There's more from the Green Left Weekly Activist Calendar - 2013-03-27

Green Left Weekly Activist Calendar

March 27, 2013

Conference Marxism 2013: Ideas to challenge the system Thursday, March 28-Sunday, March 31. Melbourne University. For more info and bookings visit Marxism 2013. Presented by Socialist Alternative. This year the conference is being sponsored by Socialist Alliance and Green Left Weekly who are presenting two workshops: Saturday, March 30, 2pm: Socialists and electoral interventions & Sunday, March 31, 4pm: Marxism & the ecological revolution.

Public meeting The People vs Coal Seam Gas Tuesday, April 16, 6:30pm (meal from 6pm). Resistance Centre, Level 5, 407 Swanston St, City (opposite RMIT). . We have Peak Oil, Peak Gas and climate change. The answer is renewable energy, but instead, companies are drilling for the dirtiest gas. Coal Seam Gas is coming to Victoria and local communities are gearing up to campaign against it. The speakers will discuss the threat of coal seam gas and the campaign against it. Speakers: Mark Ogge (The Australia Institute); Cam Walker (Friends of the Earth); Jess Moore (Lock the Gate, Stop CSG Illawarra, Socialist Alliance). 6:30pm. Entry by donation. Hosted by Socialist Alliance and Green Left Weekly. For more info ph 9639 8622.

Encourage the Leadbeater's Fairy Possum. Discourage the purchasing of Reflex copy paper.

• There are 1500 Leadbeater's Fairy Possum left in the wild.  

  A major driver of their extinction is chipping habitat for Reflex copy paper. 

  Save the Fairy Possum - say 'no' to Reflex.

GOING BACKWARDS UNDER BAILLIEU! - Join the Backwards March, Melbourne, 13 November

Click to enlarge

GOING BACKWARDS UNDER BAILLIEU!

Join the Backwards March and call on the Premier to stop taking Victoria backwards!

WHEN: 

Sunday, 13 November from 1.00 - 2.30pm

WHERE: 

Parliament House, Spring Street, Melbourne

WHY: 

In just one year Premier Baillieu has taken Victoria 

decades backwards on the environment:

* Cattle trampling our national parks

* New wind farms blocked

* Co2 emissions target ignored

* Endangered species habitat logged

* New coal-fired power station approved

* Green Wedges threatened

* Westernport destruction fast-tracked

Premier Baillieu said he would 'fix the problems, and build the future', but when it comes to our environment his government has created new problems and is threatening out future!

His government has no formal environment or climate change policy, and no clear vision for a more sustainable Victoria.

So after 12 disappointing months we're marching backwards to demonstrate the direction the Premier is taking us.

JOIN HUNDREDS OF OTHER CONCERNED VICTORIANS 

TO TURN THINGS AROUND FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT 

AND ASK: 

WHERE IS YOUR PLAN PREMIER?

Organised by 

Victorian National Parks Association

The Wilderness Society

Environment Victoria 

and 

Friends of the Earth.

A Facebook page is available here.

Want golf or a gargle? Moves to protect Melbourne water.

Environmental Groups Take Legal Action against $65 Million Golf Course Development, to Safeguard Melbourne's Drinking Water

Environmental Organisations Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Healesville Environment Watch Inc (HEWI) and Melbourne resident Bill Boerkamp will take part in a hearing in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) on Monday November 15, in the hope of quashing development plans for a $65 million golf course development planned by Eastern Golf Club at Yering.

Click to enlarge

Sugarloaf Reservoir with the Melbourne CBD in the background

6 September 2010

Eastern Golf Club is moving from its current Doncaster location, with land at Doncaster possibly set to earn the club over $100 million. Total development costs of the Doncaster land could top $1 billion.
The environmental organisations are very concerned that the development is located on a sensitive floodplain that floods regularly and is located only one kilometre upstream from the offtake to Sugarloaf Reservoir which pumps drinking water from the Yarra River. The Yarra at this location is also known to support habitat for three threatened native fish species, the Australian Grayling, the Murray Cod and the Macquarie Perch

A spokesperson for Friends of the Earth Anthony Amis said:

"With the recent rainfall, a large portion of the the site where the golf course is to be built has been inundated with flood water. Friends of the Earth is deeply concerned that runoff from agrochemicals used on the course could impact on drinking water quality for 1.5 million Melbournians who source their drinking water from Sugarloaf. 


From our estimations up to 50 tonnes of fertiliser could be used on the course during establishment and ~ 13 tonnes of fertiliser required each year. This is on top of the pesticides that the course plans to use, several of which have been associated with health problems. Surely in the 21st we have gone beyond the need to place such chemical dependent land uses in our water supplies. We also understand that Melbourne Water support this development but only with stringent conditions that the course is now opposing.”


