officially launch a bold new look in October 2008 in New Zealand. Celebrating 10 years of broadcasting in international markets, the new ANIMAL PLANET will highlight gripping and exciting stories designed to appeal to an adult audience seeking compelling entertainment.
“We are transforming the look, feel and storytelling of ANIMAL PLANET in order to deepen our relationship with audiences, affiliates and advertisers alike and target more adult viewership,” said Phillip Luff, SVP and General Manager, Animal Planet International. “The new ANIMAL PLANET is full of exciting, instinctual stories that will bring out the raw, visceral emotion in the natural world and lead viewers to see animals as characters, not merely creatures. ANIMAL PLANET is a place where animals rule and viewers are captive.”
In addition to a dynamic new logo and a vibrant on-air graphics package, the new ANIMAL PLANET will offer viewers a variety of new programming including the stunning, immersive nature films for which the network is renowned as well as quality doco-soaps, doco-dramas and ground-breaking CGI that brings to life the amazing diversity of the animal kingdom. The new slate will tap into the primal instincts that drive us all – maternal, survival, social, killer and sexual – with fascinating stories that resonate with what it means to be human. Ranging from raw, emotional and passionate to fun and humorous, the new content will explore close-up encounters with wildlife, follow heroic crusaders as they go into battle to protect the animal kingdom and highlight the joy of sharing life with devoted animal companions.
Lester Mordue, Creative Director, Animal Planet International, oversaw the development and international rollout of the new identity in partnership with ANIMAL PLANET in the United States, which launched the new look earlier this year. “The new creative package is much more than just a fresh look, it’s a revolution,” said Mordue. “After conducting extensive audience and trade research, we knew we had a unique ability to connect on an emotional level with our audience and the new logo, developed by London-based Dunning Eley Jones, enabled us to explore a more revolutionary direction.”
Other components of the new look were created by London-based Duke (on-air and off-air toolkits), Lipsync (on-air teaser campaign) and Milton Mordue (channel idents and bumpers).
About ANIMAL PLANET
ANIMAL PLANET is the world’s only brand that immerses viewers in emotional, engaging and passionate content devoted to animals – from wildlife to pets. ANIMAL PLANET connects humans and animals with rich, deep content and offers animal lovers access to entertainment, information and enrichment via multiple platforms including television, online (at discoverytv.com) and merchandising extensions. ANIMAL PLANET is available in over 315 million homes worldwide. First launched outside of the United States in Europe in 1997, ANIMAL PLANET is a joint venture between Discovery Communications and BBC Worldwide in all international regions except the UK and Italy.
www.animal.discovery.com
www.skytv.co.nz
For further information, please contact:
Anna Lovejoy
Publicist - SKY Television
t : +64 9 579 5793
e : alovejoy@skytv.co.nz
Media Man Australia Profiles
Green News Media
29 September 2008
Green the go for consumers, Paul McIntyre - The Sydney Morning Herald - 25th September 2008
Spending on green-leaning products is forecast to top $22 billion by 2010 according to a new study which also warns that corporate greenwashing is becoming an increasing concern among consumers.
Mobium Group's Living LOHAS 2 report, considered the benchmark in Australia on consumer attitudes and purchasing trends in the green sector, has just released findings from its latest study to the Herald in which it paints a bullish outlook for environmentally leaning products and services.
Mobium says more than 4 million Australian adults are aligned to lifestyles of health and sustainability - hence the LOHAS tag - and will spend $15 billion this year on products that are friendlier to the environment and personal health. By 2010, green spending is forecast to rise to between $22 billion and $25 billion with the key growth categories being sustainable building and renovation products, appliances, homewares and household cleaning products.
"Products that have an immediate water or energy saving or with an immediate direct health benefit is where the growing is coming from," the Mobium principal, Andrew Baker, said. "We expect to see significant growth in personal products like low-toxicity toys and cleaning products. However, Mr Baker said the proliferation of greenwashing had really made people question what they were actually getting. Concern over greenwashing was being driven in part by media coverage but also by personal experience.
"Some of it doesn't stack up for them," he said. "Fundamentally people are saying they are still sceptical … they want manufacturers to solve real problems, not just sugar-coat an existing product with some potentially irrelevant green solution."
Mr Baker said he expected intense merger and acquisition activity in the Australian green sector in the next two years driven by larger companies, as has happened overseas.
L'Oreal now owns The Body Shop, Cadbury has acquired Green & Black's organic chocolate and Danone owns the US organic dairy group, Stoney Fields Farms.
"The movement in the US and Europe is very significant around big brands buying entrepreneurial brands based on a LOHAS platform," he said. "We're talking hundreds of million of dollars in transactions. We are yet to see that level of activity in Australia but there are entrepreneurs building brands who are looking for that opportunity."
Mobium's latest study lists the top companies deemed by consumers to be green, led for the second year by The Body Shop. The others in the top five are Earth Choice, Westpac, Planet Ark and Origin Energy.
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Green News Media
Environmentalists and the environment
Mobium Group's Living LOHAS 2 report, considered the benchmark in Australia on consumer attitudes and purchasing trends in the green sector, has just released findings from its latest study to the Herald in which it paints a bullish outlook for environmentally leaning products and services.
Mobium says more than 4 million Australian adults are aligned to lifestyles of health and sustainability - hence the LOHAS tag - and will spend $15 billion this year on products that are friendlier to the environment and personal health. By 2010, green spending is forecast to rise to between $22 billion and $25 billion with the key growth categories being sustainable building and renovation products, appliances, homewares and household cleaning products.
"Products that have an immediate water or energy saving or with an immediate direct health benefit is where the growing is coming from," the Mobium principal, Andrew Baker, said. "We expect to see significant growth in personal products like low-toxicity toys and cleaning products. However, Mr Baker said the proliferation of greenwashing had really made people question what they were actually getting. Concern over greenwashing was being driven in part by media coverage but also by personal experience.
"Some of it doesn't stack up for them," he said. "Fundamentally people are saying they are still sceptical … they want manufacturers to solve real problems, not just sugar-coat an existing product with some potentially irrelevant green solution."
Mr Baker said he expected intense merger and acquisition activity in the Australian green sector in the next two years driven by larger companies, as has happened overseas.
L'Oreal now owns The Body Shop, Cadbury has acquired Green & Black's organic chocolate and Danone owns the US organic dairy group, Stoney Fields Farms.
"The movement in the US and Europe is very significant around big brands buying entrepreneurial brands based on a LOHAS platform," he said. "We're talking hundreds of million of dollars in transactions. We are yet to see that level of activity in Australia but there are entrepreneurs building brands who are looking for that opportunity."
Mobium's latest study lists the top companies deemed by consumers to be green, led for the second year by The Body Shop. The others in the top five are Earth Choice, Westpac, Planet Ark and Origin Energy.
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Green News Media
Environmentalists and the environment
28 September 2008
Irwin's father fears for kids, by Greg Roberts - The Australian - 27th September 2008
The relationship between the father and the widow of Steve Irwin has collapsed, with the pair in bitter dispute over the direction of Australia Zoo and the welfare of the late naturalist's two young children.
Bob Irwin has had minimal contact with Bindi, 10, and Robert, who soon turns five, since ending his association with the zoo in February.
Australia Zoo sources have told The Weekend Australian that the 69-year-old is dismayed by the direction in which Terri Irwin is taking the Sunshine Coast zoo, believing she is turning it into "another Disneyland".
Mr Irwin believes his daughter-in-law is not managing the zoo in accordance with how his son intended it to operate, with an increasing emphasis on commercialisation and relatively less focus on wildlife exhibits -- claims that Ms Irwin denies.
Since Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray two years ago, his father has felt increasingly unwelcome at the zoo he founded in the early 1970s.
Mr Irwin is understood to be dismayed at the prominent role his granddaughter, Bindi, is playing in promoting the zoo. Her brother Robert is following in her footsteps, with the zoo planning a huge public celebration in December for his fifth birthday, describing the boy in promotional material as the "cutest chip off the old block".
But Ms Irwin has always insisted her first priority is her children's welfare.
Ms Irwin has said she helped her father-in-law by purchasing a 200ha bush property near Kingaroy for him to move to, but supporters of Mr Irwin said he was annoyed she had failed to mention she inherited the zoo on Steve's death because Bob had given it to the couple. Mr Irwin and his partner, Judy, moved into a home on the new property this weekend.
In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian at the property, Mr Irwin would not be drawn directly on his relationship with Terri Irwin. "It's true to say I'm probably disappointed with some people, but I'm not angry," Mr Irwin said.
"I am not going to let any of that disappointment interfere with what I'm doing now."
Mr Irwin has visited the zoo just once in the seven months since he left, and then only to go to an outside workshop. "It doesn't feel right any more," he said.
Mr Irwin misses the zoo he had developed in partnership with his son. "You don't devote 30 years of life to something and walk away from it and not miss it. It was my decision to resign. I have got to put up with what comes from that."
However, he has no regrets about his move to Kingaroy, where he is a creating a refuge to rehabilitate orphaned and injured wildlife. "I am very content with what is happening here. There is no greater thing than returning an animal to the wild that you have cared for."
Mr Irwin has named the Kingaroy property Camp Chilli. "That name is a personal thing between Steve and me, which I prefer to keep between us."
His grief at his son's loss was so great he doubts he would have survived without his partner.
"Judy has been a lifesaver," he said. "She has got me through some pretty ordinary times. I have good days and bad days, but it's hard."
In recent months, he has been working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, developing the property, camping in a tent while the house was built. "I just find it better to work continually," he said. "It's my way of coping with things that have happened."
He is consoled by childhood memories of Steve. "Even when he was a little boy, Steve would never half do anything. He would give everything 110 per cent. He really was a good kid."
Mr Irwin is working in partnership with Gold Coast businessman Kenton Campbell on wildlife conservation projects. "Nobody can replace Steve, but Kenton has the same drive and zest that Steve had," he said.
Ms Irwin denied she was in dispute with her father-in-law or that he had expressed concerns to her about her management of Australia Zoo.
"I was happy to help Bob do his own thing, and to get him the land and the fencing and the vehicles and the infrastructure," Ms Irwin told The Weekend Australian.
"I have no doubt Bob is struggling. I couldn't comprehend losing a child. I can't imagine going there."
Ms Irwin said she wished him well. "It sounds like a nice thing to do, to be there, a farm like that. I don't really know how to make him feel better."
She denied the zoo had been over-commercialised. "After filming, with thousands of people coming in here, we couldn't do it with a little four-acre zoo and we had to expand," she said.
Ms Irwin is offended by suggestions her children are being exploited to promote the zoo.
"I want to help my kids do what they want to do," she said. "You've got to look at it practically. When do you see Bindi? Do you see her when she's painting her fingernails or jumping on the trampoline with her friends? No, you see her for the small amount of time she's in the spotlight."
Bob Irwin has had minimal contact with Bindi, 10, and Robert, who soon turns five, since ending his association with the zoo in February.
Australia Zoo sources have told The Weekend Australian that the 69-year-old is dismayed by the direction in which Terri Irwin is taking the Sunshine Coast zoo, believing she is turning it into "another Disneyland".
Mr Irwin believes his daughter-in-law is not managing the zoo in accordance with how his son intended it to operate, with an increasing emphasis on commercialisation and relatively less focus on wildlife exhibits -- claims that Ms Irwin denies.
Since Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray two years ago, his father has felt increasingly unwelcome at the zoo he founded in the early 1970s.
Mr Irwin is understood to be dismayed at the prominent role his granddaughter, Bindi, is playing in promoting the zoo. Her brother Robert is following in her footsteps, with the zoo planning a huge public celebration in December for his fifth birthday, describing the boy in promotional material as the "cutest chip off the old block".
But Ms Irwin has always insisted her first priority is her children's welfare.
Ms Irwin has said she helped her father-in-law by purchasing a 200ha bush property near Kingaroy for him to move to, but supporters of Mr Irwin said he was annoyed she had failed to mention she inherited the zoo on Steve's death because Bob had given it to the couple. Mr Irwin and his partner, Judy, moved into a home on the new property this weekend.
In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian at the property, Mr Irwin would not be drawn directly on his relationship with Terri Irwin. "It's true to say I'm probably disappointed with some people, but I'm not angry," Mr Irwin said.
"I am not going to let any of that disappointment interfere with what I'm doing now."
Mr Irwin has visited the zoo just once in the seven months since he left, and then only to go to an outside workshop. "It doesn't feel right any more," he said.
Mr Irwin misses the zoo he had developed in partnership with his son. "You don't devote 30 years of life to something and walk away from it and not miss it. It was my decision to resign. I have got to put up with what comes from that."
However, he has no regrets about his move to Kingaroy, where he is a creating a refuge to rehabilitate orphaned and injured wildlife. "I am very content with what is happening here. There is no greater thing than returning an animal to the wild that you have cared for."
Mr Irwin has named the Kingaroy property Camp Chilli. "That name is a personal thing between Steve and me, which I prefer to keep between us."
His grief at his son's loss was so great he doubts he would have survived without his partner.
"Judy has been a lifesaver," he said. "She has got me through some pretty ordinary times. I have good days and bad days, but it's hard."
In recent months, he has been working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, developing the property, camping in a tent while the house was built. "I just find it better to work continually," he said. "It's my way of coping with things that have happened."
He is consoled by childhood memories of Steve. "Even when he was a little boy, Steve would never half do anything. He would give everything 110 per cent. He really was a good kid."
Mr Irwin is working in partnership with Gold Coast businessman Kenton Campbell on wildlife conservation projects. "Nobody can replace Steve, but Kenton has the same drive and zest that Steve had," he said.
Ms Irwin denied she was in dispute with her father-in-law or that he had expressed concerns to her about her management of Australia Zoo.
"I was happy to help Bob do his own thing, and to get him the land and the fencing and the vehicles and the infrastructure," Ms Irwin told The Weekend Australian.
"I have no doubt Bob is struggling. I couldn't comprehend losing a child. I can't imagine going there."
Ms Irwin said she wished him well. "It sounds like a nice thing to do, to be there, a farm like that. I don't really know how to make him feel better."
She denied the zoo had been over-commercialised. "After filming, with thousands of people coming in here, we couldn't do it with a little four-acre zoo and we had to expand," she said.
Ms Irwin is offended by suggestions her children are being exploited to promote the zoo.
"I want to help my kids do what they want to do," she said. "You've got to look at it practically. When do you see Bindi? Do you see her when she's painting her fingernails or jumping on the trampoline with her friends? No, you see her for the small amount of time she's in the spotlight."
26 September 2008
Greens protest 'risky' coastal coal mining - ABC - 26th September 2008
The Greens have held a protest at Sydney's Bondi Beach to call on federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to stop a company exploring for coal off the New South Wales coast.
The company Energie Future has applied to the NSW Government to explore a 6,000-square-kilometre area of sea bed off the NSW coast for coal.
The company is seeking to use an experimental process to turn underground coal into gas and says it will submit an environmental plan.
But NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon says the project will impact on whale migration and water quality.
"This type of mining off the New South Wales coast comes under both the New South Wales Government and the Federal Government, and the Federal Government actually has the final sign-off," she said.
Ms Rhiannon says the experimental process to extract coal from the sea bed is too risky.
She is calling on Mr Garrett to rule out final approval of the project.
A spokesman for Mr Garrett says the Minister will give the application thorough and rigorous consideration in accordance with national environmental legislation.
(Credit: ABC)
The company Energie Future has applied to the NSW Government to explore a 6,000-square-kilometre area of sea bed off the NSW coast for coal.
The company is seeking to use an experimental process to turn underground coal into gas and says it will submit an environmental plan.
But NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon says the project will impact on whale migration and water quality.
"This type of mining off the New South Wales coast comes under both the New South Wales Government and the Federal Government, and the Federal Government actually has the final sign-off," she said.
Ms Rhiannon says the experimental process to extract coal from the sea bed is too risky.
She is calling on Mr Garrett to rule out final approval of the project.
A spokesman for Mr Garrett says the Minister will give the application thorough and rigorous consideration in accordance with national environmental legislation.
(Credit: ABC)
Locals to join in mining protest - Central Coast Sun - 25th September 2008
Locals who oppose plans to drill for gas off the NSW coast including off the Central Coast are invited to join a community protest rally at Bondi Beach tomorrow (Friday).
The protest has been organised by Greens MP Lee Rhiannon who says that the recently advertised mining exploration licence application covers an area of 6000km, extending from Port Stephens to Royal National Park south of Sydney.
The protest will feature several guest speakers, including children, and representatives of environmental and tourism organisations, she said.
And mining could result in "major environmental damage to whale migration and marine life" Ms Rhiannon said.
"The operation would be a coastal eyesore and create a real risk of leaks and spills."
The protest will be held at 11am outside Bondi Beach Pavilion on Queen Elizabeth Drive.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
Bondi Beach
The protest has been organised by Greens MP Lee Rhiannon who says that the recently advertised mining exploration licence application covers an area of 6000km, extending from Port Stephens to Royal National Park south of Sydney.
The protest will feature several guest speakers, including children, and representatives of environmental and tourism organisations, she said.
And mining could result in "major environmental damage to whale migration and marine life" Ms Rhiannon said.
"The operation would be a coastal eyesore and create a real risk of leaks and spills."
The protest will be held at 11am outside Bondi Beach Pavilion on Queen Elizabeth Drive.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
Bondi Beach
24 September 2008
News.com.au annouces 2008 Winners of Green Awards
Press Release
23rd September 2008
David Higgins, editor, news.com.au today announced the winners of the news.com.au 2008 Green Awards.
Sydneysider Bill Holland has won the major award of Green Hero for his efforts in converting Pittwater High School to solar power through community fundraising which has dramatically reduced the community’s environmental impact.
The Junior Green Hero Award has been awarded to Alaistair, Freya and Imogen Wadlow for creating the “Planet Patrol” website (http://www.planetpatrol.info).
‘Written BY kids FOR kids’ the site aims to educate young Australians about environmental issues and encourage environmental protection. “From over 500 nominations to 36 finalists across all states of Australia, we have chosen 11 strong Greenies who have clearly demonstrated their dedication to our environment,” David Higgins, editor, news.com.au said.
“These winners are examples of truly environmentally committed Australians and they have proven that their simple efforts can make huge differences to their community.”
The winners of the 2008 news.com.au Green Awards are:
* The news.com.au Green Hero Award– Bill Holland
* The news.com.au Junior Green Hero Award – Alastair, Freya, and Imogen Wadlow
* The news.com.au Green Invention Award – (joint) Cane-It Golf Tees and the E-Pro Water Heater Cover
* The news.com.au Green Town Award – Whitsundays Regional Council
* The news.com.au Scientific Breakthrough Award – Intex Holdings
* The news.com.au Green Business Award – Unity4 The news.com.au Environment 2.0 Award – aToMik Green
* The news.com.au Australian Solution Award – Windesal
* The news.com.au Green Household Award – Mos Howard
* The news.com.au Can Do Better citation – White Pages / Sensis
The winners were determined by a panel of judges comprising of:
* Climate change expert, Professor Barry Brook, from the University of Adelaide
* Environmental experts from the CSIRO
* news.com.au editor, David Higgins
* news.com.au readers
The awards are designed to recognise and celebrate everyday Australians tackling the environmental challenges facing our country and the world through clever, adaptable innovations.
The winners were announced in an online ceremony featuring special guests Ian Kiernan, Deni Hines, Jonathan Pease and Axle Whitehead.
The announcement of these winners coincides with the launch of news.com.au’s in-depth climate change section exploring environmental issues facing Australia and the world. To watch the official online official Green Awards winners ceremony, visit http://news.com.au/greenawards.
For more information contact:
Vida Redoblado public relations executive
Phone | 612 8114 7325 or Mobile | 0401 435 309
Email | vida.redoblado@newsdigitalmedia.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dr Bill Holland
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
23rd September 2008
David Higgins, editor, news.com.au today announced the winners of the news.com.au 2008 Green Awards.
Sydneysider Bill Holland has won the major award of Green Hero for his efforts in converting Pittwater High School to solar power through community fundraising which has dramatically reduced the community’s environmental impact.
The Junior Green Hero Award has been awarded to Alaistair, Freya and Imogen Wadlow for creating the “Planet Patrol” website (http://www.planetpatrol.info).
‘Written BY kids FOR kids’ the site aims to educate young Australians about environmental issues and encourage environmental protection. “From over 500 nominations to 36 finalists across all states of Australia, we have chosen 11 strong Greenies who have clearly demonstrated their dedication to our environment,” David Higgins, editor, news.com.au said.
“These winners are examples of truly environmentally committed Australians and they have proven that their simple efforts can make huge differences to their community.”
The winners of the 2008 news.com.au Green Awards are:
* The news.com.au Green Hero Award– Bill Holland
* The news.com.au Junior Green Hero Award – Alastair, Freya, and Imogen Wadlow
* The news.com.au Green Invention Award – (joint) Cane-It Golf Tees and the E-Pro Water Heater Cover
* The news.com.au Green Town Award – Whitsundays Regional Council
* The news.com.au Scientific Breakthrough Award – Intex Holdings
* The news.com.au Green Business Award – Unity4 The news.com.au Environment 2.0 Award – aToMik Green
* The news.com.au Australian Solution Award – Windesal
* The news.com.au Green Household Award – Mos Howard
* The news.com.au Can Do Better citation – White Pages / Sensis
The winners were determined by a panel of judges comprising of:
* Climate change expert, Professor Barry Brook, from the University of Adelaide
* Environmental experts from the CSIRO
* news.com.au editor, David Higgins
* news.com.au readers
The awards are designed to recognise and celebrate everyday Australians tackling the environmental challenges facing our country and the world through clever, adaptable innovations.
The winners were announced in an online ceremony featuring special guests Ian Kiernan, Deni Hines, Jonathan Pease and Axle Whitehead.
The announcement of these winners coincides with the launch of news.com.au’s in-depth climate change section exploring environmental issues facing Australia and the world. To watch the official online official Green Awards winners ceremony, visit http://news.com.au/greenawards.
For more information contact:
Vida Redoblado public relations executive
Phone | 612 8114 7325 or Mobile | 0401 435 309
Email | vida.redoblado@newsdigitalmedia.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dr Bill Holland
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
23 September 2008
Green hero a solar powerhouse - News.com.au - 23rd September 2008
A father-of-five has been named as NEWS.com.au's 2008 Green Hero for his efforts turning his local high school into a green power station.
Bill Holland was one of more than 500 Australians across 10 categories nominated by readers of NEWS.com.au for the inaugural Green Awards – or the “Greenies”.
Dr Holland, 47, beat an impressive field to the major prize after first converting his home to solar power and then setting his sights on Pittwater High School on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Multimedia Package See all the winners in our virtual awards ceremony
The school now has more than 70 panels installed through Dr Holland’s leadership, know-how and community fundraising and is even on the way to returning power to the local grid.
The Greenies are designed to recognise and celebrate everyday Australians tackling the environmental challenges facing our country and the world through clever, adaptable innovations.
The judges were impressed by Dr Holland’s attitude for change by “just doing it” and for showing the way for potentially thousands of schools across Australia.
“I’m really pleased,” he said of his win. “Anything that draws attention to solar is a great thing. I’ve got a real vision to get schools onto solar power – it’s just common sense.”
Dr Holland said he hoped big Australian companies would eventually offset their carbon emissions by helping to convert schools to solar.
In the other major award category, three young teenagers - Alastair, 15, and 13-year-old twins Freya, and Imogen Wadlow - picked up the Junior Hero award for their efforts at rallying young people in their area after setting up the Planet Patrol activist website.
In a tough category to judge, the kids edged ahead with the incredible dedication and ability to motivate others since starting their mission four years ago.
Among their many projects they have organised bushland restoration in their local area, collected used light bulbs, lobbied politicians and exhibited overseas.
Mum Erika Wadlow said it was not always the “coolest” thing being known as the green eco-warriors and the recognition would help her children’s efforts.
“It’s going to give them the boost they need,” Mrs Wadlow said. “I think it’s just marvellous.”
The winners were announced today in an online video special featuring guests Ian Kiernan, Deni Hines, Jonathan Pease and Axle Whitehead.
NEWS.com.au editor David Higgins congratulated all who took part.
“From over 500 nominations to 36 finalists across all states of Australia, we have chosen 11 strong Greenies who have clearly demonstrated their dedication to our environment,” Mr Higgins said.
“They are examples of truly environmentally committed Australians and they have proven that their simple efforts can make huge differences in our community.”
Along with Mr Higgins, the winners were chosen by a panel of judges comprising:
- Climate change expert, Professor Barry Brook, from the University of Adelaide
- Environmental experts from the CSIRO
- NEWS.com.au readers
To see all the winners and find out more go to our Green Awards special.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
Dr Bill Holland
Bill Holland was one of more than 500 Australians across 10 categories nominated by readers of NEWS.com.au for the inaugural Green Awards – or the “Greenies”.
Dr Holland, 47, beat an impressive field to the major prize after first converting his home to solar power and then setting his sights on Pittwater High School on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Multimedia Package See all the winners in our virtual awards ceremony
The school now has more than 70 panels installed through Dr Holland’s leadership, know-how and community fundraising and is even on the way to returning power to the local grid.
The Greenies are designed to recognise and celebrate everyday Australians tackling the environmental challenges facing our country and the world through clever, adaptable innovations.
The judges were impressed by Dr Holland’s attitude for change by “just doing it” and for showing the way for potentially thousands of schools across Australia.
“I’m really pleased,” he said of his win. “Anything that draws attention to solar is a great thing. I’ve got a real vision to get schools onto solar power – it’s just common sense.”
Dr Holland said he hoped big Australian companies would eventually offset their carbon emissions by helping to convert schools to solar.
In the other major award category, three young teenagers - Alastair, 15, and 13-year-old twins Freya, and Imogen Wadlow - picked up the Junior Hero award for their efforts at rallying young people in their area after setting up the Planet Patrol activist website.
In a tough category to judge, the kids edged ahead with the incredible dedication and ability to motivate others since starting their mission four years ago.
Among their many projects they have organised bushland restoration in their local area, collected used light bulbs, lobbied politicians and exhibited overseas.
Mum Erika Wadlow said it was not always the “coolest” thing being known as the green eco-warriors and the recognition would help her children’s efforts.
“It’s going to give them the boost they need,” Mrs Wadlow said. “I think it’s just marvellous.”
The winners were announced today in an online video special featuring guests Ian Kiernan, Deni Hines, Jonathan Pease and Axle Whitehead.
NEWS.com.au editor David Higgins congratulated all who took part.
“From over 500 nominations to 36 finalists across all states of Australia, we have chosen 11 strong Greenies who have clearly demonstrated their dedication to our environment,” Mr Higgins said.
“They are examples of truly environmentally committed Australians and they have proven that their simple efforts can make huge differences in our community.”
Along with Mr Higgins, the winners were chosen by a panel of judges comprising:
- Climate change expert, Professor Barry Brook, from the University of Adelaide
- Environmental experts from the CSIRO
- NEWS.com.au readers
To see all the winners and find out more go to our Green Awards special.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
Dr Bill Holland
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
Major breaking eco news story on Pittwater High School Solar Power Station.
More news soon.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
More news soon.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
22 September 2008
'Whaledreamers' harpooned by good intentions, Fiona Williams - SBS Movies
Kim Kendersley’s Whaledreamers is a passionate but flawed effort to save the world, one whale at a time. Review by Fiona Williams.
Whaledreamers charts Kendersley’s personal odyssey to end the practice of whaling. To make his point, he draws on the deep spiritual connections that exist between ancient tribes and the endangered animals, focussing on the Mirning people of the Nullabor, whose efforts to reconnect with the spirit animals of their dispossessed sacred land leads the film’s narrative.
Kendersley’s passion is infectious. He is clearly a committed, excitable, and enthusiastic advocate for harmony and compassion, who struggles against complacency in the face of world crises and looming environmental catastrophe.
The problem is, none of this translates into a compelling film. The narrative struggles to maintain momentum and gets lost amid repetitious stock footage and gimmicky post production.
It is a dilemma that all advocacy filmmakers face: how to condense a complicated social/political/environmental message into a concise and palatable essay that is capable of effecting change. When this is done well, the results speak for themselves. With just Al Gore and a Powerpoint presentation, director David Guggenheim made a film that put climate change at the forefront of the political agenda. Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock are household names thanks to their effective methods of creating a lasting impression.
For his part, Kendersley has made a ‘message movie’ that stumbles under the burden of its message. An anti-whaling film degenerates into an all-encompassing rant about 'man's inhamanity to man', complete with a clumsy September 11 montage.
It seems as though Kendersley struggled under the weight of the footage collected during the film’s on/off decade of production… A better director with a more economical approach to storytelling would have cut through the repetition and hyperbole to create the film Whaledreamers fancies itself to be.
It’s a terrible shame because the makings of a good film are all there: There’s an historic meeting of international indigenous elders; there’s the personal story of a song man from a dispossessed tribe striving to find a renewed sense of purpose. Above all, there's the potential for an incredible study on the hurdles that need to be overcome in order to eradicate the horrendous practice of whaling. But limited screen time is devoted to what is arguably the film’s most interesting source of tension: the emerging dissent within indigenous tribes who slaughter whales as a rite of passage. The emotional struggle between custom and conscience is surely just as difficult as the diplomatic efforts to convince Japan to drop the dubious ‘we’re only collecting tissue samples’ defence. But you won't find any semblance of debate in Whaledreamers and it's wholly unsatisfying. It’s as if Kendersley felt that any screen time given over to whaling advocates from tribal culture would weaken his central argument that the practice is wrong. In fact, the opposite would likely be the case: it would have illustrated the depths of the struggle far better than the one-sided narrative does.
Whaledreamers misses its mark entirely and its message of hope is unlikely to travel far outside the circle of those already committed to the cause. Worse, it risks backfiring entirely by alienating those willing to listen to its message but put off by its heavy-handed methods.
(Credit: SBS)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Whaledreamers charts Kendersley’s personal odyssey to end the practice of whaling. To make his point, he draws on the deep spiritual connections that exist between ancient tribes and the endangered animals, focussing on the Mirning people of the Nullabor, whose efforts to reconnect with the spirit animals of their dispossessed sacred land leads the film’s narrative.
Kendersley’s passion is infectious. He is clearly a committed, excitable, and enthusiastic advocate for harmony and compassion, who struggles against complacency in the face of world crises and looming environmental catastrophe.
The problem is, none of this translates into a compelling film. The narrative struggles to maintain momentum and gets lost amid repetitious stock footage and gimmicky post production.
It is a dilemma that all advocacy filmmakers face: how to condense a complicated social/political/environmental message into a concise and palatable essay that is capable of effecting change. When this is done well, the results speak for themselves. With just Al Gore and a Powerpoint presentation, director David Guggenheim made a film that put climate change at the forefront of the political agenda. Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock are household names thanks to their effective methods of creating a lasting impression.
For his part, Kendersley has made a ‘message movie’ that stumbles under the burden of its message. An anti-whaling film degenerates into an all-encompassing rant about 'man's inhamanity to man', complete with a clumsy September 11 montage.
It seems as though Kendersley struggled under the weight of the footage collected during the film’s on/off decade of production… A better director with a more economical approach to storytelling would have cut through the repetition and hyperbole to create the film Whaledreamers fancies itself to be.
It’s a terrible shame because the makings of a good film are all there: There’s an historic meeting of international indigenous elders; there’s the personal story of a song man from a dispossessed tribe striving to find a renewed sense of purpose. Above all, there's the potential for an incredible study on the hurdles that need to be overcome in order to eradicate the horrendous practice of whaling. But limited screen time is devoted to what is arguably the film’s most interesting source of tension: the emerging dissent within indigenous tribes who slaughter whales as a rite of passage. The emotional struggle between custom and conscience is surely just as difficult as the diplomatic efforts to convince Japan to drop the dubious ‘we’re only collecting tissue samples’ defence. But you won't find any semblance of debate in Whaledreamers and it's wholly unsatisfying. It’s as if Kendersley felt that any screen time given over to whaling advocates from tribal culture would weaken his central argument that the practice is wrong. In fact, the opposite would likely be the case: it would have illustrated the depths of the struggle far better than the one-sided narrative does.
Whaledreamers misses its mark entirely and its message of hope is unlikely to travel far outside the circle of those already committed to the cause. Worse, it risks backfiring entirely by alienating those willing to listen to its message but put off by its heavy-handed methods.
(Credit: SBS)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Looking to the sun - Gloucester Advocate - 20th August 2008
Stratford Public School is looking to the sun for their energy needs.
The school has registered and applied for grant funds under the National Schools Solar Program which offers grants of up to $50,000 to install solar and other renewable power systems, solar hot water systems, rainwater tanks and a range of energy efficiency measures in schools.
With an application lodged the school is in the process of obtaining quotes for the installation of solar panels and a water harvesting system.
School administrative officer Sharon Costa has been putting the project together and would ultimately like to see a full grid integrated solar system installed at the school.
She said the system would be monitored with associated software so that information is available on how much power the school is generating, using and potentially supplying back to the grid.
Mrs Costa said the system would not only generate power for use by the school but would provide valuable lessons to the school’s students on energy generation and use.
“The school has perfect orientation for solar energy.
“We’ll have a full assessment on site to determine just what is possible,” she said.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity.”
Mrs Costa said the school is now waiting on the outcome of the grant application and the quoting process but is hopeful it won’t be too long before the school is harnessing the sun’s rays for its energy requirements.
Greg Tingle comment
It's great to see that the region has progressed some much with useful and practical technology and solutions. I understand that my old high school may have been the first to go solar last year - Pittwater High, and the idea was followed through by the government to their credit. When I lived in the region up there a visit to the local TAFE and CTC Centre to use their high speed internet was a highlight. I will be sure to advise a couple of Australia's leading eco entrepreneurs on the developments at Stratford Public School, Dr Bill Holland and Colin Ridge from Greenfest. I think their may be some opportunities coming up to further showcase the school's great work. Education and positive action is the key, and good on to switched on adults for educating the youth, our future, on such important matters.
The school has registered and applied for grant funds under the National Schools Solar Program which offers grants of up to $50,000 to install solar and other renewable power systems, solar hot water systems, rainwater tanks and a range of energy efficiency measures in schools.
With an application lodged the school is in the process of obtaining quotes for the installation of solar panels and a water harvesting system.
School administrative officer Sharon Costa has been putting the project together and would ultimately like to see a full grid integrated solar system installed at the school.
She said the system would be monitored with associated software so that information is available on how much power the school is generating, using and potentially supplying back to the grid.
Mrs Costa said the system would not only generate power for use by the school but would provide valuable lessons to the school’s students on energy generation and use.
“The school has perfect orientation for solar energy.
“We’ll have a full assessment on site to determine just what is possible,” she said.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity.”
Mrs Costa said the school is now waiting on the outcome of the grant application and the quoting process but is hopeful it won’t be too long before the school is harnessing the sun’s rays for its energy requirements.
Greg Tingle comment
It's great to see that the region has progressed some much with useful and practical technology and solutions. I understand that my old high school may have been the first to go solar last year - Pittwater High, and the idea was followed through by the government to their credit. When I lived in the region up there a visit to the local TAFE and CTC Centre to use their high speed internet was a highlight. I will be sure to advise a couple of Australia's leading eco entrepreneurs on the developments at Stratford Public School, Dr Bill Holland and Colin Ridge from Greenfest. I think their may be some opportunities coming up to further showcase the school's great work. Education and positive action is the key, and good on to switched on adults for educating the youth, our future, on such important matters.
Community groups call for climate action - ABC News - 22nd September 2008
Environmentalists have rallied in Canberra to support a climate change bill drafted by community action groups.
The Climate Change Protection Bill contains 19 recommendations aimed at cutting greenhouse emissions and building a clean energy future.
It is written and endorsed by more than 65 community-based climate change groups.
Philip Sutton from the Greenleap Strategic Institute says pressure needs to be put on politicians to act.
"So we're right on the knife's edge of a runaway development of greenhouse warming, this is incredibly serious," he said.
"In terms of a threat to people's life and well-being, it really is literally equivalent to the Second World War in terms of damage that could occur to our human societies."
Thousands of postcards from around Australia supporting the bill were collected at the rally at Parliament House.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has promised he will deliver them to the Parliament.
"The focus really needs to be on kicking the fossil habit once and for all and getting serious about renewable energy and energy efficiency and also getting out of our old-growth forests and protecting native ecosystems," he said.
"And that's essentially what this bill is telling our politicians they should be doing and the Greens are very supportive of that."
But rally organiser Nina Hall said she was disappointed that only one federal parliamentarian attended the rally.
"The fact that more politicians aren't here today shows that there's not the guts in Parliament to come down and respond to what we need to do on climate changes," she said.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Climate Action Bondi
Green News Media
The Climate Change Protection Bill contains 19 recommendations aimed at cutting greenhouse emissions and building a clean energy future.
It is written and endorsed by more than 65 community-based climate change groups.
Philip Sutton from the Greenleap Strategic Institute says pressure needs to be put on politicians to act.
"So we're right on the knife's edge of a runaway development of greenhouse warming, this is incredibly serious," he said.
"In terms of a threat to people's life and well-being, it really is literally equivalent to the Second World War in terms of damage that could occur to our human societies."
Thousands of postcards from around Australia supporting the bill were collected at the rally at Parliament House.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has promised he will deliver them to the Parliament.
"The focus really needs to be on kicking the fossil habit once and for all and getting serious about renewable energy and energy efficiency and also getting out of our old-growth forests and protecting native ecosystems," he said.
"And that's essentially what this bill is telling our politicians they should be doing and the Greens are very supportive of that."
But rally organiser Nina Hall said she was disappointed that only one federal parliamentarian attended the rally.
"The fact that more politicians aren't here today shows that there's not the guts in Parliament to come down and respond to what we need to do on climate changes," she said.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Climate Action Bondi
Green News Media
G in the Sydney Morning Herald - G Magazine
G received some coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday. Paul McIntyre gave the new Green Book - the directory of green businesses we produced with the Green Directory - a write up and took the opportunity to discuss greenwashing and the danger for businesses who stick their neck out with green claims.
(Credit: G Magazine)
Here's the article: Steps on the green scale
Steps on the green scale, by Paul McIntyre - 18th September 2008
Attacks on the environmental credentials of corporations may be hindering rather than fostering change, writes Paul McIntyre.
The science and green lifestyle media group bankrolled by the millionaire neuroscientist and Monash University chancellor Dr Alan Finkel has weighed into the greenwashing debate with claims that corporates are becoming unnecessarily spooked about promoting their environmental credentials to consumers because they fear criticism from media and the green lobby.
The claims by Luna Media, which publishes the science magazines Cosmos and G Magazine, and The Green Book, come at a critical time for the corporate sector. Australia's peak advertiser body, the Australian Association of National Advertisers, released a discussion paper two weeks ago to determine whether it would develop a code to regulate environmental claims by industry.
When the review was announced in late August, it received critical endorsement from Jeff Angel, of the Total Environment Centre, who said advertisers needed to back a "war on greenwash".
Public trust, he said, was crucial to avoid a future backlash on green products and services.
"Environmental claims and brands should inspire and encourage consumers, not dupe them into thinking they are doing their part for the environment when they are not," said Mr Angel. "It's essential that green products become mainstream, the normal products to buy, but for this to happen consumers must be confident about environmental claims."
Although Luna Media's chief executive, Kylie Ahern, said she "agrees entirely " with the need for authentic green claims and regulation, corporates should not be put off telling consumers about the initiatives and progress they were making on the environmental front.
"You can't be 100 per cent pure in one go," she said.
Ms Ahern cited a study by Mobium Group which estimated 26 per cent of Australian adults - about 4 million - are "aligned" to lifestyles of health and sustainability, known internationally as the LOHAS consumer segment.
Mobium said Australians would spend about $12 billion this year on LOHAS products and services in categories such as food and nutrition, building, energy, natural cleaning products and efficient appliances, but the figure would rocket to $21 billion by 2010. However, 46 per cent of this consumer group were what the research group defined as "learners" who wanted to do the "right thing" but were unsure where and how to start.
It was this group, Ms Ahern said, which needed and wanted corporate information to help them make more informed purchasing decisions.
Attacks on the environmental credentials of corporations may be hindering rather than fostering change, writes Paul McIntyre.
The science and green lifestyle media group bankrolled by the millionaire neuroscientist and Monash University chancellor Dr Alan Finkel has weighed into the greenwashing debate with claims that corporates are becoming unnecessarily spooked about promoting their environmental credentials to consumers because they fear criticism from media and the green lobby.
The claims by Luna Media, which publishes the science magazines Cosmos and G Magazine, and The Green Book, come at a critical time for the corporate sector. Australia's peak advertiser body, the Australian Association of National Advertisers, released a discussion paper two weeks ago to determine whether it would develop a code to regulate environmental claims by industry.
When the review was announced in late August, it received critical endorsement from Jeff Angel, of the Total Environment Centre, who said advertisers needed to back a "war on greenwash".
Public trust, he said, was crucial to avoid a future backlash on green products and services.
"Environmental claims and brands should inspire and encourage consumers, not dupe them into thinking they are doing their part for the environment when they are not," said Mr Angel. "It's essential that green products become mainstream, the normal products to buy, but for this to happen consumers must be confident about environmental claims."
Although Luna Media's chief executive, Kylie Ahern, said she "agrees entirely " with the need for authentic green claims and regulation, corporates should not be put off telling consumers about the initiatives and progress they were making on the environmental front.
"You can't be 100 per cent pure in one go," she said.
Ms Ahern cited a study by Mobium Group which estimated 26 per cent of Australian adults - about 4 million - are "aligned" to lifestyles of health and sustainability, known internationally as the LOHAS consumer segment.
Mobium said Australians would spend about $12 billion this year on LOHAS products and services in categories such as food and nutrition, building, energy, natural cleaning products and efficient appliances, but the figure would rocket to $21 billion by 2010. However, 46 per cent of this consumer group were what the research group defined as "learners" who wanted to do the "right thing" but were unsure where and how to start.
It was this group, Ms Ahern said, which needed and wanted corporate information to help them make more informed purchasing decisions.
"LOHAS consumers would rather spend money on companies that are making an effort than those that are not," she said. "It is really important we have regulation and scrutiny but we don't want to see business turned off even trying to say something because they're so nervous about being attacked."
Luna Media's co-founder, Wilson da Silva, said the publisher had faced reluctance from some top advertisers to promote their green initiatives or products because of the threat of a greenwash attack. "We've seen some resistance," he said. "They're worried they can't advertise in a green magazine or make green claims more broadly because they're not green enough. That's not our experience. There is a large chunk of people in this segment that have to buy cars, clothes and they travel widely, and they would rather spend money on companies that are on the road doing something that is sustainable than spending it with someone who isn't doing anything. There's 26 per cent of the population that would rather spend money on something that reduces their footprint rather than increasing it."
Ms Ahern said "it's not a bad thing at all" for companies to be careful about their environmental claims but she argued there was media overkill on the issue. "It's always easier to sell the bad story, isn't it? Some of this concern from advertisers is a result of a bit of media hype, just like around the climate change issue. There was so much attention around the sceptics, who are the minority of scientists, but they get a lot of attention."
Greenwashing aside, Lunar Media's revenues from G Magazine and its science title, Cosmos, will generate revenues of $3 million next year, with G's circulation now about 35,000.
The question, however, is if the LOHAS segment contains about 4 million people hungry for environmentally friendly information, why haven't bigger media companies jumped on the green media bandwagon and why is G's circulation relatively low, given the size of the market?
"We have the same challenge as any other small business - awareness," said Ms Ahern. "We're a small publisher with small marketing budgets and when you go into a newsagent people are not thinking about a green magazine. When people think green they think it must be anti-corporate or some sort of alternative lifestyle thing.
"As a category pioneer, you're trying to establish something that does not exist in people's minds. G will go online [late this month] and that will push things along hugely."
Short shrift for false claims
THE Australian Association of National Advertisers has released a "greenwash" discussion paper it will use to determine whether the industry should introduce a self-regulatory code for environmental claims.
The discussion paper says it is "clear that marketers perceive advantages" in "tapping into the growing environmental consciousness among most consumers" and outlines a series of issues and questions for the industry and interest groups to respond to.
They include whether consumers expect environmental claims to be further regulated, what unfair or deceptive claims should be covered by a self-regulatory code, whether claims should be substantiated with "proof points", and whether the use of carbon offsets and greenhouse gas reduction claims warrants specific provisions in any code.
"It is suggested that some consumers are using green claims in advertising and marketing to make decisions about the sustainability of the products they are choosing and therefore such claims must be robust and truthful," the discussion paper says. "Further, it suggested that without some form of regulation, consumer trust insustainability claims about products and services will be undermined if they perceive claims are not robust or truthful."
The discussion paper cites the Total Environment Centre's examples , which include:
- vague, non-specific claims,
- implied certification,
- portraying the status quo asa new achievement,
- misuse of scientific data and
- overstating the benefits of products or process.
Association insiders said there was no view within the industry body as to whether a code for environmental claims would be developed, and it would depend on what was argued in public submissions. Submissions are due by the end of next month.
"It's a far from a remote possibility but is not a distinct certainty, either," one observer said.
A decision on a code will be made by the association's board after the organisation conducting the review, ResPublica, makes its recommendations, which are due before December.
Greg Tingle comment on G Magazine article
Very interesting.
There's some very scary and debatable claims being made by a number of corporates.
In my position as a media analyst I'm very careful as to who and what I associate with.
I recently went to a climate change summit and would you believe that one of the PR's speaking was the former PR for Firepower! Enough said, just the mention of that firm. What corporates sometimes fail to realise is that it's a very small world and that the general public (and journalists and the like) are not as stupid as they might believe us to be.
I know I'm doing my bit... as someone who had owned a number of sports cars over the years, I sold all over them and I walk, catch the occasional taxi, and I'm lucky if I catch four interstate planes a year, and when I do it's with Virgin Blue (who have the carbon offset programme in place). Look, aviation (and other forms of transport such as the automotive and shipping sector) are in what's known as a "dirty" business. Some companies and individuals are doing something about it, some aren't.
In my almost decade in and around the media and environmental sector I've found that often if a company or individual is making too many green claims, look more closely.
It's going to take an effort from all of us to make a real difference. What I like about Greenfest and News Limited is that they realise this and are being non elitist and including everyone. The power of media, which billions of people follow can not be disputed, nor the power of live events attracting thousands of people, in the right mindset to make a positive change. Motion pictures and documentaries, be it Whaledreamers or Baz's Australia the movie, also help open our eyes and minds, and amplifying what a largely beautiful planet we live on. Green groups such as Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and Changing Colours Movement also have their place. Fortunately, awareness is at an all time high, however what we really need is more positive actions. I hope that there really is enough political will both in Australia and abroad to win the race against climate change. Too many respected scientists are saying that man man climate change is real for it to me a hoax. Dr Jane Goodall (naturist and who can speak ape to some degree)... nutter or genius? ... I think we know the answer. Can't wait for Dr Jane's presentation at Greenfest in Brisbane. Us more mortals have a lot to learn from Mother Nature. Humans are just one of the species who inhabit Earth, and we should do our utmost not to damage it for others.