Felicity Millner, solicitor from the Environment Defenders Office, who is representing Friends of the Earth in the proceedings, added


"We will argue that the precautionary principle requires the golf course not be granted a planning permit because the risks to the health of humans and ecology of the Yarra River are not properly understood.”

Yarra River floodplain

6 September 2010

Spokesperson for HEWI Jacqui Feagan said:


“HEWI is very concerned at the prospect of a golf course precinct (comprising 3 large golf courses) on this sensitive floodplain area at Yering. HEWI believes that such a precinct is contrary to the Regional Strategy Plan for the Yarra Valley and will place an unacceptable burden on the iconic Yarra River and its environs. Excessive water extraction from the Yarra River in each of the last three years, 2007-9, left the river with only 30% of the natural run-off – the lowest on record – so new impacts will be compounded by such a reduced level of water flow. HEWI is also deeply concerned about the irreversible damage to the floodplain, the loss of prime agricultural land and biodiversity that another golf course would impose on this region.”

For Further Information 

Call Anthony Amis on 0425 841 564 or 9419 8700 (ext 11)

Yarra River, Yering Gorge

6 September 2010

Bass Coast Winter Whale Watch - are whales getting in the way of the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant? Or could it possibly be the other way around?

"Bass Coast Winter Whale Watch" 

being run by Watershed Victoria is turning out to be a huge success. 

 

You are invited to 

Williamson's Beach 

at 11am on Sunday 25th July 

to help us welcome 

these magnificent beasts to our local waters. 

There will be a welcoming ceremony, 

a blessing by King Neptune, a sand sculpture contest and bbq. 

All welcome, but please, no harpoons!!! 

Whale Watch was launched 2 months ago with the aim of collecting information about the movements and habits of whales and other marine life along the coast between Phillip Island and Cape Liptrap. Already we have received dozens of reports ,including pods of 50+ dolphins at Cape Paterson, 8+ Pilot Whales and a Killer Whale cruising Williamsons Beach, and Humpbacks in groups of 2-5, some with young, spread along the coast from Inverloch to Cowes. There was also a large whale spotted at the top of Port Phillip Bay.

Migration of Humpback Whales is now underway and a local teacher has spotted 21 Humpbacks in 6 days from Eagles Nest to Phillip Island. Our ever-vigilant surfers sighted a 5-6m Great White Shark at Kilcunda and beat a hasty retreat to shore. John Dickie, skipper of the Kasey Lee cruise boat operating from Cowes reports already sighting over 30 Humpback Whales suggesting this could be a record season. 

The western entrance from Seal Rocks to Rhyll seems to be a popular spot at the moment for Humpbacks to play and rest on their long annual journey north from Antarctic waters to Queensland. They calve on their way north, so that their young can avoid the icy Antarctic waters whilst their insulating blubber layers develop, as do the mighty Southern Right Whales.

While some observations have been made by locals over many years, this is the first time they are being collected and recorded in a co-ordinated fashion. Watershed Victoria's initiative was prompted by DSE's assertions in the EES for the Wonthaggi desalination plant, and reiterated by Federal Environment Minister,  Peter Garrett, that this coastline "does not provide important feeding, breeding or calving habitat for these species." Southern Right and Humpback whales are listed as endangered and threatened species. 

Members of the public 

can log further sightings for the remainder of 2010 

by phoning the Whale Hotline 0438 646 677, 

and get more info from the website 

www.watershedvictoria.org.au .  

Stephen Cannon and Mark Robertson

Watershed Victoria

0407811778 or 0408528864

For viewing more about the whales 

and the desalination plant issues,

please go here.

Related reading:

Whale Shark, Swimming, Australia Photographic Poster Print by Gerard Soury, 42x56

The Dorsal Fin of a Vulnerable Southern Humpback Whale Diving Deep, Australia Artists Photographic Poster Print by Jason Edwards, 24x32

Whale Watching in Australian & New Zealand Waters

The Whale Rider

HONEYBEE BLUES SCREENING IN KYNETON

Picture from here

This Friday 14 August

in Kyneton is the Victorian launch of the documentary "Honey Bee Blues".

2pm followed by a panel discussion.

Virginia Bartlam from Castlemaine (5472 4494) will be driving down and has spare seats.

More info below...