PS: watch out for floating water bottles (another sector making claims that doesn't quite add up).
PS: if humans can communicate with dogs it stands to reason that indigenous persons, called a whale whisperer, or not, can communicate with intelligent creatures such as whales and dolphins.
Greg Tingle
Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
(Credit: G Magazine)
Here's the article: Steps on the green scale
Steps on the green scale, by Paul McIntyre - 18th September 2008
Attacks on the environmental credentials of corporations may be hindering rather than fostering change, writes Paul McIntyre.
The science and green lifestyle media group bankrolled by the millionaire neuroscientist and Monash University chancellor Dr Alan Finkel has weighed into the greenwashing debate with claims that corporates are becoming unnecessarily spooked about promoting their environmental credentials to consumers because they fear criticism from media and the green lobby.
The claims by Luna Media, which publishes the science magazines Cosmos and G Magazine, and The Green Book, come at a critical time for the corporate sector. Australia's peak advertiser body, the Australian Association of National Advertisers, released a discussion paper two weeks ago to determine whether it would develop a code to regulate environmental claims by industry.
When the review was announced in late August, it received critical endorsement from Jeff Angel, of the Total Environment Centre, who said advertisers needed to back a "war on greenwash".
Public trust, he said, was crucial to avoid a future backlash on green products and services.
"Environmental claims and brands should inspire and encourage consumers, not dupe them into thinking they are doing their part for the environment when they are not," said Mr Angel. "It's essential that green products become mainstream, the normal products to buy, but for this to happen consumers must be confident about environmental claims."
Although Luna Media's chief executive, Kylie Ahern, said she "agrees entirely " with the need for authentic green claims and regulation, corporates should not be put off telling consumers about the initiatives and progress they were making on the environmental front.
"You can't be 100 per cent pure in one go," she said.
Ms Ahern cited a study by Mobium Group which estimated 26 per cent of Australian adults - about 4 million - are "aligned" to lifestyles of health and sustainability, known internationally as the LOHAS consumer segment.
Mobium said Australians would spend about $12 billion this year on LOHAS products and services in categories such as food and nutrition, building, energy, natural cleaning products and efficient appliances, but the figure would rocket to $21 billion by 2010. However, 46 per cent of this consumer group were what the research group defined as "learners" who wanted to do the "right thing" but were unsure where and how to start.
It was this group, Ms Ahern said, which needed and wanted corporate information to help them make more informed purchasing decisions.
Attacks on the environmental credentials of corporations may be hindering rather than fostering change, writes Paul McIntyre.
The science and green lifestyle media group bankrolled by the millionaire neuroscientist and Monash University chancellor Dr Alan Finkel has weighed into the greenwashing debate with claims that corporates are becoming unnecessarily spooked about promoting their environmental credentials to consumers because they fear criticism from media and the green lobby.
The claims by Luna Media, which publishes the science magazines Cosmos and G Magazine, and The Green Book, come at a critical time for the corporate sector. Australia's peak advertiser body, the Australian Association of National Advertisers, released a discussion paper two weeks ago to determine whether it would develop a code to regulate environmental claims by industry.
When the review was announced in late August, it received critical endorsement from Jeff Angel, of the Total Environment Centre, who said advertisers needed to back a "war on greenwash".
Public trust, he said, was crucial to avoid a future backlash on green products and services.
"Environmental claims and brands should inspire and encourage consumers, not dupe them into thinking they are doing their part for the environment when they are not," said Mr Angel. "It's essential that green products become mainstream, the normal products to buy, but for this to happen consumers must be confident about environmental claims."
Although Luna Media's chief executive, Kylie Ahern, said she "agrees entirely " with the need for authentic green claims and regulation, corporates should not be put off telling consumers about the initiatives and progress they were making on the environmental front.
"You can't be 100 per cent pure in one go," she said.
Ms Ahern cited a study by Mobium Group which estimated 26 per cent of Australian adults - about 4 million - are "aligned" to lifestyles of health and sustainability, known internationally as the LOHAS consumer segment.
Mobium said Australians would spend about $12 billion this year on LOHAS products and services in categories such as food and nutrition, building, energy, natural cleaning products and efficient appliances, but the figure would rocket to $21 billion by 2010. However, 46 per cent of this consumer group were what the research group defined as "learners" who wanted to do the "right thing" but were unsure where and how to start.
It was this group, Ms Ahern said, which needed and wanted corporate information to help them make more informed purchasing decisions.
"LOHAS consumers would rather spend money on companies that are making an effort than those that are not," she said. "It is really important we have regulation and scrutiny but we don't want to see business turned off even trying to say something because they're so nervous about being attacked."
Luna Media's co-founder, Wilson da Silva, said the publisher had faced reluctance from some top advertisers to promote their green initiatives or products because of the threat of a greenwash attack. "We've seen some resistance," he said. "They're worried they can't advertise in a green magazine or make green claims more broadly because they're not green enough. That's not our experience. There is a large chunk of people in this segment that have to buy cars, clothes and they travel widely, and they would rather spend money on companies that are on the road doing something that is sustainable than spending it with someone who isn't doing anything. There's 26 per cent of the population that would rather spend money on something that reduces their footprint rather than increasing it."
Ms Ahern said "it's not a bad thing at all" for companies to be careful about their environmental claims but she argued there was media overkill on the issue. "It's always easier to sell the bad story, isn't it? Some of this concern from advertisers is a result of a bit of media hype, just like around the climate change issue. There was so much attention around the sceptics, who are the minority of scientists, but they get a lot of attention."
Greenwashing aside, Lunar Media's revenues from G Magazine and its science title, Cosmos, will generate revenues of $3 million next year, with G's circulation now about 35,000.
The question, however, is if the LOHAS segment contains about 4 million people hungry for environmentally friendly information, why haven't bigger media companies jumped on the green media bandwagon and why is G's circulation relatively low, given the size of the market?
"We have the same challenge as any other small business - awareness," said Ms Ahern. "We're a small publisher with small marketing budgets and when you go into a newsagent people are not thinking about a green magazine. When people think green they think it must be anti-corporate or some sort of alternative lifestyle thing.
"As a category pioneer, you're trying to establish something that does not exist in people's minds. G will go online [late this month] and that will push things along hugely."
Short shrift for false claims
THE Australian Association of National Advertisers has released a "greenwash" discussion paper it will use to determine whether the industry should introduce a self-regulatory code for environmental claims.
The discussion paper says it is "clear that marketers perceive advantages" in "tapping into the growing environmental consciousness among most consumers" and outlines a series of issues and questions for the industry and interest groups to respond to.
They include whether consumers expect environmental claims to be further regulated, what unfair or deceptive claims should be covered by a self-regulatory code, whether claims should be substantiated with "proof points", and whether the use of carbon offsets and greenhouse gas reduction claims warrants specific provisions in any code.
"It is suggested that some consumers are using green claims in advertising and marketing to make decisions about the sustainability of the products they are choosing and therefore such claims must be robust and truthful," the discussion paper says. "Further, it suggested that without some form of regulation, consumer trust insustainability claims about products and services will be undermined if they perceive claims are not robust or truthful."
The discussion paper cites the Total Environment Centre's examples , which include:
- vague, non-specific claims,
- implied certification,
- portraying the status quo asa new achievement,
- misuse of scientific data and
- overstating the benefits of products or process.
Association insiders said there was no view within the industry body as to whether a code for environmental claims would be developed, and it would depend on what was argued in public submissions. Submissions are due by the end of next month.
"It's a far from a remote possibility but is not a distinct certainty, either," one observer said.
A decision on a code will be made by the association's board after the organisation conducting the review, ResPublica, makes its recommendations, which are due before December.
Greg Tingle comment on G Magazine article
Very interesting.
There's some very scary and debatable claims being made by a number of corporates.
In my position as a media analyst I'm very careful as to who and what I associate with.
I recently went to a climate change summit and would you believe that one of the PR's speaking was the former PR for Firepower! Enough said, just the mention of that firm. What corporates sometimes fail to realise is that it's a very small world and that the general public (and journalists and the like) are not as stupid as they might believe us to be.
I know I'm doing my bit... as someone who had owned a number of sports cars over the years, I sold all over them and I walk, catch the occasional taxi, and I'm lucky if I catch four interstate planes a year, and when I do it's with Virgin Blue (who have the carbon offset programme in place). Look, aviation (and other forms of transport such as the automotive and shipping sector) are in what's known as a "dirty" business. Some companies and individuals are doing something about it, some aren't.
In my almost decade in and around the media and environmental sector I've found that often if a company or individual is making too many green claims, look more closely.
It's going to take an effort from all of us to make a real difference. What I like about Greenfest and News Limited is that they realise this and are being non elitist and including everyone. The power of media, which billions of people follow can not be disputed, nor the power of live events attracting thousands of people, in the right mindset to make a positive change. Motion pictures and documentaries, be it Whaledreamers or Baz's Australia the movie, also help open our eyes and minds, and amplifying what a largely beautiful planet we live on. Green groups such as Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and Changing Colours Movement also have their place. Fortunately, awareness is at an all time high, however what we really need is more positive actions. I hope that there really is enough political will both in Australia and abroad to win the race against climate change. Too many respected scientists are saying that man man climate change is real for it to me a hoax. Dr Jane Goodall (naturist and who can speak ape to some degree)... nutter or genius? ... I think we know the answer. Can't wait for Dr Jane's presentation at Greenfest in Brisbane. Us more mortals have a lot to learn from Mother Nature. Humans are just one of the species who inhabit Earth, and we should do our utmost not to damage it for others.
PS: watch out for floating water bottles (another sector making claims that doesn't quite add up).
PS: if humans can communicate with dogs it stands to reason that indigenous persons, called a whale whisperer, or not, can communicate with intelligent creatures such as whales and dolphins.
Greg Tingle
Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
WHALE DREAMERS review - Urban Cinefile
SYNOPSIS:
Kim Kindersley's quest to find his spiritual roots, while experiencing the extraordinary connection, both ancient and modern, between humans and the cetaceans. The story is told through the return of an aboriginal whale dreaming tribe from the edge of extinction and the long journey of the whales, not only to survive the slaughter by man, but to engage the human race into waking up in time.
Review by Louise Keller:
It is to Julian Lennon's infectious tune Saltwater that the closing credits roll to this passionate documentary that pleads for better understanding between all people. The film has already won acclaim at various festivals around the world and is sure to raise more interest in Australia, whose indigenous people are at its heart. English actor turned filmmaker Kim Kindersley makes his own personal journey through the film as he joins indigenous tribal leaders from around the world in a spiritual gathering with the Aboriginal Mirning tribe. The whale is their symbol of humanity and through rituals around a fire the indigenous elders make their sacred plea. It's a thought provoking film that touches on issues of climate change as well as the killing of whales and includes compelling images of the great mammals themselves as they respond to the calling.
It all began for Kindersley 10 years ago in Ireland when researching his ancestral roots. It was swimming with a dolphin that inspired him to begin his research, followed by a promotional film and an invitation to a whale calling ceremony in South Australia by the Mirning tribe's song man Bunna Lawrie. 'People of the world need to reconnect,' says Lawrie, a sentiment with which few would disagree. How Julian Lennon became involved in the project is not made clear, but there is one intriguing fact that comes to light. After a Tribal Elder presents Lennon with a white feather, we are told according to an extract from Cynthia Lennon's book that John Lennon alerted his son to look for a white feather 'And you'll know I'm there looking out for you.'
Cinematic and often rousing, Whaledreamers will appeal to those who take the changing nature of our world seriously. For Kindersley, the indigenous people at the film's core are perhaps symbolic of the world at large, as they convey their message of love and peace. Actor Jack Thompson pledges his considerable support behind the project not only makes a moving statement at the Byron Bay Film Festival but adds gravitas with his distinctively voiced narration.
Review by Andrew L. Urban:
There is quite an echo of the mood of the 60s in Whaledreamers, in the best possible sense, with peace, love and harmony major themes. A yearning for the world to heal itself, to enjoy the connections between humans and nature - especially whales and dolphins, of course - and an insight into the core of dreaming as an indigenous life experience. Made with the passion of the committed and the sincerity of the believer, Whaledreamers is both an ecological and a spiritual film, urging us to consider the upside of harmony and the downside of ignorance and environmental carelessness. But it also confronts the whale killing tradition in some indigenous communities.
Whales and dolphins swim past the camera and their (usually) silent witness is message enough. Filmmaker Kim Kindersley has invested years of his time and layers of his being in the film, which is both insistent and sincere. Jack Thompson narrates in his wonderful voice, and also lends his persona and his stature to the enterprise. He is not merely mouthing the words, but meaning them.
The film will no doubt preach to the converted, but that's no fault of the filmmakers and their supporters; that's the miserable reality of the way the world is. And it is exactly what the filmmakers intended.
www.urbancinefile.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Kim Kindersley's quest to find his spiritual roots, while experiencing the extraordinary connection, both ancient and modern, between humans and the cetaceans. The story is told through the return of an aboriginal whale dreaming tribe from the edge of extinction and the long journey of the whales, not only to survive the slaughter by man, but to engage the human race into waking up in time.
Review by Louise Keller:
It is to Julian Lennon's infectious tune Saltwater that the closing credits roll to this passionate documentary that pleads for better understanding between all people. The film has already won acclaim at various festivals around the world and is sure to raise more interest in Australia, whose indigenous people are at its heart. English actor turned filmmaker Kim Kindersley makes his own personal journey through the film as he joins indigenous tribal leaders from around the world in a spiritual gathering with the Aboriginal Mirning tribe. The whale is their symbol of humanity and through rituals around a fire the indigenous elders make their sacred plea. It's a thought provoking film that touches on issues of climate change as well as the killing of whales and includes compelling images of the great mammals themselves as they respond to the calling.
It all began for Kindersley 10 years ago in Ireland when researching his ancestral roots. It was swimming with a dolphin that inspired him to begin his research, followed by a promotional film and an invitation to a whale calling ceremony in South Australia by the Mirning tribe's song man Bunna Lawrie. 'People of the world need to reconnect,' says Lawrie, a sentiment with which few would disagree. How Julian Lennon became involved in the project is not made clear, but there is one intriguing fact that comes to light. After a Tribal Elder presents Lennon with a white feather, we are told according to an extract from Cynthia Lennon's book that John Lennon alerted his son to look for a white feather 'And you'll know I'm there looking out for you.'
Cinematic and often rousing, Whaledreamers will appeal to those who take the changing nature of our world seriously. For Kindersley, the indigenous people at the film's core are perhaps symbolic of the world at large, as they convey their message of love and peace. Actor Jack Thompson pledges his considerable support behind the project not only makes a moving statement at the Byron Bay Film Festival but adds gravitas with his distinctively voiced narration.
Review by Andrew L. Urban:
There is quite an echo of the mood of the 60s in Whaledreamers, in the best possible sense, with peace, love and harmony major themes. A yearning for the world to heal itself, to enjoy the connections between humans and nature - especially whales and dolphins, of course - and an insight into the core of dreaming as an indigenous life experience. Made with the passion of the committed and the sincerity of the believer, Whaledreamers is both an ecological and a spiritual film, urging us to consider the upside of harmony and the downside of ignorance and environmental carelessness. But it also confronts the whale killing tradition in some indigenous communities.
Whales and dolphins swim past the camera and their (usually) silent witness is message enough. Filmmaker Kim Kindersley has invested years of his time and layers of his being in the film, which is both insistent and sincere. Jack Thompson narrates in his wonderful voice, and also lends his persona and his stature to the enterprise. He is not merely mouthing the words, but meaning them.
The film will no doubt preach to the converted, but that's no fault of the filmmakers and their supporters; that's the miserable reality of the way the world is. And it is exactly what the filmmakers intended.
www.urbancinefile.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
21 September 2008
No gas exploration off NSW coast - Join the protest at Bondi Beach - Don't upset the whales - protest on 26th September 2008
No gas exploration off NSW coast
Join the protest at Bondi Beach
Don't upset the whales
A recently advertised mining exploration licence application covers a 6,000km* area of the NSW coast, from the Royal National Park South of Sydney to Port Stephens. This could result in major environmental damage to whale migration and marine life if the outcome of the exploration is a large offshore mining venture. The operation would be a coastal eyesore and create a real risk of leaks and spills.
Join the protest
11 am Friday 26 September 2008
Outside Bondi Beach Pavilion on Queen Elizabeth Drive
Organised by Greens MP Lee Rhiannon
Contact 9230 3551
lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au
More information below
· Seismic testing used in exploration could disrupt whale migration
along Australia*s east coast. This would have an immediate impact on
tourism.
· If drilling platforms or offshore processing and handling terminals
were eventually built in this zone they would be visible from the shore
by the naked eye.
· The risk of leaks and spills from the construction and operation of
platforms, pipelines and shipping would be an ongoing threat to marine
life and water quality at our beaches.
--------------------------------------------------
Lee Rhiannon, MLC
The Greens
Parliament of New South Wales
Macquarie St
Sydney 2000
Tel: +61-2-9230 3551
Fax: +61-2-9230 3550
lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au
http://www.lee.greens.org.au
http://www.democracy4sale.org
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Bondi Beach
Environmentalists and the environment
Join the protest at Bondi Beach
Don't upset the whales
A recently advertised mining exploration licence application covers a 6,000km* area of the NSW coast, from the Royal National Park South of Sydney to Port Stephens. This could result in major environmental damage to whale migration and marine life if the outcome of the exploration is a large offshore mining venture. The operation would be a coastal eyesore and create a real risk of leaks and spills.
Join the protest
11 am Friday 26 September 2008
Outside Bondi Beach Pavilion on Queen Elizabeth Drive
Organised by Greens MP Lee Rhiannon
Contact 9230 3551
lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au
More information below
· Seismic testing used in exploration could disrupt whale migration
along Australia*s east coast. This would have an immediate impact on
tourism.
· If drilling platforms or offshore processing and handling terminals
were eventually built in this zone they would be visible from the shore
by the naked eye.
· The risk of leaks and spills from the construction and operation of
platforms, pipelines and shipping would be an ongoing threat to marine
life and water quality at our beaches.
--------------------------------------------------
Lee Rhiannon, MLC
The Greens
Parliament of New South Wales
Macquarie St
Sydney 2000
Tel: +61-2-9230 3551
Fax: +61-2-9230 3550
lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au
http://www.lee.greens.org.au
http://www.democracy4sale.org
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Bondi Beach
Environmentalists and the environment
Whaledreamers - film review, by Jim Schembri, Reviewer - The Age - 18th September 2008
Well-meaning, soft-centred, one-sided and way overlong "documentary".
Well-meaning, soft-centred, one-sided and way overlong "documentary" that insists the spiritual link between whales and indigenous cultures is threatened by evil corporations and the whale trade.
Writer-director Kim Kindersley was a successful actor before devoting himself to green causes, but he trowels his passion so relentlessly that much of the film simply looks amateurish.
The September 11 segment is one of the clumsiest works of montage you're likely to see. Whaledreamers will lose nothing on TV. (Credit: The Age)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Well-meaning, soft-centred, one-sided and way overlong "documentary" that insists the spiritual link between whales and indigenous cultures is threatened by evil corporations and the whale trade.
Writer-director Kim Kindersley was a successful actor before devoting himself to green causes, but he trowels his passion so relentlessly that much of the film simply looks amateurish.
The September 11 segment is one of the clumsiest works of montage you're likely to see. Whaledreamers will lose nothing on TV. (Credit: The Age)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Whaledreamers - Indy Week - 27th August 2008
WHALEDREAMERS—In this film by British documentary maker Kim Kindersley, tribal leaders representing many of the world's surviving aboriginal peoples—from the Zulus to the Maoris to the Cherokees—gathered at Whale Rock in South Australia. The purpose was to foster communication and ideas about their respective ancient cultures, to ruminate on the future of the planet, and to keep a vigil for an appearance of the Southern right whale, said to have oracular powers. Not rated.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
20 September 2008
19 September 2008
Dreaming of whales - Channel Seven 'Today Tonight'
* Reporter: Marguerite McKinnon
* Broadcast Date: September 17, 2008
A movie produced by John Lennon's son Julian is a compelling story about the plight of whales and those trying to save them.
Bunna Lawrie is a whale-dreamer who sings to the giants of the ocean.
"We have this gift in us where we can sing to the whales and they respond to us because they know our language," he said.
"Our ancestors have been there for centuries."
Bunna, from Adelaide's coastal Mirning tribe is travelling the world, taking his message to children and anyone who will listen.
"It's time to really come together and be as one and we can all be guardians as one as well as brothers and sisters and really take care of this planet," he said.
"Take care of our whales and dolphins and look after them and do the right thing."
This remarkable connection has been made into a motion picture, Whaledreamers.
Jack Thompson narrates the story of the Mirning people and how they sing to whales. It is a skill taught over hundreds of years.
Singer Julian Lennon got to know the Mirning people through his love of whales but everything changed when they gave him a white feather as a gift.
Thirty years ago, his dad John told him: "If anything ever happens to me, look for a white feather and you'll know I'm there looking out for you."
Many Australians have woken up to the plight of whales, disgusted by the incessant killing of them in the name of scientific research.
More recently, the tragic story of Colin the Whale attracted international attention after it became stuck in Sydney Harbour, searching for its mum.
Bunna travelled to Sydney and informed authorities Colin was indeed a female but he arrived too late to save the abandoned calf.
Now Whaledreamers is sounding the call that doing something can no longer be left to green groups.
"Nobody's trying to shove the problems down people's throats but it's something that everybody needs to be aware of," Julian said in the movie.
"One way or another we all try and pull together and do something about it."
In the firing line are governments for putting business over the environment.
Australia's nuclear testing in the 1950s at Maralinga has left the area uninhabitable and displaced two aboriginal tribes, including Bunna Lawrie's Mirning tribe.
Despite this, Whaledreamers gives a message of hope, that healing the environment will help mankind.
Related info
Whaledreamers has its international premiere in Sydney tonight.
Read more about the movie at www.whaledreamers.com.
(Credit: Channel Seven)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
* Broadcast Date: September 17, 2008
A movie produced by John Lennon's son Julian is a compelling story about the plight of whales and those trying to save them.
Bunna Lawrie is a whale-dreamer who sings to the giants of the ocean.
"We have this gift in us where we can sing to the whales and they respond to us because they know our language," he said.
"Our ancestors have been there for centuries."
Bunna, from Adelaide's coastal Mirning tribe is travelling the world, taking his message to children and anyone who will listen.
"It's time to really come together and be as one and we can all be guardians as one as well as brothers and sisters and really take care of this planet," he said.
"Take care of our whales and dolphins and look after them and do the right thing."
This remarkable connection has been made into a motion picture, Whaledreamers.
Jack Thompson narrates the story of the Mirning people and how they sing to whales. It is a skill taught over hundreds of years.
Singer Julian Lennon got to know the Mirning people through his love of whales but everything changed when they gave him a white feather as a gift.
Thirty years ago, his dad John told him: "If anything ever happens to me, look for a white feather and you'll know I'm there looking out for you."
Many Australians have woken up to the plight of whales, disgusted by the incessant killing of them in the name of scientific research.
More recently, the tragic story of Colin the Whale attracted international attention after it became stuck in Sydney Harbour, searching for its mum.
Bunna travelled to Sydney and informed authorities Colin was indeed a female but he arrived too late to save the abandoned calf.
Now Whaledreamers is sounding the call that doing something can no longer be left to green groups.
"Nobody's trying to shove the problems down people's throats but it's something that everybody needs to be aware of," Julian said in the movie.
"One way or another we all try and pull together and do something about it."
In the firing line are governments for putting business over the environment.
Australia's nuclear testing in the 1950s at Maralinga has left the area uninhabitable and displaced two aboriginal tribes, including Bunna Lawrie's Mirning tribe.
Despite this, Whaledreamers gives a message of hope, that healing the environment will help mankind.
Related info
Whaledreamers has its international premiere in Sydney tonight.
Read more about the movie at www.whaledreamers.com.
(Credit: Channel Seven)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Get ready to blubber in Whaledreamers, by Charles Purcell - The Sydney Morning Herald - 19th September 2008
A new documentary takes viewers whale-watching around the world, writes Charles Purcell
We're officially in whale-watching season. From May to November, humpback whales travel to and from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic and can be spotted along the NSW coastline.
Last month Sydneysiders demonstrated just how much they love the majestic mammals when baby Collette (initially called Colin) was abandoned by its mother.
Bunna Lawrie, one of the stars of director Kim Kindersley's documentary Whaledreamers, made a special effort to help poor Collette, which was so driven to desperation that it tried to suckle from boats moored in Pittwater.
"Bunna Lawrie, our Mirning songman, who has become known as the 'whale whisperer', was permitted by the authorities to go out and sing to the calf," Kindersley explains.
"The whale came right to him and communicated back, which was deeply moving. Sadly, Collette was put down despite Bunna's recommendation that she had the strength to hook up with a passing pod."
It was surprising how much emotion our jaded city demonstrated about Collette's fate. "The whole city dropped its heart into something real for a moment," Kindersley says.
Narrated by Jack Thompson and produced by Julian Lennon, Kindersley's moving film is filled with gorgeous shots of whales and dolphins. It reveals how an ancient Australian whale tribe came back from the edge of extinction.
"It also poses the question: 'Can humanity wake up in time to avoid becoming extinct itself?' So, quite a jolly little film, really."
So do whales and humans really have a special connection?
"Yes. Why does Marine World, which is a heart-breaking spectacle by the by, make millions every year? This connection is ancient and profound."
With whales under threat from hunting as well as the effects of climate change, Kindersley urges people to appreciate these magnificent creatures while they can.
He says the best whale-watching spots in Sydney include Cape Solander in Botany Bay National Park, Manly or the cliffs at Coogee. Several companies run regular tours from Sydney Harbour. You won't be alone - the tourist industry estimates that some 1.2 million international and domestic people took to a boat for whale or dolphin watching in Australia last year.
Whaledreamers is now showing at the Hayden Orpheum, Cremorne.
Watch the trailer
(Credit: Fairfax)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
We're officially in whale-watching season. From May to November, humpback whales travel to and from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic and can be spotted along the NSW coastline.
Last month Sydneysiders demonstrated just how much they love the majestic mammals when baby Collette (initially called Colin) was abandoned by its mother.
Bunna Lawrie, one of the stars of director Kim Kindersley's documentary Whaledreamers, made a special effort to help poor Collette, which was so driven to desperation that it tried to suckle from boats moored in Pittwater.
"Bunna Lawrie, our Mirning songman, who has become known as the 'whale whisperer', was permitted by the authorities to go out and sing to the calf," Kindersley explains.
"The whale came right to him and communicated back, which was deeply moving. Sadly, Collette was put down despite Bunna's recommendation that she had the strength to hook up with a passing pod."
It was surprising how much emotion our jaded city demonstrated about Collette's fate. "The whole city dropped its heart into something real for a moment," Kindersley says.
Narrated by Jack Thompson and produced by Julian Lennon, Kindersley's moving film is filled with gorgeous shots of whales and dolphins. It reveals how an ancient Australian whale tribe came back from the edge of extinction.
"It also poses the question: 'Can humanity wake up in time to avoid becoming extinct itself?' So, quite a jolly little film, really."
So do whales and humans really have a special connection?
"Yes. Why does Marine World, which is a heart-breaking spectacle by the by, make millions every year? This connection is ancient and profound."
With whales under threat from hunting as well as the effects of climate change, Kindersley urges people to appreciate these magnificent creatures while they can.
He says the best whale-watching spots in Sydney include Cape Solander in Botany Bay National Park, Manly or the cliffs at Coogee. Several companies run regular tours from Sydney Harbour. You won't be alone - the tourist industry estimates that some 1.2 million international and domestic people took to a boat for whale or dolphin watching in Australia last year.
Whaledreamers is now showing at the Hayden Orpheum, Cremorne.
Watch the trailer
(Credit: Fairfax)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
17 September 2008
Julian Lennon gets behind Whaledreamers, by John Macleay - 12th September 2008
SYDNEY, September 12, 2008: British film maker Kim Kindersley says having the son of a famous Beatle co-produce his multi-award winning documentary about the whales of the Great Australian Bight is a double-edged sword.
He says the film, Whaledreamers, would not have been made without the financial backing of Julian Lennon, given the poor funding climate for independent filmmakers like himself.
However, Kindersley worries that in a celebrity-fixated world, Lennon's involvement could detract from Whaledreamers' central message of the fragile state of our environment, of awakening and reconciliation.
"Julian will most likely tell people to f**k off if it's about himself.
"He won't talk and will say `why can't people talk about the film'," Kindersley, a Shakespearean-trained-actor turned documentary maker, says of his friend of almost 30 years.
Whaledreamers took Kindersley the better part of 10 years to make. It tells the story the Mirning people of South Australia and their calling of the whales of the Great Australia Bight.
"Whaledreamers, in a way, is a metaphor. It's the story telling of a culture," Kindersley says.
"The Mirning people were declared extinct by the South Australian government in 1956 but I first met them into 1992," he says.
"If they can come back from the brink, so can humanity."
The now Byron Bay-based Kindersley says a life-changing experience swimming with a dolphin at Dingle Bay in Ireland in 1990 made him realise there was an intimate connection between dolphins, whales and humanity.
That experience led Kindersley, who until then had been a bit-part actor living in Hollywood, to make a short promotional documentary Eye of the Soul.
The film was narrated by actor John Hurt, circulated to Indigenous leaders around the world and caught the attention of Bunna Lawrie, lead singer of the band Coloured Stone and a descendant of the Mirning people of South Australia.
The basis for Whaledreamers is a 1998 gathering, organised by Kindersley and Bunna, that involved 85 tribal elders from across the globe who joined the Mirning people in greeting the whales at the Head of the Bight.
The group included Zulus, Cherokees, Maori and Uwa Indians from Colombia as well as Pitjanjatjara and Yaluta people from central Australia.
The film shows that we need to make peace with the environment and do what we can to make a difference, Kindersley says.
The film is narrated by actor Jack Thompson who met Bunna at a peace festival in Byron Bay in 2005.
There are also guest appearances by Pierce Brosnan, another of Kindersley's Hollywood friends, as well as Julian Lennon and Geoffrey Rush.
Kindersley says it took several visits over a two to three-year period before the Mirning people would open up to him to reveal their culture fully.
By the time he finished filming he had several hundred hours of footage that eventually took a year to edit.
The project languished for a lack of funds and direction but received a new impetus following the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and American invasion of Iraq 18 months later.
"Thirty five million or 40 million people around the world marched against that war and all I saw of it on Fox news that night was about two seconds worth," Kindersley says.
He says he needed to finish the film to counter his disillusionment with the world and send a message about the need for change.
To support himself, Kindersley undertook an array of jobs from cleaning toilets to working at the Indigenous unit at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where he met producer David Jowsey whom Kindersley says was instrumental in helping him finish the film.
Julilan Lennon lends a hand with the soundtrack that includes his 1991 No.1 hit Saltwater.
"It' been a hard road and you name it, I've done it, but I love the freedom that comes with making something like this," Kindersley says.
Whaledreamers, which opened in Sydney this week, has won eight international film festival awards. - AAP
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
He says the film, Whaledreamers, would not have been made without the financial backing of Julian Lennon, given the poor funding climate for independent filmmakers like himself.
However, Kindersley worries that in a celebrity-fixated world, Lennon's involvement could detract from Whaledreamers' central message of the fragile state of our environment, of awakening and reconciliation.
"Julian will most likely tell people to f**k off if it's about himself.
"He won't talk and will say `why can't people talk about the film'," Kindersley, a Shakespearean-trained-actor turned documentary maker, says of his friend of almost 30 years.
Whaledreamers took Kindersley the better part of 10 years to make. It tells the story the Mirning people of South Australia and their calling of the whales of the Great Australia Bight.
"Whaledreamers, in a way, is a metaphor. It's the story telling of a culture," Kindersley says.
"The Mirning people were declared extinct by the South Australian government in 1956 but I first met them into 1992," he says.
"If they can come back from the brink, so can humanity."
The now Byron Bay-based Kindersley says a life-changing experience swimming with a dolphin at Dingle Bay in Ireland in 1990 made him realise there was an intimate connection between dolphins, whales and humanity.
That experience led Kindersley, who until then had been a bit-part actor living in Hollywood, to make a short promotional documentary Eye of the Soul.
The film was narrated by actor John Hurt, circulated to Indigenous leaders around the world and caught the attention of Bunna Lawrie, lead singer of the band Coloured Stone and a descendant of the Mirning people of South Australia.
The basis for Whaledreamers is a 1998 gathering, organised by Kindersley and Bunna, that involved 85 tribal elders from across the globe who joined the Mirning people in greeting the whales at the Head of the Bight.
The group included Zulus, Cherokees, Maori and Uwa Indians from Colombia as well as Pitjanjatjara and Yaluta people from central Australia.
The film shows that we need to make peace with the environment and do what we can to make a difference, Kindersley says.
The film is narrated by actor Jack Thompson who met Bunna at a peace festival in Byron Bay in 2005.
There are also guest appearances by Pierce Brosnan, another of Kindersley's Hollywood friends, as well as Julian Lennon and Geoffrey Rush.
Kindersley says it took several visits over a two to three-year period before the Mirning people would open up to him to reveal their culture fully.
By the time he finished filming he had several hundred hours of footage that eventually took a year to edit.
The project languished for a lack of funds and direction but received a new impetus following the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and American invasion of Iraq 18 months later.
"Thirty five million or 40 million people around the world marched against that war and all I saw of it on Fox news that night was about two seconds worth," Kindersley says.
He says he needed to finish the film to counter his disillusionment with the world and send a message about the need for change.
To support himself, Kindersley undertook an array of jobs from cleaning toilets to working at the Indigenous unit at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where he met producer David Jowsey whom Kindersley says was instrumental in helping him finish the film.
Julilan Lennon lends a hand with the soundtrack that includes his 1991 No.1 hit Saltwater.
"It' been a hard road and you name it, I've done it, but I love the freedom that comes with making something like this," Kindersley says.
Whaledreamers, which opened in Sydney this week, has won eight international film festival awards. - AAP
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
15 September 2008
Media Man Australia Interviewed About 60 Minutes Irwin Story
Media Man Australia director, Greg Tingle, interviewed by Channel Seven about Network Nine 60 Minutes Irwin family story.
Network Nine Australia report
Peter Overton: Planet Irwin - 13th September 2008
"I never thought I'd be lying on a crocodile with an Irwin".... those are the words I uttered as I gingerly placed myself on top of a three-metre Cape York salt water crocodile. Welcome to a week away with the Irwin family!
I have wandered our planet, been to places that I never thought possible but it's often your own backyard that you know the least about. And this was the case for me on this story. We linked up with the Irwins just outside Weipa in Cape York. Home for a week was a tent by the stunning Wenlock River that winds it's way through the 135,000-hectare Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve. This place was given to Terri by the then Howard government to honour Steve's work. It's also a place that is special to the Irwins as they camped here just before Steve was killed by that stingray.
Our boot's had hardly touched the dust when we swung into action. Terri led me on a crocodile expedition and with a team of crocodile handlers Steve had trained, along with a scientist, we trapped a three-metre salty. What an angry beast. This wasn't for our cameras.... this is what Terri and her team do for a month up here. The mission is to implant tracking device's to monitor the croc's movements for the next decade. They've been around for 60 million years, but surprisingly we still don't know that much about them. Snaring this croc ( which Terri later named Peter Overton) was something to behold. They have awesome power but once roped and with about 10 men on top of it, the scientist had a small window to do his work. I ended up sexing the thing, which involved me sticking my finger in it's rear end and feeling for a large walnut sized lump. This was definitely a male! We were very lucky, in the week that we were there, this was the only croc the team caught.
The Irwin's are certainly a very famous family thanks, of course, to Steve. They also attract controversy. Since his death two years ago, Bindi has well and truly taken over and rightly can lay claim to being one of the most well-known 10-year-olds in the world. We talked to Terri about the controversy that surrounds Bindi and how she's is being raised. For mine, what you see is what you get with Bindi. I did a short interview with her and my producer asked her to just talk to me....pretend the cameras weren't there. But she is always 'ON" . Still, she’s kind and polite, and is like that with her mum, the staff ... everyone.
Robert, though, was actually the real revelation. Yes, Bindi is the star of the Irwin show but it's Robert who bowled us all over. He is a mini Steve. His mannerisms, style and enthusiasm are straight from his dad. Most of us remember those controversial TV images of baby Bob in the arms of his father as he fed a hungry crocodile. Well that little baby is now four, wears a khaki uniform and is, eerily, a "chip off the old block". Confident, cute and very determined. Robert calls himself Mr Independent and won't accept help from anyone ... not his sister, mum or, as I found out in no uncertain terms, me.
I think we forget that Terri is a single mum and a grieving widow and I was reminded of that when we sat around the campfire one night. She became very emotional as she talked about Steve, how it’s hard packing three swags instead of four and, understandably, how she misses him.
She’s determined to continue Steve’s legacy but it won't be without a fight. Currently, she's locked in a bitter battle with a mining company that wants to mine bauxite in a small area of the reserve. The mining company had been denied access to the property to conduct an environmental impact study, but that changed last week when a court ordered they be allowed in. Terri is determined to stop the bauxite mining and the company is just as determined to proceed. It's a battle that could go on for years. As I discovered, with the Irwins, controversy comes with the territory. (Credit: Network Nine Australia - 60 Minutes)
Multimedia
Planet Irwin
Media Man Australia Profiles
Steve Irwin
Bindi Irwin
Network Nine Australia report
Peter Overton: Planet Irwin - 13th September 2008
"I never thought I'd be lying on a crocodile with an Irwin".... those are the words I uttered as I gingerly placed myself on top of a three-metre Cape York salt water crocodile. Welcome to a week away with the Irwin family!
I have wandered our planet, been to places that I never thought possible but it's often your own backyard that you know the least about. And this was the case for me on this story. We linked up with the Irwins just outside Weipa in Cape York. Home for a week was a tent by the stunning Wenlock River that winds it's way through the 135,000-hectare Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve. This place was given to Terri by the then Howard government to honour Steve's work. It's also a place that is special to the Irwins as they camped here just before Steve was killed by that stingray.
Our boot's had hardly touched the dust when we swung into action. Terri led me on a crocodile expedition and with a team of crocodile handlers Steve had trained, along with a scientist, we trapped a three-metre salty. What an angry beast. This wasn't for our cameras.... this is what Terri and her team do for a month up here. The mission is to implant tracking device's to monitor the croc's movements for the next decade. They've been around for 60 million years, but surprisingly we still don't know that much about them. Snaring this croc ( which Terri later named Peter Overton) was something to behold. They have awesome power but once roped and with about 10 men on top of it, the scientist had a small window to do his work. I ended up sexing the thing, which involved me sticking my finger in it's rear end and feeling for a large walnut sized lump. This was definitely a male! We were very lucky, in the week that we were there, this was the only croc the team caught.
The Irwin's are certainly a very famous family thanks, of course, to Steve. They also attract controversy. Since his death two years ago, Bindi has well and truly taken over and rightly can lay claim to being one of the most well-known 10-year-olds in the world. We talked to Terri about the controversy that surrounds Bindi and how she's is being raised. For mine, what you see is what you get with Bindi. I did a short interview with her and my producer asked her to just talk to me....pretend the cameras weren't there. But she is always 'ON" . Still, she’s kind and polite, and is like that with her mum, the staff ... everyone.
Robert, though, was actually the real revelation. Yes, Bindi is the star of the Irwin show but it's Robert who bowled us all over. He is a mini Steve. His mannerisms, style and enthusiasm are straight from his dad. Most of us remember those controversial TV images of baby Bob in the arms of his father as he fed a hungry crocodile. Well that little baby is now four, wears a khaki uniform and is, eerily, a "chip off the old block". Confident, cute and very determined. Robert calls himself Mr Independent and won't accept help from anyone ... not his sister, mum or, as I found out in no uncertain terms, me.
I think we forget that Terri is a single mum and a grieving widow and I was reminded of that when we sat around the campfire one night. She became very emotional as she talked about Steve, how it’s hard packing three swags instead of four and, understandably, how she misses him.
She’s determined to continue Steve’s legacy but it won't be without a fight. Currently, she's locked in a bitter battle with a mining company that wants to mine bauxite in a small area of the reserve. The mining company had been denied access to the property to conduct an environmental impact study, but that changed last week when a court ordered they be allowed in. Terri is determined to stop the bauxite mining and the company is just as determined to proceed. It's a battle that could go on for years. As I discovered, with the Irwins, controversy comes with the territory. (Credit: Network Nine Australia - 60 Minutes)
Multimedia
Planet Irwin
Media Man Australia Profiles
Steve Irwin
Bindi Irwin
09 September 2008
Road to peace is paved with loss - Think Big Magazine - September / October 2008
Grant Hilton is a changed man. The former stressed-out businessman is now at peace with himself. At just 38, he has been on a journey of self-discovery many don't achieve in a lifetime...
Websites
Think Big Magazine
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Profiles
Grant Hilton
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Websites
Think Big Magazine
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Profiles
Grant Hilton
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
07 September 2008
Dr Bill Holland makes finals for News.com.au Green Hero
Dr Bill Holland who spearheads the Pittwater High School Solar Power Station project has made the finals as Green Hero in the News.com.au Green Awards.
Media Man Australia director, Greg Tingle, nominated Bill (in addition to Greenfest director, Colman Ridge).
Dr Holland is also scheduled to attend Greenfest this October.
Media Man Australia will have more news on this exciting development as it comes to hand.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dr Bill Holland
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
Greenfest
Media Man Australia director, Greg Tingle, nominated Bill (in addition to Greenfest director, Colman Ridge).
Dr Holland is also scheduled to attend Greenfest this October.
Media Man Australia will have more news on this exciting development as it comes to hand.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dr Bill Holland
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
Greenfest
Dick Smith home after global adventure - The Age - 26th August 2008
Australian adventurer Dick Smith has returned home after driving a truck on a 40,000km trip across 15 countries.
Mr Smith has seen the world five times from the air but wanted a closer view. He hates driving but chose four-wheel drive truck as his mode of transport.
Mr Smith and his wife Pip returned home to a welcoming crowd at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday, after completing the journey in segments over two-and-a-half years.
"We are spending our children's inheritance, with fuel costs as they are now ... there will be nothing left," Mr Smith joked.
The couple travelled in a distinctive Earthroamer truck complete with a bed, bathroom and cooking facilities.
Breaking down in the truck was one of the highlights of the trip, Mr Smith told reporters.
"We broke down in Mongolia just on the onset of winter, in a snow storm," he said.
"We got a coal truck from the local coal mine to tow us 100km over a 7,000 feet (2,134 metres) foot mountain pass in freezing and snowing conditions."
The couple waited six months through a bitter Mongolian winter while the truck was repaired.
During their enforced stop over and throughout their trip, Mr Smith said they always met friendly locals.
"(In Russia) one guy jumped out of his truck and he waved so frantically ... I thought there's something wrong, we must have the front wheel falling off," Mr Smith said.
"As we pulled up he pulled out a bottle of vodka which he'd brought for us."
The couple found that a little bit of Russian language went a long way with the locals.
"We had a sheet which said in Russian: 'We are Australians driving around the world, can we park here tonight?' and they would read it and then they would burst into the most beautiful smile," Mr Smith said.
"[They would] insist that you stay there, that you came in and had a sauna with them ... all night they would be knocking on the door ... offering dried fish ... artefacts and the most incredible things and not wanting you to leave," he said.
Mrs Smith said the couple got along well together during the long journey.
"People who know Dick, (know) he has a very short attention span ... but it was absolutely fantastic. I had him trapped and he couldn't get away so we had the most wonderful conversations," she said.
Mrs Smith said the Mongolians who lived outside the main cities lived much as they had for 100 years.
"They are just so friendly, they have nothing but they give you whatever they have," she said.
Mr Smith also nominated the north Asian country as his favourite.
He is now dreaming of a new adventure - driving a solar powered vehicle to the South Pole.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dick Smith
Australian Geographic Society
Environmentalists and the environment
Green News Media
Mr Smith has seen the world five times from the air but wanted a closer view. He hates driving but chose four-wheel drive truck as his mode of transport.
Mr Smith and his wife Pip returned home to a welcoming crowd at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday, after completing the journey in segments over two-and-a-half years.
"We are spending our children's inheritance, with fuel costs as they are now ... there will be nothing left," Mr Smith joked.
The couple travelled in a distinctive Earthroamer truck complete with a bed, bathroom and cooking facilities.
Breaking down in the truck was one of the highlights of the trip, Mr Smith told reporters.
"We broke down in Mongolia just on the onset of winter, in a snow storm," he said.
"We got a coal truck from the local coal mine to tow us 100km over a 7,000 feet (2,134 metres) foot mountain pass in freezing and snowing conditions."
The couple waited six months through a bitter Mongolian winter while the truck was repaired.
During their enforced stop over and throughout their trip, Mr Smith said they always met friendly locals.
"(In Russia) one guy jumped out of his truck and he waved so frantically ... I thought there's something wrong, we must have the front wheel falling off," Mr Smith said.
"As we pulled up he pulled out a bottle of vodka which he'd brought for us."
The couple found that a little bit of Russian language went a long way with the locals.
"We had a sheet which said in Russian: 'We are Australians driving around the world, can we park here tonight?' and they would read it and then they would burst into the most beautiful smile," Mr Smith said.
"[They would] insist that you stay there, that you came in and had a sauna with them ... all night they would be knocking on the door ... offering dried fish ... artefacts and the most incredible things and not wanting you to leave," he said.
Mrs Smith said the couple got along well together during the long journey.
"People who know Dick, (know) he has a very short attention span ... but it was absolutely fantastic. I had him trapped and he couldn't get away so we had the most wonderful conversations," she said.
Mrs Smith said the Mongolians who lived outside the main cities lived much as they had for 100 years.
"They are just so friendly, they have nothing but they give you whatever they have," she said.
Mr Smith also nominated the north Asian country as his favourite.
He is now dreaming of a new adventure - driving a solar powered vehicle to the South Pole.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dick Smith
Australian Geographic Society
Environmentalists and the environment
Green News Media
30 August 2008
Universal Peace Centre Retreat - Sydney Weekender, Channel Seven
Reporter: Sally Bowrey
Sally Bowrey is into minimising her carbon footprint. So something that is eco-friendly is definitely going to get the thumbs up from her. She’s found a place that not only cares about its impact on the planet, it’s also doing something good for your body.
Undergo a physical and spiritual rejuvenation at the Universal Peace Centre - a stunning spa retreat set amongst a magical rainforest in one of the world’s largest dormant volcanoes!
Set amongst lush rainforest in far northern NSW, the Universal Peace Centre is a world-class spa retreat that promises to nurture the spirit as well as the body. With majestic mountain views, luxury resort features and organic fare, the resort offers guests a wide range of retreat packages and spa treatments that include yoga, meditation, massage, spa therapy and much more.
Facilities include a yoga and meditation centre, swim spas and L.A jet spas, steam room, sauna, float tanks and a stunning sunset pool. Whether you’re a stressed executive, a couple seeking to rejuvenate your relationship or simply in need of some time-out from your hectic schedule, the Universal Peace Centre Retreat is the ideal sanctuary.
The accommodation is designed as a place to sleep and bathe only. The rooms lack external stimuli such as TV/DVD etc. in order to aid total relaxation. What you will find are fantastic rainforest views.
Meals are served communally, indoors or outdoors on a covered balcony. Breakfast is from 8:00am - 9:00am and lunch from 12:00pm - 2:00pm. Dinner is on from 6:00pm - 7:00pm.
More Information
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
128 Bonny Doon Road, Uki
Telephone: (02) 6679 5555
The Universal Peace Centre Retreat is just 20 minutes from the Gold Coast Airport. Prices start from $1950 per person for an all inclusive 3 day retreat (includes accommodation and meals).
www.upc.com.au
The first 20 Sydney Weekender callers to booking for a 3 day or 6 day retreat will get 50% off. *
*conditions apply
*valid for stays until 31/10/08 subject to availability
Prices correct as at 30/08/08
Media Man Australia Profiles
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Sally Bowrey is into minimising her carbon footprint. So something that is eco-friendly is definitely going to get the thumbs up from her. She’s found a place that not only cares about its impact on the planet, it’s also doing something good for your body.
Undergo a physical and spiritual rejuvenation at the Universal Peace Centre - a stunning spa retreat set amongst a magical rainforest in one of the world’s largest dormant volcanoes!
Set amongst lush rainforest in far northern NSW, the Universal Peace Centre is a world-class spa retreat that promises to nurture the spirit as well as the body. With majestic mountain views, luxury resort features and organic fare, the resort offers guests a wide range of retreat packages and spa treatments that include yoga, meditation, massage, spa therapy and much more.
Facilities include a yoga and meditation centre, swim spas and L.A jet spas, steam room, sauna, float tanks and a stunning sunset pool. Whether you’re a stressed executive, a couple seeking to rejuvenate your relationship or simply in need of some time-out from your hectic schedule, the Universal Peace Centre Retreat is the ideal sanctuary.
The accommodation is designed as a place to sleep and bathe only. The rooms lack external stimuli such as TV/DVD etc. in order to aid total relaxation. What you will find are fantastic rainforest views.
Meals are served communally, indoors or outdoors on a covered balcony. Breakfast is from 8:00am - 9:00am and lunch from 12:00pm - 2:00pm. Dinner is on from 6:00pm - 7:00pm.
More Information
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
128 Bonny Doon Road, Uki
Telephone: (02) 6679 5555
The Universal Peace Centre Retreat is just 20 minutes from the Gold Coast Airport. Prices start from $1950 per person for an all inclusive 3 day retreat (includes accommodation and meals).
www.upc.com.au
The first 20 Sydney Weekender callers to booking for a 3 day or 6 day retreat will get 50% off. *
*conditions apply
*valid for stays until 31/10/08 subject to availability
Prices correct as at 30/08/08
Media Man Australia Profiles
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
28 August 2008
Whaledreamers (New York Daily News)
Synopsis:
"Whaledreamers"--the title alone conjures up hypnotic visions of these most magnificent and ancient creatures. This visually stunning film offers an incredible glimpse into a rarely seen and scarcely understood tribal culture whose entire story of creation revolves around whales and has endured for centuries. The film passionately explores the connection between the subtle elegance of these "mothers of the sea" and ancient civilizations around the world whose culture and very existence is based on whales. Intertwining incredible underwater footage with ancient legend, "Whaledreamers" examines the complex past and the possibly dire future of human civilization. Told with moving optimism and spiritual strength, it is a clarion call encouraging humanity's reconnection to the profound beauty of the natural world and is an appeal to embrace all living beings thereby creating the unity and peace which the Earth itself can bring.
URL: http://www.whaledreamers.com
Starring:
Julian Lennon
Jack Thompson
John Hurt
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
"Whaledreamers"--the title alone conjures up hypnotic visions of these most magnificent and ancient creatures. This visually stunning film offers an incredible glimpse into a rarely seen and scarcely understood tribal culture whose entire story of creation revolves around whales and has endured for centuries. The film passionately explores the connection between the subtle elegance of these "mothers of the sea" and ancient civilizations around the world whose culture and very existence is based on whales. Intertwining incredible underwater footage with ancient legend, "Whaledreamers" examines the complex past and the possibly dire future of human civilization. Told with moving optimism and spiritual strength, it is a clarion call encouraging humanity's reconnection to the profound beauty of the natural world and is an appeal to embrace all living beings thereby creating the unity and peace which the Earth itself can bring.
URL: http://www.whaledreamers.com
Starring:
Julian Lennon
Jack Thompson
John Hurt
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Whaledreamers (Indy Week review)
WHALEDREAMERS—In this film by British documentary maker Kim Kindersley, tribal leaders representing many of the world's surviving aboriginal peoples—from the Zulus to the Maoris to the Cherokees—gathered at Whale Rock in South Australia. The purpose was to foster communication and ideas about their respective ancient cultures, to ruminate on the future of the planet, and to keep a vigil for an appearance of the Southern right whale, said to have oracular powers. Not rated. (Credit: IndyWeek)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Profile on Kim Kindersley
Actor and award winning documentary film maker who communicates conservation and climate change on behalf of whales, dolphins and indigenous people, with his latest production “Whaledreamers” about to hit the screens.
Kim Kindersley has been making documentaries and working in environmental media for over 18 years. He has worked with PlanetArk, Global Green, Greenpeace, IFAW, Climate Friendly, Whaleman Foundation and many others. With Pierce Brosnan, he created many Global Campaigns for sustainability and Save the Whales.
Having known Julian Lennon (son of Beattle John Lennon) for thirty years, Kim says: “We have a mutual interest in the messages of the film. Julian is going to release a new album which reflects more and more his own commitment changing the world....and what a legacy to be bringing forward in this way. 20 percent of the films profit will flow into the indigenous cultural projects and whale related causes”.
Julian Lennon was originally inspired to do this film with me after seeing Baraka in a cinema and it was Gordon Bobbin who brought that film to Australian cinemas and to the Orpheum. Baraka is the longest running film in Australia.
In 1991 Kim completed his first full length Documentary called 'The Dolphin's Gift'. It tells the story of Fungie the friendly dolphin who lives in a bay off the west coast of Ireland.
'It was meeting this dolphin that profoundly changed my perspective on life. I was in the freezing water and he swam right up to me and stared right through me with this all seeing eye.
“I had no idea that there was such magic in the world…I had thought, that happiness came through success and career. From that moment on I determined, that to the best of my ability, I would follow my heart's desire…when the dolphin looked into my eyes I realized that Humanity is totally a part of nature, that we are one with all things and more or less everything that I had been taught was irrelevant without this understanding …".
'Dolphin's Gift' sold all over the world.
Two years later Kim completed his 2nd film "The Dolphin's Story". A tale about a young girl's dream to swim with a dolphin in the wild. The film was shot in Belize and earned Kim a finalist place in the Tele Awards USA."I spent over three weeks on my own with this dolphin in the wild…sometimes over 5 hours a day in the water.
“I built up a close bond with Peto as she was known to the islanders. We began to explore a more telepathic communication that I believe we are all capable of, if only we can quiet the mind. The dolphin became my friend and taught me so much about unconditional love."
Back in London, Kim collaborated with producer Adrian Mondsey to make a version of the film entitled 'Dolphin: a Magical Musical Mystery'.
Other film projects have included 'Sacred Fire', a collaboration with director Kia Miller and the 'The Julian Lennon Story' for Channel V Australia.
In 1995 Kim teamed up with producer TM to research and develop a project called 'Eyes Of The Soul'. As a result of this extensive collaboration relationships have been formed with many Indigenous groups around the world who have deep connections with the Dolphins and Whales.
It is slated to be made into a TV series, Imax film, Feature documentary and Feature film.
"I am consistently amazed and appalled at how little the media covers 'positive magical stories', it's as if the people in power want the world to be a violent, fearful place without hope. Yet we have already most of the solutions to most of the problems on our planet…if only people were allowed to see that there is a choice …that is our main goal here with the work at Heart Magic, to show people that they have a choice and that there is still a magical world out there that is worth preserving and fighting for in a nonviolent way. I believe that the future of our continued life on this planet hangs in the balance...if we do not wake up collectively now we could be condemning future generations to extinction."
“Whaledreamers” is the name on the lips of film watchers. Two reviews in Urban Cinefile www.urbancinefile.com.au – in advance of its release in Australia in September – give a clear picture of how it will be received:
REVIEW BY Louise Keller:
It is to Julian Lennon's infectious tune Saltwater that the closing credits roll to this passionate documentary that pleads for better understanding between all people. The film has already won acclaim at various festivals around the world and is sure to raise more interest in Australia, whose indigenous people are at its heart. English actor turned filmmaker Kim Kindersley makes his own personal journey through the film as he joins indigenous tribal leaders from around the world in a spiritual gathering with the Aboriginal Mirning tribe. The whale is their symbol of humanity and through rituals around a fire the indigenous elders make their sacred plea.
It's a thought provoking film that touches on issues of climate change as well as the killing of whales and includes compelling images of the great mammals themselves as they respond to the calling.
It all began for Kindersley 10 years ago in Ireland when researching his ancestral roots. It was swimming with a dolphin that inspired him to begin his research, followed by a promotional film and an invitation to a whale calling ceremony in South Australia by the Mirning tribe's song man Bunna Lawrie. 'People of the world need to reconnect,' says Lawrie, a sentiment with which few would disagree. How Julian Lennon became involved in the project is not made clear, but there is one intriguing fact that comes to light. After a Tribal Elder presents Lennon with a white feather, we are told according to an extract from Cynthia Lennon's book that John Lennon alerted his son to look for a white feather 'And you'll know I'm there looking out for you.'
Cinematic and often rousing, Whaledreamers will appeal to those who take the changing nature of our world seriously. For Kindersley, the indigenous people at the film's core are perhaps symbolic of the world at large, as they convey their message of love and peace. Actor Jack Thompson pledges his considerable support behind the project not only makes a moving statement at the Byron Bay Film Festival but adds gravitas with his distinctively voiced narration.
REVIEW BY Andrew L. Urban:
There is quite an echo of the mood of the 60s in Whaledreamers, in the best possible sense, with peace, love and harmony major themes. A yearning for the world to heal itself, to enjoy the connections between humans and nature - especially whales and dolphins, of course - and an insight into the core of dreaming as an indigenous life experience. Made with the passion of the committed and the sincerity of the believer, Whaledreamers is both an ecological and a spiritual film, urging us to consider the upside of harmony and the downside of ignorance and environmental carelessness. But it also confronts the whale killing tradition in some indigenous communities.
Whales and dolphins swim past the camera and their (usually) silent witness is message enough. Filmmaker Kim Kindersley has invested years of his time and layers of his being in the film, which is both insistent and sincere.
Jack Thompson narrates in his wonderful voice, and also lends his persona and his stature to the enterprise. He is not merely mouthing the words, but meaning them.
The film will no doubt preach to the converted, but that's no fault of the filmmakers and their supporters; that's the miserable reality of the way the world is. And it is exactly what the filmmakers intended.
Whaledreamers will be the only feature length film shown at Greenfest in Brisbane in October.
For more on Whaledreamers and Kim Kindersley visit these websites:
Source: www.heartmagic.net and www.whaledreamers.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Kim Kindersley has been making documentaries and working in environmental media for over 18 years. He has worked with PlanetArk, Global Green, Greenpeace, IFAW, Climate Friendly, Whaleman Foundation and many others. With Pierce Brosnan, he created many Global Campaigns for sustainability and Save the Whales.
Having known Julian Lennon (son of Beattle John Lennon) for thirty years, Kim says: “We have a mutual interest in the messages of the film. Julian is going to release a new album which reflects more and more his own commitment changing the world....and what a legacy to be bringing forward in this way. 20 percent of the films profit will flow into the indigenous cultural projects and whale related causes”.
Julian Lennon was originally inspired to do this film with me after seeing Baraka in a cinema and it was Gordon Bobbin who brought that film to Australian cinemas and to the Orpheum. Baraka is the longest running film in Australia.
In 1991 Kim completed his first full length Documentary called 'The Dolphin's Gift'. It tells the story of Fungie the friendly dolphin who lives in a bay off the west coast of Ireland.
'It was meeting this dolphin that profoundly changed my perspective on life. I was in the freezing water and he swam right up to me and stared right through me with this all seeing eye.
“I had no idea that there was such magic in the world…I had thought, that happiness came through success and career. From that moment on I determined, that to the best of my ability, I would follow my heart's desire…when the dolphin looked into my eyes I realized that Humanity is totally a part of nature, that we are one with all things and more or less everything that I had been taught was irrelevant without this understanding …".
'Dolphin's Gift' sold all over the world.
Two years later Kim completed his 2nd film "The Dolphin's Story". A tale about a young girl's dream to swim with a dolphin in the wild. The film was shot in Belize and earned Kim a finalist place in the Tele Awards USA."I spent over three weeks on my own with this dolphin in the wild…sometimes over 5 hours a day in the water.
“I built up a close bond with Peto as she was known to the islanders. We began to explore a more telepathic communication that I believe we are all capable of, if only we can quiet the mind. The dolphin became my friend and taught me so much about unconditional love."
Back in London, Kim collaborated with producer Adrian Mondsey to make a version of the film entitled 'Dolphin: a Magical Musical Mystery'.
Other film projects have included 'Sacred Fire', a collaboration with director Kia Miller and the 'The Julian Lennon Story' for Channel V Australia.
In 1995 Kim teamed up with producer TM to research and develop a project called 'Eyes Of The Soul'. As a result of this extensive collaboration relationships have been formed with many Indigenous groups around the world who have deep connections with the Dolphins and Whales.
It is slated to be made into a TV series, Imax film, Feature documentary and Feature film.
"I am consistently amazed and appalled at how little the media covers 'positive magical stories', it's as if the people in power want the world to be a violent, fearful place without hope. Yet we have already most of the solutions to most of the problems on our planet…if only people were allowed to see that there is a choice …that is our main goal here with the work at Heart Magic, to show people that they have a choice and that there is still a magical world out there that is worth preserving and fighting for in a nonviolent way. I believe that the future of our continued life on this planet hangs in the balance...if we do not wake up collectively now we could be condemning future generations to extinction."
“Whaledreamers” is the name on the lips of film watchers. Two reviews in Urban Cinefile www.urbancinefile.com.au – in advance of its release in Australia in September – give a clear picture of how it will be received:
REVIEW BY Louise Keller:
It is to Julian Lennon's infectious tune Saltwater that the closing credits roll to this passionate documentary that pleads for better understanding between all people. The film has already won acclaim at various festivals around the world and is sure to raise more interest in Australia, whose indigenous people are at its heart. English actor turned filmmaker Kim Kindersley makes his own personal journey through the film as he joins indigenous tribal leaders from around the world in a spiritual gathering with the Aboriginal Mirning tribe. The whale is their symbol of humanity and through rituals around a fire the indigenous elders make their sacred plea.
It's a thought provoking film that touches on issues of climate change as well as the killing of whales and includes compelling images of the great mammals themselves as they respond to the calling.
It all began for Kindersley 10 years ago in Ireland when researching his ancestral roots. It was swimming with a dolphin that inspired him to begin his research, followed by a promotional film and an invitation to a whale calling ceremony in South Australia by the Mirning tribe's song man Bunna Lawrie. 'People of the world need to reconnect,' says Lawrie, a sentiment with which few would disagree. How Julian Lennon became involved in the project is not made clear, but there is one intriguing fact that comes to light. After a Tribal Elder presents Lennon with a white feather, we are told according to an extract from Cynthia Lennon's book that John Lennon alerted his son to look for a white feather 'And you'll know I'm there looking out for you.'
Cinematic and often rousing, Whaledreamers will appeal to those who take the changing nature of our world seriously. For Kindersley, the indigenous people at the film's core are perhaps symbolic of the world at large, as they convey their message of love and peace. Actor Jack Thompson pledges his considerable support behind the project not only makes a moving statement at the Byron Bay Film Festival but adds gravitas with his distinctively voiced narration.
REVIEW BY Andrew L. Urban:
There is quite an echo of the mood of the 60s in Whaledreamers, in the best possible sense, with peace, love and harmony major themes. A yearning for the world to heal itself, to enjoy the connections between humans and nature - especially whales and dolphins, of course - and an insight into the core of dreaming as an indigenous life experience. Made with the passion of the committed and the sincerity of the believer, Whaledreamers is both an ecological and a spiritual film, urging us to consider the upside of harmony and the downside of ignorance and environmental carelessness. But it also confronts the whale killing tradition in some indigenous communities.
Whales and dolphins swim past the camera and their (usually) silent witness is message enough. Filmmaker Kim Kindersley has invested years of his time and layers of his being in the film, which is both insistent and sincere.
Jack Thompson narrates in his wonderful voice, and also lends his persona and his stature to the enterprise. He is not merely mouthing the words, but meaning them.
The film will no doubt preach to the converted, but that's no fault of the filmmakers and their supporters; that's the miserable reality of the way the world is. And it is exactly what the filmmakers intended.
Whaledreamers will be the only feature length film shown at Greenfest in Brisbane in October.
For more on Whaledreamers and Kim Kindersley visit these websites:
Source: www.heartmagic.net and www.whaledreamers.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Drama, not doomsday, by Matthew Warren - The Australian - 28th August 2008
A forthcoming environmental apocalypse portrayed in a new television series should be treated as fiction, writes, Matthew Warren | August 28, 2008
BY Christmas Eve in 2012, no rain has fallen in Sydney for more than 200 days and, despite its new desalination plant, the emerald city has run out of drinking water. The effects of climate change have created the conditions for a ring of bushfires that surround the city, but authorities don't have enough water to put them out.
This is the plot synopsis for the Nine Network's new tele-feature experiment called Scorched, which will screen nationally in prime time on Sunday night. Promoters have hailed the production a "major television event" with an all-star cast, fake news broadcasts from authentic Nine newsreaders and a comprehensive supporting website.
"Mother nature is on the warpath. It's armageddon," the publicity kit modestly proclaims. Media previews have described the plot as "scarily plausible". Director Tony Tilse claims the idea of a city running out of water is "basically a true story, but it just hasn't happened yet".
Oh, really? Perhaps what is more scarily plausible is that the producers of the program didn't bother to speak to Sydney Water or the Sydney Catchment Authority before going to air. They would have discovered that even in the worst-case scenario, Sydney already has enough water in its huge network of catchments to meet demand until 2014. The city's new desalination plant will come on line by 2010 and will be able to supply 15 per cent of Sydney's demand, but has been designed to quickly double its capacity to a half-billion litres of water a day.
Scorched is the headline act in a wave of climate porn to hit Australia in coming weeks. In 2006, Britain's Institute for Public Policy Research reviewed media, government and activist reporting of climate change and found it to be confusing, contradictory and chaotic, leaving the public feeling disempowered and uncompelled to act.
Most notable was the tendency to use alarmist language, or climate porn, which offered "a thrilling spectacle but ultimately distances the public from the problem".
Scorched producer Kylie Du Fresne says the telemovie is not meant to be seen as a documentary, but admits "we were interested in blurring the lines between fact and fiction".
A water disaster of this magnitude is like being run over by a steamroller. It's possible, but only if you do nothing. Sydney Water spokesman Brendan Elliott says the plot is "truly a work of fiction".
Given it's Sydney Water's primary job to make sure the city doesn't run out of water in the face of population growth and climate change, it's not surprising they have a range of strategies to keep moving in the face of the steamroller. These include desalination, increased water recycling and increased conservation programs.
Water Services Association chief executive Ross Young says he is concerned the show might spark a wave of panicked callers to water authorities on Monday morning.
"It's very important that the program is clearly labelled a drama and not a documentary," he tells The Australian. "Even though the chances of climate change are significant, there are processes in place to manage the consequences.
"The bottom line is our cities are not going to run out of water."
Climate porn is the latest manifestation of infotainment that flourishes in the no man's land between fiction and nonfiction: dramas loosely based on factual events and the communication of often credible and important ideas and theories sexed up with an extra dose of dramatic licence.
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles caused panic across the US when he broadcast a dramatisation of the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds. Like Scorched, the radio broadcast used simulated news broadcasts to create an aura of authenticity; some of the program's six million listeners thought there was a Martian invasion in progress.
Climate disaster movies date back to the release of Soylent Green in 1973. The dystopian science-fiction film is set in a severely over-populated and overheated (as a result of climate change) New York in 2022 facing chronic food shortages. Charlton Heston plays a detective who discovers to his horror that the newest food substitute (Soylent Green) is made by reprocessing dead people.
Then in 1995, Kevin Costner starred in the box-office flop Waterworld, a kind of climate-change crisis meets Mad Max movie set in a futuristic Earth where the polar ice caps have melted and the few survivors sail around or live on floating islands, inevitably fighting with each other.
The most explicit climate porn may well be the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow. Released two years before Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, it grossed 10 times more at the box office. Melting ice sheets and glaciers caused the Altantic Ocean currents to stop suddenly, plunging the entire northern hemisphere into a deep snap-freeze. The film was derided by most climate scientists and highlighted the real problem with creating drama about the effects of climate change: in reality the changes are not sudden, but slow and insidious.
In a review, US paleoclimatologist William Hyde observed: "This movie is to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery."
But even a genuine attempt to explain the science, such as An Inconvenient Truth, sailed close to the wind at times in order to sustain the level of drama in what is basically a 90-minute lecture.
In one example, Gore made much of the devastating impacts of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans as a portent of increased natural disasters caused by a warming climate.
The main cause of New Orleans' flooding was a poorly maintained system of levees holding back the Mississippi River and surrounding lakes. But holding this aside, scientists are still arguing over whether Gore's claim is actually true. Despite predictions to the contrary, the two subsequent hurricane seasons on the US Atlantic coast were well below average.
Climate porn is not just constrained to the cinema. It is just as pervasive in the written form. One of the pioneers of the genre was US ecologist Paul Ehrlich with the 1968 book The Population Bomb.
Concerns about human overpopulation date back to English economist Thomas Malthus in the 19th century, who observed the exponential growth of the human population and grimly doubted the capacity of agricultural systems to keep pace. "The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race," he wrote.
Ehrlich picked up the idea, expanding Malthus's concerns to include the unsustainable consumption of Earth's natural resources and the destruction of the environment.
While Ehrlich was widely regarded as a brilliant young scientist, The Population Bomb was more speculation than science, proposing three grim scenarios for the future, including a food war between China and the US, total nuclear annihilation and, on a more upbeat note, 500 million dying from starvation in the 1970s and '80s, including millions in developed countries.
It was a blockbuster, selling more than three million copies worldwide and catapulting Ehrlich into the public spotlight. On the lecture and interview circuit that followed, Ehrlich's warnings became predictions, bolder and more reckless. He predicted that a billion people might starve to death, including some 65 million Americans by the '80s, and that many key minerals would be nearing exhaustion point by 1985.
Curbing population growth is undoubtedly crucial in solving poverty and fundamental to reducing environmental damage. But while Ehrlich thrilled millions with his portents of doom, none of his headline projections have eventuated. The postwar transformation in global agriculture, known as the green revolution, developed new breeds of grain crops coupled with more targeted fertilisers and pesticides to radically increase yields.
The World Bank estimates the proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 9200 kilojoules a day has decreased from 56per cent in the mid-'60s to below 10 per cent by the '90s, during which time the world's population increased by more than two billion.
This week, Canadian writer on war and geopolitics Gwynne Dyer is in Australia to launch his latest book, Climate Wars. It's being promoted as "a terrifying glimpse of the none-too-distant future, when climate change will force the world's powers into a desperate struggle for advantage and even survival".
Dyer views the potential impacts of climate change - shifting agricultural production, reductions in freshwater supplies, crashing economies and large population movements - from a military and strategic perspective, and notes that most leading military strategists are already making contingency plans for what might happen later this century. He doesn't pull any punches: on the second page Dyer writes, "there is a probability of wars, including even nuclear wars, if temperatures rise 2 to 3 degrees Celsius".
He then constructs seven scenarios for the future, including the collapse of Europe and anarchy in the subcontinent by 2045, the emergence of a fortified border between the US and Mexico and the rise of eco-terrorism across the world by 2032.
"My background is 30 years in the strategic field and I look at this stuff, and the potential for huge disruption to internal relationships and international relationships to me looks enormous," Dyer tells The Australian.
"There is a range of possibilities here, that's why these scenarios are not mutually independent, each one is a free-floating possibility, and they depend on the amount of change that you have got. But that basically is a question of dates."
Dyer says discussing the consequences of events such as the potential drying out of the Indus River, which is crucial for the Pakistani economy, is important because it is an inevitability if the planet keeps warming.
"I don't imagine people reading this book will be empowered or disempowered to the extent that it will make a whole lot of difference to the balance of outcomes," Dyer tells The Australian.
"I'm not a pessimist. I don't think these are foregone conclusions. We are on a large highway and there are any number of exits off this highway that we could take and avoid the bridge that's out down the road.
"But (there are) no guarantees that any of them will be taken, and further down the highway very bad things will happen if the exits aren't taken."
Matthew Warren is The Australian's environment writer.
BY Christmas Eve in 2012, no rain has fallen in Sydney for more than 200 days and, despite its new desalination plant, the emerald city has run out of drinking water. The effects of climate change have created the conditions for a ring of bushfires that surround the city, but authorities don't have enough water to put them out.
This is the plot synopsis for the Nine Network's new tele-feature experiment called Scorched, which will screen nationally in prime time on Sunday night. Promoters have hailed the production a "major television event" with an all-star cast, fake news broadcasts from authentic Nine newsreaders and a comprehensive supporting website.
"Mother nature is on the warpath. It's armageddon," the publicity kit modestly proclaims. Media previews have described the plot as "scarily plausible". Director Tony Tilse claims the idea of a city running out of water is "basically a true story, but it just hasn't happened yet".
Oh, really? Perhaps what is more scarily plausible is that the producers of the program didn't bother to speak to Sydney Water or the Sydney Catchment Authority before going to air. They would have discovered that even in the worst-case scenario, Sydney already has enough water in its huge network of catchments to meet demand until 2014. The city's new desalination plant will come on line by 2010 and will be able to supply 15 per cent of Sydney's demand, but has been designed to quickly double its capacity to a half-billion litres of water a day.
Scorched is the headline act in a wave of climate porn to hit Australia in coming weeks. In 2006, Britain's Institute for Public Policy Research reviewed media, government and activist reporting of climate change and found it to be confusing, contradictory and chaotic, leaving the public feeling disempowered and uncompelled to act.
Most notable was the tendency to use alarmist language, or climate porn, which offered "a thrilling spectacle but ultimately distances the public from the problem".
Scorched producer Kylie Du Fresne says the telemovie is not meant to be seen as a documentary, but admits "we were interested in blurring the lines between fact and fiction".
A water disaster of this magnitude is like being run over by a steamroller. It's possible, but only if you do nothing. Sydney Water spokesman Brendan Elliott says the plot is "truly a work of fiction".
Given it's Sydney Water's primary job to make sure the city doesn't run out of water in the face of population growth and climate change, it's not surprising they have a range of strategies to keep moving in the face of the steamroller. These include desalination, increased water recycling and increased conservation programs.
Water Services Association chief executive Ross Young says he is concerned the show might spark a wave of panicked callers to water authorities on Monday morning.
"It's very important that the program is clearly labelled a drama and not a documentary," he tells The Australian. "Even though the chances of climate change are significant, there are processes in place to manage the consequences.
"The bottom line is our cities are not going to run out of water."
Climate porn is the latest manifestation of infotainment that flourishes in the no man's land between fiction and nonfiction: dramas loosely based on factual events and the communication of often credible and important ideas and theories sexed up with an extra dose of dramatic licence.
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles caused panic across the US when he broadcast a dramatisation of the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds. Like Scorched, the radio broadcast used simulated news broadcasts to create an aura of authenticity; some of the program's six million listeners thought there was a Martian invasion in progress.
Climate disaster movies date back to the release of Soylent Green in 1973. The dystopian science-fiction film is set in a severely over-populated and overheated (as a result of climate change) New York in 2022 facing chronic food shortages. Charlton Heston plays a detective who discovers to his horror that the newest food substitute (Soylent Green) is made by reprocessing dead people.
Then in 1995, Kevin Costner starred in the box-office flop Waterworld, a kind of climate-change crisis meets Mad Max movie set in a futuristic Earth where the polar ice caps have melted and the few survivors sail around or live on floating islands, inevitably fighting with each other.
The most explicit climate porn may well be the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow. Released two years before Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, it grossed 10 times more at the box office. Melting ice sheets and glaciers caused the Altantic Ocean currents to stop suddenly, plunging the entire northern hemisphere into a deep snap-freeze. The film was derided by most climate scientists and highlighted the real problem with creating drama about the effects of climate change: in reality the changes are not sudden, but slow and insidious.
In a review, US paleoclimatologist William Hyde observed: "This movie is to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery."
But even a genuine attempt to explain the science, such as An Inconvenient Truth, sailed close to the wind at times in order to sustain the level of drama in what is basically a 90-minute lecture.
In one example, Gore made much of the devastating impacts of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans as a portent of increased natural disasters caused by a warming climate.
The main cause of New Orleans' flooding was a poorly maintained system of levees holding back the Mississippi River and surrounding lakes. But holding this aside, scientists are still arguing over whether Gore's claim is actually true. Despite predictions to the contrary, the two subsequent hurricane seasons on the US Atlantic coast were well below average.
Climate porn is not just constrained to the cinema. It is just as pervasive in the written form. One of the pioneers of the genre was US ecologist Paul Ehrlich with the 1968 book The Population Bomb.
Concerns about human overpopulation date back to English economist Thomas Malthus in the 19th century, who observed the exponential growth of the human population and grimly doubted the capacity of agricultural systems to keep pace. "The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race," he wrote.
Ehrlich picked up the idea, expanding Malthus's concerns to include the unsustainable consumption of Earth's natural resources and the destruction of the environment.
While Ehrlich was widely regarded as a brilliant young scientist, The Population Bomb was more speculation than science, proposing three grim scenarios for the future, including a food war between China and the US, total nuclear annihilation and, on a more upbeat note, 500 million dying from starvation in the 1970s and '80s, including millions in developed countries.
It was a blockbuster, selling more than three million copies worldwide and catapulting Ehrlich into the public spotlight. On the lecture and interview circuit that followed, Ehrlich's warnings became predictions, bolder and more reckless. He predicted that a billion people might starve to death, including some 65 million Americans by the '80s, and that many key minerals would be nearing exhaustion point by 1985.
Curbing population growth is undoubtedly crucial in solving poverty and fundamental to reducing environmental damage. But while Ehrlich thrilled millions with his portents of doom, none of his headline projections have eventuated. The postwar transformation in global agriculture, known as the green revolution, developed new breeds of grain crops coupled with more targeted fertilisers and pesticides to radically increase yields.
The World Bank estimates the proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 9200 kilojoules a day has decreased from 56per cent in the mid-'60s to below 10 per cent by the '90s, during which time the world's population increased by more than two billion.
This week, Canadian writer on war and geopolitics Gwynne Dyer is in Australia to launch his latest book, Climate Wars. It's being promoted as "a terrifying glimpse of the none-too-distant future, when climate change will force the world's powers into a desperate struggle for advantage and even survival".
Dyer views the potential impacts of climate change - shifting agricultural production, reductions in freshwater supplies, crashing economies and large population movements - from a military and strategic perspective, and notes that most leading military strategists are already making contingency plans for what might happen later this century. He doesn't pull any punches: on the second page Dyer writes, "there is a probability of wars, including even nuclear wars, if temperatures rise 2 to 3 degrees Celsius".
He then constructs seven scenarios for the future, including the collapse of Europe and anarchy in the subcontinent by 2045, the emergence of a fortified border between the US and Mexico and the rise of eco-terrorism across the world by 2032.
"My background is 30 years in the strategic field and I look at this stuff, and the potential for huge disruption to internal relationships and international relationships to me looks enormous," Dyer tells The Australian.
"There is a range of possibilities here, that's why these scenarios are not mutually independent, each one is a free-floating possibility, and they depend on the amount of change that you have got. But that basically is a question of dates."
Dyer says discussing the consequences of events such as the potential drying out of the Indus River, which is crucial for the Pakistani economy, is important because it is an inevitability if the planet keeps warming.
"I don't imagine people reading this book will be empowered or disempowered to the extent that it will make a whole lot of difference to the balance of outcomes," Dyer tells The Australian.
"I'm not a pessimist. I don't think these are foregone conclusions. We are on a large highway and there are any number of exits off this highway that we could take and avoid the bridge that's out down the road.
"But (there are) no guarantees that any of them will be taken, and further down the highway very bad things will happen if the exits aren't taken."
Matthew Warren is The Australian's environment writer.
Universal Peace Centre Retreat to feature on Channel Seven Sydney Weekender
Universal Peace Centre Retreat will feature on Channel Seven's Sydney Weekender this Saturday
Media Man Australia Profiles
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Media Man Australia Profiles
Universal Peace Centre Retreat
Sign of the times or just climate porn?, by Matthew Warren - The Australian - 28th August 2008
* New tele-feature paints a doomsday scenario
* Series blurs the lines between fact and fiction
* But is Scorched realistic or just climate porn?
By Christmas Eve in 2012, no rain has fallen in Sydney for more than 200 days and, despite its new desalination plant, the emerald city has run out of drinking water. The effects of climate change have created the conditions for a ring of bushfires that surround the city, but authorities don't have enough water to put them out.
This is the plot synopsis for the Nine Network's new tele-feature experiment called Scorched, which will screen nationally in prime time on Sunday night. Promoters have hailed the production a "major television event" with an all-star cast, fake news broadcasts from authentic Nine newsreaders and a comprehensive supporting website.
'It's armageddon'
"Mother nature is on the warpath. It's armageddon," the publicity kit modestly proclaims. Media previews have described the plot as "scarily plausible". Director Tony Tilse claims the idea of a city running out of water is "basically a true story, but it just hasn't happened yet".
Oh, really? Perhaps what is more scarily plausible is that the producers of the program didn't bother to speak to Sydney Water or the Sydney Catchment Authority before going to air. They would have discovered that even in the worst-case scenario, Sydney already has enough water in its huge network of catchments to meet demand until 2014. The city's new desalination plant will come on line by 2010 and will be able to supply 15 per cent of Sydney's demand, but has been designed to quickly double its capacity to a half-billion litres of water a day.
Scorched is the headline act in a wave of climate porn to hit Australia in coming weeks. In 2006, Britain's Institute for Public Policy Research reviewed media, government and activist reporting of climate change and found it to be confusing, contradictory and chaotic, leaving the public feeling disempowered and uncompelled to act.
Most notable was the tendency to use alarmist language, or climate porn, which offered "a thrilling spectacle but ultimately distances the public from the problem".
Scorched producer Kylie Du Fresne says the telemovie is not meant to be seen as a documentary, but admits "we were interested in blurring the lines between fact and fiction".
A water disaster of this magnitude is like being run over by a steamroller. It's possible, but only if you do nothing. Sydney Water spokesman Brendan Elliott says the plot is "truly a work of fiction".
Given it's Sydney Water's primary job to make sure the city doesn't run out of water in the face of population growth and climate change, it's not surprising they have a range of strategies to keep moving in the face of the steamroller. These include desalination, increased water recycling and increased conservation programs.
Fears series will spark panic
Water Services Association chief executive Ross Young says he is concerned the show might spark a wave of panicked callers to water authorities on Monday morning.
"It's very important that the program is clearly labelled a drama and not a documentary," he tells The Australian. "Even though the chances of climate change are significant, there are processes in place to manage the consequences.
"The bottom line is our cities are not going to run out of water."
Climate porn is the latest manifestation of infotainment that flourishes in the no man's land between fiction and nonfiction: dramas loosely based on factual events and the communication of often credible and important ideas and theories sexed up with an extra dose of dramatic licence.
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles caused panic across the US when he broadcast a dramatisation of the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds. Like Scorched, the radio broadcast used simulated news broadcasts to create an aura of authenticity; some of the program's six million listeners thought there was a Martian invasion in progress.
Climate disaster movies date back to the release of Soylent Green in 1973. The dystopian science-fiction film is set in a severely over-populated and overheated (as a result of climate change) New York in 2022 facing chronic food shortages. Charlton Heston plays a detective who discovers to his horror that the newest food substitute (Soylent Green) is made by reprocessing dead people.
Then in 1995, Kevin Costner starred in the box-office flop Waterworld, a kind of climate-change crisis meets Mad Max movie set in a futuristic Earth where the polar ice caps have melted and the few survivors sail around or live on floating islands, inevitably fighting with each other.
Explicit climate porn
The most explicit climate porn may well be the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow. Released two years before Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, it grossed 10 times more at the box office. Melting ice sheets and glaciers caused the Atlantic Ocean currents to stop suddenly, plunging the entire northern hemisphere into a deep snap-freeze. The film was derided by most climate scientists and highlighted the real problem with creating drama about the effects of climate change: in reality the changes are not sudden, but slow and insidious.
In a review, US paleoclimatologist William Hyde observed: "This movie is to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery."
But even a genuine attempt to explain the science, such as An Inconvenient Truth, sailed close to the wind at times in order to sustain the level of drama in what is basically a 90-minute lecture.
In one example, Gore made much of the devastating impacts of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans as a portent of increased natural disasters caused by a warming climate.
The main cause of New Orleans' flooding was a poorly maintained system of levees holding back the Mississippi River and surrounding lakes. But holding this aside, scientists are still arguing over whether Gore's claim is actually true. Despite predictions to the contrary, the two subsequent hurricane seasons on the US Atlantic coast were well below average.
Climate porn is not just constrained to the cinema.
Read more of this article at The Australian
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
* Series blurs the lines between fact and fiction
* But is Scorched realistic or just climate porn?
By Christmas Eve in 2012, no rain has fallen in Sydney for more than 200 days and, despite its new desalination plant, the emerald city has run out of drinking water. The effects of climate change have created the conditions for a ring of bushfires that surround the city, but authorities don't have enough water to put them out.
This is the plot synopsis for the Nine Network's new tele-feature experiment called Scorched, which will screen nationally in prime time on Sunday night. Promoters have hailed the production a "major television event" with an all-star cast, fake news broadcasts from authentic Nine newsreaders and a comprehensive supporting website.
'It's armageddon'
"Mother nature is on the warpath. It's armageddon," the publicity kit modestly proclaims. Media previews have described the plot as "scarily plausible". Director Tony Tilse claims the idea of a city running out of water is "basically a true story, but it just hasn't happened yet".
Oh, really? Perhaps what is more scarily plausible is that the producers of the program didn't bother to speak to Sydney Water or the Sydney Catchment Authority before going to air. They would have discovered that even in the worst-case scenario, Sydney already has enough water in its huge network of catchments to meet demand until 2014. The city's new desalination plant will come on line by 2010 and will be able to supply 15 per cent of Sydney's demand, but has been designed to quickly double its capacity to a half-billion litres of water a day.
Scorched is the headline act in a wave of climate porn to hit Australia in coming weeks. In 2006, Britain's Institute for Public Policy Research reviewed media, government and activist reporting of climate change and found it to be confusing, contradictory and chaotic, leaving the public feeling disempowered and uncompelled to act.
Most notable was the tendency to use alarmist language, or climate porn, which offered "a thrilling spectacle but ultimately distances the public from the problem".
Scorched producer Kylie Du Fresne says the telemovie is not meant to be seen as a documentary, but admits "we were interested in blurring the lines between fact and fiction".
A water disaster of this magnitude is like being run over by a steamroller. It's possible, but only if you do nothing. Sydney Water spokesman Brendan Elliott says the plot is "truly a work of fiction".
Given it's Sydney Water's primary job to make sure the city doesn't run out of water in the face of population growth and climate change, it's not surprising they have a range of strategies to keep moving in the face of the steamroller. These include desalination, increased water recycling and increased conservation programs.
Fears series will spark panic
Water Services Association chief executive Ross Young says he is concerned the show might spark a wave of panicked callers to water authorities on Monday morning.
"It's very important that the program is clearly labelled a drama and not a documentary," he tells The Australian. "Even though the chances of climate change are significant, there are processes in place to manage the consequences.
"The bottom line is our cities are not going to run out of water."
Climate porn is the latest manifestation of infotainment that flourishes in the no man's land between fiction and nonfiction: dramas loosely based on factual events and the communication of often credible and important ideas and theories sexed up with an extra dose of dramatic licence.
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles caused panic across the US when he broadcast a dramatisation of the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds. Like Scorched, the radio broadcast used simulated news broadcasts to create an aura of authenticity; some of the program's six million listeners thought there was a Martian invasion in progress.
Climate disaster movies date back to the release of Soylent Green in 1973. The dystopian science-fiction film is set in a severely over-populated and overheated (as a result of climate change) New York in 2022 facing chronic food shortages. Charlton Heston plays a detective who discovers to his horror that the newest food substitute (Soylent Green) is made by reprocessing dead people.
Then in 1995, Kevin Costner starred in the box-office flop Waterworld, a kind of climate-change crisis meets Mad Max movie set in a futuristic Earth where the polar ice caps have melted and the few survivors sail around or live on floating islands, inevitably fighting with each other.
Explicit climate porn
The most explicit climate porn may well be the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow. Released two years before Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, it grossed 10 times more at the box office. Melting ice sheets and glaciers caused the Atlantic Ocean currents to stop suddenly, plunging the entire northern hemisphere into a deep snap-freeze. The film was derided by most climate scientists and highlighted the real problem with creating drama about the effects of climate change: in reality the changes are not sudden, but slow and insidious.
In a review, US paleoclimatologist William Hyde observed: "This movie is to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery."
But even a genuine attempt to explain the science, such as An Inconvenient Truth, sailed close to the wind at times in order to sustain the level of drama in what is basically a 90-minute lecture.
In one example, Gore made much of the devastating impacts of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans as a portent of increased natural disasters caused by a warming climate.
The main cause of New Orleans' flooding was a poorly maintained system of levees holding back the Mississippi River and surrounding lakes. But holding this aside, scientists are still arguing over whether Gore's claim is actually true. Despite predictions to the contrary, the two subsequent hurricane seasons on the US Atlantic coast were well below average.
Climate porn is not just constrained to the cinema.
Read more of this article at The Australian
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
23 August 2008
Primal instinct behind whale grief, by Julie Robotham - The Sydney Morning Herald - 23rd August 2008
The outpouring of emotion this week at the plight of a baby humpback whale may be a vestige of a capacity from early in human evolution that allowed us to live alongside larger, stronger animals, say researchers in human-animal interaction.
The shark-ravaged, starving and apparently orphaned whale calf, which captured hearts when it tried to suckle on a small boat, was euthanased yesterday morning by officials from the National Parks and Wildlife Service after efforts failed to shift it from Pittwater out to the ocean.
Vets said the abandoned calf had no chance of survival. The baby whale had been dubbed Colin, but yesterday it was identified as a female calf.
The National Parks and Wildlife Services spokesman John Dengate said the whale's death was the "best possible result" in the circumstances.
Last night, as rough weather hampered efforts to take a sample from an adult whale carcass found floating off Eden on the South Coast, to establish whether it was the calf's mother, the psychologist Pauleen Bennett said people's passion for humpbacks in distress could be traced back to our hunter-gatherer roots.
"Being able to read another animal's mind and know what they were going to do next … developed so we could catch and eat them and avoid being eaten by them," according to the so-called "biophilia" theory, said Dr Bennett, the head of Monash University's Animal Welfare Science Centre.
Now that people's attunement to animal behaviour was no longer usually necessary for survival, it resurfaced as empathy for other species, by making it, "possible to attribute feelings to them", Dr Bennett said.
Whales - and other "charismatic megafauna" such as great apes and elephants - offered an outlet for humans to project their emotions, because such animals' lives seemed to mirror human lives.
The individuality of such large animals excited human emotion much more than herd animals such as sheep or kangaroos, she said, in which individuals were relatively indistinguishable.
Fiona Blinco, the development manager for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society Australasia, said: "There is a belief, and it's backed up by the size of their brains, that we respond to their intelligence and social make-up."
Humpbacks, with their acrobatic displays and distinctive markings, had a particularly intense effect on the human psyche, Ms Blinco said, compared with the more reserved southern right whales.
"[Humpbacks] migrate along a populated coast … it's such a delight to see [a whale] breaching," she said. "There's that majesty as it breaks the water. It looks so joyful."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Environmentalists and the environment
The shark-ravaged, starving and apparently orphaned whale calf, which captured hearts when it tried to suckle on a small boat, was euthanased yesterday morning by officials from the National Parks and Wildlife Service after efforts failed to shift it from Pittwater out to the ocean.
Vets said the abandoned calf had no chance of survival. The baby whale had been dubbed Colin, but yesterday it was identified as a female calf.
The National Parks and Wildlife Services spokesman John Dengate said the whale's death was the "best possible result" in the circumstances.
Last night, as rough weather hampered efforts to take a sample from an adult whale carcass found floating off Eden on the South Coast, to establish whether it was the calf's mother, the psychologist Pauleen Bennett said people's passion for humpbacks in distress could be traced back to our hunter-gatherer roots.
"Being able to read another animal's mind and know what they were going to do next … developed so we could catch and eat them and avoid being eaten by them," according to the so-called "biophilia" theory, said Dr Bennett, the head of Monash University's Animal Welfare Science Centre.
Now that people's attunement to animal behaviour was no longer usually necessary for survival, it resurfaced as empathy for other species, by making it, "possible to attribute feelings to them", Dr Bennett said.
Whales - and other "charismatic megafauna" such as great apes and elephants - offered an outlet for humans to project their emotions, because such animals' lives seemed to mirror human lives.
The individuality of such large animals excited human emotion much more than herd animals such as sheep or kangaroos, she said, in which individuals were relatively indistinguishable.
Fiona Blinco, the development manager for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society Australasia, said: "There is a belief, and it's backed up by the size of their brains, that we respond to their intelligence and social make-up."
Humpbacks, with their acrobatic displays and distinctive markings, had a particularly intense effect on the human psyche, Ms Blinco said, compared with the more reserved southern right whales.
"[Humpbacks] migrate along a populated coast … it's such a delight to see [a whale] breaching," she said. "There's that majesty as it breaks the water. It looks so joyful."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Environmentalists and the environment
Abandoned baby whale put down amid protests, by Barbara McMahon - The Guardian - 22nd August 2008
Everyone wanted a happy ending, but it was not to be. A starving humpback whale calf that had lost its mother and was trying to suckle from yachts in waters off Sydney was put down today, as authorities decided that it would not have survived on its own.
The decision was taken by veterinarians and members of various government agencies after the condition of the female calf, believed to be one or two months' old, deteriorated rapidly. Angry local people, who had hoped to save the whale by feeding it artificially, shouted "Shame!" as veterinarians administered a sedative in shallow waters.