In association with Victorian Apiarists Association

HONEYBEE BLUES

Director – Stefan Moore,

Producers – Susan MacKinnon and Anna Cater

© Mitra Films Pty Ltd 2009

Developed and Produced in association with SBS

“The world is facing a perilous future without enough bees to pollinate our crops. HONEYBEE BLUES takes us on an astonishing journey into the microscopic world of bees and an Australian scientist’s race to save them from world-wide annihilation. The characters arecentral players in a real life, evolutionary drama that is being played out between theEuropean honeybee and the Varroa destructor mite. The story unfolds against thelandscapes of the Australian bush, America’s industrial farmlands and the remote villages ofPapua New Guinea.”

Join us for the Victorian launch of the documentary

HONEYBEE BLUES

Kyneton Town Hall

Friday, 14th August 2009

2.00pm – 4:30pm

Followed by a panel discussion with Dr Denis Anderson (CSIRO)

Stefan Moore, Director - Susan MacKinnon, Producer

Peter McDonald (E.& R McDonald Apiarists)

& Jodie Goldsworthy (Beechworth Honey Pty Ltd)

Concluded with tea, coffee & nibbles

$15.00 per person

RSVP to Sue Morgan 5424 8456

Crosses, memorials on the dying/dead Murray River

I have received this Media Release from Networker,

Professor Diane Bell:

Media Release

Crosses Mark the End of the Murray

August 12, 2009

“It is one of a myriad of responses to the tradegy we have been forced to watch unfold day by painful day,” says Professor Diane Bell of the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc. (RLCAG) of the hundreds of white crosses that appeared on the foreshore at Clayton Bay on August 7, only to be taken down that evening by the contractors. “In the last few days other symbolic representations have appeared: a floral memorial on the cliff top, one huge and one smaller cross cut into the long grass of a paddock, crosses on private property, crosses at intersections and little yellow coffins floating on the black mud.”

“We are grieving, angry, frustrated and determined to continue our campaign for bioremediation, revegetation and keeping the river, lakes and tributaries connected.”

“This week the fresh water stopped flowing from the Finniss River into Lake Alexandrina. Thick, heavy, black mud now fills the gap between the dam wall and the cliff at Clayton Bay. It can only be days before the wall reaches the cliff. We are bearing witness to the end of the Murray.”

“For the last seven weeks we have staffed the Fresh Water Embassy every day but one, the day of our AGM. A steady stream of visitors and their questions have kept us very busy. They have wanted to know the big picture. They have brought insights from up river, from interstate, from overseas. The over-whelming majority have been shocked by the scale of the dam/regulator. There is a people’s movement building and our work is part of it.”

“Next week we will travel to Grieger’s sand bar between Blanchetown and Swan Reach to participate in the ‘Meeting of Concerned Communities about the current state, and management, of the River Murray.”

“We are inviting all who share our concern for Australia’s River to make their own memorials,” says Diane Bell.

CABINET IN CONFIDENCE? RELEASE THOSE DAM DOCUMENTS NOW, ANNA BLIGH.

Don't Murray the Mary

Networker Tanzi

from the Save the Mary Co-ordinating Group

has forwarded the following Press Release:

Save the Mary River Coordinating Group

(STMRCG)

is the group leading the fight

to save the Mary River and Great Sandy Strait

from the damage of the Qld Government's

proposed Traveston Crossing dam.

We have been fighting

this proposal since April 2006

Tony Fitzgerald speaks out on increasing corruption in Queensland government and governance.

***MEDIA RELEASE Thursday July 30th, 2009

"RELEASE THOSE DAM DOCUMENTS NOW, PREMIER!"

Ninety-two percent of respondents to a Courier Mail Poll agree Tony Fitzgerald is right on the money in his scathing criticisms of the Beattie and Bligh governments practices – and the lead group in the fight to prevent the proposed damming of the Mary River at Traveston Crossing agrees with them.

Save the Mary River Coordinating Group President, Glenda Pickersgill said today that the group had experienced frustration and anger at the treatment it had received from the government during the last three years.

She called on the government to immediately release all the “Cabinet in Confidence” documents it had relied on to arrive at the decision to dam the Mary River. “The Beattie/Bligh decision was based purely on political expediency and would be a total waste of billions of taxpayer dollars if it was ever allowed to proceed,” Ms Pickersgill said.

“Let’s get all the information out there for the public to see so they can see what went on. After all, it was paid for by taxpayers” she said.

"It took a 4-day Senate Enquiry in mid -2007 to force the government to reveal some key reports that it had been denying to us. It also made the startling revelation that the desirability of the Traveston Crossing site was based on the briefest of desktop studies, many pages of which were either maps or blank. Many of the reports commissioned since then would appear to be predicated that they must come out in favour of the dam and the site."

"It really does seem that this government's approach is that a well-oiled (and well financed) media department will cover a multitude of shortcomings."