The 14ft mammal could be seen thrashing about before it quietened. Workers were able to hoist it on to a tarpaulin and drag it towards a closed tent on the beach where a final lethal injection was administered.
The plight of the young mammal had attracted a huge outpouring of sympathy as it roamed between yachts moored in an inlet off Sydney's northern shores for the past week, with efforts to save it ranging from the practical to the fanciful.
Attempts to lure the calf out to sea in the hope that it would have been adopted by a passing pod of whales were unsuccessful, as it turned back and continued its fruitless roaming between the moored vessels searching for its mother. Hopes that it could be fed artificially were dismissed by experts such as Curt Jenner, the managing director of western Australia's non-profit Centre for Whale Research, as a logistical impossibility.
Hundreds of spectators turned up to see the lonely calf, and several Australians brought improvised feeding devices, insisting that the young mammal could be saved. The Aboriginal "whale whisperer" Bunna Lawrie, who appears in the upcoming film Whaledreamers, sang to the distressed mammal and stroked it. An organisation called the Divine Marine Group took out a legal injunction to delay the euthanisation, but was not able to serve it in time.
Emotions were high as the animal was put down. The National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman John Dengate said the calf was treated with dignity and respect by veterinarians but added that the process of putting down a large mammal was "distressing and harrowing". Animal welfare groups, including the RSPCA, later said that criticism of the authorities was unfounded and they were satisfied that everything had been done in the calf's best interests.
The carcass of a large whale has been found further down the coast and DNA tests will be done to ascertain if the animal was the calf's mother. A post-mortem examination will also be carried out on the young mammal to ascertain why it became sick.
The decision was taken by veterinarians and members of various government agencies after the condition of the female calf, believed to be one or two months' old, deteriorated rapidly. Angry local people, who had hoped to save the whale by feeding it artificially, shouted "Shame!" as veterinarians administered a sedative in shallow waters.
The 14ft mammal could be seen thrashing about before it quietened. Workers were able to hoist it on to a tarpaulin and drag it towards a closed tent on the beach where a final lethal injection was administered.
The plight of the young mammal had attracted a huge outpouring of sympathy as it roamed between yachts moored in an inlet off Sydney's northern shores for the past week, with efforts to save it ranging from the practical to the fanciful.
Attempts to lure the calf out to sea in the hope that it would have been adopted by a passing pod of whales were unsuccessful, as it turned back and continued its fruitless roaming between the moored vessels searching for its mother. Hopes that it could be fed artificially were dismissed by experts such as Curt Jenner, the managing director of western Australia's non-profit Centre for Whale Research, as a logistical impossibility.
Hundreds of spectators turned up to see the lonely calf, and several Australians brought improvised feeding devices, insisting that the young mammal could be saved. The Aboriginal "whale whisperer" Bunna Lawrie, who appears in the upcoming film Whaledreamers, sang to the distressed mammal and stroked it. An organisation called the Divine Marine Group took out a legal injunction to delay the euthanisation, but was not able to serve it in time.
Emotions were high as the animal was put down. The National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman John Dengate said the calf was treated with dignity and respect by veterinarians but added that the process of putting down a large mammal was "distressing and harrowing". Animal welfare groups, including the RSPCA, later said that criticism of the authorities was unfounded and they were satisfied that everything had been done in the calf's best interests.
The carcass of a large whale has been found further down the coast and DNA tests will be done to ascertain if the animal was the calf's mother. A post-mortem examination will also be carried out on the young mammal to ascertain why it became sick.
Colette's sad fate leads to whale summit - News.com.au - 23rd August 2008
An international whale summit is planned for Sydney as wildlife experts involved in the struggle to save the city's orphaned humpback admit they could have done things better.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service, forced to defend itself as community outrage mounted over its handling of Colette's plight, would host the proposed summit next year.
While it was first thought the baby whale, which had been named Colin but turned out to be Colette, had been abandoned, the carcass of a humpback found yesterday off the Far South Coast will be DNA tested to see if it was Colette's mother.
Grown men and locals living around the Basin in Pittwater were in tears as vets sedated the baby whale in shallow water yesterday morning, six days after it sought refuge in the sheltered waters in Sydney's north.
Witnesses said the calf was still thrashing and splashing as it was tied to NPWS boats and taken the 300m to the beach before it was euthanased inside a tent.
"It was inhumane. The whale was struggling so much it dragged the boats about 50m," local resident Cherie Curchod said.
Ms Curchod said Colette was blowing and thrashing and trying to get away during its final moments alive as it was pulled up on to the beach.
Surfwatch director Michael Brown said the baby was given no dignity to allow the sedatives to take effect.
"For God's sake, it's a baby, it's been through hell. It's been separated from its mother and it is confused. I have never seen anything like this," Mr Brown said.
"It has been a comedy of errors all week and I can't understand why they didn't let it die quietly."
As officers on the shore held up tarpaulins, NSW Maritime and NPWS boats tried to block the public's view as the whale was hauled by bulldozer on to the back of a truck and taken to Taronga Zoo for an autopsy.
NPWS spokesman John Dengate said "these things are never nice to watch" but it was better than a lingering death for the whale, which was injured and attacked by parasites.
He said the NPWS would be exploring the fresh ideas people had come forward with regarding feeding baby whales and other suggestions, which could be taken up more quickly in the future.
NPWS head Sally Barnes denied the whale suffered during the process.
"They gave the animal the end you would want to give your cat or dog," she said. "It was very dignified and peaceful."
She said the NPWS had lessons to learn from emotional events of the past week, which had wildlife officers in tears.
A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Verity Firth said among the lessons was a need to communicate better and explain decisions to the community and to consolidate research into how to deal with more incidents like this, given the increasing numbers of humpbacks swimming past Australia's east coast.
She said one of the proposals was to bring international experts to Australia next year for a summit. "So we can draw on the best knowledge there is," the spokeswoman said.
A permanent memorial is planned for the cove at the Basin where Colette spent her last few days.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service, forced to defend itself as community outrage mounted over its handling of Colette's plight, would host the proposed summit next year.
While it was first thought the baby whale, which had been named Colin but turned out to be Colette, had been abandoned, the carcass of a humpback found yesterday off the Far South Coast will be DNA tested to see if it was Colette's mother.
Grown men and locals living around the Basin in Pittwater were in tears as vets sedated the baby whale in shallow water yesterday morning, six days after it sought refuge in the sheltered waters in Sydney's north.
Witnesses said the calf was still thrashing and splashing as it was tied to NPWS boats and taken the 300m to the beach before it was euthanased inside a tent.
"It was inhumane. The whale was struggling so much it dragged the boats about 50m," local resident Cherie Curchod said.
Ms Curchod said Colette was blowing and thrashing and trying to get away during its final moments alive as it was pulled up on to the beach.
Surfwatch director Michael Brown said the baby was given no dignity to allow the sedatives to take effect.
"For God's sake, it's a baby, it's been through hell. It's been separated from its mother and it is confused. I have never seen anything like this," Mr Brown said.
"It has been a comedy of errors all week and I can't understand why they didn't let it die quietly."
As officers on the shore held up tarpaulins, NSW Maritime and NPWS boats tried to block the public's view as the whale was hauled by bulldozer on to the back of a truck and taken to Taronga Zoo for an autopsy.
NPWS spokesman John Dengate said "these things are never nice to watch" but it was better than a lingering death for the whale, which was injured and attacked by parasites.
He said the NPWS would be exploring the fresh ideas people had come forward with regarding feeding baby whales and other suggestions, which could be taken up more quickly in the future.
NPWS head Sally Barnes denied the whale suffered during the process.
"They gave the animal the end you would want to give your cat or dog," she said. "It was very dignified and peaceful."
She said the NPWS had lessons to learn from emotional events of the past week, which had wildlife officers in tears.
A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Verity Firth said among the lessons was a need to communicate better and explain decisions to the community and to consolidate research into how to deal with more incidents like this, given the increasing numbers of humpbacks swimming past Australia's east coast.
She said one of the proposals was to bring international experts to Australia next year for a summit. "So we can draw on the best knowledge there is," the spokeswoman said.
A permanent memorial is planned for the cove at the Basin where Colette spent her last few days.
22 August 2008
Stranded whale to be put down, by Alex Tibbetts - The Sydney Morning Herald - 21st August 2008
The National Park and Wildlife Service will kill the young whale left stranded in Pittwater, after its condition deteriorated rapidly.
National Parks spokesman John Dengate said the two- to three-week-old calf would be killed by lethal injection overnight or in the morning.
"They'll give it an overdose of anaesthetic," Mr Dengate said tonight.
"Doing these things at night is the last time when anybody would want to do it because there are safety issues and so on. But there are also issues of animal welfare.
"The last thing we want is that the whale should suffer. The vets are saying he hasn't got long to go, you should take action.
"The animal is suffering from previous shark-inflicted injuries, is experiencing breathing difficulties and its flukes are hanging down."
Aboriginal "whale whisperer" Bunna Lawrie, who spent time with the whale this afternoon, patting the calf and singing to it, was shocked to hear the news of the decision.
"You're kidding, that's the wrong thing to do," said Lawrie, the lead singer of trail-blazing Aboriginal reggae band Coloured Stone who appears in the upcoming film Whaledreamers.
"While it's got life it's got hope.
"He heard me singing and came over. I looked at him and he was full of life. He had a few scratches and cuts on him and I was a bit worried about his eyes. All he needed is a mother's milk. There was hope another whale could pick him up and adopt him. He could have at least learned to swim with them and eat krill and plankton."
"All we have to do is get it out to sea, nurse it out there and guard and wait for pod of whales. Let the whales figure out if they can accept it. A mother may think it can feed two.
"I gave him a pat like a dog. I told him we were going to help him. He felt comforted and good."
At 5.30pm National Parks met with experts from Taronga Zoo and Sea World on the Gold Coast and welfare groups RSPCA and ORCCA to decide the whale's fate after Sea World expert Dr David Blyde had flown down to inspect the two- to three-week-old calf, who had not eaten for at least six days.
Before its rapid deterioration options had included trying to use a sling to tow it out to sea to unite it with another pod in the hope another mother would take it in.
"But that could be dangerous for the whale because, if it doesn't find a lactating female, it's just out there on its own and there's all sorts of sharks out there," Mr Dengate said earlier.
"The thing that's coming home to us is whatever reason that caused the mother to abandon it may be the same reason causing other pods to reject it.
"Until then, the advice we have is that unless something miraculous happens like the mother whale turning up, [it's looking bleak]."
The whale had been suckling boats around Pittwater, apparently mistaking them for its mother, so authorities tried to lure it out of Pittwater with a yacht but failed.
On Wednesday National Parks Sydney North regional manager Chris McIntosh dismissed suggestion the whale could be raised in captivity, citing the resources needed.
He said that when Sea World in California raised JJ in the late 1990s they needed 30-man teams working around the clock to raise the calf and the 12-metre by 12 metre tank had to be partially drained every two hours to get rid of waste water.
JJ was released into the wild after putting on eight tonnes and has never been seen since.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Bunna Lawrie
National Parks spokesman John Dengate said the two- to three-week-old calf would be killed by lethal injection overnight or in the morning.
"They'll give it an overdose of anaesthetic," Mr Dengate said tonight.
"Doing these things at night is the last time when anybody would want to do it because there are safety issues and so on. But there are also issues of animal welfare.
"The last thing we want is that the whale should suffer. The vets are saying he hasn't got long to go, you should take action.
"The animal is suffering from previous shark-inflicted injuries, is experiencing breathing difficulties and its flukes are hanging down."
Aboriginal "whale whisperer" Bunna Lawrie, who spent time with the whale this afternoon, patting the calf and singing to it, was shocked to hear the news of the decision.
"You're kidding, that's the wrong thing to do," said Lawrie, the lead singer of trail-blazing Aboriginal reggae band Coloured Stone who appears in the upcoming film Whaledreamers.
"While it's got life it's got hope.
"He heard me singing and came over. I looked at him and he was full of life. He had a few scratches and cuts on him and I was a bit worried about his eyes. All he needed is a mother's milk. There was hope another whale could pick him up and adopt him. He could have at least learned to swim with them and eat krill and plankton."
"All we have to do is get it out to sea, nurse it out there and guard and wait for pod of whales. Let the whales figure out if they can accept it. A mother may think it can feed two.
"I gave him a pat like a dog. I told him we were going to help him. He felt comforted and good."
At 5.30pm National Parks met with experts from Taronga Zoo and Sea World on the Gold Coast and welfare groups RSPCA and ORCCA to decide the whale's fate after Sea World expert Dr David Blyde had flown down to inspect the two- to three-week-old calf, who had not eaten for at least six days.
Before its rapid deterioration options had included trying to use a sling to tow it out to sea to unite it with another pod in the hope another mother would take it in.
"But that could be dangerous for the whale because, if it doesn't find a lactating female, it's just out there on its own and there's all sorts of sharks out there," Mr Dengate said earlier.
"The thing that's coming home to us is whatever reason that caused the mother to abandon it may be the same reason causing other pods to reject it.
"Until then, the advice we have is that unless something miraculous happens like the mother whale turning up, [it's looking bleak]."
The whale had been suckling boats around Pittwater, apparently mistaking them for its mother, so authorities tried to lure it out of Pittwater with a yacht but failed.
On Wednesday National Parks Sydney North regional manager Chris McIntosh dismissed suggestion the whale could be raised in captivity, citing the resources needed.
He said that when Sea World in California raised JJ in the late 1990s they needed 30-man teams working around the clock to raise the calf and the 12-metre by 12 metre tank had to be partially drained every two hours to get rid of waste water.
JJ was released into the wild after putting on eight tonnes and has never been seen since.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Bunna Lawrie
Whaledreamers (PG) - WORLD PREMIERE AT THE ORPHEUM!
WORLD PREMIERE AT THE ORPHEUM!
SEPTEMBER 17th at 7PM
SEASON COMMENCES SEPTEMBER 18th.
Director and Writer:
Kim Kindersley
Producers:
Julian Lennon
Kim Kindersley
Narrator:
Jack Thompson
Plot Summary:
At a time when our collective consciousness is focussed on issues pertaining to our indigenous ancestors and the fragile state of our environment, comes a powerful film, which unites four people from very different cultures. One a song man from a dispossessed aboriginal tribe, Bunna Lawrie; another, a filmmaker from a distant land, British director, Kim Kindersley; the third, musician and activist, Julian Lennon, and lastly acclaimed Australian actor and story teller, Jack Thompson.
Over fifteen years in the making, across five continents and oceans, WHALEDREAMERS is a personal odyssey for British filmmaker, Kim Kindersley in his quest to find his spiritual roots, while experiencing the extraordinary connection, both ancient and modern, between humanity and the cetaceans.
WHALEDREAMERS is the heartfelt story of the return of an aboriginal whale dreaming tribe from the edge of extinction and the equally, long journey of the whales, not only to survive the slaughter by man, but to engage the human race into waking up in time.
“Indigenous wisdom has never been more relevant for humanity than now” Julian Lennon
Genre:
Feature Documentary
Duration:
85 Minutes
Origin:
Australia/U.S.A.
Language:
English
Reviews:
“…utterly compelling.”
-Filmink
"Be inspired. Don't miss out on this inspiring documentary that brings about a timely message of hope and opens our eyes... rich narrative… breathtaking images of the whale and dolphins... viewers are granted special access to the unique gathering that took place on that cliff-top… and are reminded of what it means for people to reconnect with their culture, the natural world and each other."
ABC TV Sydney
A Must See film for all those who care about this planet… truly touched my core… wonderful… heartfelt… a powerful portrayal of how the events of September 11, global warming and… the ensuing war on terror are destroying us… [and] how powerful we are in making a difference"
Judy Garrecht, LIVING NOW Magazine
"Winner Best Film... A standing ovation greeted the jury's decision... Great joy... high reverence... true energy... a must see."
Rosana Golden, Founder - Monaco International Film Festival
"It is quite simple... this film needs to be seen... it needs to be experienced. I watched people cry, applaud, look dazed, be overwhelmed and some completely inspired... A roller-coaster journey with distinct messages about the plight of Earth and humanity. Fortunately it also offers hope... and not in Hollywood-style... but with clarity and heart."
ABC RADIO, NSW Australia
"The film sent chills through the audience and shook them to their roots. We were honoured to begin our festival with such a powerful call from aboriginal elders to remember who we are, where we come from, what's going on and where we need to go. The producers of the film sent this powerful message with superb writing, directing and cinematography. And the music is to die for. Toronto LOVED the film!"
-Johanna Kern, Executive and Artistic Director
Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival - Toronto
Websites
Whaledreamers
Hayden Orpheum
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
SEPTEMBER 17th at 7PM
SEASON COMMENCES SEPTEMBER 18th.
Director and Writer:
Kim Kindersley
Producers:
Julian Lennon
Kim Kindersley
Narrator:
Jack Thompson
Plot Summary:
At a time when our collective consciousness is focussed on issues pertaining to our indigenous ancestors and the fragile state of our environment, comes a powerful film, which unites four people from very different cultures. One a song man from a dispossessed aboriginal tribe, Bunna Lawrie; another, a filmmaker from a distant land, British director, Kim Kindersley; the third, musician and activist, Julian Lennon, and lastly acclaimed Australian actor and story teller, Jack Thompson.
Over fifteen years in the making, across five continents and oceans, WHALEDREAMERS is a personal odyssey for British filmmaker, Kim Kindersley in his quest to find his spiritual roots, while experiencing the extraordinary connection, both ancient and modern, between humanity and the cetaceans.
WHALEDREAMERS is the heartfelt story of the return of an aboriginal whale dreaming tribe from the edge of extinction and the equally, long journey of the whales, not only to survive the slaughter by man, but to engage the human race into waking up in time.
“Indigenous wisdom has never been more relevant for humanity than now” Julian Lennon
Genre:
Feature Documentary
Duration:
85 Minutes
Origin:
Australia/U.S.A.
Language:
English
Reviews:
“…utterly compelling.”
-Filmink
"Be inspired. Don't miss out on this inspiring documentary that brings about a timely message of hope and opens our eyes... rich narrative… breathtaking images of the whale and dolphins... viewers are granted special access to the unique gathering that took place on that cliff-top… and are reminded of what it means for people to reconnect with their culture, the natural world and each other."
ABC TV Sydney
A Must See film for all those who care about this planet… truly touched my core… wonderful… heartfelt… a powerful portrayal of how the events of September 11, global warming and… the ensuing war on terror are destroying us… [and] how powerful we are in making a difference"
Judy Garrecht, LIVING NOW Magazine
"Winner Best Film... A standing ovation greeted the jury's decision... Great joy... high reverence... true energy... a must see."
Rosana Golden, Founder - Monaco International Film Festival
"It is quite simple... this film needs to be seen... it needs to be experienced. I watched people cry, applaud, look dazed, be overwhelmed and some completely inspired... A roller-coaster journey with distinct messages about the plight of Earth and humanity. Fortunately it also offers hope... and not in Hollywood-style... but with clarity and heart."
ABC RADIO, NSW Australia
"The film sent chills through the audience and shook them to their roots. We were honoured to begin our festival with such a powerful call from aboriginal elders to remember who we are, where we come from, what's going on and where we need to go. The producers of the film sent this powerful message with superb writing, directing and cinematography. And the music is to die for. Toronto LOVED the film!"
-Johanna Kern, Executive and Artistic Director
Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival - Toronto
Websites
Whaledreamers
Hayden Orpheum
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Media Release: Gathering for Colette's Peace - 22nd August 2008
6pm Palm Beach Reserve - tonight
The Gathering for Colette's Peace
Gathering by Bunna Lawrie aka Coloured Stone and Miring Whale Dreamer
Bring your spirit and come together for Colin the baby whale!
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bunna Lawrie
Whaledreamers
The Gathering for Colette's Peace
Gathering by Bunna Lawrie aka Coloured Stone and Miring Whale Dreamer
Bring your spirit and come together for Colin the baby whale!
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bunna Lawrie
Whaledreamers
Anger builds as whale's time runs out, by Arjun Ramachandran - The Sydney Morning Herald - 22nd August 2008
Wildlife authorities have defended the way an orphaned whale calf was put down today, following criticism that it suffered before dying.
The injured baby humpback, affectionately called Colin - but which has now been identified as a female - was given an overdose of anaesthetic by National Parks and Wildlife Service authorities a short time after 8.30am, after it was located during a dawn search.
Cherie Curchod said she saw the whale thrashing around near a jetty below her home after it was given more than six injections.
Ms Curchod said the whale was then tied up and dragged across the bay at Bonnie Doon, to The Basin at Pittwater before it "actively started trying to get away''.
"Then they dragged it to a closed tent and all the while they dragged it, it was flapping it's tail, blowing out of it's head and moving and trying to get away,'' she told AAP.
"It was so upsetting because euthanasia is meant to be an easy death and that whale did not have an easy death at all.''
National Parks and Wildlife Services spokesman John Dengate said the whale's death was the "best possible result'' in the circumstances.
"That was the best way it could have been done,'' he told reporters.
"You put the animal out of its misery.''
The body of the baby whale was later seen on a beach, covered by tarpaulin.
"That was a scene that we witnessed ... it looked like a scene out of the Antarctic with a Japanese fishing boat," said Captain Alexander Littingham, from Devine Marine Group.
"It was absolutely disgusting," he told 2UE.
The group had organised a legal injunction against the National Parks and Wildlife Service to prevent the whale being euthanased, but had been unable to serve it in time, he said.
"We had five minutes and during that time they euthanased poor Colin."
Authorities decided to euthanase the whale last night, but had deemed it too dangerous to enter the water in the dark.
He was found this morning, "alive but in a very poor condition" at The Basin, in the Pittwater area, National Parks spokesman John Dengate said.
The decision to euthanase the whale was made by the national parks service and experts from Taronga Zoo and Sea World on the Gold Coast, and the welfare groups RSPCA and ORCCA.
"The last thing we want is that the whale should suffer," Mr Dengate said last night.
"The vets are saying: ''he hasn't got long to go - you should take action'.
"The animal is suffering shark-inflicted injuries, is experiencing breathing difficulties and its flukes are hanging down."
But the decision provoked anger and emotion among many who formed an attachment to the young calf, dubbed "Colin".
Many people had gathered at The Basin this morning, as they had last night, Mr Dengate said.
"Some people are very upset, and some were very aggressive. It's a bit harrowing personally.
"They've been calling me the worst names you can imagine ... [including] 'effing murderer' which is a bit hard to take - I've spent my life working with animals.
"But it's understandable because there's a lot of community concern. It says something about our attitude to the environment."
An Aboriginal "whale whisperer", Bunna Lawrie, who spent time with the whale yesterday, patting it and singing to it, was shocked to hear the decision.
"You're kidding, that's the wrong thing to do," said Mr Lawrie, who is the lead singer of the Aboriginal reggae band, Coloured Stone, and will appear in the coming film, Whale-dreamers.
"While it's got life it's got hope. He heard me singing and came over. I looked at him and he was full of life. He had a few scratches and cuts on him and I was a bit worried about his eyes.
"All he needed is a mother's milk. There was hope another whale could pick him up and adopt him. He could have at least learnt to swim with them and eat krill and plankton."
An autopsy would be conducted on the whale - most likely at Taronga Zoo - after it was put down, Mr Dengate said.
"We'll do an autposy on the whale to work out what was wrong with it that may have led to its mother abandoning it.
"The body will be buried in a known location ... so it can be accessed if scientists want to analyse the bones for future research."
- with AAP
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Whaledreamers
Environmentalists and the environment
The injured baby humpback, affectionately called Colin - but which has now been identified as a female - was given an overdose of anaesthetic by National Parks and Wildlife Service authorities a short time after 8.30am, after it was located during a dawn search.
Cherie Curchod said she saw the whale thrashing around near a jetty below her home after it was given more than six injections.
Ms Curchod said the whale was then tied up and dragged across the bay at Bonnie Doon, to The Basin at Pittwater before it "actively started trying to get away''.
"Then they dragged it to a closed tent and all the while they dragged it, it was flapping it's tail, blowing out of it's head and moving and trying to get away,'' she told AAP.
"It was so upsetting because euthanasia is meant to be an easy death and that whale did not have an easy death at all.''
National Parks and Wildlife Services spokesman John Dengate said the whale's death was the "best possible result'' in the circumstances.
"That was the best way it could have been done,'' he told reporters.
"You put the animal out of its misery.''
The body of the baby whale was later seen on a beach, covered by tarpaulin.
"That was a scene that we witnessed ... it looked like a scene out of the Antarctic with a Japanese fishing boat," said Captain Alexander Littingham, from Devine Marine Group.
"It was absolutely disgusting," he told 2UE.
The group had organised a legal injunction against the National Parks and Wildlife Service to prevent the whale being euthanased, but had been unable to serve it in time, he said.
"We had five minutes and during that time they euthanased poor Colin."
Authorities decided to euthanase the whale last night, but had deemed it too dangerous to enter the water in the dark.
He was found this morning, "alive but in a very poor condition" at The Basin, in the Pittwater area, National Parks spokesman John Dengate said.
The decision to euthanase the whale was made by the national parks service and experts from Taronga Zoo and Sea World on the Gold Coast, and the welfare groups RSPCA and ORCCA.
"The last thing we want is that the whale should suffer," Mr Dengate said last night.
"The vets are saying: ''he hasn't got long to go - you should take action'.
"The animal is suffering shark-inflicted injuries, is experiencing breathing difficulties and its flukes are hanging down."
But the decision provoked anger and emotion among many who formed an attachment to the young calf, dubbed "Colin".
Many people had gathered at The Basin this morning, as they had last night, Mr Dengate said.
"Some people are very upset, and some were very aggressive. It's a bit harrowing personally.
"They've been calling me the worst names you can imagine ... [including] 'effing murderer' which is a bit hard to take - I've spent my life working with animals.
"But it's understandable because there's a lot of community concern. It says something about our attitude to the environment."
An Aboriginal "whale whisperer", Bunna Lawrie, who spent time with the whale yesterday, patting it and singing to it, was shocked to hear the decision.
"You're kidding, that's the wrong thing to do," said Mr Lawrie, who is the lead singer of the Aboriginal reggae band, Coloured Stone, and will appear in the coming film, Whale-dreamers.
"While it's got life it's got hope. He heard me singing and came over. I looked at him and he was full of life. He had a few scratches and cuts on him and I was a bit worried about his eyes.
"All he needed is a mother's milk. There was hope another whale could pick him up and adopt him. He could have at least learnt to swim with them and eat krill and plankton."
An autopsy would be conducted on the whale - most likely at Taronga Zoo - after it was put down, Mr Dengate said.
"We'll do an autposy on the whale to work out what was wrong with it that may have led to its mother abandoning it.
"The body will be buried in a known location ... so it can be accessed if scientists want to analyse the bones for future research."
- with AAP
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Whaledreamers
Environmentalists and the environment
21 August 2008
18 August 2008
Green fest - South East Advertiser - 15th August 2008
Green and emerging arts festival”, will be held at South Bank from October 10 - 12.
Greenfest organiser Colman Ridge said there were more than 150 music acts, speakers, artists and film makers on show, along with 100 exhibitors showing “green” cars, building products, offering organic foods, as well as education and career opportunities for young and old.
Indigenous arts groups and representatives from traditional green communities will also take part in the festival.
For more information or to offer to be involved in visit http://www.greenfest.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Greenfest organiser Colman Ridge said there were more than 150 music acts, speakers, artists and film makers on show, along with 100 exhibitors showing “green” cars, building products, offering organic foods, as well as education and career opportunities for young and old.
Indigenous arts groups and representatives from traditional green communities will also take part in the festival.
For more information or to offer to be involved in visit http://www.greenfest.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
14 August 2008
High fuel costs to 'kill off' Japanese whaling, by Scott Casey - Brisbane Times - 14th August 2008
They've been pursued by environmental activists through the Southern Ocean for years, but in an ironic twist, the rising cost of fuel could just be the undoing of Japanese whalers, the head of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling foundation believes.
VIDEO: Whale slaughter may end
"The entire Antarctic campaign will cost us a couple million dollars but our biggest expense is fuel as fuel prices increase," Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd's flagship Steve Irwin vessel, told brisbanetimes.com.au in an exclusive interview yesterday.
"It's sort of a good thing though, because it increases the fuel prices for the whalers and they are paying a lot more than we are.
"As long as we can keep the Japanese whaling fleet on the run, we will continue to cost them money and we will continue to save whales.''
Captain Watson, who co-founded Greenpeace, said Japanese whalers had only taken half their quota of the sea giants for the last two seasons, and the company behind the controversial practice was now in debt to the Japanese government to the tune of more than $US50 million.
"I don't think they can go three years in a row with these kinds of losses. All we need to do is get down there keep chasing them and prevent them from killing whales," he said.
"We're not going to surrender, we're not going to retreat they're going to have to pull out.
"I think we've beaten them."
The Steve Irwin has been docked in Brisbane since late last month and will be undergoing a significant refit at the Forcgas Cairncross dockyard at Morningside over the next four months ahead of another planned departure to the Southern Ocean to protect endangered whales in December.
"We've come to Brisbane to complete refit work on the Steve Irwin, put on a new helicopter deck and get everything ready to leave in four months to return to the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary." Captain Watson said.
He said that the group would act aggressively to protect whales and would not rule out a repeat of the dramatic scenes early this year, when two activists boarded a Japanese vessel.
"It's quite possible we will have those kind of interception tactics, we don't go there to protest we go there to uphold international conservation law..
"We're simply going down there to enforce what the governments of the world won't do - enforce the law - and if that means boarding them that is one of the tactics we will use."
As well as the refit operation, the Sea Shephered foundation will announce a partnership with global cosmetics company Lush to protest against the practice of shark finning and challenge the Queensland government over a proposed shark fin fishery on the Great Barrier Reef.
"We're trying to stop the shark fin trade. Every year 100,000,000 sharks are being slaughtered and many species are facing extinction. Most shark populations have been reduced by 90 per cent in the ocean," Captain Watson said.
"There's a proposal by the Queensland government to initiate a shark fining program here in Australia. Our point is if we can't get a country like Australia to stop shark finning how can we convince these poorer countries."
Shark finning - which involves cutting off the fin of a live shark and throwing it back into the water - is illegal in Queensland, however shark fishing is allowed along a vast stretch of the coast in the East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery.
This also includes the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
Shark fin is considered a gourmet delicacy in parts of Asia, and is highly popular on dinner tables in China, the Philippines and Japan. It can fetch upwards of $1400 per kilo and is sold in dried form.
Sea Shepherd's campaign will see 550 Lush stores across the world display anti-shark finning material. Stores will also sell Shark Fin Soap to raise awareness and money for the global campaign.
The Steve Irwin will remain docked in Brisbane until December 1, when it sets sail for Antarctica.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
VIDEO: Whale slaughter may end
"The entire Antarctic campaign will cost us a couple million dollars but our biggest expense is fuel as fuel prices increase," Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd's flagship Steve Irwin vessel, told brisbanetimes.com.au in an exclusive interview yesterday.
"It's sort of a good thing though, because it increases the fuel prices for the whalers and they are paying a lot more than we are.
"As long as we can keep the Japanese whaling fleet on the run, we will continue to cost them money and we will continue to save whales.''
Captain Watson, who co-founded Greenpeace, said Japanese whalers had only taken half their quota of the sea giants for the last two seasons, and the company behind the controversial practice was now in debt to the Japanese government to the tune of more than $US50 million.
"I don't think they can go three years in a row with these kinds of losses. All we need to do is get down there keep chasing them and prevent them from killing whales," he said.
"We're not going to surrender, we're not going to retreat they're going to have to pull out.
"I think we've beaten them."
The Steve Irwin has been docked in Brisbane since late last month and will be undergoing a significant refit at the Forcgas Cairncross dockyard at Morningside over the next four months ahead of another planned departure to the Southern Ocean to protect endangered whales in December.
"We've come to Brisbane to complete refit work on the Steve Irwin, put on a new helicopter deck and get everything ready to leave in four months to return to the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary." Captain Watson said.
He said that the group would act aggressively to protect whales and would not rule out a repeat of the dramatic scenes early this year, when two activists boarded a Japanese vessel.
"It's quite possible we will have those kind of interception tactics, we don't go there to protest we go there to uphold international conservation law..
"We're simply going down there to enforce what the governments of the world won't do - enforce the law - and if that means boarding them that is one of the tactics we will use."
As well as the refit operation, the Sea Shephered foundation will announce a partnership with global cosmetics company Lush to protest against the practice of shark finning and challenge the Queensland government over a proposed shark fin fishery on the Great Barrier Reef.
"We're trying to stop the shark fin trade. Every year 100,000,000 sharks are being slaughtered and many species are facing extinction. Most shark populations have been reduced by 90 per cent in the ocean," Captain Watson said.
"There's a proposal by the Queensland government to initiate a shark fining program here in Australia. Our point is if we can't get a country like Australia to stop shark finning how can we convince these poorer countries."
Shark finning - which involves cutting off the fin of a live shark and throwing it back into the water - is illegal in Queensland, however shark fishing is allowed along a vast stretch of the coast in the East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery.
This also includes the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
Shark fin is considered a gourmet delicacy in parts of Asia, and is highly popular on dinner tables in China, the Philippines and Japan. It can fetch upwards of $1400 per kilo and is sold in dried form.
Sea Shepherd's campaign will see 550 Lush stores across the world display anti-shark finning material. Stores will also sell Shark Fin Soap to raise awareness and money for the global campaign.
The Steve Irwin will remain docked in Brisbane until December 1, when it sets sail for Antarctica.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
Climate change a real threat to Vanuatu
While Australians contemplate whether climate change is real or imagined, residents from small islands in the South Pacific are becoming the first climate change refugees.
The people of Vanuatu are already feeling the pointy end of climate change. Rising sea levels, bleached coral reefs and turbulent weather is affecting Vanuatu’s tourism and its main export, coconuts. In late 2005, an entire coastal village in northern Vanuatu was relocated to higher ground—one hundred residents of Tegua Island became the first climate change refugees.
While recently travelling in Vanuatu, my tour guide John, from Island Holiday Tours, told me he is worried about global warming destroying tourism by washing away the beaches; and ruining coconut plantations through increased storms and cyclones.
With an economy centered firmly on tourism (it contributes 72 per cent of Gross Domestic Product) and agriculture (coconuts make up 31.1 per cent of exports), John is cynical about what Vanuatu can do to adapt to climate change. ‘What can we do? We have no power. We don’t have enough money to relocate all the villages inland; we just have to let nature run its course.’
What is the Vanuatu government doing about climate change?
People in Vanuatu live a simple life—80 per cent of residents do not have electricity and rely on subsistence farming; education is too expensive for many families; and outside the capital city of Port Villa roads are rough and made from dead coral.
Like many developing countries, climate change adaptation is too costly for the Vanuatu government. The little money they have is prioritised for development and education. The 2007 environment budget is 7 million vatu (approximately AUS $66,000), slightly more than the cost of a minister’s new car. Environmental projects rely heavily on foreign aid.
The Vanuatu government's National Advisory Committee for Climate Change Coordinator, Brian Phillips, says the only way forward is for the industrialised world to cut down on their emissions and enable the climate to stabilise over time. ‘In the meantime small island states could do with a lot of financial assistance to help our communities adapt to the impacts of climate change,’ he says.
The industrialised world can reduce the impact of climate change by cutting carbon emissions through increasing energy efficiency, developing alternative energy sources, and introducing penalties such as a carbon tax.
What is Australia doing to assist Vanuatu?
Australia provides conditional aid to Vanuatu, dictating where the money should be spent and reviewing performance. In response to good environmental reform in recent years, the Australian High Commissioner has announced plans to spend 4.4 billion vatu ($47.6 million AUD) over the next 12 months in partnership with the Vanuatu government.
The goal of Australia’s aid program is to ‘help Vanuatu—the government, private sector, chiefs, churches and local communities—in their efforts to build an educated, healthy and wealthy Vanuatu,’ says an Australian diplomat in Vanuatu. However, without good governance, the broad scope of the program risks being ineffective by not targeting the rural communities most affected by climate change. Handouts will not stabilise carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What Vanuatu really needs is for Australia and the rest of the world to dramatically reduce its carbon emissions.
The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has agreed to cut Australia’s emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 compared to 2000 levels; and has proposed introducing an emissions trading scheme (that caps the amount of carbon allowed to be released into the atmosphere) by 2010. But scientists say this won’t be enough. The 2007 Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, released by the British government, argues that to stabilise carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, developed countries will have to cut emissions to between 60 and 90 per cent of 1990 levels and developing countries will have to have relatively low economic growth.
Critics of climate change argue that Australia’s reductions will be pointless if high emitting countries like India and China don’t commit to reduction targets. However, if we refuse to act and pass the burden onto others, chances are no country will cut emissions and no climate change solution will be found.
Climatologists predict that, one by one, islands in the South Pacific are likely to be submerged underwater. It’s estimated that by 2015, the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea will disappear; forcing 2000 residents to move to nearby Bougainville; and by 2035, Tuvalu will also be underwater. In 2005, scientists advising the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said sea levels could rise by up to a metre by 2100 because of melting polar ice-caps and warmer temperatures linked to burning fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.
‘The peoples of the Arctic and the small islands of this world face many of the same threats,’ says Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UNEP. ‘The melting and receding of sea ice and the rising of sea levels, storm surges and the like are the first manifestations of big changes under way which eventually will touch everyone on the planet.’
After visiting Vanuatu and talking to locals about how climate change has affected their lives, I am assured that climate change is real and that their lives are indeed under threat. Surveying the beach in front of us, made of entirely bleached coral, my tour guide John exclaimed, ‘maybe God is punishing us? I don’t know.’
Collectively, the world is better off if we all cut emissions even if it is not in a nation’s individual interests. Australia must act as a leader in the South Pacific and help the nations who cannot defend themselves against the changing climate.
How do I know this?
Author unknown, 2008, ‘Aust aid aims to build a healthy, educated and wealthy Vanuatu,’
Vanuatu Daily Post, 19 July, pg. 4
Boehm, Peter 2006, ‘Global Warning: Devastation of an Atoll’, The Independent, 30 August, www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warning-devastation-of-an-atoll-413922
Bohane, B 2006, ‘Surging seas force islanders to pack their bags,’ The Age, 5 January, http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/surging-seas-force-islanders-to-pack-their-bags/2006/01/04/1136050495641.html
Caldwell, A 2005, ‘Vanuatu village relocated due to rising sea level,’ The World Today, 6 December, www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1524755
Carteret Islands, You Tube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRxpLnfv6xA
Elliot, L (1998) 'The Global Politics of the Environment', New York University Press, New York
King, Peter 2007 ‘Country Environmental Analysis Vanuatu,’ Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report, Regional: Mainstreaming Environmental Considerations in Economic Development Planning Processes in Selected Pacific Developing Member Countries, Asian Development Bank
Marshall, Steve 2007, ‘PNG Carteret Islands’, Foreign Correspondent, 13 March www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2007/s1865416.htm
Smith, S (1994) ‘Environment on the Periphery of International Relations: An Explanation’ cited in Thomas, C (1994) Rio: Unravelling the Consequences, Frank Cass, England.
Stern, N (2007) The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change Part VI ‘International Collective Action’, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Vanuatu forests: reducing emissions from deforestation, 2007, www.climatefocus.com
Vanuatu Meteorological Service, www.pi-gcos.org/Vanuatu
Media Man Australia Profiles
Islands
Green News Media
Environmentalists and the environment
The people of Vanuatu are already feeling the pointy end of climate change. Rising sea levels, bleached coral reefs and turbulent weather is affecting Vanuatu’s tourism and its main export, coconuts. In late 2005, an entire coastal village in northern Vanuatu was relocated to higher ground—one hundred residents of Tegua Island became the first climate change refugees.
While recently travelling in Vanuatu, my tour guide John, from Island Holiday Tours, told me he is worried about global warming destroying tourism by washing away the beaches; and ruining coconut plantations through increased storms and cyclones.
With an economy centered firmly on tourism (it contributes 72 per cent of Gross Domestic Product) and agriculture (coconuts make up 31.1 per cent of exports), John is cynical about what Vanuatu can do to adapt to climate change. ‘What can we do? We have no power. We don’t have enough money to relocate all the villages inland; we just have to let nature run its course.’
What is the Vanuatu government doing about climate change?
People in Vanuatu live a simple life—80 per cent of residents do not have electricity and rely on subsistence farming; education is too expensive for many families; and outside the capital city of Port Villa roads are rough and made from dead coral.
Like many developing countries, climate change adaptation is too costly for the Vanuatu government. The little money they have is prioritised for development and education. The 2007 environment budget is 7 million vatu (approximately AUS $66,000), slightly more than the cost of a minister’s new car. Environmental projects rely heavily on foreign aid.
The Vanuatu government's National Advisory Committee for Climate Change Coordinator, Brian Phillips, says the only way forward is for the industrialised world to cut down on their emissions and enable the climate to stabilise over time. ‘In the meantime small island states could do with a lot of financial assistance to help our communities adapt to the impacts of climate change,’ he says.
The industrialised world can reduce the impact of climate change by cutting carbon emissions through increasing energy efficiency, developing alternative energy sources, and introducing penalties such as a carbon tax.
What is Australia doing to assist Vanuatu?
Australia provides conditional aid to Vanuatu, dictating where the money should be spent and reviewing performance. In response to good environmental reform in recent years, the Australian High Commissioner has announced plans to spend 4.4 billion vatu ($47.6 million AUD) over the next 12 months in partnership with the Vanuatu government.
The goal of Australia’s aid program is to ‘help Vanuatu—the government, private sector, chiefs, churches and local communities—in their efforts to build an educated, healthy and wealthy Vanuatu,’ says an Australian diplomat in Vanuatu. However, without good governance, the broad scope of the program risks being ineffective by not targeting the rural communities most affected by climate change. Handouts will not stabilise carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What Vanuatu really needs is for Australia and the rest of the world to dramatically reduce its carbon emissions.
The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has agreed to cut Australia’s emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 compared to 2000 levels; and has proposed introducing an emissions trading scheme (that caps the amount of carbon allowed to be released into the atmosphere) by 2010. But scientists say this won’t be enough. The 2007 Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, released by the British government, argues that to stabilise carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, developed countries will have to cut emissions to between 60 and 90 per cent of 1990 levels and developing countries will have to have relatively low economic growth.
Critics of climate change argue that Australia’s reductions will be pointless if high emitting countries like India and China don’t commit to reduction targets. However, if we refuse to act and pass the burden onto others, chances are no country will cut emissions and no climate change solution will be found.
Climatologists predict that, one by one, islands in the South Pacific are likely to be submerged underwater. It’s estimated that by 2015, the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea will disappear; forcing 2000 residents to move to nearby Bougainville; and by 2035, Tuvalu will also be underwater. In 2005, scientists advising the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said sea levels could rise by up to a metre by 2100 because of melting polar ice-caps and warmer temperatures linked to burning fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.
‘The peoples of the Arctic and the small islands of this world face many of the same threats,’ says Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UNEP. ‘The melting and receding of sea ice and the rising of sea levels, storm surges and the like are the first manifestations of big changes under way which eventually will touch everyone on the planet.’
After visiting Vanuatu and talking to locals about how climate change has affected their lives, I am assured that climate change is real and that their lives are indeed under threat. Surveying the beach in front of us, made of entirely bleached coral, my tour guide John exclaimed, ‘maybe God is punishing us? I don’t know.’
Collectively, the world is better off if we all cut emissions even if it is not in a nation’s individual interests. Australia must act as a leader in the South Pacific and help the nations who cannot defend themselves against the changing climate.
How do I know this?
Author unknown, 2008, ‘Aust aid aims to build a healthy, educated and wealthy Vanuatu,’
Vanuatu Daily Post, 19 July, pg. 4
Boehm, Peter 2006, ‘Global Warning: Devastation of an Atoll’, The Independent, 30 August, www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warning-devastation-of-an-atoll-413922
Bohane, B 2006, ‘Surging seas force islanders to pack their bags,’ The Age, 5 January, http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/surging-seas-force-islanders-to-pack-their-bags/2006/01/04/1136050495641.html
Caldwell, A 2005, ‘Vanuatu village relocated due to rising sea level,’ The World Today, 6 December, www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1524755
Carteret Islands, You Tube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRxpLnfv6xA
Elliot, L (1998) 'The Global Politics of the Environment', New York University Press, New York
King, Peter 2007 ‘Country Environmental Analysis Vanuatu,’ Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report, Regional: Mainstreaming Environmental Considerations in Economic Development Planning Processes in Selected Pacific Developing Member Countries, Asian Development Bank
Marshall, Steve 2007, ‘PNG Carteret Islands’, Foreign Correspondent, 13 March www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2007/s1865416.htm
Smith, S (1994) ‘Environment on the Periphery of International Relations: An Explanation’ cited in Thomas, C (1994) Rio: Unravelling the Consequences, Frank Cass, England.
Stern, N (2007) The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change Part VI ‘International Collective Action’, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Vanuatu forests: reducing emissions from deforestation, 2007, www.climatefocus.com
Vanuatu Meteorological Service, www.pi-gcos.org/Vanuatu
Media Man Australia Profiles
Islands
Green News Media
Environmentalists and the environment
13 August 2008
Greenfest Film Festival
The Greenfest Film is proudly sponsored by Griffith University and Planet Media. It
is a unique free to the public film festival focussed on supporting emerging talent in local film making for short films up to 10 minutes duration.
As well as the short film festival on Friday 10th, there will be a special feature presentation of Whale Dreamers on Saturday 11th October at 5:30pm, all showings are free to the public.
The short film festival 7-10pm 10th October 2008, Piazza South Bank Brisbane invites submissions from film school students. Submit entries on DVD to Greenfest PO BOX 3841, South Brisbane QLD 4101 by 26th September, under one of the following areas for consideration:
* First film
* Green Themes
* Australian Themes
* Creative Arts
Approx 12 films will be chosen to be screened in a three hour shorts festival including live music, organic food, industry support and great audiences. Send your film in today; or to discuss more detail, just ask via the participate form.
To view some trailers associated with the festival click here.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Environmentalists and the environment
is a unique free to the public film festival focussed on supporting emerging talent in local film making for short films up to 10 minutes duration.
As well as the short film festival on Friday 10th, there will be a special feature presentation of Whale Dreamers on Saturday 11th October at 5:30pm, all showings are free to the public.
The short film festival 7-10pm 10th October 2008, Piazza South Bank Brisbane invites submissions from film school students. Submit entries on DVD to Greenfest PO BOX 3841, South Brisbane QLD 4101 by 26th September, under one of the following areas for consideration:
* First film
* Green Themes
* Australian Themes
* Creative Arts
Approx 12 films will be chosen to be screened in a three hour shorts festival including live music, organic food, industry support and great audiences. Send your film in today; or to discuss more detail, just ask via the participate form.
To view some trailers associated with the festival click here.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Environmentalists and the environment
11 August 2008
The green room: Sam Branson, model - The Guardian - 31st July 2008
What is your biggest guilty green secret?
I travel quite a lot - it's not a secret. Obviously, I generally fly Virgin [his father is Sir Richard Branson], which offers offsetting, and I always do that.
Do you know your carbon footprint?
No. I do think people should be aware of their carbon impact, but I've got no idea what mine is.
What was the last green thing you did?
I've just completed a three-month expedition to the Arctic to highlight the effects that climate change is having there. We were lucky enough to see the northern lights - it was extraordinary.
What is your favourite green habit?
Jogging. I try to do it every day to stay fit, and I'm starting to get into the habit of jogging to places so it stays part of my life. The only problem is that you need a shower and you can't carry much: I wish they'd bring the idea of bike pooling that they have in Paris over here. It's such a great idea.
If you could buy any green gadget, what would it be?
When I went to the Arctic I bought a solar charger for my iPod. It takes a few hours: you just have to lie it out in the sun and keep tilting it as the sun moves across the sky. Then you're sweet to go.
What skill do you have for a post-oil world?
Being willing to fit myself in and adapt.
What would you save, apart from your family and friends, come the floods?
I need to keep myself entertained so I'd have to take my guitar. I'd sit on the roof and jam for a while.
· Sam Branson is the green ambassador for radio station Kiss, kisstheplanet.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Sam Branson
I travel quite a lot - it's not a secret. Obviously, I generally fly Virgin [his father is Sir Richard Branson], which offers offsetting, and I always do that.
Do you know your carbon footprint?
No. I do think people should be aware of their carbon impact, but I've got no idea what mine is.
What was the last green thing you did?
I've just completed a three-month expedition to the Arctic to highlight the effects that climate change is having there. We were lucky enough to see the northern lights - it was extraordinary.
What is your favourite green habit?
Jogging. I try to do it every day to stay fit, and I'm starting to get into the habit of jogging to places so it stays part of my life. The only problem is that you need a shower and you can't carry much: I wish they'd bring the idea of bike pooling that they have in Paris over here. It's such a great idea.
If you could buy any green gadget, what would it be?
When I went to the Arctic I bought a solar charger for my iPod. It takes a few hours: you just have to lie it out in the sun and keep tilting it as the sun moves across the sky. Then you're sweet to go.
What skill do you have for a post-oil world?
Being willing to fit myself in and adapt.
What would you save, apart from your family and friends, come the floods?
I need to keep myself entertained so I'd have to take my guitar. I'd sit on the roof and jam for a while.
· Sam Branson is the green ambassador for radio station Kiss, kisstheplanet.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Sam Branson
Manly Council offers free filtered water to combat litter - ABC - 10th August 2008
A Sydney council has become the first in Australia to allow members of the public access to free filtered water in an attempt to reduce litter from water bottles.
Manly Council has installed six water bubblers fitted with filters along the beach front.
The organiser of the Bottled Water Alliance, Jon Dee, says the council and residents are set to benefit.
"What we've done is we've put in place these water bubblers along the corso that have high-tech filtration devices in them," he said.
"What we're hoping is that'll it'll go some significant way to reducing the $0.5 billion a year that Australians spend on bottled water and we're hoping that the move will not just save the environment, but also people's wallets."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Jon Dee
Environmentalists and the environment
Manly Council has installed six water bubblers fitted with filters along the beach front.
The organiser of the Bottled Water Alliance, Jon Dee, says the council and residents are set to benefit.
"What we've done is we've put in place these water bubblers along the corso that have high-tech filtration devices in them," he said.
"What we're hoping is that'll it'll go some significant way to reducing the $0.5 billion a year that Australians spend on bottled water and we're hoping that the move will not just save the environment, but also people's wallets."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Jon Dee
Environmentalists and the environment
02 August 2008
The NEWS.com.au Green Awards
The NEWS.com.au Green Awards recognise and celebrate the determination of Australians to tackle the challenges facing our environment. They recognise innovations and solutions that can be easily adopted to help reduce our impact on the planet.
Website
News.com.au Green Awards
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
Website
News.com.au Green Awards
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
Aussie whale tale premieres at Cannes - 27th May 2007 - news.com.au - AAP
A film produced by Julian Lennon, shot in Byron Bay and on the Great Australian Bight, has met with a friendly reception following a late screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
Whaledreamers, which is described as an eco-feature, shows the unique relationship between whales and indigenous Aboriginal tribes.
The film follows the quest of British writer/director and co-producer Kim Kindersley, who documented his own relationship with Australian Aboriginal tribes living on Australia's southern coastline near the Nullarbor Plain.
Lennon and Kindersley also gathered together a group of tribal elders from all over the world, including a New Zealand Maori chief, on a cliff top near Byron Bay where they called upon the whales to surface and communicate - a tradition that is said to date back centuries.
"When we started the film, no one anticipated the current surge of interest in climate change, nor the renewed threat to our whales from attempts to re-introduce commercial whaling,'' said executive producer Wayne Young of Youngheart Productions in Byron Bay.
Pierce Brosnan, John Hurt, Jack Thompson, Geoffrey Rush and John Boorman all make brief guest appearances in the film.
The documentary won Best Film at Byron Bay Film Festival as well as two awards at the Monaco Film Festival in 2006 - the Independent Spirit Award and the top prize for Best Film.
"Financing came from Lennon personally and various concerned private investors with big hearts,'' said Kindersley.
Lennon has declared himself devoted to ecological concerns, which he will explore via other documentary projects.
His upcoming video, called Saltwater, is a spin-off of Whaledreamers, and feature footage of battles with whalers and other environmental issues.
Greenpeace has adopted Lennon's song, 'Saltwater', as its theme. It could be released as a single, with the profits going to the environmental organisation.
Following the screening, held in a well-filled small cinema inside the Palais des Festivals, a crew member from Byron Bay added to the ambience and theme by playing his didgeridoo.
The production team, including Lennon and Kindersley, then attended a private party held for them on the beach by Hollywood Today.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Julian Lennon
Jack Thompson
Mirning tribe
Cannes Film Festival
Environmentalists and the environment
Whaledreamers, which is described as an eco-feature, shows the unique relationship between whales and indigenous Aboriginal tribes.
The film follows the quest of British writer/director and co-producer Kim Kindersley, who documented his own relationship with Australian Aboriginal tribes living on Australia's southern coastline near the Nullarbor Plain.
Lennon and Kindersley also gathered together a group of tribal elders from all over the world, including a New Zealand Maori chief, on a cliff top near Byron Bay where they called upon the whales to surface and communicate - a tradition that is said to date back centuries.
"When we started the film, no one anticipated the current surge of interest in climate change, nor the renewed threat to our whales from attempts to re-introduce commercial whaling,'' said executive producer Wayne Young of Youngheart Productions in Byron Bay.
Pierce Brosnan, John Hurt, Jack Thompson, Geoffrey Rush and John Boorman all make brief guest appearances in the film.
The documentary won Best Film at Byron Bay Film Festival as well as two awards at the Monaco Film Festival in 2006 - the Independent Spirit Award and the top prize for Best Film.
"Financing came from Lennon personally and various concerned private investors with big hearts,'' said Kindersley.
Lennon has declared himself devoted to ecological concerns, which he will explore via other documentary projects.
His upcoming video, called Saltwater, is a spin-off of Whaledreamers, and feature footage of battles with whalers and other environmental issues.
Greenpeace has adopted Lennon's song, 'Saltwater', as its theme. It could be released as a single, with the profits going to the environmental organisation.
Following the screening, held in a well-filled small cinema inside the Palais des Festivals, a crew member from Byron Bay added to the ambience and theme by playing his didgeridoo.
The production team, including Lennon and Kindersley, then attended a private party held for them on the beach by Hollywood Today.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whaledreamers
Julian Lennon
Jack Thompson
Mirning tribe
Cannes Film Festival
Environmentalists and the environment
31 July 2008
How green is your portfolio?, by John Owen - The Australian - 30th July 2008
# Investors are increasingly looking at carbon exposure
# Climate change is moving to mainstream arena
How does climate change impact your investment, and how does your investment impact climate change?
While the investment industry has been doing a lot of research on these issues, it's been largely from a shares perspective, The Australian reports.
Other asset classes have been relatively neglected, and therefore the implications of climate change for investment portfolios as a whole remain relatively unexplored.
We look at the ways climate change could impact all the asset classes that typically appear in client portfolios, and give an overview of the investment risks and opportunities investors should anticipate moving towards a lower-carbon economy and identifies the pitfalls that could occur along the way.
Investors should not regard themselves as passive passengers on this journey, but can use their collective investment clout if they desire to affect the course of climate change.
Climate change as an issue is here to stay and more and more businesses are thinking about the impact it will have on them. Oil price rices force government to search for clean, renewable alternative energy sources, and consumers are also shifting their preferences towards greener products and services, and assessing a company's environmental reputation when deciding who they purchase from.
Some investors are starting to consider reducing their exposure to sectors and companies that are highly carbon-intensive and unwilling to adapt.
In contrast, they are also thinking of ways to invest in green technology and climate-friendly industries they might benefit from.
In the past, the investment industry has often confined environmentally and socially aware investment practices to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) themed funds. But this limited approach is no longer appropriate as the "theme'' is now Planet Earth.
Therefore, climate change should be moved on to the mainstream investment agenda and the way it can affect the valuation of all asset classes should be considered.
The first step is to understand how our decisions on where to invest our money exposes us to carbon risk.
According to various surveys, the average Australian superannuation fund invests 60 per cent-plus of total assets in shares. Add an approximate 10 per cent allocation to company bonds and we very quickly get to a 70 per cent-plus exposure to companies. Any adverse impact from climate change on these underlying companies will have a significant effect on the performance of client's investment portfolios.
That is not to say that other assets are sheltered from the storm.
Property investments, for instance, are even more significantly exposed to both regulatory and physical impacts.
In the case of equities, carbon risk needs to be worked into the way you price shares (and whether they are cheap or not). An assessment of "climate'' related risks should now be included, along with regulatory, technology and physical risks.
Regulatory risk results from the impact of government policies that put a price on the carbon emissions a company makes, or which directly regulate products and processes that are emitting green house gases (GHG).
Out of all the asset classes, property is the most exposed to the two primary categories of climate change risk: physical and regulatory. It is estimated that property is the conduit for about half of total GHG emissions through its construction, use and demolition.
To date, property valuations and pricing by the market have been slow to reflect the benefits of low-energy buildings or account for the risks of accelerated obsolescence of energy-inefficient buildings.
However, this is starting to change. Most buildings are being equipped with higher-efficiency fittings, and governments are beginning to enforce energy standards to reduce waste.
Investors should be aware that energy-efficient buildings may receive a valuation premium to those that aren't, or whose owners refuse to spend to upgrade and improve their carbon emissions.
As for the private equity sector, rivers of green money are already flowing its way. In North America, "greentech'' has become the fifth-largest venture capital investment category and is estimated to grow from some $US40 billion ($42 billion) to $US170 billion by 2015.
Clearly, lots of "green'' investment opportunities will emerge. California's tough carbon price signal has set Silicon Valley buzzing with clean technology projects, including energy-storage systems, devices for making electricity grids more intelligent, enzymes that convert plant material to ethanol and algae that can be turned into fuel.
Climate change as an investment issue is complex -- there will be winners and losers. Rivers of green money do not guarantee a good return for investors -- there will be opportunities and risky situations with poor return profiles that investors should avoid.
That is why investors should not hesitate delegating the management of climate change risk to good, experienced, active managers who have the resources to devote to assessing the investment implications. That also means investors should ensure their managers are not just paying lip-service to the issue but are actually incorporating climate change considerations into their analysis and decision making.
As always, allowing them to innovatively construct a portfolio without constraints that results in a well-diversified portfolio will go a long way towards managing the risks and exploiting the opportunities presented by climate change.
Read the full report in The Australian.
John Owen is an MLC investment analyst
Media Man Australia Profiles
Financial News
Environmentalists and the environment
# Climate change is moving to mainstream arena
How does climate change impact your investment, and how does your investment impact climate change?
While the investment industry has been doing a lot of research on these issues, it's been largely from a shares perspective, The Australian reports.
Other asset classes have been relatively neglected, and therefore the implications of climate change for investment portfolios as a whole remain relatively unexplored.
We look at the ways climate change could impact all the asset classes that typically appear in client portfolios, and give an overview of the investment risks and opportunities investors should anticipate moving towards a lower-carbon economy and identifies the pitfalls that could occur along the way.
Investors should not regard themselves as passive passengers on this journey, but can use their collective investment clout if they desire to affect the course of climate change.
Climate change as an issue is here to stay and more and more businesses are thinking about the impact it will have on them. Oil price rices force government to search for clean, renewable alternative energy sources, and consumers are also shifting their preferences towards greener products and services, and assessing a company's environmental reputation when deciding who they purchase from.
Some investors are starting to consider reducing their exposure to sectors and companies that are highly carbon-intensive and unwilling to adapt.
In contrast, they are also thinking of ways to invest in green technology and climate-friendly industries they might benefit from.
In the past, the investment industry has often confined environmentally and socially aware investment practices to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) themed funds. But this limited approach is no longer appropriate as the "theme'' is now Planet Earth.
Therefore, climate change should be moved on to the mainstream investment agenda and the way it can affect the valuation of all asset classes should be considered.
The first step is to understand how our decisions on where to invest our money exposes us to carbon risk.
According to various surveys, the average Australian superannuation fund invests 60 per cent-plus of total assets in shares. Add an approximate 10 per cent allocation to company bonds and we very quickly get to a 70 per cent-plus exposure to companies. Any adverse impact from climate change on these underlying companies will have a significant effect on the performance of client's investment portfolios.
That is not to say that other assets are sheltered from the storm.
Property investments, for instance, are even more significantly exposed to both regulatory and physical impacts.
In the case of equities, carbon risk needs to be worked into the way you price shares (and whether they are cheap or not). An assessment of "climate'' related risks should now be included, along with regulatory, technology and physical risks.
Regulatory risk results from the impact of government policies that put a price on the carbon emissions a company makes, or which directly regulate products and processes that are emitting green house gases (GHG).
Out of all the asset classes, property is the most exposed to the two primary categories of climate change risk: physical and regulatory. It is estimated that property is the conduit for about half of total GHG emissions through its construction, use and demolition.
To date, property valuations and pricing by the market have been slow to reflect the benefits of low-energy buildings or account for the risks of accelerated obsolescence of energy-inefficient buildings.
However, this is starting to change. Most buildings are being equipped with higher-efficiency fittings, and governments are beginning to enforce energy standards to reduce waste.
Investors should be aware that energy-efficient buildings may receive a valuation premium to those that aren't, or whose owners refuse to spend to upgrade and improve their carbon emissions.
As for the private equity sector, rivers of green money are already flowing its way. In North America, "greentech'' has become the fifth-largest venture capital investment category and is estimated to grow from some $US40 billion ($42 billion) to $US170 billion by 2015.
Clearly, lots of "green'' investment opportunities will emerge. California's tough carbon price signal has set Silicon Valley buzzing with clean technology projects, including energy-storage systems, devices for making electricity grids more intelligent, enzymes that convert plant material to ethanol and algae that can be turned into fuel.
Climate change as an investment issue is complex -- there will be winners and losers. Rivers of green money do not guarantee a good return for investors -- there will be opportunities and risky situations with poor return profiles that investors should avoid.
That is why investors should not hesitate delegating the management of climate change risk to good, experienced, active managers who have the resources to devote to assessing the investment implications. That also means investors should ensure their managers are not just paying lip-service to the issue but are actually incorporating climate change considerations into their analysis and decision making.
As always, allowing them to innovatively construct a portfolio without constraints that results in a well-diversified portfolio will go a long way towards managing the risks and exploiting the opportunities presented by climate change.
Read the full report in The Australian.
John Owen is an MLC investment analyst
Media Man Australia Profiles
Financial News
Environmentalists and the environment
29 July 2008
Anti-whaling teen Bortoli makes big splash, by Rachel Syers - News.com.au - 29th July 2008
Shoppers had a whale of a time in Surfers Paradise over the weekend when World Whaling Congress delegate Skye Bortoli made a guest appearance.
Saturday was Whale Awareness Day so Skye spoke to the public at Circle on Cavill to spread the word about the giants of the sea.
Skye, just 15, has an impressive history of sticking up for whales, including a trip to Chile for the World Whaling Congress.
On Saturday she told about her first book, due out next week. We're sure there will be chapters covering Skye's efforts as a conservationist, such as May 2007 when she headed a delegation of three Australian schoolgirls to Alaska to speak at the International Whaling Commission.
Armed with a petition of 40,000 signatures, Skye and her friends not only exceeded their original goal to collect 10,000 names, they also paid their own way through fundraising and won an audience with IWC chairman William Hogarth.
Word is people were amazed at the teen's talent in public -- no wonder she's also dabbling in TV presenting and public speaking.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Environmentalists and the environment
Saturday was Whale Awareness Day so Skye spoke to the public at Circle on Cavill to spread the word about the giants of the sea.
Skye, just 15, has an impressive history of sticking up for whales, including a trip to Chile for the World Whaling Congress.
On Saturday she told about her first book, due out next week. We're sure there will be chapters covering Skye's efforts as a conservationist, such as May 2007 when she headed a delegation of three Australian schoolgirls to Alaska to speak at the International Whaling Commission.
Armed with a petition of 40,000 signatures, Skye and her friends not only exceeded their original goal to collect 10,000 names, they also paid their own way through fundraising and won an audience with IWC chairman William Hogarth.
Word is people were amazed at the teen's talent in public -- no wonder she's also dabbling in TV presenting and public speaking.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whales
Environmentalists and the environment
28 July 2008
Anti-whaling flagship docks in friendly territory, by Alex Dickinson - The Courier-Mail - 28th July 2008
Controversial anti-whaling flagship the Steve Irwin will for the next five months call Brisbane home as it undergoes refit work.
The 60m vessel, named after the late Croc Hunter, hit the headlines earlier this year for its dramatic high-seas confrontation with Japanese whalers.
It will dock at the Rivergate Marina at Murarrie until December.
The ship will prepare for the next stage of its Antarctic Whale Defence Campaign, dubbed "Operation Musashi", and be fitted for a new onboard helicopter pad and hangar.
"But the main reason we're here is to thank Brisbane for the support it has shown us over the years," said vessel manager Ben Baldwin, 25, yesterday.
"In the last campaign, we effectively halved the Japanese whalers' quota for the year which we're ecstatic about," he said.
"But next time we intend to drop that number even further and now more than ever support is crucial.
"Our former home Melbourne was good to us but we're excited to be in Queensland."
He said the crew was still trying to organise free public tours of the ship.
Tensions between whalers and the Irwin came to flashpoint in January, when two of the crew - Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 33 - boarded a whaling ship and were taken into custody by Japanese authorities.
Interim captain Malcolm Holland, 33, who volunteered 18 months ago, said the confrontation in January was "terrifying".
"When two of your own are taken away and you don't know if they are safe it can be scary," he said.
Harbouring in Brisbane is close to a homecoming for Captain Holland, whose parents live on the Sunshine Coast.
Most of the 22 crew are Australians but its volunteers also hail from Germany, Belgium, Canada and the UK.
Belgian Ann-Sofie Schreurs, 23, applied as a volunteer eight months ago and said she was thrilled by her first visit to Australia.
"I'm due to go back home in a month but it's beautiful here," she said.
"I'm deciding whether to stay on and see out the next campaign to Antarctica."
It is believed the organisation has prevented Japanese whalers from catching more than 1000 whales over the past two years.
Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society which owns the Irwin, is due in Brisbane later this year to captain the ship on its trip to Antarctica.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
The 60m vessel, named after the late Croc Hunter, hit the headlines earlier this year for its dramatic high-seas confrontation with Japanese whalers.
It will dock at the Rivergate Marina at Murarrie until December.
The ship will prepare for the next stage of its Antarctic Whale Defence Campaign, dubbed "Operation Musashi", and be fitted for a new onboard helicopter pad and hangar.
"But the main reason we're here is to thank Brisbane for the support it has shown us over the years," said vessel manager Ben Baldwin, 25, yesterday.
"In the last campaign, we effectively halved the Japanese whalers' quota for the year which we're ecstatic about," he said.
"But next time we intend to drop that number even further and now more than ever support is crucial.
"Our former home Melbourne was good to us but we're excited to be in Queensland."
He said the crew was still trying to organise free public tours of the ship.
Tensions between whalers and the Irwin came to flashpoint in January, when two of the crew - Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 33 - boarded a whaling ship and were taken into custody by Japanese authorities.
Interim captain Malcolm Holland, 33, who volunteered 18 months ago, said the confrontation in January was "terrifying".
"When two of your own are taken away and you don't know if they are safe it can be scary," he said.
Harbouring in Brisbane is close to a homecoming for Captain Holland, whose parents live on the Sunshine Coast.
Most of the 22 crew are Australians but its volunteers also hail from Germany, Belgium, Canada and the UK.
Belgian Ann-Sofie Schreurs, 23, applied as a volunteer eight months ago and said she was thrilled by her first visit to Australia.
"I'm due to go back home in a month but it's beautiful here," she said.
"I'm deciding whether to stay on and see out the next campaign to Antarctica."
It is believed the organisation has prevented Japanese whalers from catching more than 1000 whales over the past two years.
Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society which owns the Irwin, is due in Brisbane later this year to captain the ship on its trip to Antarctica.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
MINISTER GARRETT SPEECH TO THE QUEENSLAND MEDIA CLUB 28 JULY 2008
THE HON PETER GARRETT AM MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, HERITAGE AND THE ARTS
SPEECH TO THE QUEENSLAND MEDIA CLUB
Brisbane
Monday 28 July 2008
From the sand hills to the suburbs … steps towards a sustainable Australia.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land on which we meet, the Toorbal and Jagara people.
I’m always impressed by Queenslanders’ conviction that they live in the best part of Australia.
You have a significant share of Australia’s great natural assets – and you know how to use and celebrate them for the international wonders that they are.
From the teeming waters of the Great Barrier Reef to the lush rainforests of the Wet Tropics, from the mighty sandhills of Fraser Island to the bush surrounding the suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland has harnessed these wonders to make a strong contribution to the state’s identity and to its economy.
The World Heritage list records the places of natural and cultural heritage that are of outstanding value to humanity on a global scale. Queensland is blessed with five of Australia’s 17 World Heritage places.
Two of these, the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics, help to attract $1.2 billion a year to the city of Cairns. In total, tourism from the Reef injects a massive $4.9 billion into the Queensland economy, and overall tourism is the second largest export earner for Queensland.
Now more than ever, the health of the environment should be recognized as essential to the health of the Queensland economy.
But Queensland’s natural assets are also under threat. Rapid urban expansion, overfishing, land-clearing and declining water quality all pose major challenges.
And, of course, the big one – climate change.
Climate change impacts
Every day it seems another report, another undeniable truth, emerges about how dangerous changing global temperatures will be. Australians are increasingly coming to understand how global warming will impact on our environment.
Ongoing research from our own Australian Antarctic Division and CSIRO scientists on the profound changes underway in Antarctica provides even more food for thought on this issue.
It is extraordinary, when the climate change challenge is so evident, that Brendan Nelson, Greg Hunt and the other dinosaurs in the Liberal and National parties are squabbling over how long to put off taking action.
Earlier this month, on 16 July, Mr Hunt stated unequivocally “2012 is the time by which we would like to see an emissions trading scheme in place.”
Similarly, on 9 July, Mr Turnbull was asked, “The Coalition, if you were in Government today, you would have an emissions trading scheme starting in 2012?” His answer, very plainly, was “Yes, we would.”
Yet just yesterday Mr Hunt could no longer answer the question, saying “I'm not going to pre-empt the discussion of the colleagues.”
And Mr Turnbull went out of his way to avoid the same question, saying, “You know, people debate the start date – the real issue is what is the scheme, what is the design of the scheme.”
The Shadow Treasurer then assured us that he and his colleagues had “All been singing off the same song sheet.”
Well I can assure you, as someone who’s sung off a few song-sheets in my time, there’s no harmony coming from the Opposition on addressing the challenge of climate change.
But there is a very familiar tune, and it’s the theme song of 12 years of climate change inaction, 12 years of climate change denial and delay.
So the Coalition that signed Kyoto and then refused to ratify has become the Opposition that committed to emissions trading in 2012 and then walked away.
What an irresponsible approach to this country’s long-term future, to the future of our environment, more vulnerable than most to climate change, and to the future of our economy, with the business community looking for certainty in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
And we are already seeing the effects of climate change, with more frequent and intense coral bleaching, and scientists are predicting worse to come. A three degree temperature rise by 2030 could see up to 97 per cent of the magnificent Great Barrier Reef bleached every year.
A one degree temperature rise could slash the upland tropical rainforests of the Wet Tropics by half, and within 50 to100 years we could lose more than half the vertebrates unique to this region.
We’re likely to see more frequent and severe droughts, with greater fire risk. More extreme storm events, and more flash flooding.
It is possible that global sea level could rise a metre or more by 2100 – which would have a devastating impact on the infrastructure, wetlands and estuaries in the South East Queensland corridor in particular.
Given the range of threats to this State posed by climate change, there is no doubt that the potential risks - and the costs - are huge.
Resilience
The time for action is now and that’s why the Rudd Labor Government is pressing ahead with a bold agenda for tackling the challenge, not arguing about when to start.
Part of that agenda is rebuilding Australia’s resilience to the threats that harm the environment.
Not just climate change, but all the traditional pressures of population, pests and development.
Our legacy should be an environment with the resilience that it once had – for the good of our landscapes and ultimately our communities.
So what exactly is resilience and why is it important?
A resilient ecosystem is one that has the capacity to withstand shocks and dramatic changes and to rebuild itself without the need for significant human intervention. It must be diverse enough and sufficiently large to be able to bounce back after a disturbance.
It’s a bit like the human immune system. The research shows that people recover from infections more quickly if the rest of their life is in order – if they’re eating well, sleeping enough, and are generally in good health. Take away any of these factors and recovery slows down, and the risk of sustaining permanent harm goes up.
As custodians of the environment, our challenge is to ensure that all the work we do – all the money we direct, all the volunteer hours we put in and the plans we implement – will protect or rebuild that resilience so that natural ecosystems have a better chance of recovering from the stresses that they face – and can continue to provide essential ecosystem services such as fresh water.
Cassowary
Now Queensland as you would know is home to the southern cassowary, that large flightless bird of the wet tropics, and it is an excellent example of how a native species contributes to the overall resilience of an ecosystem.
After the devastation of Cyclone Larry in 2006, the Queensland Environment Protection Authority and wildlife groups joined forces to provide food for the southern cassowaries around Mission Beach.
They weren’t just motivated by animal welfare – though of course that was part of it.
The real driver was the crucial role these birds play in sustaining the rainforest. In the Cape York Peninsula and the Wet Tropics, the southern cassowary eats rainforest fruits like native laurels, lilipillies and palms, and disperses the seeds in their droppings.
So the cassowary’s survival was central to the regeneration of the area, and the long-term viability of rainforest communities.
One of my recent responsibilities as Federal Environment Minister under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act was to consider an application for a residential development near this same cassowary habitat at Mission Beach.
The development would have subdivided about 24 hectares into 40 residential lots and involved vegetation clearing, earthworks, construction of a new access road and associated infrastructure.
I was considering a number of factors as I reviewed this proposal.
One was that this site contains what is known as ‘essential habitat’. It contains remnant rainforest habitat and provides an important cassowary movement corridor between the habitat of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area and the coast. Even strict conditions wouldn’t be enough to protect this vital corridor. Another was that land clearing and development have already had a dramatic impact on the cassowary - less than 25 per cent of this lowland habitat is intact.
This development would have had an unacceptable impact on the chances of this species’ survival – but the clincher was the impact that it would have on the survival of the rainforest itself. The flow-on effects for tourism and the economy of far-north Queensland are obvious.
Having carefully considered the likely impact of this proposed development, and the fact that even strict conditions would not be sufficient to protect the essential cassowary habitat on which the developer was proposing to build, I came to the view that I had no choice but to use my powers under the Act to rule out this proposal completely.
This is only the second time a proposal has been deemed ‘clearly unacceptable’ under the EPBC Act and rejected outright, so it is a significant decision. The other was an application to shoot an unspecified number of threatened grey-headed flying foxes at Singleton in NSW. This action was found to be unacceptable as it would contribute to the decline of a species at local and potentially regional scales.
In the vast majority of cases considered under the Act, the potential impacts on matters of national environmental significance can be offset or minimised in some way.
EPBC Act
I now want to briefly address the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act or EPBC Act. It is the central piece of environmental legislation that I administer.
I know that there is great interest in how it relates to other controversial proposals including the Traveston Dam on the Mary River.
Naturally I am not going to preempt any future decisions today, but what I can say is that when the Act is applied properly and in conformity with its guiding principles, it is a powerful tool that can make a major contribution to Queensland’s sustainable future.
It is comprehensive and broad ranging legislation. Its objects cover the protection of matters of national environmental significance and heritage; the promotion of ecologically sustainable development and biodiversity and a cooperative approach to protecting the environment; and, last but not least, the central role and expertise of indigenous custodians of our land.
As Minister I intend to look at the whole picture to assess developments in terms of how they might impact on matters of national environmental significance as well as the social and economic impacts of proposals.
The EPBC Act should not be seen as a barrier to development. Although it is sometimes necessary to reject proposals – such as the Mission Beach residential development – in the large majority of cases my Department works with proponents to ensure that the potential impacts of proposals on matters of national environmental significance are minimised. Following such negotiations, the large majority of proposals are able to proceed.
In my role as Minister I am determined to ensure that developments with potentially significant impacts on matters of national environmental significance are carried out in an ecologically sustainable manner. In this way the Queensland economy will grow together with – rather than at the expense of – its environmental resilience.
I can give you my commitment that I will apply due process in all my considerations under the Act. I will ensure that all developments coming across my desk are considered carefully in light of the principles set down in the Act.
National Reserve System
I’d like to turn now to Australia’s National Reserve System, that network of national parks and reserves that provides a refuge for plants and animals against climate change. Increasingly, they’re recognised as drivers of national and international tourism, attracting millions of visitors every year and generating billions of dollars for the Australian economy.
Earlier this year I announced an investment of $180 million over five years in our network of national parks – more than five times the financial commitment of the previous Government.
National parks are not remote, locked-up pockets of biodiversity. They can be part of our urban sustainability experience as well.
At Noosa, for example - one of the most densely populated and fastest growing regions in the nation - 35 per cent of the region is in parks and reserves, including one of the only rivers in south-east Queensland with an A grade environmental rating – the Noosa River.
That’s a great achievement for a waterway surrounded by homes, businesses and rural industries. It’s testament to the joint efforts of three levels of government, the local community and the tourism industry that has built nature and conservation into the core of the Noosa brand.
Community Coastcare
But for every Noosa success story, there’s a coastal community struggling to look after their fragile estuaries and beaches. Many of these favourite places are in danger of being loved to death through over-use. In places we see declining water quality, sand dunes blowing out and coastlines eroding. And with the population in South East Queensland growing by 50,000 to 60,000 each year, that risk is destined to grow.
The Government has responded to this need with a round of competitive grants worth up to $20 million this financial year under Caring for our Country Community Coastcare.
This year, we have identified 12 priority coastal hotspots for Community Coastcare – including Moreton Bay, which is a marine reserve providing habitats for dugong and seagrass populations.
Moreton Bay is listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance and is under pressure as a result of population growth and development, disturbance of acid sulfate soils and water quality decline.
Targeting investment to areas of high conservation value, such as the priority coastal hotspots, will mean that Community Coastcare funding can make a substantial and measurable change at these key sites.
Caring for our Country
Community Coastcare is one component of the Rudd Government’s new rescue package for our environment – Caring for our Country.
Caring for our Country started four weeks ago today on July 1, and we have committed $2.25 billion to it over five years.
I am incredibly proud of this package and the fact that it:
o cuts red tape,
o slashes bureaucracy,
o plugs the leaks that have been a feature of previous national resource management systems, and
o focuses investment where it can make a real difference.
I am pleased to announce today that $25.7 million of this funding will be spent on regional investments in Queensland this financial year. The money will be for a range of environmental and sustainable land management projects in each of the state’s 14 natural resource management regions.
Now I earlier mentioned the action I took to protect the cassowary habitat at Mission Beach, using powers available to me under the EPBC Act. Several of these regional investments funded under Caring for our Country will complement these regulatory measures.
They will help to create habitat islands on private land in the Julatten area adjacent to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and restore key habitats at Kuranda leading to improved long term conservation outcomes for this iconic species.
Of course it’s not just about a single species. Several of these projects will improve the condition and resilience of ecosystems and threatened species habitat.
For example the $1.4 million to the Condamine regional body will be for projects to help private landholders manage endangered ecosystems such as blue grass, vine scrub and Brigalow whilst other projects will improve the aquatic habitat of six parts of the Condamine River to increase native fish populations.
So it’s all about delivering real results for biodiversity and national icons. And this
program will offer clear and measurable targets, value for money, reduced red tape and increased accountability of public expenditure, as well as working closely with private landholders and other levels of government.
Understanding that providing our natural landscapes and the ecosystems that make them up with sufficient resilience to withstand the range of pressures and threats, and to enable to continue productive occupation of our continent, Caring for Our Country will focus on six national priorities, most of which I’ve touched on today:
o The National Reserve System
o Biodiversity and natural icons
o Coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats
o Sustainable farm practices
o Natural resource management in remote and northern Australia
o Community skills knowledge and engagement
These national priorities, articulated for the first time in this way, delivered through a focused and strategic program, brings rigour and accountability to natural resource management in ways which simply didn’t happen under the previous government.
Conclusion
I started today by listing some of the natural assets of Queensland and pointing out that now, more than ever, the long term economic and social health of the state is tied to the health of its natural assets.
But I could have named so many more – the wetlands of the Channel Country, the wild rivers of the Gulf, the dunes of Shelburne Bay, or the vast expanse of the Simpson Desert.
But it’s not all ‘out there’, remote from where most of us live. These natural assets run from the sandhills to the suburbs. Much of this natural heritage is close to home. It’s the rainforest gully in the backyard, the creek where your kids play and the birds in your garden.
It’s front and centre in all our minds, and it’s at the centre of this Government’s decision-making, was we aim to make sure we are caring for our country.
Here in Queensland you have the opportunity to do it differently, to avoid some of the mistakes that have been made down south. Many of your ecosystems are intact, and you’re already learning that you can keep them that way, as you build a sustainable economy and safeguard your natural assets - our precious environment - that is so essential to our future.
Thank you.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Peter Garrett
Environmentalists and the environment
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, HERITAGE AND THE ARTS
SPEECH TO THE QUEENSLAND MEDIA CLUB
Brisbane
Monday 28 July 2008
From the sand hills to the suburbs … steps towards a sustainable Australia.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land on which we meet, the Toorbal and Jagara people.
I’m always impressed by Queenslanders’ conviction that they live in the best part of Australia.
You have a significant share of Australia’s great natural assets – and you know how to use and celebrate them for the international wonders that they are.
From the teeming waters of the Great Barrier Reef to the lush rainforests of the Wet Tropics, from the mighty sandhills of Fraser Island to the bush surrounding the suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland has harnessed these wonders to make a strong contribution to the state’s identity and to its economy.
The World Heritage list records the places of natural and cultural heritage that are of outstanding value to humanity on a global scale. Queensland is blessed with five of Australia’s 17 World Heritage places.
Two of these, the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics, help to attract $1.2 billion a year to the city of Cairns. In total, tourism from the Reef injects a massive $4.9 billion into the Queensland economy, and overall tourism is the second largest export earner for Queensland.
Now more than ever, the health of the environment should be recognized as essential to the health of the Queensland economy.
But Queensland’s natural assets are also under threat. Rapid urban expansion, overfishing, land-clearing and declining water quality all pose major challenges.
And, of course, the big one – climate change.
Climate change impacts
Every day it seems another report, another undeniable truth, emerges about how dangerous changing global temperatures will be. Australians are increasingly coming to understand how global warming will impact on our environment.
Ongoing research from our own Australian Antarctic Division and CSIRO scientists on the profound changes underway in Antarctica provides even more food for thought on this issue.
It is extraordinary, when the climate change challenge is so evident, that Brendan Nelson, Greg Hunt and the other dinosaurs in the Liberal and National parties are squabbling over how long to put off taking action.
Earlier this month, on 16 July, Mr Hunt stated unequivocally “2012 is the time by which we would like to see an emissions trading scheme in place.”
Similarly, on 9 July, Mr Turnbull was asked, “The Coalition, if you were in Government today, you would have an emissions trading scheme starting in 2012?” His answer, very plainly, was “Yes, we would.”
Yet just yesterday Mr Hunt could no longer answer the question, saying “I'm not going to pre-empt the discussion of the colleagues.”
And Mr Turnbull went out of his way to avoid the same question, saying, “You know, people debate the start date – the real issue is what is the scheme, what is the design of the scheme.”
The Shadow Treasurer then assured us that he and his colleagues had “All been singing off the same song sheet.”
Well I can assure you, as someone who’s sung off a few song-sheets in my time, there’s no harmony coming from the Opposition on addressing the challenge of climate change.
But there is a very familiar tune, and it’s the theme song of 12 years of climate change inaction, 12 years of climate change denial and delay.
So the Coalition that signed Kyoto and then refused to ratify has become the Opposition that committed to emissions trading in 2012 and then walked away.
What an irresponsible approach to this country’s long-term future, to the future of our environment, more vulnerable than most to climate change, and to the future of our economy, with the business community looking for certainty in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
And we are already seeing the effects of climate change, with more frequent and intense coral bleaching, and scientists are predicting worse to come. A three degree temperature rise by 2030 could see up to 97 per cent of the magnificent Great Barrier Reef bleached every year.
A one degree temperature rise could slash the upland tropical rainforests of the Wet Tropics by half, and within 50 to100 years we could lose more than half the vertebrates unique to this region.
We’re likely to see more frequent and severe droughts, with greater fire risk. More extreme storm events, and more flash flooding.
It is possible that global sea level could rise a metre or more by 2100 – which would have a devastating impact on the infrastructure, wetlands and estuaries in the South East Queensland corridor in particular.
Given the range of threats to this State posed by climate change, there is no doubt that the potential risks - and the costs - are huge.
Resilience
The time for action is now and that’s why the Rudd Labor Government is pressing ahead with a bold agenda for tackling the challenge, not arguing about when to start.
Part of that agenda is rebuilding Australia’s resilience to the threats that harm the environment.
Not just climate change, but all the traditional pressures of population, pests and development.
Our legacy should be an environment with the resilience that it once had – for the good of our landscapes and ultimately our communities.
So what exactly is resilience and why is it important?
A resilient ecosystem is one that has the capacity to withstand shocks and dramatic changes and to rebuild itself without the need for significant human intervention. It must be diverse enough and sufficiently large to be able to bounce back after a disturbance.
It’s a bit like the human immune system. The research shows that people recover from infections more quickly if the rest of their life is in order – if they’re eating well, sleeping enough, and are generally in good health. Take away any of these factors and recovery slows down, and the risk of sustaining permanent harm goes up.
As custodians of the environment, our challenge is to ensure that all the work we do – all the money we direct, all the volunteer hours we put in and the plans we implement – will protect or rebuild that resilience so that natural ecosystems have a better chance of recovering from the stresses that they face – and can continue to provide essential ecosystem services such as fresh water.
Cassowary
Now Queensland as you would know is home to the southern cassowary, that large flightless bird of the wet tropics, and it is an excellent example of how a native species contributes to the overall resilience of an ecosystem.
After the devastation of Cyclone Larry in 2006, the Queensland Environment Protection Authority and wildlife groups joined forces to provide food for the southern cassowaries around Mission Beach.
They weren’t just motivated by animal welfare – though of course that was part of it.
The real driver was the crucial role these birds play in sustaining the rainforest. In the Cape York Peninsula and the Wet Tropics, the southern cassowary eats rainforest fruits like native laurels, lilipillies and palms, and disperses the seeds in their droppings.
So the cassowary’s survival was central to the regeneration of the area, and the long-term viability of rainforest communities.
One of my recent responsibilities as Federal Environment Minister under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act was to consider an application for a residential development near this same cassowary habitat at Mission Beach.
The development would have subdivided about 24 hectares into 40 residential lots and involved vegetation clearing, earthworks, construction of a new access road and associated infrastructure.
I was considering a number of factors as I reviewed this proposal.
One was that this site contains what is known as ‘essential habitat’. It contains remnant rainforest habitat and provides an important cassowary movement corridor between the habitat of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area and the coast. Even strict conditions wouldn’t be enough to protect this vital corridor. Another was that land clearing and development have already had a dramatic impact on the cassowary - less than 25 per cent of this lowland habitat is intact.
This development would have had an unacceptable impact on the chances of this species’ survival – but the clincher was the impact that it would have on the survival of the rainforest itself. The flow-on effects for tourism and the economy of far-north Queensland are obvious.
Having carefully considered the likely impact of this proposed development, and the fact that even strict conditions would not be sufficient to protect the essential cassowary habitat on which the developer was proposing to build, I came to the view that I had no choice but to use my powers under the Act to rule out this proposal completely.
This is only the second time a proposal has been deemed ‘clearly unacceptable’ under the EPBC Act and rejected outright, so it is a significant decision. The other was an application to shoot an unspecified number of threatened grey-headed flying foxes at Singleton in NSW. This action was found to be unacceptable as it would contribute to the decline of a species at local and potentially regional scales.
In the vast majority of cases considered under the Act, the potential impacts on matters of national environmental significance can be offset or minimised in some way.
EPBC Act
I now want to briefly address the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act or EPBC Act. It is the central piece of environmental legislation that I administer.
I know that there is great interest in how it relates to other controversial proposals including the Traveston Dam on the Mary River.
Naturally I am not going to preempt any future decisions today, but what I can say is that when the Act is applied properly and in conformity with its guiding principles, it is a powerful tool that can make a major contribution to Queensland’s sustainable future.
It is comprehensive and broad ranging legislation. Its objects cover the protection of matters of national environmental significance and heritage; the promotion of ecologically sustainable development and biodiversity and a cooperative approach to protecting the environment; and, last but not least, the central role and expertise of indigenous custodians of our land.
As Minister I intend to look at the whole picture to assess developments in terms of how they might impact on matters of national environmental significance as well as the social and economic impacts of proposals.
The EPBC Act should not be seen as a barrier to development. Although it is sometimes necessary to reject proposals – such as the Mission Beach residential development – in the large majority of cases my Department works with proponents to ensure that the potential impacts of proposals on matters of national environmental significance are minimised. Following such negotiations, the large majority of proposals are able to proceed.
In my role as Minister I am determined to ensure that developments with potentially significant impacts on matters of national environmental significance are carried out in an ecologically sustainable manner. In this way the Queensland economy will grow together with – rather than at the expense of – its environmental resilience.
I can give you my commitment that I will apply due process in all my considerations under the Act. I will ensure that all developments coming across my desk are considered carefully in light of the principles set down in the Act.
National Reserve System
I’d like to turn now to Australia’s National Reserve System, that network of national parks and reserves that provides a refuge for plants and animals against climate change. Increasingly, they’re recognised as drivers of national and international tourism, attracting millions of visitors every year and generating billions of dollars for the Australian economy.
Earlier this year I announced an investment of $180 million over five years in our network of national parks – more than five times the financial commitment of the previous Government.
National parks are not remote, locked-up pockets of biodiversity. They can be part of our urban sustainability experience as well.
At Noosa, for example - one of the most densely populated and fastest growing regions in the nation - 35 per cent of the region is in parks and reserves, including one of the only rivers in south-east Queensland with an A grade environmental rating – the Noosa River.
That’s a great achievement for a waterway surrounded by homes, businesses and rural industries. It’s testament to the joint efforts of three levels of government, the local community and the tourism industry that has built nature and conservation into the core of the Noosa brand.
Community Coastcare
But for every Noosa success story, there’s a coastal community struggling to look after their fragile estuaries and beaches. Many of these favourite places are in danger of being loved to death through over-use. In places we see declining water quality, sand dunes blowing out and coastlines eroding. And with the population in South East Queensland growing by 50,000 to 60,000 each year, that risk is destined to grow.
The Government has responded to this need with a round of competitive grants worth up to $20 million this financial year under Caring for our Country Community Coastcare.
This year, we have identified 12 priority coastal hotspots for Community Coastcare – including Moreton Bay, which is a marine reserve providing habitats for dugong and seagrass populations.
Moreton Bay is listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance and is under pressure as a result of population growth and development, disturbance of acid sulfate soils and water quality decline.
Targeting investment to areas of high conservation value, such as the priority coastal hotspots, will mean that Community Coastcare funding can make a substantial and measurable change at these key sites.
Caring for our Country
Community Coastcare is one component of the Rudd Government’s new rescue package for our environment – Caring for our Country.
Caring for our Country started four weeks ago today on July 1, and we have committed $2.25 billion to it over five years.
I am incredibly proud of this package and the fact that it:
o cuts red tape,
o slashes bureaucracy,
o plugs the leaks that have been a feature of previous national resource management systems, and
o focuses investment where it can make a real difference.
I am pleased to announce today that $25.7 million of this funding will be spent on regional investments in Queensland this financial year. The money will be for a range of environmental and sustainable land management projects in each of the state’s 14 natural resource management regions.
Now I earlier mentioned the action I took to protect the cassowary habitat at Mission Beach, using powers available to me under the EPBC Act. Several of these regional investments funded under Caring for our Country will complement these regulatory measures.
They will help to create habitat islands on private land in the Julatten area adjacent to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and restore key habitats at Kuranda leading to improved long term conservation outcomes for this iconic species.
Of course it’s not just about a single species. Several of these projects will improve the condition and resilience of ecosystems and threatened species habitat.
For example the $1.4 million to the Condamine regional body will be for projects to help private landholders manage endangered ecosystems such as blue grass, vine scrub and Brigalow whilst other projects will improve the aquatic habitat of six parts of the Condamine River to increase native fish populations.
So it’s all about delivering real results for biodiversity and national icons. And this
program will offer clear and measurable targets, value for money, reduced red tape and increased accountability of public expenditure, as well as working closely with private landholders and other levels of government.
Understanding that providing our natural landscapes and the ecosystems that make them up with sufficient resilience to withstand the range of pressures and threats, and to enable to continue productive occupation of our continent, Caring for Our Country will focus on six national priorities, most of which I’ve touched on today:
o The National Reserve System
o Biodiversity and natural icons
o Coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats
o Sustainable farm practices
o Natural resource management in remote and northern Australia
o Community skills knowledge and engagement
These national priorities, articulated for the first time in this way, delivered through a focused and strategic program, brings rigour and accountability to natural resource management in ways which simply didn’t happen under the previous government.
Conclusion
I started today by listing some of the natural assets of Queensland and pointing out that now, more than ever, the long term economic and social health of the state is tied to the health of its natural assets.
But I could have named so many more – the wetlands of the Channel Country, the wild rivers of the Gulf, the dunes of Shelburne Bay, or the vast expanse of the Simpson Desert.
But it’s not all ‘out there’, remote from where most of us live. These natural assets run from the sandhills to the suburbs. Much of this natural heritage is close to home. It’s the rainforest gully in the backyard, the creek where your kids play and the birds in your garden.
It’s front and centre in all our minds, and it’s at the centre of this Government’s decision-making, was we aim to make sure we are caring for our country.
Here in Queensland you have the opportunity to do it differently, to avoid some of the mistakes that have been made down south. Many of your ecosystems are intact, and you’re already learning that you can keep them that way, as you build a sustainable economy and safeguard your natural assets - our precious environment - that is so essential to our future.
Thank you.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Peter Garrett
Environmentalists and the environment
27 July 2008
Green, Greener, Greenest, By Kate Zernike - Education Life - The New York Times - 27th July 2008
Higher education can’t resist a ranking: best college, best cafeteria, biggest endowment, biggest party school. It says something about what’s important on campus, then, that when the Princeton Review releases its annual guide to colleges this week, it will include a new metric: a “green rating,” giving points for things like “environmentally preferable food,” power from renewable sources and energy-efficient buildings.
Green is good for the planet, but also for a college’s public image. In a Princeton Review survey this year of 10,300 college applicants, 63 percent said that a college’s commitment to the environment could affect their decision to go there.
And where there are application decisions to be made, there are rankings. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, with more than 660 members, is developing a rating for environmental friendliness; at least six other organizations rated campus greenness last year, according to the group. There are lists from Forbes, Grist and Sierra magazines, and an annual report card from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a research organization that assesses the greenness of an institution’s investment portfolio. And the Princeton Review will give its top marks to — ta-da! — Arizona State, Bates, Binghamton University, the College of the Atlantic, Harvard, Emory, Georgia Institute of Technology, Yale and the Universities of New Hampshire, Oregon and Washington.
Campuses across the country are racing to be the greenest of them all. They are setting dates in the not too distant future for achieving carbon neutrality (the College of the Atlantic, an eco-college in Maine, already claims that distinction, as does Middlebury College’s Snow Bowl ski area). They are hiring sustainability coordinators (the association’s job board used to get one posting a month; now it often has five a week). And they are competing with one another in buying green power (in an Environmental Protection Agency contest among athletic conferences, the Ivies triumphed, with a combined 221.6 million kilowatt hours for the quarter ending in April).
“I don’t think we’ve seen activism this strong since apartheid,” says Cheryl Miller, vice president of Sightlines, a data company that helps campuses compare their operations, including environmental practices.
But as colleges and universities rush to declare themselves green, some higher education officials worry that campuses are taking easy steps to win the label rather than doing the kind of unglamorous work — replacing air exchange systems, for example — that would actually reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. Some campuses are changing little more than their press releases. “I don’t think we really have the tools to quantifiably test who’s doing the best and who’s not,” says David W. Oxtoby, president of Pomona College. “It becomes a publicity hype type of thing.”
Sustainability is far more than recycling and “Do It in the Dark” competitions to see which dorms use the least water and electricity. Sustainability is a complex concept, expensive and difficult to achieve. It involves an entirely new approach to day-to-day living and the reappraisal of the existing infrastructure.
Hail to the students demanding eating utensils made with cornstarch (they’re biodegradable) for the dining halls. But the changes that make the most difference are not what Mary Gorman, an associate provost at Dartmouth, calls “the low-hanging fruit” of getting students to turn off their screensavers or take shorter showers. The big results come from projects that often sound less catchy and depend less on students than on those who manage the buildings.
She is thinking of the institutions that are vastly reshaping their campuses — converting to greener fuel and power sources, even building their own wind turbines; retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient; composting dining-hall waste; replacing fleets with hybrid cars and shuttles that run on oil recycled from French fry vats; and offering sustainability studies to grow a generation of environmental stewards.
“It’s important that we focus on the significant rather than the symbolic, or at least recognize the symbolic for what it is,” says Sarah Hammond Creighton, the sustainability coordinator at Tufts. “I think the commitments are generally real, but I worry that the translation into the depth of the challenge hasn’t hit people.”
THE most high-profile effort, and the most debated, is the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, signed over the last two years by more than 550 institutions representing about 30 percent of American students. Those who sign promise that within a year they will inventory their greenhouse gas emissions and within two will formulate a plan to arrive at carbon neutrality — that is, zero net CO2 emissions — “as soon as possible.” They also have to agree to at least two of seven measures, including buying 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources and building to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, a certification developed by the nonprofit United States Green Building Council.
Anthony D. Cortese, who helped create the sustainability association in 2006 as well as the presidents pact, says the quest for carbon neutrality “is creating a real change in the culture.”
“We’re essentially telling people to put a bubble over their whole campus and say, ‘We have to make sure the net greenhouse gases are zero someday,’ ” he says. “This is not going to be easy.”
But to many people, carbon neutrality is a hollow concept, because the only way to get there currently is to buy offsets, credits sold by an entity pledging to, say, plant trees in another country or invest in renewable energy — the environmental equivalent of paying someone to eat broccoli so you can keep consuming ice cream. (For just $35.70 a year, students can feel guilt-free about their electronics-heavy dorm rooms, with an offset bought from Terrapass.)
Offsets can be meaningful. The College of the Atlantic weighed options for a year before settling on a project in Portland, Ore., that manages traffic signals to reduce idling time. The changes are expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 189,000 tons over 10 years — the equivalent of taking more than 34,000 cars off the road for a year. For a contribution of $22,570, the college can offset 2,488 tons of its emissions.
But offset buyers can’t always be sure the money goes to what it’s supposed to, that the CO2 credit isn’t being sold to someone else at the same time, or that the benefit to the environment is “additional,” because the project would not happen without an offset payment.
Doubt about offsets was among the reasons Dartmouth declined to sign the pledge. “We were under a lot of pressure to sign, but we really said, ‘How will Dartmouth be different if we’re carbon neutral?’ ” says Ms. Gorman. “We decided we’d rather invest here and actually get real reductions.” So while the college does not have a timetable for becoming carbon neutral, it completed an audit of the campus and is spending $12.5 million to make buildings more efficient.
Dr. Oxtoby signed the pledge for Pomona but argues that offsets create the wrong incentive. The college, in Claremont, Calif., is spending millions to install solar panels, though it could have achieved carbon neutrality with a mere $100,000 in offsets. “It’s too cheap, it’s too easy,” Dr. Oxtoby says. “The actual hard work is more expensive, but it actually does something.”
He tells of one college president who boasted that his campus was going green by spending about $20,000 to certify that the power it got from the grid was from a non-carbon-based source. “I’m sure the utility just sold the nasty electricity to someone else,” Dr. Oxtoby says. “It doesn’t change anything.”
Some are choosing other models. The 23-campus City University of New York has aligned itself with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s call to reduce greenhouse emissions 30 percent in the next 10 years.
Instead of signing the presidents climate commitment, Tufts pledged to reduce its greenhouse gases by 75 percent by 2050, consistent with an agreement between New England states and Eastern Canadian provinces. It has already reduced its emissions level almost to that of 1990, in part by switching from oil to gas at its large animal hospital, installing photovoltaic and solar hot water systems on the roof of a new residence hall and installing super-efficient LED lights in a parking garage.
All this won it a spot on the Grist magazine “15 Green Campuses” list, but not on the Forbes top-10 greenest list. In the Princeton Review’s forthcoming “Best 368 Colleges,” it scored 94 on a scale of 60 to 99.
While the campuses deemed greenest have all taken serious steps to reduce their impact on the environment, the various comparisons rarely look the same and can disagree about what matters most.
Many consider how many buildings are LEED certified. (Purists point out that truly sustainable campuses would not be building at all — a LEED-certified building may use less energy than a conventional one, but it’s still expanding the total energy used.) Some ask whether the institution has hired a sustainability coordinator, whether it has signed a carbon-neutrality pledge; there are attempts, even more open to “greenwashing,” to gauge how well students are being prepared to make environmentally responsible decisions.
All this may be important, says Jennifer Andrews, the campus program manager for Clean Air-Cool Planet, a nonprofit group that developed the Campus Carbon Calculator, which is used by many campuses to survey their emissions. But, she says, “A lot of it is measuring attitudes and values. Both are absolutely necessary, but there’s a difference between looking at that broadly and looking at what we can quantify and track over time.”
Even the quantifiable has its complications. Should we define greenness by how many tons of trash per student a campus recycles or how many kilowatt hours of electricity are supplied by green sources? What about the emissions produced to manufacture construction materials for a new dorm? The environmental cost of students flying in from distant homes or sports teams traveling to away games?
Ms. Andrews, like many others, fears that institutions are focused on where they stand rather than on making substantial changes that will reduce their carbon footprint. “They can lose sight of the fact that it’s more important to think about where we need to go and what it’s going to take to get us there than about what our peer school is doing,” she says. “The natural thing to do is say, ‘How does it compare to other schools?’ ”
Julian Dautremont-Smith, the associate director of the sustainability association, understands the ambivalence about rankings. “There is a suspicion that those lists are based on the strength of the P.R. office rather than the strength of actual efforts,” he says. “There’s a real fear people are responding to, because every time one of those rankings comes out, the sustainability officer has to go to their bosses and explain why we didn’t perform well.”
Indeed, campuses were eager to be rated by the Princeton Review. “We had a glorious response rate,” reports Rob Franek, a vice president. “Generally speaking, when schools get on our ‘reefer madness’ list, I’m not their favorite person. For this, they were pretty great.”
In fact, Mr. Dautremont-Smith and other sustainability advocates advised the Princeton Review on its rating system. In rankings, they see a greater good. “It gets people’s attention on the colleges and universities that might not have paid attention to these issues,” says Mr. Cortese, the force behind the presidents commitment. “People are beginning to see that it is important to think about this. To me, that opens the door to more serious conversations about what people are really doing.”
Kate Zernike is a national correspondent for The Times.
(Credit: The New York Times)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Education
Environmentalists and the environment
Green is good for the planet, but also for a college’s public image. In a Princeton Review survey this year of 10,300 college applicants, 63 percent said that a college’s commitment to the environment could affect their decision to go there.
And where there are application decisions to be made, there are rankings. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, with more than 660 members, is developing a rating for environmental friendliness; at least six other organizations rated campus greenness last year, according to the group. There are lists from Forbes, Grist and Sierra magazines, and an annual report card from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a research organization that assesses the greenness of an institution’s investment portfolio. And the Princeton Review will give its top marks to — ta-da! — Arizona State, Bates, Binghamton University, the College of the Atlantic, Harvard, Emory, Georgia Institute of Technology, Yale and the Universities of New Hampshire, Oregon and Washington.
Campuses across the country are racing to be the greenest of them all. They are setting dates in the not too distant future for achieving carbon neutrality (the College of the Atlantic, an eco-college in Maine, already claims that distinction, as does Middlebury College’s Snow Bowl ski area). They are hiring sustainability coordinators (the association’s job board used to get one posting a month; now it often has five a week). And they are competing with one another in buying green power (in an Environmental Protection Agency contest among athletic conferences, the Ivies triumphed, with a combined 221.6 million kilowatt hours for the quarter ending in April).
“I don’t think we’ve seen activism this strong since apartheid,” says Cheryl Miller, vice president of Sightlines, a data company that helps campuses compare their operations, including environmental practices.
But as colleges and universities rush to declare themselves green, some higher education officials worry that campuses are taking easy steps to win the label rather than doing the kind of unglamorous work — replacing air exchange systems, for example — that would actually reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. Some campuses are changing little more than their press releases. “I don’t think we really have the tools to quantifiably test who’s doing the best and who’s not,” says David W. Oxtoby, president of Pomona College. “It becomes a publicity hype type of thing.”
Sustainability is far more than recycling and “Do It in the Dark” competitions to see which dorms use the least water and electricity. Sustainability is a complex concept, expensive and difficult to achieve. It involves an entirely new approach to day-to-day living and the reappraisal of the existing infrastructure.
Hail to the students demanding eating utensils made with cornstarch (they’re biodegradable) for the dining halls. But the changes that make the most difference are not what Mary Gorman, an associate provost at Dartmouth, calls “the low-hanging fruit” of getting students to turn off their screensavers or take shorter showers. The big results come from projects that often sound less catchy and depend less on students than on those who manage the buildings.
She is thinking of the institutions that are vastly reshaping their campuses — converting to greener fuel and power sources, even building their own wind turbines; retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient; composting dining-hall waste; replacing fleets with hybrid cars and shuttles that run on oil recycled from French fry vats; and offering sustainability studies to grow a generation of environmental stewards.
“It’s important that we focus on the significant rather than the symbolic, or at least recognize the symbolic for what it is,” says Sarah Hammond Creighton, the sustainability coordinator at Tufts. “I think the commitments are generally real, but I worry that the translation into the depth of the challenge hasn’t hit people.”
THE most high-profile effort, and the most debated, is the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, signed over the last two years by more than 550 institutions representing about 30 percent of American students. Those who sign promise that within a year they will inventory their greenhouse gas emissions and within two will formulate a plan to arrive at carbon neutrality — that is, zero net CO2 emissions — “as soon as possible.” They also have to agree to at least two of seven measures, including buying 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources and building to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, a certification developed by the nonprofit United States Green Building Council.
Anthony D. Cortese, who helped create the sustainability association in 2006 as well as the presidents pact, says the quest for carbon neutrality “is creating a real change in the culture.”
“We’re essentially telling people to put a bubble over their whole campus and say, ‘We have to make sure the net greenhouse gases are zero someday,’ ” he says. “This is not going to be easy.”
But to many people, carbon neutrality is a hollow concept, because the only way to get there currently is to buy offsets, credits sold by an entity pledging to, say, plant trees in another country or invest in renewable energy — the environmental equivalent of paying someone to eat broccoli so you can keep consuming ice cream. (For just $35.70 a year, students can feel guilt-free about their electronics-heavy dorm rooms, with an offset bought from Terrapass.)
Offsets can be meaningful. The College of the Atlantic weighed options for a year before settling on a project in Portland, Ore., that manages traffic signals to reduce idling time. The changes are expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 189,000 tons over 10 years — the equivalent of taking more than 34,000 cars off the road for a year. For a contribution of $22,570, the college can offset 2,488 tons of its emissions.
But offset buyers can’t always be sure the money goes to what it’s supposed to, that the CO2 credit isn’t being sold to someone else at the same time, or that the benefit to the environment is “additional,” because the project would not happen without an offset payment.
Doubt about offsets was among the reasons Dartmouth declined to sign the pledge. “We were under a lot of pressure to sign, but we really said, ‘How will Dartmouth be different if we’re carbon neutral?’ ” says Ms. Gorman. “We decided we’d rather invest here and actually get real reductions.” So while the college does not have a timetable for becoming carbon neutral, it completed an audit of the campus and is spending $12.5 million to make buildings more efficient.
Dr. Oxtoby signed the pledge for Pomona but argues that offsets create the wrong incentive. The college, in Claremont, Calif., is spending millions to install solar panels, though it could have achieved carbon neutrality with a mere $100,000 in offsets. “It’s too cheap, it’s too easy,” Dr. Oxtoby says. “The actual hard work is more expensive, but it actually does something.”
He tells of one college president who boasted that his campus was going green by spending about $20,000 to certify that the power it got from the grid was from a non-carbon-based source. “I’m sure the utility just sold the nasty electricity to someone else,” Dr. Oxtoby says. “It doesn’t change anything.”
Some are choosing other models. The 23-campus City University of New York has aligned itself with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s call to reduce greenhouse emissions 30 percent in the next 10 years.
Instead of signing the presidents climate commitment, Tufts pledged to reduce its greenhouse gases by 75 percent by 2050, consistent with an agreement between New England states and Eastern Canadian provinces. It has already reduced its emissions level almost to that of 1990, in part by switching from oil to gas at its large animal hospital, installing photovoltaic and solar hot water systems on the roof of a new residence hall and installing super-efficient LED lights in a parking garage.
All this won it a spot on the Grist magazine “15 Green Campuses” list, but not on the Forbes top-10 greenest list. In the Princeton Review’s forthcoming “Best 368 Colleges,” it scored 94 on a scale of 60 to 99.
While the campuses deemed greenest have all taken serious steps to reduce their impact on the environment, the various comparisons rarely look the same and can disagree about what matters most.
Many consider how many buildings are LEED certified. (Purists point out that truly sustainable campuses would not be building at all — a LEED-certified building may use less energy than a conventional one, but it’s still expanding the total energy used.) Some ask whether the institution has hired a sustainability coordinator, whether it has signed a carbon-neutrality pledge; there are attempts, even more open to “greenwashing,” to gauge how well students are being prepared to make environmentally responsible decisions.
All this may be important, says Jennifer Andrews, the campus program manager for Clean Air-Cool Planet, a nonprofit group that developed the Campus Carbon Calculator, which is used by many campuses to survey their emissions. But, she says, “A lot of it is measuring attitudes and values. Both are absolutely necessary, but there’s a difference between looking at that broadly and looking at what we can quantify and track over time.”
Even the quantifiable has its complications. Should we define greenness by how many tons of trash per student a campus recycles or how many kilowatt hours of electricity are supplied by green sources? What about the emissions produced to manufacture construction materials for a new dorm? The environmental cost of students flying in from distant homes or sports teams traveling to away games?
Ms. Andrews, like many others, fears that institutions are focused on where they stand rather than on making substantial changes that will reduce their carbon footprint. “They can lose sight of the fact that it’s more important to think about where we need to go and what it’s going to take to get us there than about what our peer school is doing,” she says. “The natural thing to do is say, ‘How does it compare to other schools?’ ”
Julian Dautremont-Smith, the associate director of the sustainability association, understands the ambivalence about rankings. “There is a suspicion that those lists are based on the strength of the P.R. office rather than the strength of actual efforts,” he says. “There’s a real fear people are responding to, because every time one of those rankings comes out, the sustainability officer has to go to their bosses and explain why we didn’t perform well.”
Indeed, campuses were eager to be rated by the Princeton Review. “We had a glorious response rate,” reports Rob Franek, a vice president. “Generally speaking, when schools get on our ‘reefer madness’ list, I’m not their favorite person. For this, they were pretty great.”
In fact, Mr. Dautremont-Smith and other sustainability advocates advised the Princeton Review on its rating system. In rankings, they see a greater good. “It gets people’s attention on the colleges and universities that might not have paid attention to these issues,” says Mr. Cortese, the force behind the presidents commitment. “People are beginning to see that it is important to think about this. To me, that opens the door to more serious conversations about what people are really doing.”
Kate Zernike is a national correspondent for The Times.
(Credit: The New York Times)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Education
Environmentalists and the environment
Cheap rego for environment-friendly cars, By Liam Houlihan - Sunday Herald Sun - 27th July 2008
Victoria's peak motoring body has backed a plan for discounted registration fees for buyers of green cars.
It comes as new figures reveal city residents have embraced greener cars, but big petrol guzzlers remain popular in the outer suburbs.
An analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals East Melbourne, South Melbourne and the inner city, as well as Kew and Southbank, have the most Toyota Priuses - a hybrid given a five-star green rating in a state government audit.
Outer eastern suburbs Ferntree Gully and Lysterfield followed by Dandenong and Frankston have the most Nissan Patrols - a four-wheel-drive that has a poor rating for fuel use and emissions.
But inner suburban motorists lose the green high ground when it comes to expensive petrol guzzlers.
Ferraris and Bentleys occupy the lowest nine rungs on the Federal Government's green vehicle guide for greenhouse emissions.
Those vehicles are most popular in Brighton, Toorak, Hawksburn and inner Melbourne.
James Bond's car, the Aston Martin - most popular in Brighton, Cotham, Kew, Hawksburn and Toorak - also fares badly on the green test.
Mineral water salesman Joe Garofalo, of Brunswick, bought a pair of the Toyota hybrids and has no regrets.
"We were running Commodores, which I was purchasing for $30,000. The Prius cost me $37,000. I knew that in the long run I'd do well to the environment and do well to my pocket," Mr Garofalo said.
The RACV favours a long-term scheme where fuel excise would be replaced with a road user charge paid for at the pump.
But chief Brian Negus said the club supported, as an interim scheme, cheaper registration for greener cars as long as other vehicles' registrations were not made dearer.
A Brumby Government spokeswoman said there were no plans to charge for emissions through the registration process.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
It comes as new figures reveal city residents have embraced greener cars, but big petrol guzzlers remain popular in the outer suburbs.
An analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals East Melbourne, South Melbourne and the inner city, as well as Kew and Southbank, have the most Toyota Priuses - a hybrid given a five-star green rating in a state government audit.
Outer eastern suburbs Ferntree Gully and Lysterfield followed by Dandenong and Frankston have the most Nissan Patrols - a four-wheel-drive that has a poor rating for fuel use and emissions.
But inner suburban motorists lose the green high ground when it comes to expensive petrol guzzlers.
Ferraris and Bentleys occupy the lowest nine rungs on the Federal Government's green vehicle guide for greenhouse emissions.
Those vehicles are most popular in Brighton, Toorak, Hawksburn and inner Melbourne.
James Bond's car, the Aston Martin - most popular in Brighton, Cotham, Kew, Hawksburn and Toorak - also fares badly on the green test.
Mineral water salesman Joe Garofalo, of Brunswick, bought a pair of the Toyota hybrids and has no regrets.
"We were running Commodores, which I was purchasing for $30,000. The Prius cost me $37,000. I knew that in the long run I'd do well to the environment and do well to my pocket," Mr Garofalo said.
The RACV favours a long-term scheme where fuel excise would be replaced with a road user charge paid for at the pump.
But chief Brian Negus said the club supported, as an interim scheme, cheaper registration for greener cars as long as other vehicles' registrations were not made dearer.
A Brumby Government spokeswoman said there were no plans to charge for emissions through the registration process.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
26 July 2008
Cheeky Branson's life - The Gold Coast Bulletin - 5th April 2008
What a ball it was. More than 3000 people attended and more than $1 million was raised for the Virgin Blue Charity Hangar Ball last Saturday.
With Marcia Hines, Rogue Traders, Earthquake and Evermore providing the entertainment, and Catriona Rowntree as MC, it was some do.
It was great to see Virgin boss Richard Branson (pictured) dressed in the Yuggera tribe costume, complete with traditional markings.
CC believe Richard turned the tables on the media when he took a Nikon camera and shot pics of the astounded photographers.
There was another big surprise when he of the Peter Beattie split-watermelon grin, Mr Branson took off his expensive watch and offered it up for auction.
It fetched more than $50,000 but the bottom line it was all done for a good cause.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Virgin Blue Hanger Ball
Environmentalists and the environment
With Marcia Hines, Rogue Traders, Earthquake and Evermore providing the entertainment, and Catriona Rowntree as MC, it was some do.
It was great to see Virgin boss Richard Branson (pictured) dressed in the Yuggera tribe costume, complete with traditional markings.
CC believe Richard turned the tables on the media when he took a Nikon camera and shot pics of the astounded photographers.
There was another big surprise when he of the Peter Beattie split-watermelon grin, Mr Branson took off his expensive watch and offered it up for auction.
It fetched more than $50,000 but the bottom line it was all done for a good cause.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Virgin Blue Hanger Ball
Environmentalists and the environment
What About Branson?, by Richard S. Chang - The New York Times - 2nd July 2008
This week, two of the wealthiest men in Britain made the papers with their green cars.
On Monday, it was reported that Prince Charles’s Aston Martin DB5 has been converted to run on ethanol made from English wine.
Talk about brilliant p.r.
The information was part of the prince’s annual review, which also revealed that “he has cut his carbon footprint by 18 percent by switching to environmentally friendly sources of electricity and heating and reducing his travel,” according to the Daily Mail.
The Aston Martin contributes only a small portion of that reduction. Prince Charles drives it but 300 miles a year. It averages 10 miles per gallon of ethanol, which translates to a whopping 4.5 bottles of wine for every mile.
“You would need an awful lot of corked wine to make enough fuel to get anywhere,” said James Hygate of Green Fuels, which supplies the prince with his fuel.
Green Fuels in Gloucester, England, buys wine surplus from a British vineyard — the European Union has a quota on wine sales — and distills it into ethanol.
“The best way to produce ethanol on any scale is to effectively brew beer and distill the ethanol out, but with the licensing and health and safety issues, it’s not something we’d recommend people do at home,” Hygate told the Guardian. “You’re producing something that’s extremely flammable.”
More controversial was Paul McCartney’s decision of having a Lexus LS 600h airfreighted 7,000 miles from Japan. Environmental groups have blasted Sir Paul for choosing air over sea shipment:
A spokesman for environmental management consultancy Carbon Footprint said: ‘Sir Paul would have to drive 36,100 miles in the car to create the same amount of carbon dioxide as that single flight. It’s a ridiculous situation.’
The Lexus LS 600h hybrid, reportedly a gift from Toyota, gets a combined city and highway fuel economy of 21 miles per gallon. “However, it produces relatively low carbon emissions of 219 g per kilometre,” the Daily Mail reported, “Comparable cars in terms of size and power have emissions of 249 g per kilometre.”
As for Richard Branson, the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group, who is known for his ardent support of environmental causes, he was spotted using the London tube at the Kensington High Street station.
Comment by Greg Tingle
Great leadership by Richard Branson. I’ve bought and sold about half a dozen sports cars in my life, and no doubt a few of those V8’s left a mark on the ozone layer, and then there was the bit of truck driving before the news media business came knocking. I’m minimized back to no car, public transport and taxi’s, so my carbon footprint must be back to zero by now. Better late than never, whether your in a “dirty business” like Branson (airlines) or not. Australia’s got Greenfest coming up in October. It will be interesting to see what leadership is shown there of the 4 wheeled variety.
— Posted by Greg Tingle
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
On Monday, it was reported that Prince Charles’s Aston Martin DB5 has been converted to run on ethanol made from English wine.
Talk about brilliant p.r.
The information was part of the prince’s annual review, which also revealed that “he has cut his carbon footprint by 18 percent by switching to environmentally friendly sources of electricity and heating and reducing his travel,” according to the Daily Mail.
The Aston Martin contributes only a small portion of that reduction. Prince Charles drives it but 300 miles a year. It averages 10 miles per gallon of ethanol, which translates to a whopping 4.5 bottles of wine for every mile.
“You would need an awful lot of corked wine to make enough fuel to get anywhere,” said James Hygate of Green Fuels, which supplies the prince with his fuel.
Green Fuels in Gloucester, England, buys wine surplus from a British vineyard — the European Union has a quota on wine sales — and distills it into ethanol.
“The best way to produce ethanol on any scale is to effectively brew beer and distill the ethanol out, but with the licensing and health and safety issues, it’s not something we’d recommend people do at home,” Hygate told the Guardian. “You’re producing something that’s extremely flammable.”
More controversial was Paul McCartney’s decision of having a Lexus LS 600h airfreighted 7,000 miles from Japan. Environmental groups have blasted Sir Paul for choosing air over sea shipment:
A spokesman for environmental management consultancy Carbon Footprint said: ‘Sir Paul would have to drive 36,100 miles in the car to create the same amount of carbon dioxide as that single flight. It’s a ridiculous situation.’
The Lexus LS 600h hybrid, reportedly a gift from Toyota, gets a combined city and highway fuel economy of 21 miles per gallon. “However, it produces relatively low carbon emissions of 219 g per kilometre,” the Daily Mail reported, “Comparable cars in terms of size and power have emissions of 249 g per kilometre.”
As for Richard Branson, the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group, who is known for his ardent support of environmental causes, he was spotted using the London tube at the Kensington High Street station.
Comment by Greg Tingle
Great leadership by Richard Branson. I’ve bought and sold about half a dozen sports cars in my life, and no doubt a few of those V8’s left a mark on the ozone layer, and then there was the bit of truck driving before the news media business came knocking. I’m minimized back to no car, public transport and taxi’s, so my carbon footprint must be back to zero by now. Better late than never, whether your in a “dirty business” like Branson (airlines) or not. Australia’s got Greenfest coming up in October. It will be interesting to see what leadership is shown there of the 4 wheeled variety.
— Posted by Greg Tingle
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
GARRETT DOORSTOP TRANSCRIPT: NATIONAL RIDE TO WORK DAY LAUNCH
THE HON PETER GARRETT AM MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, HERITAGE AND THE ARTS
TRANSCRIPT
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LAUNCH OF NATIONAL RIDE TO WORK DAY
FEDERATION SQUARE, MELBOURNE
26 JULY 2008
SUBJECTS: National Ride to Work Day; Film archives; Coalition position on Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
GARRETT: Thanks for coming down to this launch of National Ride to Work Day – something which I think will increase in popularity over time as Australians embrace riding to work as a way of getting fitter, having some fun, reducing traffic congestion and also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
We watch tele at night at the moment and we’re seeing Australian cyclists, particularly one, doing incredibly well. We can all get on our bikes during the day and ride to work or ride to the shops and back again, make a contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, make a contribution to our own health. So National Ride to Work Day, October 15, we reckon all Aussies ought to get on their bikes and get healthy and look after the planet.
One of the things that’s really important in this particular campaign is the fact that it works at the community level and at the employer level. I want to encourage employers to consider putting bike racks in the workplace or in the factory or the office and maybe providing some additional showering facilities, so that if their employees actually want to get on their bikes and take some exercise and ride to work occasionally, then when they get there they can freshen up and put themselves in for a good days work as well.
Fantastic to see the city of Melbourne – a place where a bit of time and effort has been put into making life a little bit easier for cyclists. Riding a bike is good for you and we hope that we’ll see a lot of Australians out there on National Ride to Work Day on October 15.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see a few of your colleagues maybe riding to work?
GARRETT: Well, you know there are a few Members that ride around the Parliament occasionally and I know in state parliaments as well there are people who enjoy riding. What I reckon here is that we really are now seeing that riding a bike is very good for you. It is not something which is confined to people that are necessarily in their 20’s and super fit. Anyone can do it, anyone can enjoy it, including politicians – we can all have a go.
JOURNALIST: The State Government is trying to engage local councils in the development of public transport but there is no mention of developing bike paths. Are they being left out of the equation?
GARRETT: Well look I don’t know the exact details of local government organisations here in terms of the provision of bike paths but I would encourage all governments, right around the country, at State levels to consider really looking at the provisions of bike paths. It is really clear that for us to have more Australians riding their bikes their needs to be a better provision of bike paths, especially designated bike ways on some of our roads and in this way people can get on a bike and feel that there is some safety in getting to and from work and they know that they’re making a contribution to the environment and improving their health as well.
JOURNALIST: What about a scheme like in Europe where you can jump off the train and hire a bike for a couple of bucks to get to your destination and drop it off?
GARRETT: Look I think there is merit in us considering those type of scheme and I know there is some local governments who have given some thought to that already. We’re on the cusp of a bike culture just as we’re on the cusp of a different way of looking at the activities that we undertake in relation to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I mean think about this, a bike is a simple and fantastic way of getting yourself from A to B. When you put your feet down on those pedals you’re improving your capacity for physical health. When you get out of a motor car and onto a bike you’re reducing your impact on the environment. So the provision by authorities of better access, better bike ways and things like bike racks at railway stations – all these things are worth considering.
JOURNALIST: What about the increasing incidence of ‘bike rage’. Is that a concern?
GARRETT: Well look Michael Roberts spoke about that earlier and I was really very pleased to hear him say that it was something which is being addressed here in Victoria. Clearly, we want to have cyclists and motorists occupy the roads in a way where there is respect for each other and that is something which is obviously going to be evolving over time but it is great to see he and other prominent Victorians getting involved in that.
JOURNALIST: Should there be some sort of advertising campaign to or something like that to…
GARRETT: Oh well, I think…National Ride to Work Day is a great opportunity for Australians to take that step onto a bike and out of a motor car and when they do that they’ll recognise what great fun it is but also how important it is that there is respect on the roads and they’ll communicate that to their fellow Australians I’m sure.
JOURNALIST: You were at the arts festival last night and I understand that Eric Bana wanted to run Mad Max I as his favourite film but there was no copy around good enough to show so they had to show snippets of it. Is enough being done in terms of archiving of our cultural heritage? Would you like to see inroads made there?
GARRETT: Look we’ve separated out the Screen Australia agency and we’ve made sure that there is a separate National Film and Sound Archive so that we can have an adequate and comprehensive collection of those important pieces of cultural medium, including things like film prints, for all Australians and to have them conserved properly and safely so we can have access to them over time.
So I have got to say that I am surprised that there isn’t an original print copy but the Government is particularly committed to making sure that we have special places where things like Mad Max films, first generation movies etc can be stored and kept. That’s what the National Film and Sound Archive is all about and frankly, that’s why we separated it out from the screen agency as to what the former government was going to do which was have them involved in one organisation.
JOURNALIST: Were you aware of this last night? It sounds quite rare that we wouldn’t have something like that still of a good enough quality to show.
GARRETT: Well look I’m surprised that there isn’t an original copy. I’m not sure what the reasons for that are and I wasn’t aware of it. What I do know is that there is the opportunity there for film makers, for music makers and for creators of original works to have that material properly conserved and stored in the National Film and Sound Archive and certainly something as important as a Mad Max print should be there.
JOURNALIST: So how far back is, things that are protected, how far back does that go? Are you aware of that?
GARRETT: Well, there is a process of collection which is undertaken over time. I mean there is some fantastic heritage items that are stored in the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. Australians should be aware of this great national treasure frankly, because it is a wonderful place to go and get access to early prints, early sound recordings, early prints of films. I think the Ned Kelly film early prints are there as well. So we do have from the Commonwealth Government a particular commitment to conserve and to store these really important cultural icons and works of the past and hopefully they can track down that Mad Max print and that can go in there as well.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of Dr Nelson’s latest criticism of the Government’s carbon trading scheme?
GARRETT: I can’t keep up with Dr Nelson’s criticisms and positions on carbon trading because the Coalition is in such a totally haphazard and confused state that it beggars belief.
I mean we have had at least five different positions on carbon trading and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme from Dr Nelson and his senior ministers over the last two weeks. And bear in mind, we have just released a Green Paper from the Government, so they are now speculating and changing their position on a scheme to which Australians and stakeholders yet haven’t had an opportunity to input.
This is a farcical situation and it shows that Dr Nelson and his senior colleagues have no comprehension, whatever, of the scale and significance of climate change and that challenge, nor of the actions that the Australian community recognise that responsible Government should take and that is what the Rudd Labor Government is doing – taking responsible action on climate change.
The Opposition is all over the place like a wet weekend. Haphazard, changing their position on a daily basis and frankly I think it is difficult for anybody to keep up.
JOURNALIST: What would you like to say to Dr Nelson on his flip-flopping?
GARRETT: Well, we need conservative leaders like leader Cameron, like leader Schwarzenegger to provide a little bit of a sign-post for our conservatives here. And that is we need to build a bi-partisan consensus on the most significant economic reform agenda that this country will face.
Australia as a continent and the Australian economy is more at risk from the impacts of climate change from most countries and most economies. We have a primary responsibility in Government to put forward a clear and comprehensive approach to climate change. That’s what we’ve done.
It is time for the Opposition to stop playing micro politics on this issue. Stop changing their position on a daily basis and recognise that it is the national interest for us to form a common position to deal with what will be our most significant challenge in the coming years.
Thanks everybody.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Peter Garrett
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, HERITAGE AND THE ARTS
TRANSCRIPT
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LAUNCH OF NATIONAL RIDE TO WORK DAY
FEDERATION SQUARE, MELBOURNE
26 JULY 2008
SUBJECTS: National Ride to Work Day; Film archives; Coalition position on Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
GARRETT: Thanks for coming down to this launch of National Ride to Work Day – something which I think will increase in popularity over time as Australians embrace riding to work as a way of getting fitter, having some fun, reducing traffic congestion and also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
We watch tele at night at the moment and we’re seeing Australian cyclists, particularly one, doing incredibly well. We can all get on our bikes during the day and ride to work or ride to the shops and back again, make a contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, make a contribution to our own health. So National Ride to Work Day, October 15, we reckon all Aussies ought to get on their bikes and get healthy and look after the planet.
One of the things that’s really important in this particular campaign is the fact that it works at the community level and at the employer level. I want to encourage employers to consider putting bike racks in the workplace or in the factory or the office and maybe providing some additional showering facilities, so that if their employees actually want to get on their bikes and take some exercise and ride to work occasionally, then when they get there they can freshen up and put themselves in for a good days work as well.
Fantastic to see the city of Melbourne – a place where a bit of time and effort has been put into making life a little bit easier for cyclists. Riding a bike is good for you and we hope that we’ll see a lot of Australians out there on National Ride to Work Day on October 15.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see a few of your colleagues maybe riding to work?
GARRETT: Well, you know there are a few Members that ride around the Parliament occasionally and I know in state parliaments as well there are people who enjoy riding. What I reckon here is that we really are now seeing that riding a bike is very good for you. It is not something which is confined to people that are necessarily in their 20’s and super fit. Anyone can do it, anyone can enjoy it, including politicians – we can all have a go.
JOURNALIST: The State Government is trying to engage local councils in the development of public transport but there is no mention of developing bike paths. Are they being left out of the equation?
GARRETT: Well look I don’t know the exact details of local government organisations here in terms of the provision of bike paths but I would encourage all governments, right around the country, at State levels to consider really looking at the provisions of bike paths. It is really clear that for us to have more Australians riding their bikes their needs to be a better provision of bike paths, especially designated bike ways on some of our roads and in this way people can get on a bike and feel that there is some safety in getting to and from work and they know that they’re making a contribution to the environment and improving their health as well.
JOURNALIST: What about a scheme like in Europe where you can jump off the train and hire a bike for a couple of bucks to get to your destination and drop it off?
GARRETT: Look I think there is merit in us considering those type of scheme and I know there is some local governments who have given some thought to that already. We’re on the cusp of a bike culture just as we’re on the cusp of a different way of looking at the activities that we undertake in relation to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I mean think about this, a bike is a simple and fantastic way of getting yourself from A to B. When you put your feet down on those pedals you’re improving your capacity for physical health. When you get out of a motor car and onto a bike you’re reducing your impact on the environment. So the provision by authorities of better access, better bike ways and things like bike racks at railway stations – all these things are worth considering.
JOURNALIST: What about the increasing incidence of ‘bike rage’. Is that a concern?
GARRETT: Well look Michael Roberts spoke about that earlier and I was really very pleased to hear him say that it was something which is being addressed here in Victoria. Clearly, we want to have cyclists and motorists occupy the roads in a way where there is respect for each other and that is something which is obviously going to be evolving over time but it is great to see he and other prominent Victorians getting involved in that.
JOURNALIST: Should there be some sort of advertising campaign to or something like that to…
GARRETT: Oh well, I think…National Ride to Work Day is a great opportunity for Australians to take that step onto a bike and out of a motor car and when they do that they’ll recognise what great fun it is but also how important it is that there is respect on the roads and they’ll communicate that to their fellow Australians I’m sure.
JOURNALIST: You were at the arts festival last night and I understand that Eric Bana wanted to run Mad Max I as his favourite film but there was no copy around good enough to show so they had to show snippets of it. Is enough being done in terms of archiving of our cultural heritage? Would you like to see inroads made there?
GARRETT: Look we’ve separated out the Screen Australia agency and we’ve made sure that there is a separate National Film and Sound Archive so that we can have an adequate and comprehensive collection of those important pieces of cultural medium, including things like film prints, for all Australians and to have them conserved properly and safely so we can have access to them over time.
So I have got to say that I am surprised that there isn’t an original print copy but the Government is particularly committed to making sure that we have special places where things like Mad Max films, first generation movies etc can be stored and kept. That’s what the National Film and Sound Archive is all about and frankly, that’s why we separated it out from the screen agency as to what the former government was going to do which was have them involved in one organisation.
JOURNALIST: Were you aware of this last night? It sounds quite rare that we wouldn’t have something like that still of a good enough quality to show.
GARRETT: Well look I’m surprised that there isn’t an original copy. I’m not sure what the reasons for that are and I wasn’t aware of it. What I do know is that there is the opportunity there for film makers, for music makers and for creators of original works to have that material properly conserved and stored in the National Film and Sound Archive and certainly something as important as a Mad Max print should be there.
JOURNALIST: So how far back is, things that are protected, how far back does that go? Are you aware of that?
GARRETT: Well, there is a process of collection which is undertaken over time. I mean there is some fantastic heritage items that are stored in the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. Australians should be aware of this great national treasure frankly, because it is a wonderful place to go and get access to early prints, early sound recordings, early prints of films. I think the Ned Kelly film early prints are there as well. So we do have from the Commonwealth Government a particular commitment to conserve and to store these really important cultural icons and works of the past and hopefully they can track down that Mad Max print and that can go in there as well.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of Dr Nelson’s latest criticism of the Government’s carbon trading scheme?
GARRETT: I can’t keep up with Dr Nelson’s criticisms and positions on carbon trading because the Coalition is in such a totally haphazard and confused state that it beggars belief.
I mean we have had at least five different positions on carbon trading and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme from Dr Nelson and his senior ministers over the last two weeks. And bear in mind, we have just released a Green Paper from the Government, so they are now speculating and changing their position on a scheme to which Australians and stakeholders yet haven’t had an opportunity to input.
This is a farcical situation and it shows that Dr Nelson and his senior colleagues have no comprehension, whatever, of the scale and significance of climate change and that challenge, nor of the actions that the Australian community recognise that responsible Government should take and that is what the Rudd Labor Government is doing – taking responsible action on climate change.
The Opposition is all over the place like a wet weekend. Haphazard, changing their position on a daily basis and frankly I think it is difficult for anybody to keep up.
JOURNALIST: What would you like to say to Dr Nelson on his flip-flopping?
GARRETT: Well, we need conservative leaders like leader Cameron, like leader Schwarzenegger to provide a little bit of a sign-post for our conservatives here. And that is we need to build a bi-partisan consensus on the most significant economic reform agenda that this country will face.
Australia as a continent and the Australian economy is more at risk from the impacts of climate change from most countries and most economies. We have a primary responsibility in Government to put forward a clear and comprehensive approach to climate change. That’s what we’ve done.
It is time for the Opposition to stop playing micro politics on this issue. Stop changing their position on a daily basis and recognise that it is the national interest for us to form a common position to deal with what will be our most significant challenge in the coming years.
Thanks everybody.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Peter Garrett
25 July 2008
Lazy shoppers fuelling environment woes, By Chelsea Mes - News.com.au - 25th July 2008
# Shopping outside your local area adding to greenhouse gas emissions, study finds
# Local businesses losing out on $92 billion a year
Shoppers too lazy to walk to their local supermarket or shopping strip are responsible for adding nearly 1.9 million tonnes a year to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, a survey has found.
A national audit into everyday shopping habits by online search directory TrueLocal (owned by the publisher of NEWS.com.au) also found shoppers who travelled outside their local area to make their purchases were robbing local businesses of up to $92 billion a year in revenue.
Australia's environmentalist of the year for 2007, Arron Wood, said Australians needed to get over their reliance of driving to where they wanted to shop.
"We are heavily reliant on our cars all round," he said.
People need to understand the benefits of shopping locally, he said.
"Obviously there's the environmental benefit, but the whole fact of shopping locally ... drives your own local economy which has positive spinoffs for your own region," he said.
The study revealed that over a 12 month period, the average Australian made over 43 trips, travelling up to 477 kilometres outside of their local area and spending over $7000.
Collectively, this generated 7.3 billion kilometres of extra travel, the study found.
The study looked to identify where a basket of nine common purchases were made.
The trips which caused the most greenhouse gas emissions were ones to buy clothing and takeaway food.
What can you do?
Mr Wood said there was a hierarchy when it came to reducing your carbon footprint when shopping. The best thing you can do is walk to your local shop. If you can't do that, use public transport if it's available. If you have to make a trip in your car, at least make it a short one.
"Even if people are jumping in the car to make that short trip in their local area, it's a lot better in terms of emissions than actually travelling out of your suburb to make that purchase," he said.
Mr Wood recommends large shop once a week and buying in bulk which is cheaper and uses less packaging. But you also need to look at what you're buying, he says.
"It's all well and good to physically shop locally, but you also need to be looking at buying local produce."
"It's no good if you then go and buy something that's been imported from another country, because all the savings you're making are going to be negated by ... all the miles that have been done to import that product," he said.
Using farmers' markets and finding out where the product comes from would help, he says.
"It's a mix of education and awareness," Mr Wood said.
"People don't believe their short trips play a significant role in the emissions we create."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
# Local businesses losing out on $92 billion a year
Shoppers too lazy to walk to their local supermarket or shopping strip are responsible for adding nearly 1.9 million tonnes a year to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, a survey has found.
A national audit into everyday shopping habits by online search directory TrueLocal (owned by the publisher of NEWS.com.au) also found shoppers who travelled outside their local area to make their purchases were robbing local businesses of up to $92 billion a year in revenue.
Australia's environmentalist of the year for 2007, Arron Wood, said Australians needed to get over their reliance of driving to where they wanted to shop.
"We are heavily reliant on our cars all round," he said.
People need to understand the benefits of shopping locally, he said.
"Obviously there's the environmental benefit, but the whole fact of shopping locally ... drives your own local economy which has positive spinoffs for your own region," he said.
The study revealed that over a 12 month period, the average Australian made over 43 trips, travelling up to 477 kilometres outside of their local area and spending over $7000.
Collectively, this generated 7.3 billion kilometres of extra travel, the study found.
The study looked to identify where a basket of nine common purchases were made.
The trips which caused the most greenhouse gas emissions were ones to buy clothing and takeaway food.
What can you do?
Mr Wood said there was a hierarchy when it came to reducing your carbon footprint when shopping. The best thing you can do is walk to your local shop. If you can't do that, use public transport if it's available. If you have to make a trip in your car, at least make it a short one.
"Even if people are jumping in the car to make that short trip in their local area, it's a lot better in terms of emissions than actually travelling out of your suburb to make that purchase," he said.
Mr Wood recommends large shop once a week and buying in bulk which is cheaper and uses less packaging. But you also need to look at what you're buying, he says.
"It's all well and good to physically shop locally, but you also need to be looking at buying local produce."
"It's no good if you then go and buy something that's been imported from another country, because all the savings you're making are going to be negated by ... all the miles that have been done to import that product," he said.
Using farmers' markets and finding out where the product comes from would help, he says.
"It's a mix of education and awareness," Mr Wood said.
"People don't believe their short trips play a significant role in the emissions we create."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
24 July 2008
Avoiding Deforestation to Limit Climate Change 'Cheap and Practical'
COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 23, 2008 (ENS) - Wealthy nations could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally by paying landowners in developing nations not to clear forested land for agriculture, finds a new study by a research team from Austria, Brazil and the United States.
The research attaches estimated dollar amounts to each metric ton of carbon that could be saved through avoided deforestation in Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia.
Governments willing to spend a total of about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide a year for the next 25 years.
It would take about that much money to stop about a tenth of the tropical deforestation around the world, the researchers say. Tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert land to grow crops and raise livestock, accounts for about a fifth of all human-caused carbon emissions in the world.
If adopted, this type of program could have potential to reduce global carbon emissions by between two and 10 percent, the study estimates.
The calculation is one of several estimates described by a team of scientists and economists today in the online edition of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Based on these estimates, the overall cost to buy carbon credits would be lower than what developed nations would expect to pay to reduce emissions through regulation of industry, transportation and energy sources, said Brent Sohngen, a study co-author and professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics at Ohio State University.
The calculations, based on three different forestry and land-use models, provide the best estimates to date of how much it would cost developed nations to participate in a program called "avoided deforestation" to reduce worldwide carbon emissions.
"Compared to other options, an avoided deforestation program would be relatively cheap and practical for the United States," said Sohngen, who developed one of three computer models used to calculate the estimates.
"It would save American taxpayers money and provide a huge transfer of funding from one region of the world to another, giving developing countries a larger chunk of the world's economic pie to use as they see fit," he said.
The three models used to calculate the estimates are called the Global Timber Model, developed by Sohngen; the Dynamic Integrated Model of Forestry and Alternative Land Use, developed at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria; and the Generalized Comprehensive Mitigation Assessment Process Model, developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
The models employ different economic and biological assumptions to reach their deforestation and carbon-emission projections. Each model takes into account changes expected to occur over time, especially incentives for deforestation relating to demand for agricultural land based on changes in population, income and technology.
"The results indicate that substantial emission reductions could be accomplished through 2030, the period we examined," Sohngen said.
"If this kind of program could stop deforestation, it would provide a bigger source of biodiversity by retaining a larger stock of tropical forest, keep carbon out of the atmosphere, and provide money to people in developing countries to pursue new forms of livelihood that don't involve cutting down trees," he said.
Avoided deforestation is not a new idea, but to date it has not been widely accepted.
"There is a global benefit for maintaining forests, but nobody is paying for it," said World Bank technical specialist Werner Kornexl back in 2006. "Developing countries would like to be compensated for the economic benefits they forgo by preserving their forests."
At the 2007 G8 Summit, the World Bank won G8 support to start a $250 million investment fund to reward countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and Congo for avoided deforestation.
Now, the avoided deforestation cost estimates produced by Sohngen and his team could be used in ongoing negotiations toward a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. UN officials are aiming to complete the successor agreement by December 2009 to allow time for it to be ratified before the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The United States has signed but has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 182 parties, including 137 developing countries and 36 developed countries, plus the European Union.
The Kyoto Protocol included avoided deforestation as a potential method of reducing global carbon emissions, but "it just didn't pick up any steam at that time," Sohngen said.
Several countries, including Papua New Guineau, Bolivia, Central African Republic, Chile, Congo, and Costa Rica, have banded together as the Coalition for Rainforest Nations to lobby for an agreement that compensates them for avoiding deforestation. The coalition operates as an intergovernmental organization with the Secretariat currently housed at Columbia University in New York City.
The Coalition for Rainforest Nations is holding a policy workshop on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries July 28 and 29 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Delegates will discuss and draft a joint statement for consideration at the next round of United Nations climate change talks coming up in August in Accra, Ghana.
Sohngen said, "There were lots of constraints within the Kyoto treaty about using land-use options to abate carbon emissions. It looks like there is a large effort now to try to relax some of those constraints in order to allow avoided deforestation to be considered as a carbon abatement mechanism."
"If this kind of program could stop deforestation," he said, "it would provide a bigger source of biodiversity by retaining a larger stock of tropical forest, keep carbon out of the atmosphere, and provide money to people in developing countries to pursue new forms of livelihood that don't involve cutting down trees."
"Now, there is a huge debate about it, and our paper is just trying to add one economic component to the discussion," Sohngen said.
"If we're talking about the source of at least 20 percent of the world's emissions that can be cheaply abated, then why wouldn't we do it?" he asked. "If we don't spend the money to offer these countries development assistance, they're going to continue deforesting, so their emissions are just going to continue."
Sohngen conducted the analysis with Georg Kindermann, Michael Obersteiner and Ewald Rametsteiner of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis; Jayant Sathaye of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Kenneth Andrasko of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Bernhard Schlamadinger of Joanneum Research in Graz, Austria; Sven Wunder of the Center for International Forestry Research in Belm-PA, Brazil; and Robert Beach of RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
(Credit: EMS)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Kyoto Protocol
Environmentalists and the environment
The research attaches estimated dollar amounts to each metric ton of carbon that could be saved through avoided deforestation in Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia.
Governments willing to spend a total of about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide a year for the next 25 years.
It would take about that much money to stop about a tenth of the tropical deforestation around the world, the researchers say. Tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert land to grow crops and raise livestock, accounts for about a fifth of all human-caused carbon emissions in the world.
If adopted, this type of program could have potential to reduce global carbon emissions by between two and 10 percent, the study estimates.
The calculation is one of several estimates described by a team of scientists and economists today in the online edition of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Based on these estimates, the overall cost to buy carbon credits would be lower than what developed nations would expect to pay to reduce emissions through regulation of industry, transportation and energy sources, said Brent Sohngen, a study co-author and professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics at Ohio State University.
The calculations, based on three different forestry and land-use models, provide the best estimates to date of how much it would cost developed nations to participate in a program called "avoided deforestation" to reduce worldwide carbon emissions.
"Compared to other options, an avoided deforestation program would be relatively cheap and practical for the United States," said Sohngen, who developed one of three computer models used to calculate the estimates.
"It would save American taxpayers money and provide a huge transfer of funding from one region of the world to another, giving developing countries a larger chunk of the world's economic pie to use as they see fit," he said.
The three models used to calculate the estimates are called the Global Timber Model, developed by Sohngen; the Dynamic Integrated Model of Forestry and Alternative Land Use, developed at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria; and the Generalized Comprehensive Mitigation Assessment Process Model, developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
The models employ different economic and biological assumptions to reach their deforestation and carbon-emission projections. Each model takes into account changes expected to occur over time, especially incentives for deforestation relating to demand for agricultural land based on changes in population, income and technology.
"The results indicate that substantial emission reductions could be accomplished through 2030, the period we examined," Sohngen said.
"If this kind of program could stop deforestation, it would provide a bigger source of biodiversity by retaining a larger stock of tropical forest, keep carbon out of the atmosphere, and provide money to people in developing countries to pursue new forms of livelihood that don't involve cutting down trees," he said.
Avoided deforestation is not a new idea, but to date it has not been widely accepted.
"There is a global benefit for maintaining forests, but nobody is paying for it," said World Bank technical specialist Werner Kornexl back in 2006. "Developing countries would like to be compensated for the economic benefits they forgo by preserving their forests."
At the 2007 G8 Summit, the World Bank won G8 support to start a $250 million investment fund to reward countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and Congo for avoided deforestation.
Now, the avoided deforestation cost estimates produced by Sohngen and his team could be used in ongoing negotiations toward a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. UN officials are aiming to complete the successor agreement by December 2009 to allow time for it to be ratified before the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The United States has signed but has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 182 parties, including 137 developing countries and 36 developed countries, plus the European Union.
The Kyoto Protocol included avoided deforestation as a potential method of reducing global carbon emissions, but "it just didn't pick up any steam at that time," Sohngen said.
Several countries, including Papua New Guineau, Bolivia, Central African Republic, Chile, Congo, and Costa Rica, have banded together as the Coalition for Rainforest Nations to lobby for an agreement that compensates them for avoiding deforestation. The coalition operates as an intergovernmental organization with the Secretariat currently housed at Columbia University in New York City.
The Coalition for Rainforest Nations is holding a policy workshop on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries July 28 and 29 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Delegates will discuss and draft a joint statement for consideration at the next round of United Nations climate change talks coming up in August in Accra, Ghana.
Sohngen said, "There were lots of constraints within the Kyoto treaty about using land-use options to abate carbon emissions. It looks like there is a large effort now to try to relax some of those constraints in order to allow avoided deforestation to be considered as a carbon abatement mechanism."
"If this kind of program could stop deforestation," he said, "it would provide a bigger source of biodiversity by retaining a larger stock of tropical forest, keep carbon out of the atmosphere, and provide money to people in developing countries to pursue new forms of livelihood that don't involve cutting down trees."
"Now, there is a huge debate about it, and our paper is just trying to add one economic component to the discussion," Sohngen said.
"If we're talking about the source of at least 20 percent of the world's emissions that can be cheaply abated, then why wouldn't we do it?" he asked. "If we don't spend the money to offer these countries development assistance, they're going to continue deforesting, so their emissions are just going to continue."
Sohngen conducted the analysis with Georg Kindermann, Michael Obersteiner and Ewald Rametsteiner of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis; Jayant Sathaye of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Kenneth Andrasko of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Bernhard Schlamadinger of Joanneum Research in Graz, Austria; Sven Wunder of the Center for International Forestry Research in Belm-PA, Brazil; and Robert Beach of RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
(Credit: EMS)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Kyoto Protocol
Environmentalists and the environment
23 July 2008
A change that is growing, by Jennie Curtin - The Sydney Morning Herld - 23th July 2008
A cup of tea on a film set led to an annual event that this year will notch up 12 million trees planted across Australia, writes Jennie Curtin.
Back in the days when climate change was muttered about in scientific circles but rarely anywhere else, an Australian prime minister promised to plant 1 billion trees.
Bob Hawke made the ambitious pledge in 1989 as Australia buckled under the weight of severe land degradation, salinity and erosion. Although it sounded an impossible dream, more than 700 million were reportedly planted before the government lost the 1996 election and the program was scrapped.
Not long after that the founder of Planet Ark, Jon Dee, and the Australian entertainer Olivia Newton-John, were also mulling over the plight of the land.
"Olivia and I were having a cup of tea in Los Angeles," Dee says. "We were waiting for a film crew to set up … We were sitting around the table and got talking about how as children we all used to plant trees as part of Arbor Day.
"One of the key things about Australia is that we have lost so much of our tree cover through land clearing … We felt we really needed to do something positive about getting people to plant native trees and shrubs in their local area."
Their idea was to create National Tree Day to encourage Australians to do their bit to help regreen the land. Now into its 13th year, it hasn't had quite the impact of Hawke's old program but on Sunday - this year's National Tree Day - the 12 millionth native tree or shrub will be planted.
Not bad for something dreamt up over a cuppa.
Dee recalls how nervous he felt in that first year: "It was like a party - will anyone come? But it was great - I think it was about 5000 people in the first year and I remember thinking, 'My God, where did they all come from?' "
They came from all over - and continue to do so. A look at the website, where councils, bushcare and landcare groups, schools, clubs and others have registered their plans, shows that trees will be planted across the country, in every state and territory, in cities, towns, suburbs and remote outback settlements - from north Queensland to southern Tasmania, down the east coast, across the centre and to the south-west tip of WA.
Last year 290,000 Australians participated at more than 3000 sites, according to Planet Ark's media manager, Karen Billington. There are also about 200,000 students involved in Schools Tree Day, which is celebrated on Friday to enable planting during school hours.
Native trees and shrubs are recommended, as they provide shelter and habitat for birds and animals. They will also be better adapted to Australian conditions and are likely to be more tolerant of drought. Billington suggests councils should be the first port of call to find the best species for a particular area, bearing in mind not only soil types and climatic conditions but also how much space is available and in what kind of setting. A towering eucalypt can look magnificent in a park but is prone to dropping limbs so should not be planted where its branches overhang houses.
Climate change provides even greater need to plant more trees. It is estimated every tree can absorb up to one tonne of carbon in its lifetime.
"Nine out of 10 people are concerned about the future risks, the impact that climate change is going to have on Australia's kids," Dee says. "There are some easy things we can do, like changing the light bulbs and replacing shower heads, but of all the things you can do, probably the most satisfying is to go out and plant a tree."
Dee is convinced that National Tree Day is here to stay. "It's broad, like Clean Up Australia. It shows that helping the environment isn't just for a few committed individuals. It's a broad-based group of people who are willing to go out and get their hands dirty," he says.
"This weekend you are going to have the situation where someone planting a tree will be our 2 millionth volunteer and someone else will be planting our 12 millionth tree or shrub. And I just love the fact that because of that one conversation over a cup of tea we have been able to effect such change."
National Tree Day - July 27; Schools Tree Day - July 25; www.treeday.planetark.com
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Planet Ark
Jon Dee
Environmentalists and the environment
Back in the days when climate change was muttered about in scientific circles but rarely anywhere else, an Australian prime minister promised to plant 1 billion trees.
Bob Hawke made the ambitious pledge in 1989 as Australia buckled under the weight of severe land degradation, salinity and erosion. Although it sounded an impossible dream, more than 700 million were reportedly planted before the government lost the 1996 election and the program was scrapped.
Not long after that the founder of Planet Ark, Jon Dee, and the Australian entertainer Olivia Newton-John, were also mulling over the plight of the land.
"Olivia and I were having a cup of tea in Los Angeles," Dee says. "We were waiting for a film crew to set up … We were sitting around the table and got talking about how as children we all used to plant trees as part of Arbor Day.
"One of the key things about Australia is that we have lost so much of our tree cover through land clearing … We felt we really needed to do something positive about getting people to plant native trees and shrubs in their local area."
Their idea was to create National Tree Day to encourage Australians to do their bit to help regreen the land. Now into its 13th year, it hasn't had quite the impact of Hawke's old program but on Sunday - this year's National Tree Day - the 12 millionth native tree or shrub will be planted.
Not bad for something dreamt up over a cuppa.
Dee recalls how nervous he felt in that first year: "It was like a party - will anyone come? But it was great - I think it was about 5000 people in the first year and I remember thinking, 'My God, where did they all come from?' "
They came from all over - and continue to do so. A look at the website, where councils, bushcare and landcare groups, schools, clubs and others have registered their plans, shows that trees will be planted across the country, in every state and territory, in cities, towns, suburbs and remote outback settlements - from north Queensland to southern Tasmania, down the east coast, across the centre and to the south-west tip of WA.
Last year 290,000 Australians participated at more than 3000 sites, according to Planet Ark's media manager, Karen Billington. There are also about 200,000 students involved in Schools Tree Day, which is celebrated on Friday to enable planting during school hours.
Native trees and shrubs are recommended, as they provide shelter and habitat for birds and animals. They will also be better adapted to Australian conditions and are likely to be more tolerant of drought. Billington suggests councils should be the first port of call to find the best species for a particular area, bearing in mind not only soil types and climatic conditions but also how much space is available and in what kind of setting. A towering eucalypt can look magnificent in a park but is prone to dropping limbs so should not be planted where its branches overhang houses.
Climate change provides even greater need to plant more trees. It is estimated every tree can absorb up to one tonne of carbon in its lifetime.
"Nine out of 10 people are concerned about the future risks, the impact that climate change is going to have on Australia's kids," Dee says. "There are some easy things we can do, like changing the light bulbs and replacing shower heads, but of all the things you can do, probably the most satisfying is to go out and plant a tree."
Dee is convinced that National Tree Day is here to stay. "It's broad, like Clean Up Australia. It shows that helping the environment isn't just for a few committed individuals. It's a broad-based group of people who are willing to go out and get their hands dirty," he says.
"This weekend you are going to have the situation where someone planting a tree will be our 2 millionth volunteer and someone else will be planting our 12 millionth tree or shrub. And I just love the fact that because of that one conversation over a cup of tea we have been able to effect such change."
National Tree Day - July 27; Schools Tree Day - July 25; www.treeday.planetark.com
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Planet Ark
Jon Dee
Environmentalists and the environment
22 July 2008
Very Unique Existence - Rave Magazine
LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON speaks to VERY UNIQUE EXISTENCE guitarist/vocalist RICH LATIMER, bass player MICHAEL HARRIS and keyboard player WES SEEWALD about what GREENFEST means to them.
Greenfest is a free, environmentally aware festival that takes place in South Bank on October 10-12. Music, film photography and food festivals are all rolled into one to create a wide smorgasbord of entertainment. A band championing the cause, as well as being the music behind Greenfest’s media campaign is Byron Bay’s Very Unique Existence. I caught three of the members quickly before they performed the theme track Looking Down at the festival’s media launch in South Bank.
LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON: Would you care to give me a brief outline of the band’s history?
MICHAEL HARRIS: The band’s been going for three years now. We started off as a two-piece with Rich and Chris and I joined about twelve months afterwards and not long after that Wes came in. We’ve got an EP out at the moment and are looking to begin recording an album in the near future.
LC: How did you land the honour of contributing the theme song for Greenfest?
RICH LATIMER: We’ve put together a little label lately which is just dedicated friends and family helping out and one of those people scored it for us. When I heard we had it, and I heard it was a free festival, I was stoked. This festival is about social change and climate change, not pretending to be a really cool thing. I feel like it’s the real deal. The theme song Looking Down is a reference to those issues, and the guy who runs Greenfest really identified with it.
LC: You don’t really have much of a profile in Brisbane yet, but you’re starting to make a name for yourself in your home state of New South Wales aren’t you?
RL: We have high rotation commercial airplay on regional radio in New South Wales all the way down to Newcastle. We’re well known in the places that our songs are played on the radio, where with Brisbane we’re really only known for touring. We’ve found that with touring you get known really slowly, but with radio it’s a more rapid process. Hopefully, it looks like landing the theme song for Greenfest will get us some airplay on Brisbane radio too.
LC: Seeing as you identify with the concept, you must be excited to play Greenfest.
RL: Yeah man! I’m a hippy kid at heart, raised in the bush I really think our society has to change its ways, at least a little bit. I mean, if anyone disagrees with that they’ve probably been living with their head in the sand for a while. I think what Coleman is trying to do with the festival is something that hasn’t been done in a long time.
WES SEEWALD: We love music; it’s the basis of everything we do. I think coming to a festival like this is a great opportunity to connect with an audience of similarly-minded people - we have the chance to spread a good message about the environment and social change.
For information on GREENFEST, visit www.greenfest.com.au for more details. While you’re there surfing the web, why not check out Very Unique Existence’s MySpace page as well, at www.myspace.com/thevuerock
(Credit: Rave Magazine)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Greenfest is a free, environmentally aware festival that takes place in South Bank on October 10-12. Music, film photography and food festivals are all rolled into one to create a wide smorgasbord of entertainment. A band championing the cause, as well as being the music behind Greenfest’s media campaign is Byron Bay’s Very Unique Existence. I caught three of the members quickly before they performed the theme track Looking Down at the festival’s media launch in South Bank.
LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON: Would you care to give me a brief outline of the band’s history?
MICHAEL HARRIS: The band’s been going for three years now. We started off as a two-piece with Rich and Chris and I joined about twelve months afterwards and not long after that Wes came in. We’ve got an EP out at the moment and are looking to begin recording an album in the near future.
LC: How did you land the honour of contributing the theme song for Greenfest?
RICH LATIMER: We’ve put together a little label lately which is just dedicated friends and family helping out and one of those people scored it for us. When I heard we had it, and I heard it was a free festival, I was stoked. This festival is about social change and climate change, not pretending to be a really cool thing. I feel like it’s the real deal. The theme song Looking Down is a reference to those issues, and the guy who runs Greenfest really identified with it.
LC: You don’t really have much of a profile in Brisbane yet, but you’re starting to make a name for yourself in your home state of New South Wales aren’t you?
RL: We have high rotation commercial airplay on regional radio in New South Wales all the way down to Newcastle. We’re well known in the places that our songs are played on the radio, where with Brisbane we’re really only known for touring. We’ve found that with touring you get known really slowly, but with radio it’s a more rapid process. Hopefully, it looks like landing the theme song for Greenfest will get us some airplay on Brisbane radio too.
LC: Seeing as you identify with the concept, you must be excited to play Greenfest.
RL: Yeah man! I’m a hippy kid at heart, raised in the bush I really think our society has to change its ways, at least a little bit. I mean, if anyone disagrees with that they’ve probably been living with their head in the sand for a while. I think what Coleman is trying to do with the festival is something that hasn’t been done in a long time.
WES SEEWALD: We love music; it’s the basis of everything we do. I think coming to a festival like this is a great opportunity to connect with an audience of similarly-minded people - we have the chance to spread a good message about the environment and social change.
For information on GREENFEST, visit www.greenfest.com.au for more details. While you’re there surfing the web, why not check out Very Unique Existence’s MySpace page as well, at www.myspace.com/thevuerock
(Credit: Rave Magazine)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
SOLAR AND WATER GRANTS TO BENEFIT SCHOOLS AND INDUSTRY
Marking the start of term 3 in New South Wales, Environment Minister, Peter Garrett today reminded Australia’s 9000 plus schools that they now had the opportunity to become solar schools thanks to the National Solar Schools Program.
Mr Garrett said grants of up to $50,000 were now available for the installation of solar power systems and a host of energy and water saving measures.
Visiting Newtown Public School in Sydney, Mr Garrett said the program would provide schools with an unprecedented opportunity to take practical action to help tackle climate change while saving money, energy and water.
“The Rudd Labor Government wants every Australian school – primary, secondary, public and private – to have the opportunity to become a ‘solar school’ and the commencement of this half a billion dollar program delivers on our election commitment.
“Schools can save energy, water and money through this program. Schools with mains power supply may also be able to sell surplus solar power from weekends and school holidays back into the grid – making these schools ‘mini’ renewable power stations.”
Mr Garrett said the National Solar Schools Program replaced the Green Vouchers for Schools program, and provided schools with greater freedom to choose from a wider range of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
“Every school, every home and every community is different. The National Solar Schools Program provides the flexibility schools need to find sustainable solutions that suit their individual needs. We will be encouraging schools to undertake a sustainability audit to help them determine what delivers the best results for them,” Mr Garrett said.
“Rainwater tanks, solar hot water systems, upgraded lighting, insulation, small wind or hydro power generators, awnings – there is a long list of water and energy efficiency measures that schools can choose from to improve their sustainability. Schools will decide what is best and the Government will provide the backing.
“Solar Schools will strengthen the Australian Government’s partnership with state and territory governments through AuSSI - the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative, which seeks to improve education in schools about sustainability.
“Industry too will benefit from the program from the $480 million federal funding injection creating increased demand for large solar power systems for school roofs.
“Importantly, this program will also provide students with a practical demonstration and knowledge which will carry with them into their homes and into our communities; every little bit helping in the global effort against climate change,” Mr Garrett said.
Mr Garrett said schools could find out more information about the program, including funding guidelines at: www.environment.gov.au/settlements/renewable/nationalsolarschools/index.html
Media Man Australia Profiles
Peter Garrett
Solar Power
Environmentalists and the environment
Mr Garrett said grants of up to $50,000 were now available for the installation of solar power systems and a host of energy and water saving measures.
Visiting Newtown Public School in Sydney, Mr Garrett said the program would provide schools with an unprecedented opportunity to take practical action to help tackle climate change while saving money, energy and water.
“The Rudd Labor Government wants every Australian school – primary, secondary, public and private – to have the opportunity to become a ‘solar school’ and the commencement of this half a billion dollar program delivers on our election commitment.
“Schools can save energy, water and money through this program. Schools with mains power supply may also be able to sell surplus solar power from weekends and school holidays back into the grid – making these schools ‘mini’ renewable power stations.”
Mr Garrett said the National Solar Schools Program replaced the Green Vouchers for Schools program, and provided schools with greater freedom to choose from a wider range of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
“Every school, every home and every community is different. The National Solar Schools Program provides the flexibility schools need to find sustainable solutions that suit their individual needs. We will be encouraging schools to undertake a sustainability audit to help them determine what delivers the best results for them,” Mr Garrett said.
“Rainwater tanks, solar hot water systems, upgraded lighting, insulation, small wind or hydro power generators, awnings – there is a long list of water and energy efficiency measures that schools can choose from to improve their sustainability. Schools will decide what is best and the Government will provide the backing.
“Solar Schools will strengthen the Australian Government’s partnership with state and territory governments through AuSSI - the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative, which seeks to improve education in schools about sustainability.
“Industry too will benefit from the program from the $480 million federal funding injection creating increased demand for large solar power systems for school roofs.
“Importantly, this program will also provide students with a practical demonstration and knowledge which will carry with them into their homes and into our communities; every little bit helping in the global effort against climate change,” Mr Garrett said.
Mr Garrett said schools could find out more information about the program, including funding guidelines at: www.environment.gov.au/settlements/renewable/nationalsolarschools/index.html
Media Man Australia Profiles
Peter Garrett
Solar Power
Environmentalists and the environment
Greenfest comes to Brisbane, by Rob Ashwell - Greenbang - 21st July 2008
Greenbang is currently throwing her toys a little. She had so hoped that she might be able to attend Greenfest, the Australian green show taking place in October. That was until she realised that it wasn’t the best idea to fly half way across the globe to highlight ways to be green - she’s not the Pope afterall.
Instead, Greg Tingle will be Greenbang’s eyes and ears from the show. He has the advantage of already being on the east coast of Australia and can get to the Brisbane show a little more easily.
The show will have everything from food to transport to education and will be backed by a wealth of local bands as a music and film festival is held too.
The show is definitely worth a look if you’re near the area on the 10-12 October, if for no other reason than to see the Tesla electric sports car.
More information is on the Greenfest website and MySpace page.
(Credit: Greenbang)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Colman Ridge
Environmentalists and the environment
Instead, Greg Tingle will be Greenbang’s eyes and ears from the show. He has the advantage of already being on the east coast of Australia and can get to the Brisbane show a little more easily.
The show will have everything from food to transport to education and will be backed by a wealth of local bands as a music and film festival is held too.
The show is definitely worth a look if you’re near the area on the 10-12 October, if for no other reason than to see the Tesla electric sports car.
More information is on the Greenfest website and MySpace page.
(Credit: Greenbang)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Colman Ridge
Environmentalists and the environment
21 July 2008
Keep your mine out of our paradise - The Daily Mercury - 21st July 2008
Airlie Beach became an environmental battleground yesterday as a high-profile Greenpeace ship joined thousands of people in protest against a proposed shale oil mining operation near the tourist hub.
Queensland Energy Resources is undertaking a feasibility study on an open-cut oil shale mine 15 kilometres south of Proserpine and 30km from Airlie Beach which has sparked international outrage and strong opposition from neighbouring residents.
Around 10am yesterday the 72-metre Greenpeace boat, the Esperanza, sailed into the Whitsundays to help highlight the "catastrophic impacts" the contentious project could have on the nearby Goorganga Wetlands and the Great Barrier Reef, islands and Conway national parks. It was greeted by a flotilla of more than 40 tall ships, yachts, kayaks and tinnies off Abel Point Marina.
Flaunting "No Oil Shale" banners and chanting "Save our Reefs", those onboard the boats made an impressive stance against the development of oil shale mining.
Greenpeace officials then joined a public meeting held on the Airlie Beach foreshore shortly after 11.30am.
Guest speakers included former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science Charlie Vernon, Suzette Pelt of the local Save Our Foreshore group, local land owner Toni Randall, Ngaro Aboriginal elder Irene Butterworth and Peter Harland, whose family became ill while living close to the oil shale mine near Targinnie.
Ms Pelt told the crowd oil shale was an incredibly dirty industry.
"Why anyone would suggest that's a good idea is beyond me," she said.
"If allowed, the mine will cause irreversible damage to the people of the Whitsundays, their health, property values and community wellbeing. This mine proposal is totally incompatible with tourism, agriculture, the environment and our lifestyle.
"The mine would produce large amounts of air pollution and foul odours that would impact on nearby groundwater and create huge amounts of greenhouse waste.
"Numerous chemical compounds associated with cancer, lung and skin problems were released from the small-scale oil shale processing plant north of Gladstone, near Targinnie, every time it ran. The air stank so badly people wanted to vomit.
"Buildings vibrated during the mine's trial processing runs."
Ms Pelt was backed by Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Simon Roz.
He said to consider setting up an industry as environmentally destructive as shale oil here was lunacy.
"It is the most environmentally-damaging fossil fuel method known to man," he said.
"CO2 emissions annually would be around 10% of Australia's total annual emissions equal to Brisbane's vehicle, industrial and domestic emissions for the year."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
Queensland Energy Resources is undertaking a feasibility study on an open-cut oil shale mine 15 kilometres south of Proserpine and 30km from Airlie Beach which has sparked international outrage and strong opposition from neighbouring residents.
Around 10am yesterday the 72-metre Greenpeace boat, the Esperanza, sailed into the Whitsundays to help highlight the "catastrophic impacts" the contentious project could have on the nearby Goorganga Wetlands and the Great Barrier Reef, islands and Conway national parks. It was greeted by a flotilla of more than 40 tall ships, yachts, kayaks and tinnies off Abel Point Marina.
Flaunting "No Oil Shale" banners and chanting "Save our Reefs", those onboard the boats made an impressive stance against the development of oil shale mining.
Greenpeace officials then joined a public meeting held on the Airlie Beach foreshore shortly after 11.30am.
Guest speakers included former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science Charlie Vernon, Suzette Pelt of the local Save Our Foreshore group, local land owner Toni Randall, Ngaro Aboriginal elder Irene Butterworth and Peter Harland, whose family became ill while living close to the oil shale mine near Targinnie.
Ms Pelt told the crowd oil shale was an incredibly dirty industry.
"Why anyone would suggest that's a good idea is beyond me," she said.
"If allowed, the mine will cause irreversible damage to the people of the Whitsundays, their health, property values and community wellbeing. This mine proposal is totally incompatible with tourism, agriculture, the environment and our lifestyle.
"The mine would produce large amounts of air pollution and foul odours that would impact on nearby groundwater and create huge amounts of greenhouse waste.
"Numerous chemical compounds associated with cancer, lung and skin problems were released from the small-scale oil shale processing plant north of Gladstone, near Targinnie, every time it ran. The air stank so badly people wanted to vomit.
"Buildings vibrated during the mine's trial processing runs."
Ms Pelt was backed by Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Simon Roz.
He said to consider setting up an industry as environmentally destructive as shale oil here was lunacy.
"It is the most environmentally-damaging fossil fuel method known to man," he said.
"CO2 emissions annually would be around 10% of Australia's total annual emissions equal to Brisbane's vehicle, industrial and domestic emissions for the year."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
SOF / GREENPEACE MEDIA RELEASE: WEEKEND RALLY PUTS THE HEAT ON WHITSUNDAYS OIL SHALE PROJECT
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE: SAVE OUR FORESHORE & GREENPEACE AUSTRALIA PACIFIC
WEEKEND RALLY PUTS THE HEAT ON WHITSUNDAYS OIL SHALE PROJECT
This weekend saw the Whitsunday Island's largest ever on-the-water rally to welcome the Greenpeace ship Esperanza to the Whitsundays to support the local communities’ fight against a proposal to mine shale rock, a huge greenhouse gas polluting industry.
"The boat rally and public information day on Airlie Beach's beautiful foreshore parkland was bigger and better than our wildest expectations," said community group Save Our Foreshore's spokesperson Suzette Pelt.
"Around 90 boats of all sizes from square riggers to kayaks and tinnies to glamour yachts came out on the water to send the clear message that the experimental mining proposal for the highly polluting shale rock industry is simply incompatible with everything the Whitsundays stands for.
"We have a hugely successful and sustainable tourism industry here, based on the pristine environment of the Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef, also a World Heritage area. All these values, people's lifestyles, health and properties would be placed at risk."
Greenpeace campaigner Simon Roz said: “Even the USA, an oil thirsty country, has placed a ban on this industry because of its known risks to the environment. In Gladstone, the site of Australia's first pilot oil shale project, people 20 km away were driven from their homes and became sick as a result of that disastrous experiment. That mining company promised world standard environmental practises then and denied any wrongdoing when people lost their health, livelihoods and homes.
"There is not a shred of evidence that it would be different today, the technology is essentially the same; it's never been proven on a commercial scale anywhere in the world. And they want to experiment on the shores of the Great Barrier Reef, pumping massive amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, along with a chemical cocktail of some 300 hazardous compounds including dioxins.”
Ms Pelt added: “Without a doubt, clean and renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels will be available in the coming decade, the same timeframe this mining company says it needs before starting up in Australia. So for Australia to be seen to be supporting a backward looking, dirty, low grade fuel source would be going against its commitment to Kyoto, the Rudd government's promise to reduce greenhouse emissions and as a signatory to the 2004 Stockholm Convention, which aims to protect human health and the environment by banning the production and use of some of the most toxic chemicals like dioxins, known to humankind.”
BROADCAST QUALITY FOOTAGE AND STILL IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM:
www.greenpeacemedia.org
Username: Photos
Password: Green
Public ‘open boat’ days on the Esperanza will be held in Mackay on Saturday 26 July, Townsville on Saturday 2 August and Cairns on Saturday 9 August. For more information about Greenpeace’s energy revolution tour visit http://www.greenpeace.org.au/energyrevolution
For more information please contact:
Suzette Pelt, Spokesperson Save Our Foreshore Inc: 0419 768195
Louise Clifton, Greenpeace communications officer: 0438 204041
Simon Roz, Greenpeace campaigner: 0408 011177
Louise Clifton - onboard the Esperanza until August
Vive la energy (r)evolution! http://www.greenpeace.org.au/energyrevolution
Communications Officer - Climate & Energy
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Tel: 02 9263 0357
Mob: 0438 204 041
Skype me: loumclifton
www.greenpeace.org.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenpeace
Environmentalists and the environment
WEEKEND RALLY PUTS THE HEAT ON WHITSUNDAYS OIL SHALE PROJECT
This weekend saw the Whitsunday Island's largest ever on-the-water rally to welcome the Greenpeace ship Esperanza to the Whitsundays to support the local communities’ fight against a proposal to mine shale rock, a huge greenhouse gas polluting industry.
"The boat rally and public information day on Airlie Beach's beautiful foreshore parkland was bigger and better than our wildest expectations," said community group Save Our Foreshore's spokesperson Suzette Pelt.
"Around 90 boats of all sizes from square riggers to kayaks and tinnies to glamour yachts came out on the water to send the clear message that the experimental mining proposal for the highly polluting shale rock industry is simply incompatible with everything the Whitsundays stands for.
"We have a hugely successful and sustainable tourism industry here, based on the pristine environment of the Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef, also a World Heritage area. All these values, people's lifestyles, health and properties would be placed at risk."
Greenpeace campaigner Simon Roz said: “Even the USA, an oil thirsty country, has placed a ban on this industry because of its known risks to the environment. In Gladstone, the site of Australia's first pilot oil shale project, people 20 km away were driven from their homes and became sick as a result of that disastrous experiment. That mining company promised world standard environmental practises then and denied any wrongdoing when people lost their health, livelihoods and homes.
"There is not a shred of evidence that it would be different today, the technology is essentially the same; it's never been proven on a commercial scale anywhere in the world. And they want to experiment on the shores of the Great Barrier Reef, pumping massive amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, along with a chemical cocktail of some 300 hazardous compounds including dioxins.”
Ms Pelt added: “Without a doubt, clean and renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels will be available in the coming decade, the same timeframe this mining company says it needs before starting up in Australia. So for Australia to be seen to be supporting a backward looking, dirty, low grade fuel source would be going against its commitment to Kyoto, the Rudd government's promise to reduce greenhouse emissions and as a signatory to the 2004 Stockholm Convention, which aims to protect human health and the environment by banning the production and use of some of the most toxic chemicals like dioxins, known to humankind.”
BROADCAST QUALITY FOOTAGE AND STILL IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM:
www.greenpeacemedia.org
Username: Photos
Password: Green
Public ‘open boat’ days on the Esperanza will be held in Mackay on Saturday 26 July, Townsville on Saturday 2 August and Cairns on Saturday 9 August. For more information about Greenpeace’s energy revolution tour visit http://www.greenpeace.org.au/energyrevolution
For more information please contact:
Suzette Pelt, Spokesperson Save Our Foreshore Inc: 0419 768195
Louise Clifton, Greenpeace communications officer: 0438 204041
Simon Roz, Greenpeace campaigner: 0408 011177
Louise Clifton - onboard the Esperanza until August
Vive la energy (r)evolution! http://www.greenpeace.org.au/energyrevolution
Communications Officer - Climate & Energy
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Tel: 02 9263 0357
Mob: 0438 204 041
Skype me: loumclifton
www.greenpeace.org.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenpeace
Environmentalists and the environment
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire - ABC TV - Four Corners - Broadcast: 18/07/2008
Reporter: Liz Jackson
Broadcast: 18/07/2008
"He said it’s going to be bigger than Microsoft, and I thought Whoa!" – investor
Tim Johnston posed for photos alongside smiling politicians, movie stars and sports heroes.
He moved easily among A-listers and bathed in the credibility that lent him. His company Firepower became one of Australia’s biggest sports sponsors, doing multi-million dollar deals with rugby league’s Rabbitohs, union’s Western Force and basketball’s Sydney Kings.
Firepower’s fortunes rested on a liquid and a pill that, when added to a petrol tank, are supposed to make cars travel further, faster and with fewer dirty emissions. But for many who signed on, the Firepower journey turned out to be a long slow ride to the cleaners.
The Kings are dead. Creditors, regulators and shareholders wonder what happened to the Firepower millions – and where they might find Tim Johnston.
"This pill is to a car what Viagra is to a man…the potent facts will be revealed after these messages." – Singapore TV presenter
Four Corners tells the story of the rise and rise of Tim Johnston and how he collected so many believers – from mum and dad investors to canny sports promoters to top Australian trade officials – and so much money.
"He told me exactly what I wanted to hear." – Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian
Reporter Liz Jackson tells how Johnston first struck trouble after pitching his pill in New Zealand. He left in a hurry – but that was just a blip. Australia beckoned… and soon, with the help of some influential backers, he was on his way up again.
Next Johnston went global. He began setting up offices and selling his products in Asia and, with Australian Government support, in Russia and Europe.
"He raised a total of almost $100 million… I could account for 30 at best." – Former Firepower executive
Now, with the Firepower brand shredded and investors dudded, there is a small army of people who crave knowledge of Johnston’s whereabouts. And yet there are some who doggedly maintain faith in the technology he spruiked. Insiders, victims and former close associates tell the story of Firepower and smooth-talking Tim Johnston in "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!" – Liz Jackson’s report on Four Corners, at 8.30 pm Monday July 21. (Credit: ABC Four Corners)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
Broadcast: 18/07/2008
"He said it’s going to be bigger than Microsoft, and I thought Whoa!" – investor
Tim Johnston posed for photos alongside smiling politicians, movie stars and sports heroes.
He moved easily among A-listers and bathed in the credibility that lent him. His company Firepower became one of Australia’s biggest sports sponsors, doing multi-million dollar deals with rugby league’s Rabbitohs, union’s Western Force and basketball’s Sydney Kings.
Firepower’s fortunes rested on a liquid and a pill that, when added to a petrol tank, are supposed to make cars travel further, faster and with fewer dirty emissions. But for many who signed on, the Firepower journey turned out to be a long slow ride to the cleaners.
The Kings are dead. Creditors, regulators and shareholders wonder what happened to the Firepower millions – and where they might find Tim Johnston.
"This pill is to a car what Viagra is to a man…the potent facts will be revealed after these messages." – Singapore TV presenter
Four Corners tells the story of the rise and rise of Tim Johnston and how he collected so many believers – from mum and dad investors to canny sports promoters to top Australian trade officials – and so much money.
"He told me exactly what I wanted to hear." – Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian
Reporter Liz Jackson tells how Johnston first struck trouble after pitching his pill in New Zealand. He left in a hurry – but that was just a blip. Australia beckoned… and soon, with the help of some influential backers, he was on his way up again.
Next Johnston went global. He began setting up offices and selling his products in Asia and, with Australian Government support, in Russia and Europe.
"He raised a total of almost $100 million… I could account for 30 at best." – Former Firepower executive
Now, with the Firepower brand shredded and investors dudded, there is a small army of people who crave knowledge of Johnston’s whereabouts. And yet there are some who doggedly maintain faith in the technology he spruiked. Insiders, victims and former close associates tell the story of Firepower and smooth-talking Tim Johnston in "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!" – Liz Jackson’s report on Four Corners, at 8.30 pm Monday July 21. (Credit: ABC Four Corners)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Environmentalists and the environment
20 July 2008
Dispute looms over Whitsunday oil plan, by Daryl Passmore - The Sunday Mail - 20th July 2008
* Shale oiling mining proposed for Whitsundays
* Environmentalists say idea is a disaster
* But mining company says it would secure fuel needs
A proposed $14 billion shale oil mining operation in the Whitsundays is shaping up to be one of Queensland's biggest environmental battles.
The company behind the project says it would produce millions of barrels of oil a year, helping to secure Australia's diesel fuel needs for decades and creating thousands of jobs for the region.
But conservationists say it risks causing devastating environmental damage in a key tourism area just kilometres from some of the country's most prized natural assets.
"This is an incredibly dirty industry on the edge of the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. Why anyone would suggest that's a good idea is beyond me," said Suzette Pelt of the local Save Our Foreshore group, which is behind a protest day in Airlie Beach today .
They are backed by Greenpeace, whose campaign ship Esperanza will be greeted by a flotilla of 60-plus boats when it sails into Airlie today.
"The Whitsunday area is one of the natural wonders of the world. To consider setting up an industry as environmentally destructive as shale oil here is lunacy," said Greenpeace's Simon Roz. "It is the most environmentally damaging fossil fuel method known to man."
The group also claims an energy-hungry shale oil industry would quickly become the country's biggest producer of greenhouse gas. But Queensland Energy Resources chief Simon Eldridge accused opponents of making "fantastical and outrageous claims".
He said: "They are so monumentally off the mark that they beggar belief. We are committed to working in an environmentally responsible manner."
QER says new extraction technology means fears of air and water pollution are unfounded.
But locals are far from convinced. Toni Randall, whose farming property is in the "impact zone" of the proposed mine, said: "This is experimental technology. You don't experiment with the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands."
Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation Minister Andrew McNamara said: "It's a potentially vast amount of energy that's worth looking at but, like every source of energy, comes with downsides that would have to be managed."
Have Your Say:
The immediate fuel crisis is hitting residents in the region harder than the environmental cost. Mind you, tourism (and in particular backpackers) have been what's keeping the area afloat. I know this from first hand experience living and working in the Whitsundays. Whispers of airlines pulling out, or at least not as frequently flying in. The oil mining might be the beginning of the end. It certainly doesn't appear to be a sustainable solution, but would give a short term cash injection to the area. Governments and councils are known for short term thinking and solutions aren't they?
Posted by: Greg Tingle of Bondi Beach, Sydney
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whitsundays
Environmentalists and the environment
* Environmentalists say idea is a disaster
* But mining company says it would secure fuel needs
A proposed $14 billion shale oil mining operation in the Whitsundays is shaping up to be one of Queensland's biggest environmental battles.
The company behind the project says it would produce millions of barrels of oil a year, helping to secure Australia's diesel fuel needs for decades and creating thousands of jobs for the region.
But conservationists say it risks causing devastating environmental damage in a key tourism area just kilometres from some of the country's most prized natural assets.
"This is an incredibly dirty industry on the edge of the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. Why anyone would suggest that's a good idea is beyond me," said Suzette Pelt of the local Save Our Foreshore group, which is behind a protest day in Airlie Beach today .
They are backed by Greenpeace, whose campaign ship Esperanza will be greeted by a flotilla of 60-plus boats when it sails into Airlie today.
"The Whitsunday area is one of the natural wonders of the world. To consider setting up an industry as environmentally destructive as shale oil here is lunacy," said Greenpeace's Simon Roz. "It is the most environmentally damaging fossil fuel method known to man."
The group also claims an energy-hungry shale oil industry would quickly become the country's biggest producer of greenhouse gas. But Queensland Energy Resources chief Simon Eldridge accused opponents of making "fantastical and outrageous claims".
He said: "They are so monumentally off the mark that they beggar belief. We are committed to working in an environmentally responsible manner."
QER says new extraction technology means fears of air and water pollution are unfounded.
But locals are far from convinced. Toni Randall, whose farming property is in the "impact zone" of the proposed mine, said: "This is experimental technology. You don't experiment with the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands."
Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation Minister Andrew McNamara said: "It's a potentially vast amount of energy that's worth looking at but, like every source of energy, comes with downsides that would have to be managed."
Have Your Say:
The immediate fuel crisis is hitting residents in the region harder than the environmental cost. Mind you, tourism (and in particular backpackers) have been what's keeping the area afloat. I know this from first hand experience living and working in the Whitsundays. Whispers of airlines pulling out, or at least not as frequently flying in. The oil mining might be the beginning of the end. It certainly doesn't appear to be a sustainable solution, but would give a short term cash injection to the area. Governments and councils are known for short term thinking and solutions aren't they?
Posted by: Greg Tingle of Bondi Beach, Sydney
Media Man Australia Profiles
Whitsundays
Environmentalists and the environment
19 July 2008
Profile on Dr Jane Goodall , by ABC Carbon Express
She made a name for herself communicating with chimpanzee in Africa, now Jane Goodall is a globally recognised wildlife champion, naturalist, conservationist and UN Messenger of Peace, who comes to Brisbane in October for Greenfest.
In a letter to the organisers of Greenfest, issued this week, Jane Goodall had this to say:
I am so looking forward to finally visiting Brisbane and honoured that I will become the Education patron for your exciting community event, Greenfest.
Greenfest is a wonderful grassroots initiative, highlighting Brisbane’s leadership and commitment to conservation, our environment and taking care of the community we live in. I commend the people of Brisbane for initiating such a wonderful event.
Greenfest reminds me much of my global youth programme, Roots & Shoots which I began in Tanzania in 1994. It is now active from preschool to colleges in almost 100 countries with nearly 1 000 000 youth involved. This program, engages, inspires and empowers youth around the world to plan and implement projects that demonstrate care and concern for animals (including domestic animals), the local community and the environment we all share.
I look forward to sharing more about Roots& Shoots and outcomes from our first global Youth Summit held earlier this year when I visit Brisbane in October.
Jane Goodall PhD, DBE
Founder the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
The Jane Goodall Institute advances the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things.
The objectives of the Institute are to:
Increase primate habitat conservation
Increase awareness of, support for and training in issues related to our relationship with each other, the environment and other animals (leading to behavior change)
Expand non-invasive research programs on chimpanzees and other primates
Promote activities that ensure the well-being of chimpanzees, other primates and animal welfare activities in general
A few months ago, the Institute announced support for a special range of projects in Africa:
A new micro-hydro power plant is delivering critical electricity to a school of conservation biology, a maternal and child health care center and other facilities in Kasugho, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thanks to the efforts of JGI and its partners.
The new facility brings power to a rural village far from the national power grid and is transforming the lives of 16,000 people.
One beneficiary is the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology, which offers a university level two-year course in conservation biology to 100 area youth. Now classes can be offered after dark, and computers and other information technology resources are available more of the time to more students.
Infant mortality in the DRC is at 13 percent and those infants who do survive only have an 80 percent chance of making it to adulthood. “This facility will give area children a better chance at leading full lives,” said Keith Brown, executive vice president of Africa Programs.
Sustainable Energy – Sustainable Future
Other beneficiaries of electricity supply include
• a community radio station, operated by the Tayna Gorilla Reserve, which broadcasts a wide array of educational programs focused on agriculture, health, and conservation.
• Several workshops and other businesses in the village center, including the village mill, which processes much of the grain and cassava consumed in the area.
Filling the gaps in the national power grid
Prior to construction of the power plant, largely possible through funding from USAID’s Global Development Alliance, USAID’s Central African Regional Program for the Environment, and JGI-USA donors, what little electricity was available in the community was supplied by expensive diesel generators. In these remote communities, diesel supply is intermittent.
The initiative to establish this micro-hydro plant came from within the community. Labor and locally available materials needed for construction were freely provided by the villagers. At the project’s start in 2005, more than 200 villagers carried the sand and stones necessary for building most of the infrastructure.
Villagers also built 600 meters of road to facilitate access to the power plant directly from the village.
Said JGI's community-centered conservation project coordinator in DRC, Dario Merlo, who recently visited the site: “The power plant project is magnificent. Poles are already lighting the streets and the market of the village, and the villagers are preparing additional poles. The health center, hotel, the university, the radio and the laboratories are totally lighted.”
Not only does the power plant provide light for a previously unlit village, it also contributes directly to one of JGI's main objectives in Africa: the encouragement of sustainable, income generating activities that are not dependent on unsustainable natural resource exploitation.
Source: www.janegoodall.org
For great insight into the person Jane Goodall, where she has come from and what she has done, we look to the article From England to the Forests of Africa
By Hans Weise, from the Animal Planet website:
Jane Goodall was just 26 years old when she left England for East Africa — setting out for what is now Tanzania — to study chimpanzees in Gombe National Park on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The journey, taken in the summer of 1960, was Jane's first step in fulfilling a lifelong dream of working with wild animals in their natural habitat.
Legendary paleontologist Louis Leakey had been looking for someone with unique observational skills (and tremendous patience) to study chimpanzees in the wild. In Jane Goodall, he found just that person.
At first, British officials refused to let a young woman venture into the African jungle by herself, so Jane took along a companion, her mother Vanne, for the first few months. Once in Gombe, however, observing the chimpanzees would prove difficult — very little was known about their behavior, social structure or daily life, and they fled when Jane tried to get close.
But after a few months, the chimpanzees began to accept Jane's presence in their world. A male that Jane called David Greybeard was the first to venture into her camp. He appeared one day to reach the ripe red fruit of an oil nut palm that grew nearby when he saw something better — bananas on Jane's camp table. He snatched the bananas and took them back into the bush. Slowly, other chimps began to approach the camp and Jane was able to begin observing them up close. What she saw would change primatology forever.
In October 1960, Jane watched as two chimps stripped the leaves off twigs and poked the twigs into the holes of a termite nest to fish for food. It was the first glimpse of another creature making and using tools. Until that time, humans were thought to be the only toolmakers. After Jane reported her findings to Louis Leakey, he famously responded, "Now we must redefine 'tool,' redefine 'man,' or accept chimpanzees as humans."
Jane Goodall was born in London on April 3, 1934, and grew up in Bournemouth, in the south of England. When she was just over a year old, Jane's father gave her a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee, which she still has to this day.
Her favorite books as a child included The Story of Dr. Dolittle, The Jungle Book and the Tarzan series. By the time she was 11, Jane dreamed of going to Africa in a time when it wasn't thought the proper thing for a young woman to do. But Jane's mother Vanne told her, "Jane, if you really want something, and if you work hard, take advantage of the opportunities, and never give up, you will somehow find a way."
Jane Goodall's work in Gombe was expected to last only months, but it has now become one of the longest uninterrupted field studies of any animal species in its natural surroundings, and research continues there to this day. It's hard to overemphasize the ways in which Dr. Goodall has changed and enriched the field of primatology — we've learned that chimps have distinct individual personalities and complex societies. In short, we've learned that chimpanzees are far more like us than we'd previously thought.
In 1965, Jane earned her Ph.D. in Ethology from Cambridge University, and in 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation to provide ongoing support for field research on wild chimpanzees. Today, the mission of the Jane Goodall Institute is to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things. The Institute is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. It also is widely recognized for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa, and the Roots & Shoots education program, which since 1991 has registered more than 6,000 groups in 87 countries.
Awards and Achievements
As the recipient of numerous awards and the author of many publications, Jane Goodall is world-renowned and highly respected in both the scientific and lay communities. In 2002 United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Jane to serve as a U.N. Messenger of Peace, while in 2001 she received the third Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. Jane is also the only non-Tanzanian to have received the Medal of Tanzania, and was awarded the DBE by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. In 1995, Jane received the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal "for her extraordinary study of wild chimpanzees and for tirelessly defending the natural world we share."
Additional honors include Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research 2003, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, the 1996 Caring Award, Sigma Xi's 1996 William Proctor Prize for Scientific Achievement, the Ark Trust Lifetime Achievement Award and the Animal Welfare Institute's Albert Schweitzer Award. She has received numerous honorary degrees from universities and colleges around the world.
Today, Jane spends much of her time lecturing, sharing her message of hope for the future and encouraging young people to make a difference in their world.
Source: www.animal.discovery.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Environmentalists and the environment
In a letter to the organisers of Greenfest, issued this week, Jane Goodall had this to say:
I am so looking forward to finally visiting Brisbane and honoured that I will become the Education patron for your exciting community event, Greenfest.
Greenfest is a wonderful grassroots initiative, highlighting Brisbane’s leadership and commitment to conservation, our environment and taking care of the community we live in. I commend the people of Brisbane for initiating such a wonderful event.
Greenfest reminds me much of my global youth programme, Roots & Shoots which I began in Tanzania in 1994. It is now active from preschool to colleges in almost 100 countries with nearly 1 000 000 youth involved. This program, engages, inspires and empowers youth around the world to plan and implement projects that demonstrate care and concern for animals (including domestic animals), the local community and the environment we all share.
I look forward to sharing more about Roots& Shoots and outcomes from our first global Youth Summit held earlier this year when I visit Brisbane in October.
Jane Goodall PhD, DBE
Founder the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
The Jane Goodall Institute advances the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things.
The objectives of the Institute are to:
Increase primate habitat conservation
Increase awareness of, support for and training in issues related to our relationship with each other, the environment and other animals (leading to behavior change)
Expand non-invasive research programs on chimpanzees and other primates
Promote activities that ensure the well-being of chimpanzees, other primates and animal welfare activities in general
A few months ago, the Institute announced support for a special range of projects in Africa:
A new micro-hydro power plant is delivering critical electricity to a school of conservation biology, a maternal and child health care center and other facilities in Kasugho, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thanks to the efforts of JGI and its partners.
The new facility brings power to a rural village far from the national power grid and is transforming the lives of 16,000 people.
One beneficiary is the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology, which offers a university level two-year course in conservation biology to 100 area youth. Now classes can be offered after dark, and computers and other information technology resources are available more of the time to more students.
Infant mortality in the DRC is at 13 percent and those infants who do survive only have an 80 percent chance of making it to adulthood. “This facility will give area children a better chance at leading full lives,” said Keith Brown, executive vice president of Africa Programs.
Sustainable Energy – Sustainable Future
Other beneficiaries of electricity supply include
• a community radio station, operated by the Tayna Gorilla Reserve, which broadcasts a wide array of educational programs focused on agriculture, health, and conservation.
• Several workshops and other businesses in the village center, including the village mill, which processes much of the grain and cassava consumed in the area.
Filling the gaps in the national power grid
Prior to construction of the power plant, largely possible through funding from USAID’s Global Development Alliance, USAID’s Central African Regional Program for the Environment, and JGI-USA donors, what little electricity was available in the community was supplied by expensive diesel generators. In these remote communities, diesel supply is intermittent.
The initiative to establish this micro-hydro plant came from within the community. Labor and locally available materials needed for construction were freely provided by the villagers. At the project’s start in 2005, more than 200 villagers carried the sand and stones necessary for building most of the infrastructure.
Villagers also built 600 meters of road to facilitate access to the power plant directly from the village.
Said JGI's community-centered conservation project coordinator in DRC, Dario Merlo, who recently visited the site: “The power plant project is magnificent. Poles are already lighting the streets and the market of the village, and the villagers are preparing additional poles. The health center, hotel, the university, the radio and the laboratories are totally lighted.”
Not only does the power plant provide light for a previously unlit village, it also contributes directly to one of JGI's main objectives in Africa: the encouragement of sustainable, income generating activities that are not dependent on unsustainable natural resource exploitation.
Source: www.janegoodall.org
For great insight into the person Jane Goodall, where she has come from and what she has done, we look to the article From England to the Forests of Africa
By Hans Weise, from the Animal Planet website:
Jane Goodall was just 26 years old when she left England for East Africa — setting out for what is now Tanzania — to study chimpanzees in Gombe National Park on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The journey, taken in the summer of 1960, was Jane's first step in fulfilling a lifelong dream of working with wild animals in their natural habitat.
Legendary paleontologist Louis Leakey had been looking for someone with unique observational skills (and tremendous patience) to study chimpanzees in the wild. In Jane Goodall, he found just that person.
At first, British officials refused to let a young woman venture into the African jungle by herself, so Jane took along a companion, her mother Vanne, for the first few months. Once in Gombe, however, observing the chimpanzees would prove difficult — very little was known about their behavior, social structure or daily life, and they fled when Jane tried to get close.
But after a few months, the chimpanzees began to accept Jane's presence in their world. A male that Jane called David Greybeard was the first to venture into her camp. He appeared one day to reach the ripe red fruit of an oil nut palm that grew nearby when he saw something better — bananas on Jane's camp table. He snatched the bananas and took them back into the bush. Slowly, other chimps began to approach the camp and Jane was able to begin observing them up close. What she saw would change primatology forever.
In October 1960, Jane watched as two chimps stripped the leaves off twigs and poked the twigs into the holes of a termite nest to fish for food. It was the first glimpse of another creature making and using tools. Until that time, humans were thought to be the only toolmakers. After Jane reported her findings to Louis Leakey, he famously responded, "Now we must redefine 'tool,' redefine 'man,' or accept chimpanzees as humans."
Jane Goodall was born in London on April 3, 1934, and grew up in Bournemouth, in the south of England. When she was just over a year old, Jane's father gave her a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee, which she still has to this day.
Her favorite books as a child included The Story of Dr. Dolittle, The Jungle Book and the Tarzan series. By the time she was 11, Jane dreamed of going to Africa in a time when it wasn't thought the proper thing for a young woman to do. But Jane's mother Vanne told her, "Jane, if you really want something, and if you work hard, take advantage of the opportunities, and never give up, you will somehow find a way."
Jane Goodall's work in Gombe was expected to last only months, but it has now become one of the longest uninterrupted field studies of any animal species in its natural surroundings, and research continues there to this day. It's hard to overemphasize the ways in which Dr. Goodall has changed and enriched the field of primatology — we've learned that chimps have distinct individual personalities and complex societies. In short, we've learned that chimpanzees are far more like us than we'd previously thought.
In 1965, Jane earned her Ph.D. in Ethology from Cambridge University, and in 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation to provide ongoing support for field research on wild chimpanzees. Today, the mission of the Jane Goodall Institute is to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things. The Institute is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. It also is widely recognized for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa, and the Roots & Shoots education program, which since 1991 has registered more than 6,000 groups in 87 countries.
Awards and Achievements
As the recipient of numerous awards and the author of many publications, Jane Goodall is world-renowned and highly respected in both the scientific and lay communities. In 2002 United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Jane to serve as a U.N. Messenger of Peace, while in 2001 she received the third Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. Jane is also the only non-Tanzanian to have received the Medal of Tanzania, and was awarded the DBE by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. In 1995, Jane received the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal "for her extraordinary study of wild chimpanzees and for tirelessly defending the natural world we share."
Additional honors include Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research 2003, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, the 1996 Caring Award, Sigma Xi's 1996 William Proctor Prize for Scientific Achievement, the Ark Trust Lifetime Achievement Award and the Animal Welfare Institute's Albert Schweitzer Award. She has received numerous honorary degrees from universities and colleges around the world.
Today, Jane spends much of her time lecturing, sharing her message of hope for the future and encouraging young people to make a difference in their world.
Source: www.animal.discovery.com
Media Man Australia Profiles
Greenfest
Environmentalists and the environment
17 July 2008
$10m green fuel competition - Greenbang - 16th July 2008
There’s $10m up for grabs if you can create a green fuel for the aviation industry. Virgin’s tried biofuel. So has JAL and Air New Zealand. But the aviation sector is coming under ever tighter scrutiny and needs to do a lot to survive.
The US Department of Transport (DoT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) together are giving $500,000 to develop a competition on renewable jet fuels and technology for aviation. Private sponsors will help fund a winner’s prize fund - up to $10 million.
According to EcoGeek:
The X Prize Foundation has been wrangling with the DOT and FAA for this competition since the mid-90s, so it must be a sweet relief to finally be moving forward. The nonprofit will talk with aviation industry experts over the next 14 months to figure out rules, structure, and the prize, hopefully launching the competition by 2011. Once the competition is launched, they’re looking at about 5 years for development, with a winner coming out around 2016. Seems slow as snails to me, especially considering the leaps and bounds being made in alternative fuels, but I suppose in reality – and not Generation Now speed – that’s still a pretty brisk clip for developing this new technology, especially if they’ve been pushing since the ‘90s to get this off the ground.
And this isn’t the only competition the X Prize Foundation has going on - it’s actually their fifth. They held the Ansari X Prize for private suborbital space flight which was won in 2004, they have the current $10 million Archon X Prize for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize for energy-efficient vehicles. For the latter competition’s prize, DOT granted X Prize Foundation $3.5 million to educate young people about fuel efficient autos. So after looking so intently at the ground, we’re going to see some attention paid to the sky.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Aviation
Environmentalists and the environment
The US Department of Transport (DoT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) together are giving $500,000 to develop a competition on renewable jet fuels and technology for aviation. Private sponsors will help fund a winner’s prize fund - up to $10 million.
According to EcoGeek:
The X Prize Foundation has been wrangling with the DOT and FAA for this competition since the mid-90s, so it must be a sweet relief to finally be moving forward. The nonprofit will talk with aviation industry experts over the next 14 months to figure out rules, structure, and the prize, hopefully launching the competition by 2011. Once the competition is launched, they’re looking at about 5 years for development, with a winner coming out around 2016. Seems slow as snails to me, especially considering the leaps and bounds being made in alternative fuels, but I suppose in reality – and not Generation Now speed – that’s still a pretty brisk clip for developing this new technology, especially if they’ve been pushing since the ‘90s to get this off the ground.
And this isn’t the only competition the X Prize Foundation has going on - it’s actually their fifth. They held the Ansari X Prize for private suborbital space flight which was won in 2004, they have the current $10 million Archon X Prize for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize for energy-efficient vehicles. For the latter competition’s prize, DOT granted X Prize Foundation $3.5 million to educate young people about fuel efficient autos. So after looking so intently at the ground, we’re going to see some attention paid to the sky.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Aviation
Environmentalists and the environment
Pittwater High School strives to be carbon neutral. Why not your school as well? 8th April 2008
Pittwater High has taken an active stand on the issue of global warming and climate change. We have taken this because we believe that the only way to ensure that our students have a sustainable future is to take action now and show our communities and our nation that a zero ecological footprint approach is possible and indeed necessary in the medium term for the sustainability of all human activities. Overwhelming scientific evidence suggests that our planet is approaching a series of critical 'tipping-points' in terms of the survival of our current natural systems.
At Pittwater, our interest was initially generated by a wonderful Planet Pittwater Student Day held in early June, which our prefects with staff and parent support organised. A Climate Change evening event for parents and members of the community was also held. At both events the overwhelming message was that we have enough consistent scientific data to substantiate the reality of global warming; it is now time to take action. As an educational community we in particular have a responsibility to lead the way in demonstrating a real response to this global challenge.
Paralleling and supporting Pittwater's preparations for its Planet Pittwater day was strong parent support for the school to lead the way in demonstrating a solutions-oriented approach to minimising the school's carbon footprint. A parent and community team was established to discuss replacing the school's current coal sourced generated electric power with renewable solar generated power - this led to the adventurous concept of Pittwater High becoming a Power Station through energy self-sufficiency via the renewable energy of the sun. This would involve setting up a thousand solar panels to power the school to offset the greenhouse gas impact of our current energy sources. Of course this bold project is not commercially viable and can only be achieved through family and community support, and sponsorship.
Our immediate goal is to set up a small start-up solar panel power system (25-30 panels) to be operational by early 2008 and build on this by 200 - 250 panels each year. Our calculations indicate that if Pittwater High was totally reliant on renewable energy we would save 775 kg of CO2 emissions each week or 275 tonnes per year - placing an additional 250 panels per year would save approximately 100 kg of CO2 emissions per week.
Will you join us in being part of this ground breaking and adventurous project by supporting us in achieving our solar panel targets?
Will you help us demonstrate to all key decision-makers what can be achieved when renewable sources of energy are the first and only choice for the C21st?
http://www.pittwater-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/page18.htm
Media Man Australia Profiles
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
At Pittwater, our interest was initially generated by a wonderful Planet Pittwater Student Day held in early June, which our prefects with staff and parent support organised. A Climate Change evening event for parents and members of the community was also held. At both events the overwhelming message was that we have enough consistent scientific data to substantiate the reality of global warming; it is now time to take action. As an educational community we in particular have a responsibility to lead the way in demonstrating a real response to this global challenge.
Paralleling and supporting Pittwater's preparations for its Planet Pittwater day was strong parent support for the school to lead the way in demonstrating a solutions-oriented approach to minimising the school's carbon footprint. A parent and community team was established to discuss replacing the school's current coal sourced generated electric power with renewable solar generated power - this led to the adventurous concept of Pittwater High becoming a Power Station through energy self-sufficiency via the renewable energy of the sun. This would involve setting up a thousand solar panels to power the school to offset the greenhouse gas impact of our current energy sources. Of course this bold project is not commercially viable and can only be achieved through family and community support, and sponsorship.
Our immediate goal is to set up a small start-up solar panel power system (25-30 panels) to be operational by early 2008 and build on this by 200 - 250 panels each year. Our calculations indicate that if Pittwater High was totally reliant on renewable energy we would save 775 kg of CO2 emissions each week or 275 tonnes per year - placing an additional 250 panels per year would save approximately 100 kg of CO2 emissions per week.
Will you join us in being part of this ground breaking and adventurous project by supporting us in achieving our solar panel targets?
Will you help us demonstrate to all key decision-makers what can be achieved when renewable sources of energy are the first and only choice for the C21st?
http://www.pittwater-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/page18.htm
Media Man Australia Profiles
Pittwater High School Solar Power Station
16 July 2008
Culture war in fight against whaling, by Andrew Darby - The Sydney Morning Herald - 10th November 2007
Winning the hearts and minds of the Japanese is the new mission of groups opposed to dolphin and whale hunting, writes Andrew Darby.
They call it the killing cove, a small stretch of water off a pebbled beach in southern Japan near the whaling village of Taiji.
It is here that the fishermen of Taiji go to slaughter their annual dolphin catch - a controversial and little-known part of Japan's lucrative local fishing industry.
Last year Nigel Barker left Sydney to live in Taiji, where his Japanese wife's family have a holiday house.
He knew of the dolphin hunt, but didn't go as an activist. Instead, he became compelled to document what he saw - until he was driven out of town by threats to his safety.
"I'm very happy to be back," he said, as he settled into Sydney again this week. "Except that I can't get it out of my head. It's become my, sort of, contemporary nightmare now."
Barker filmed every step of the hunt that it was possible to document from shore. "They go up to 30 kilometres offshore to find the dolphins. Then they use metal tubes which they hold in the water and beat. The noise neutralises the dolphin's sonar, and it deafens them. When they are being driven in, they become very listless."
With a dozen boat engines behind them, the herds are pushed into what Barker called the killing cove, where nets are drawn across a narrow entrance to hold the catch. The whalers, increasingly sensitive to protests, also rig tarpaulins over fences, and a tent on the beach, to conceal their work.
Then, over several days, they dispatch the animals. Barker's video shows dolphins tied by their tails in the shore wash, drowning.
While documenting one pilot whale kill, he hid in trees above the cove. Below him there is wild thrashing in the water, and it turns red.
"It's just the most appalling thing," Barker said. "I was nearly in tears that day. The thrashing. That's all you can hear."
Japan's Fisheries Agency contends that this hunt is no more or less cruel than the hunting of other wild animals. The agency hasn't been discouraged by tests that show high mercury levels in some of the meat.
The local officials strongly promote the cultural importance of their 400-year whaling history, but Barker has no time for this.
"We used to burn witches," he said. "We got over it."
Taiji was recently the scene for a small, symbolic protest against the hunt, featuring surfers and actors from Australia and the United States.
Some paddled their boards through blood-stained waters, past the floating bodies of slaughtered pilot whales, to join the herd's survivors.
But the protest was hardly the kind to raise a ripple in Tokyo.
No banners, no slashed nets, no arrests. Just surfers forming memorial circles that they held in the water until the whalers drove them out of Taiji.
The protest highlights a shift in anti-whaling campaigning that some believe is crucial.
Australian leaders and top environment groups, including Greenpeace, say that the way to stop whaling is to change public opinion in Japan - however many years that might take.
Taiji is Japanese whaling heartland. A tourist town living on memories, its few remaining coastal whalers each year seek a quota of minkes at the International Whaling Commission.
They claim they are "indigenous" whalers, and are refused because they would sell the meat, in contravention of the global ban on commercial whaling.
They also hunt dolphins and small whales outside the control of the whaling commission.
Japan allows an annual kill of more than 20,000, and Taiji gets more than 2000.
Dave Rastovich, of Byron Bay, is with Surfers for Cetaceans, a group whose name embodies its cultural statement. It calls on "surfers everywhere in the world to take action on behalf of the whales and dolphins of the world, of Mother Ocean".
Gathered through surfing networks, 30 people joined Rastovich on the beach at Taiji on October 27. Among them were Isabel Lucas from Home and Away, Hayden Panettiere, the US actor from Heroes, Australian model Hannah Fraser - who took her own mermaid costume - and Japanese surfers.
Unlike the direct intervention favoured by some opponents of whaling, Rastovich said their group strived to be peaceable and respectful. There wasn't even a protest sign. The 30 held a quiet circle ceremony, and left town.
Two days later, with a herd of pilot whales netted in the bay, six of the surfers came back. Paddling out through water so red it stained their boards, they formed another circle. Some of the surviving whales lifted their heads above the water to look, before the angered whalers used an outboard engine reversing towards the surfers to force them away.
Then, using a long pole, the whalers whacked the surfboards and Fraser's leg. With police sirens approaching, the group made for shore, where their reaction was caught by Sky Television. The girls wept. "It was so shocking none of us could hold back tears," Lucas said.
When he lived in Taiji, Barker found that young Japanese were also upset by the dolphin kill, but didn't know how to stop it.
Rastovich saw that Japanese surfers were angered when they learnt of its extent.
To reach these people, Greenpeace has begun building a big Japanese youth presence on the web, using the cute motif "Whale-Love". The same approach is behind a Japanese-language YouTube video posted by the Federal Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
If Labor is elected, its policy of directly monitoring Antarctic whaling offers the prospect that more stark information will go to the Japanese people.
Dave Rastovich recalls a traditional saying about Japan, where conformity is paramount: "The nail that's sticking out must be hammered down."
He is convinced this saying is absolutely right. "The nail that's sticking out is those whalers."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dave Rastovich
Hannah Fraser
Environmentalists and the environment
They call it the killing cove, a small stretch of water off a pebbled beach in southern Japan near the whaling village of Taiji.
It is here that the fishermen of Taiji go to slaughter their annual dolphin catch - a controversial and little-known part of Japan's lucrative local fishing industry.
Last year Nigel Barker left Sydney to live in Taiji, where his Japanese wife's family have a holiday house.
He knew of the dolphin hunt, but didn't go as an activist. Instead, he became compelled to document what he saw - until he was driven out of town by threats to his safety.
"I'm very happy to be back," he said, as he settled into Sydney again this week. "Except that I can't get it out of my head. It's become my, sort of, contemporary nightmare now."
Barker filmed every step of the hunt that it was possible to document from shore. "They go up to 30 kilometres offshore to find the dolphins. Then they use metal tubes which they hold in the water and beat. The noise neutralises the dolphin's sonar, and it deafens them. When they are being driven in, they become very listless."
With a dozen boat engines behind them, the herds are pushed into what Barker called the killing cove, where nets are drawn across a narrow entrance to hold the catch. The whalers, increasingly sensitive to protests, also rig tarpaulins over fences, and a tent on the beach, to conceal their work.
Then, over several days, they dispatch the animals. Barker's video shows dolphins tied by their tails in the shore wash, drowning.
While documenting one pilot whale kill, he hid in trees above the cove. Below him there is wild thrashing in the water, and it turns red.
"It's just the most appalling thing," Barker said. "I was nearly in tears that day. The thrashing. That's all you can hear."
Japan's Fisheries Agency contends that this hunt is no more or less cruel than the hunting of other wild animals. The agency hasn't been discouraged by tests that show high mercury levels in some of the meat.
The local officials strongly promote the cultural importance of their 400-year whaling history, but Barker has no time for this.
"We used to burn witches," he said. "We got over it."
Taiji was recently the scene for a small, symbolic protest against the hunt, featuring surfers and actors from Australia and the United States.
Some paddled their boards through blood-stained waters, past the floating bodies of slaughtered pilot whales, to join the herd's survivors.
But the protest was hardly the kind to raise a ripple in Tokyo.
No banners, no slashed nets, no arrests. Just surfers forming memorial circles that they held in the water until the whalers drove them out of Taiji.
The protest highlights a shift in anti-whaling campaigning that some believe is crucial.
Australian leaders and top environment groups, including Greenpeace, say that the way to stop whaling is to change public opinion in Japan - however many years that might take.
Taiji is Japanese whaling heartland. A tourist town living on memories, its few remaining coastal whalers each year seek a quota of minkes at the International Whaling Commission.
They claim they are "indigenous" whalers, and are refused because they would sell the meat, in contravention of the global ban on commercial whaling.
They also hunt dolphins and small whales outside the control of the whaling commission.
Japan allows an annual kill of more than 20,000, and Taiji gets more than 2000.
Dave Rastovich, of Byron Bay, is with Surfers for Cetaceans, a group whose name embodies its cultural statement. It calls on "surfers everywhere in the world to take action on behalf of the whales and dolphins of the world, of Mother Ocean".
Gathered through surfing networks, 30 people joined Rastovich on the beach at Taiji on October 27. Among them were Isabel Lucas from Home and Away, Hayden Panettiere, the US actor from Heroes, Australian model Hannah Fraser - who took her own mermaid costume - and Japanese surfers.
Unlike the direct intervention favoured by some opponents of whaling, Rastovich said their group strived to be peaceable and respectful. There wasn't even a protest sign. The 30 held a quiet circle ceremony, and left town.
Two days later, with a herd of pilot whales netted in the bay, six of the surfers came back. Paddling out through water so red it stained their boards, they formed another circle. Some of the surviving whales lifted their heads above the water to look, before the angered whalers used an outboard engine reversing towards the surfers to force them away.
Then, using a long pole, the whalers whacked the surfboards and Fraser's leg. With police sirens approaching, the group made for shore, where their reaction was caught by Sky Television. The girls wept. "It was so shocking none of us could hold back tears," Lucas said.
When he lived in Taiji, Barker found that young Japanese were also upset by the dolphin kill, but didn't know how to stop it.
Rastovich saw that Japanese surfers were angered when they learnt of its extent.
To reach these people, Greenpeace has begun building a big Japanese youth presence on the web, using the cute motif "Whale-Love". The same approach is behind a Japanese-language YouTube video posted by the Federal Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
If Labor is elected, its policy of directly monitoring Antarctic whaling offers the prospect that more stark information will go to the Japanese people.
Dave Rastovich recalls a traditional saying about Japan, where conformity is paramount: "The nail that's sticking out must be hammered down."
He is convinced this saying is absolutely right. "The nail that's sticking out is those whalers."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Dave Rastovich
Hannah Fraser
Environmentalists and the environment
Virgin's Richard Branson plans world's most eco-friendly resort in British Virgin Islands - press release - 30th June 2008
NECKER ISLAND, British Virgin Islands (AP) - Richard Branson, the adventuring chairman of the Virgin Group of companies, says his two private Caribbean islands have a higher purpose than serving as ultra-luxury retreats for entertainment and business A-listers.
Walking barefoot on the sandy trails of his Necker Island, the British tycoon said his sun-soaked island properties in this British chain will prove that the Caribbean with its wealth of sun, wind and waves can lead the globe in renewable alternatives to carbon fuels.
It is actually inexcusable for the Caribbean to need to use dirty fuels anymore when it has all these natural resources on its doorstep, said Branson, after pointing out Necker Island's thatched-hut villas, cascading infinity pools and a pond occupied by pink flamingos.
Branson, a high school dropout who built the Virgin empire into a world brand as a savvy entrepreneur, said he plans for his newest property, Mosquito Island, to be transformed into what he touts as the most environmentally-friendly resort on the globe.
Mosquito, an uninhabited speck of land located off the island of Virgin Gorda and within sight of Necker, currently features wind-swept scrub and a few dilapidated buildings. But Branson envisions 20 villas and a beachfront restaurant powered entirely by wind turbines and solar panels.
During a tour of Necker Island in June, he told reporters that the eco-resort's buildings would capture cool thermal airflows, eliminating the need for air conditioners. The guests' food would come from an organic orchard, and beach buggies would be powered by biofuels.
To bring renewable technology to Mosquito Island, the British billionaire has partnered with several alternative energy consultants, including Ken Kao, a Boston-based architect and lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
The renewable energy sources of sun and wind are very promising, Kao said. The islands receive significant solar radiance and extensive winds.
But it's not a done deal yet. The British Virgin Islands planning department is still reviewing designs for Branson's Mosquito resort. Government response to the latest proposal by the British islands' most high-profile resident has been positive.
They are trying to go green and be environmentally friendly with every aspect of the project. That's definitely very good for the B.V.I. because we're such a small set of islands, said Dylan Penn, the planner coordinating the government review of the resort project.
Branson, who is known for hobnobbing with celebrities and making cameo appearances in Hollywood movies, has displayed a strong commitment to developing a new biofuel for commercial jets as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Earlier this year, Branson's Virgin Atlantic carried out the world's first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel in an effort to show it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels. The flight was partially fueled with a biofuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil (from a type of palm nut) in one of its four main fuel tanks.
Branson said he believes soaring global oil prices can be the catalyst to spur governments worldwide to develop their own eco-projects.
To replicate his vision across the region, a planned-for consulting group, Virgin Green Owls, is expected to start advising governments and corporations in carbon neutral projects this August, he said.
We've managed to prove on paper and now we'll prove in reality that the Caribbean could run with the determination of governments on solar and wind, Branson said. There is no need to continue using dirty fuels.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Richard Branson
Virgin
Environmentalists and the environment
Walking barefoot on the sandy trails of his Necker Island, the British tycoon said his sun-soaked island properties in this British chain will prove that the Caribbean with its wealth of sun, wind and waves can lead the globe in renewable alternatives to carbon fuels.
It is actually inexcusable for the Caribbean to need to use dirty fuels anymore when it has all these natural resources on its doorstep, said Branson, after pointing out Necker Island's thatched-hut villas, cascading infinity pools and a pond occupied by pink flamingos.
Branson, a high school dropout who built the Virgin empire into a world brand as a savvy entrepreneur, said he plans for his newest property, Mosquito Island, to be transformed into what he touts as the most environmentally-friendly resort on the globe.
Mosquito, an uninhabited speck of land located off the island of Virgin Gorda and within sight of Necker, currently features wind-swept scrub and a few dilapidated buildings. But Branson envisions 20 villas and a beachfront restaurant powered entirely by wind turbines and solar panels.
During a tour of Necker Island in June, he told reporters that the eco-resort's buildings would capture cool thermal airflows, eliminating the need for air conditioners. The guests' food would come from an organic orchard, and beach buggies would be powered by biofuels.
To bring renewable technology to Mosquito Island, the British billionaire has partnered with several alternative energy consultants, including Ken Kao, a Boston-based architect and lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
The renewable energy sources of sun and wind are very promising, Kao said. The islands receive significant solar radiance and extensive winds.
But it's not a done deal yet. The British Virgin Islands planning department is still reviewing designs for Branson's Mosquito resort. Government response to the latest proposal by the British islands' most high-profile resident has been positive.
They are trying to go green and be environmentally friendly with every aspect of the project. That's definitely very good for the B.V.I. because we're such a small set of islands, said Dylan Penn, the planner coordinating the government review of the resort project.
Branson, who is known for hobnobbing with celebrities and making cameo appearances in Hollywood movies, has displayed a strong commitment to developing a new biofuel for commercial jets as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Earlier this year, Branson's Virgin Atlantic carried out the world's first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel in an effort to show it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels. The flight was partially fueled with a biofuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil (from a type of palm nut) in one of its four main fuel tanks.
Branson said he believes soaring global oil prices can be the catalyst to spur governments worldwide to develop their own eco-projects.
To replicate his vision across the region, a planned-for consulting group, Virgin Green Owls, is expected to start advising governments and corporations in carbon neutral projects this August, he said.
We've managed to prove on paper and now we'll prove in reality that the Caribbean could run with the determination of governments on solar and wind, Branson said. There is no need to continue using dirty fuels.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Richard Branson
Virgin
Environmentalists and the environment
The Big Green Bus Rolls Out Geared For Green - Paul Newman's Own - April 2008
12 Students, 12,000 miles and 1 Waste Veggie Oil Powered Bus on a Mission for a Greener Tomorrow
HANOVER- NH- (June, 2008): Turning the all-American notion of the great summer road-trip on its head, twelve college students are crisscrossing the country from June through August in order to change the world – one vegetable oil-powered bus at a time. To find a tour schedule of bus stops, please visit: www.thebiggreenbus.org.
After three summers on the road, more than 35,000 miles traveled, and 4,400 gallons of waste vegetable oil used in place of diesel, the Big Green Bus is no longer the rag-tag invention of Dartmouth College’s engineers and ultimate Frisbee community. The vehicle is still the same school bus converted to run on waste vegetable oil harvested from greasy spoons, yet the message has evolved. The bus has transformed from mere transportation into a mobile museum of sustainable living, making the world greener mile by mile.
“This year, we are expanding our mission to include advocacy as well as education. At each stop we’ll engage mayors and other city planners in discussion to see what American communities are doing to go green,” said Andrew Zabel 2009 graduate and general manager of the Big Green Bus. “We’ll be like honey bees, spreading effective environmentalism across the country,” added Ro Wang 2008 graduate and member of the Big Green Bus.
The focus is both local and national as they begin their journey in Washington DC to discuss climate change with senators of both parties. In addition, the students have laptops ready so that visitors can communicate with their local congressmen via email to share their concerns about climate change.
“I’m excited about putting to use all the new teaching tools we have this year to help the public learn about the energy issues facing our society,” said Elysa Corin 2008 graduate and the Big Green Bus’ education director.
The bus serves as a science fair on wheels—a virtual exhibit for a sustainable future. This year the bus sports:
* State of the art solar panels across the roof
* Laptops equipped with mobile wireless internet
* Sustainably-harvested wood floors
* A small wind-turbine
* Solar demo kits
* Projector and awning for presentations and movie showings
* Response cards for instant public polling
* “What’s-a-Watt?” plug in watt meters
* Compact florescent light versus incandescent light bulb demos
The Big Green Bus hits the road on June 9th and will travel more than 12,000 miles through 40 states from New Hampshire to California and back again, educating Americans of all ages about how to green their homes and their country. Featured in previous years on Good Morning America, MTV, CNN, Newsweek, NPR, USA Today, and numerous local newspapers, these veggie-oil powered students are out once again to usher Americans onto their bus and into a green future.
For the first time, Americans can not only jump on board the bus, they may also lend a virtual hand: follow regular dispatches from the road and interact with the students in real time, all summer long, at www.changents.com/biggreenbus.
The Big Green Bus crew for the summer of 2008 are:
* Addie Gorlin from Hopkins, MN
* Andrew Zabel from Fairfield, CT
* Anthony Arch from San Francisco, CA
* Elysa Corin from Chapel Hill, NC
* Trey Roy from Virginia Beach, VA
* Kevin McGregor from Russellville, AR
* John Beardsley from South Salem, New York
* Alice Bradley from Chugiak, Alaska
* Bennet Meyers from San Jose, CA
* Nathan Mazonson from Menlo Park, CA
* Dave Lindberg from Long Beach, CA
* Lauren Ro Wang from Taipei, Taiwan
Meet them at www.thebiggreenbus.org
The Big Green Bus would not be what it is today without support from Newman’s Own, Waste Management, Timberland’s Earthkeepers, Changents, and Burt’s Bees.
About our sponsors:
Newman's Own(r), Inc., offers more than 150 varieties of delicious all-natural food and beverage products, developed with and approved by Paul Newman himself, including our new marinades (Dress Up Dinner!); Natural Salad Mists and Sweet Enough Breakfast Cereals. The charitable mission of Newman's Own is expressed in its Company motto: "Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good." Paul Newman and the Newman's Own Foundation donate all profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes. Paul Newman and the Newman's Own Foundation have given more than $200 million to thousands of charities worldwide since 1982. Visit www.newmansown.com to learn
more.
Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. The company is a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. For more information see www.thinkgreen.com.
Timberland (NYSE: TBL) is a global leader in the design, engineering and marketing of premium-quality footwear, apparel and accessories for consumers who value the outdoors and their time in it. Timberland markets products under the TimberlandR, Timberland PROR, SmartWoolR, Timberland Boot CompanyT, HowiesR and IPATHR brands, all of which offer quality workmanship and detailing and are built to withstand the elements of nature. The company's products can be found in leading department and specialty stores as well as TimberlandR retail stores throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, South Africa and the Middle East. Timberland's dedication to making quality products is matched by the company's commitment to "doing well and doing good" -- forging powerful partnerships among employees, consumers and service partners to transform the communities in which they live and work. To learn more about Timberland, please visit www.timberland.com.
Changents is an entertainment-driven Internet destination that connects innovators of social and environmental change - Change Agents - with a global network of people who want to help them. Change Agents and members of its community around the world share their amazing stories and utilize online tools to mobilize help from friends everywhere. Changents was founded in 2007 by Alex Hofmann and Deron Triff, social entrepreneurs with backgrounds in entertainment and digital media, who set out to engage a digitally-connected, socially-conscious generation on its own terms. Back a
Change Agent at www.changents.com.
Burt's Bees has been offering distinctive all-natural personal care products since 1991. Today, Burt's Bees is the leading manufacturer in Natural Personal Care with over 150 Earth-friendly, natural personal care products, including face care, body care, hair care, lip care, personal wash, men's grooming, baby care, outdoor remedies, kits and gifts. Burt's Bees has a rich tradition in corporate social responsibility and stands for The Greater Good with all their products having the highest levels of natural ingredients, nature-safe processes, and environmentally sensitive packaging. Burt's Bees has nearly 400 employees with products available through approximately 30,000 retail stores in the United States, as well as Canada, UK, Taiwan and with its website www.burtsbees.com.
HANOVER- NH- (June, 2008): Turning the all-American notion of the great summer road-trip on its head, twelve college students are crisscrossing the country from June through August in order to change the world – one vegetable oil-powered bus at a time. To find a tour schedule of bus stops, please visit: www.thebiggreenbus.org.
After three summers on the road, more than 35,000 miles traveled, and 4,400 gallons of waste vegetable oil used in place of diesel, the Big Green Bus is no longer the rag-tag invention of Dartmouth College’s engineers and ultimate Frisbee community. The vehicle is still the same school bus converted to run on waste vegetable oil harvested from greasy spoons, yet the message has evolved. The bus has transformed from mere transportation into a mobile museum of sustainable living, making the world greener mile by mile.
“This year, we are expanding our mission to include advocacy as well as education. At each stop we’ll engage mayors and other city planners in discussion to see what American communities are doing to go green,” said Andrew Zabel 2009 graduate and general manager of the Big Green Bus. “We’ll be like honey bees, spreading effective environmentalism across the country,” added Ro Wang 2008 graduate and member of the Big Green Bus.
The focus is both local and national as they begin their journey in Washington DC to discuss climate change with senators of both parties. In addition, the students have laptops ready so that visitors can communicate with their local congressmen via email to share their concerns about climate change.
“I’m excited about putting to use all the new teaching tools we have this year to help the public learn about the energy issues facing our society,” said Elysa Corin 2008 graduate and the Big Green Bus’ education director.
The bus serves as a science fair on wheels—a virtual exhibit for a sustainable future. This year the bus sports:
* State of the art solar panels across the roof
* Laptops equipped with mobile wireless internet
* Sustainably-harvested wood floors
* A small wind-turbine
* Solar demo kits
* Projector and awning for presentations and movie showings
* Response cards for instant public polling
* “What’s-a-Watt?” plug in watt meters
* Compact florescent light versus incandescent light bulb demos
The Big Green Bus hits the road on June 9th and will travel more than 12,000 miles through 40 states from New Hampshire to California and back again, educating Americans of all ages about how to green their homes and their country. Featured in previous years on Good Morning America, MTV, CNN, Newsweek, NPR, USA Today, and numerous local newspapers, these veggie-oil powered students are out once again to usher Americans onto their bus and into a green future.
For the first time, Americans can not only jump on board the bus, they may also lend a virtual hand: follow regular dispatches from the road and interact with the students in real time, all summer long, at www.changents.com/biggreenbus.
The Big Green Bus crew for the summer of 2008 are:
* Addie Gorlin from Hopkins, MN
* Andrew Zabel from Fairfield, CT
* Anthony Arch from San Francisco, CA
* Elysa Corin from Chapel Hill, NC
* Trey Roy from Virginia Beach, VA
* Kevin McGregor from Russellville, AR
* John Beardsley from South Salem, New York
* Alice Bradley from Chugiak, Alaska
* Bennet Meyers from San Jose, CA
* Nathan Mazonson from Menlo Park, CA
* Dave Lindberg from Long Beach, CA
* Lauren Ro Wang from Taipei, Taiwan
Meet them at www.thebiggreenbus.org
The Big Green Bus would not be what it is today without support from Newman’s Own, Waste Management, Timberland’s Earthkeepers, Changents, and Burt’s Bees.
About our sponsors:
Newman's Own(r), Inc., offers more than 150 varieties of delicious all-natural food and beverage products, developed with and approved by Paul Newman himself, including our new marinades (Dress Up Dinner!); Natural Salad Mists and Sweet Enough Breakfast Cereals. The charitable mission of Newman's Own is expressed in its Company motto: "Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good." Paul Newman and the Newman's Own Foundation donate all profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes. Paul Newman and the Newman's Own Foundation have given more than $200 million to thousands of charities worldwide since 1982. Visit www.newmansown.com to learn
more.
Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. The company is a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. For more information see www.thinkgreen.com.
Timberland (NYSE: TBL) is a global leader in the design, engineering and marketing of premium-quality footwear, apparel and accessories for consumers who value the outdoors and their time in it. Timberland markets products under the TimberlandR, Timberland PROR, SmartWoolR, Timberland Boot CompanyT, HowiesR and IPATHR brands, all of which offer quality workmanship and detailing and are built to withstand the elements of nature. The company's products can be found in leading department and specialty stores as well as TimberlandR retail stores throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, South Africa and the Middle East. Timberland's dedication to making quality products is matched by the company's commitment to "doing well and doing good" -- forging powerful partnerships among employees, consumers and service partners to transform the communities in which they live and work. To learn more about Timberland, please visit www.timberland.com.
Changents is an entertainment-driven Internet destination that connects innovators of social and environmental change - Change Agents - with a global network of people who want to help them. Change Agents and members of its community around the world share their amazing stories and utilize online tools to mobilize help from friends everywhere. Changents was founded in 2007 by Alex Hofmann and Deron Triff, social entrepreneurs with backgrounds in entertainment and digital media, who set out to engage a digitally-connected, socially-conscious generation on its own terms. Back a
Change Agent at www.changents.com.
Burt's Bees has been offering distinctive all-natural personal care products since 1991. Today, Burt's Bees is the leading manufacturer in Natural Personal Care with over 150 Earth-friendly, natural personal care products, including face care, body care, hair care, lip care, personal wash, men's grooming, baby care, outdoor remedies, kits and gifts. Burt's Bees has a rich tradition in corporate social responsibility and stands for The Greater Good with all their products having the highest levels of natural ingredients, nature-safe processes, and environmentally sensitive packaging. Burt's Bees has nearly 400 employees with products available through approximately 30,000 retail stores in the United States, as well as Canada, UK, Taiwan and with its website www.burtsbees.com.
Greens to lead on climate change: Brown - The Age - 12th July 2008
Greens leader Bob Brown says his party will lead the national parliamentary debate on climate change, pushing for tougher cuts in emissions and massive funding for public transport.
Addressing the Australian Greens national Council meeting in Hobart, Senator Brown said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have failed to show mature leadership if Labor sets weak targets for emissions cuts or if it delayed implementation of an emissions trading scheme to 2012.
He said the Greens wanted a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2020 and a carbon neutral Australia, or at least 90 per cent reduction, by 2050.
As well, the Greens want massive funding for fast, reliable and cheap public transport in metropolitan and regional Australia.
Senator Brown called for an end to logging and burning of native forests and woodlands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Greens are also calling for feed-in laws, paying a premium to those who feed solar or other renewable energy back into the electricity grid.
"We will use the balance of power to make the Senate a house of innovation to produce better outcomes for all Australians," he said.
Senator Brown welcomed new Greens senators Scott Ludlam (WA) and Sarah Hanson-Young (SA) to the team.
Both were elected last year, giving the Greens five Senate places and the balance of power in some circumstances.
To pass any measure opposed by the Opposition, Labor will need to negotiate the support of Greens and minor party senators.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bob Brown
Environmentalists and the environment
Addressing the Australian Greens national Council meeting in Hobart, Senator Brown said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have failed to show mature leadership if Labor sets weak targets for emissions cuts or if it delayed implementation of an emissions trading scheme to 2012.
He said the Greens wanted a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2020 and a carbon neutral Australia, or at least 90 per cent reduction, by 2050.
As well, the Greens want massive funding for fast, reliable and cheap public transport in metropolitan and regional Australia.
Senator Brown called for an end to logging and burning of native forests and woodlands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Greens are also calling for feed-in laws, paying a premium to those who feed solar or other renewable energy back into the electricity grid.
"We will use the balance of power to make the Senate a house of innovation to produce better outcomes for all Australians," he said.
Senator Brown welcomed new Greens senators Scott Ludlam (WA) and Sarah Hanson-Young (SA) to the team.
Both were elected last year, giving the Greens five Senate places and the balance of power in some circumstances.
To pass any measure opposed by the Opposition, Labor will need to negotiate the support of Greens and minor party senators.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bob Brown
Environmentalists and the environment