“It would seem that the people of Queensland are now echoing the cry that’s been ringing through the Mary Valley for these last three years, ‘Enough is Enough’.”

END

Contacts for Media: Glenda Pickersgill 0411 443 589. David Kreutz 0432 683 147 Darryl Stewart (Greater Mary Association) 0418 771 655

Website: www.savethemaryriver.com

Inquiry into Melbourne's Future Water Supply #3

Dead penguin on the Bass Coast

at the pre-construction construction site of the desal plant.

Thanks to Maurice for the photo.

Call to recycle all water and ban outfalls

Peter Ker, The Age, Melbourne,June 3, 2009

A dramatic  increase in water recycling has been recommended for Melbourne, following an 18-month investigation by a Labor-dominated parliamentary committee.

As pressure mounts on the State Government to improve its record on water recycling, the report recommended that 100 per cent of Melbourne's treated water be put to productive use.

The committee is chaired by former Bracks Government minister John Pandazopoulos. Its report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, recommends:

■Wider use of "water offset" schemes, such as the one that allowed Flemington Racecourse to use extra water because it paid for water savings to be achieved at a third-party business.

■Promised environmental flows be delivered to rivers such as the Yarra "as a matter of priority".

■Contracts for the Wonthaggi desalination plant be designed to allow for water production volumes to vary each year, ensuring excess water is not purchased in wet years.

■The Auditor-General should review the effectiveness of water restrictions.

■Installation of water-saving devices such as shower heads and dual-flush toilets should be mandatory every time a property is sold or leased.

The report highlighted that the volume of stormwater running off central Melbourne each year was more than the city's annual consumption, yet policy decisions and planning rules remained the major barrier to increased adoption of rainwater tanks.

The calls for Melbourne to reuse 100 per cent of its treated waste water would require massive change, given the city currently recycles closer to 30 per cent.

The committee said the Government should set tough interim targets, aiming to reuse 50 per cent of Melbourne's water by 2012, and 70 per cent by 2015.

Mr Pandazopoulos said the drinking of recycled water was not needed for Melbourne in the short term, but increased use should occur in the garden and inside the home for toilet flushing and the like.

Melbourne recycles a greater volume of waste water than any Australian city, but still pumps the bulk of its treated water out to sea at controversial outfalls such as Gunnamatta. Mr Pandazopoulos said the committee believed such outfalls should be prohibited. "We should be ending, in effect, outfalls to waterways and oceans like the Gunnamatta outfall, and Government should be committing to finding users for that water that will be recycled," he said.

Government spokeswoman Sofia Dedes said the Government would respond to the recommendations "in coming months".

Opposition spokeswoman Louise Asher said Labor had taken $3.2 billion from water authorities since coming to power a decade ago, yet the completion of major water projects was still years away.

KEY POINTS

■Report says Melbourne should dramatically increase use of treated waste water.

■Policy and planning rules found to be a major barrier to use of rainwater tanks.

Boos not barracking for Barricks

In that great network of Water Worriers and Warriors to which I belong, I learn lots of stuff - not least is the geography of my own country.

In the email box to-day is a note from my friend in Picton. She had wanted me to come to the Rivers SOS gathering there at the weekend and I seriously considered it. How wonderful to see her and network with those wonderful activists. In the end, I couldn't do it. I was up to my eyeballs in environmental human rights. But here's the note:

At our Rivers SOS weekend we had the pleasure of the company of Uncle Chappy Williams, Wiradjuri elder from the Save Lake Cowal group. The Canadian mulitinational Barrick Gold is spewing cyanide into the lake, near Forbes. Chappy and co. hold a protest every Easter, last March some student supporters were arrested for invading the mine site. Thought you would be interested!

Well, I haven't rushed back to reply. Did not want to display my ignorance. Off to Google Maps and there is Lake Cowal dead bang set in the middle of New South Wales, the Premier State. And the lineup of Google searches clicked into place right behind with campaign related sites ! Thank you, Google.

Here you will find Barrick saying all the "right" things on sustainability.   Here is a wonderful parenthood quote:

The success of Barrick’s Cowal Gold Mine, located in New South Wales (NWS) [sic], Australia can be attributed to a strong sense of responsibility to the community and the environment. Upon acquiring the undeveloped Cowal project from Homestake in 2001, Barrick recognized the importance of maintaining the support of the community and investing back into the region. To address this need, the Company embarked on an extensive program of community engagement, beginning during the project’s earliest days. During this process, Barrick gained a clear understanding of the interests of the farmers and other residents located in the communities around Lake Cowal, as well as members of the Wiradjuri indigenous community.

Well, Barrick, looks to me that perhaps you haven't done a great job.  No mention of polluting, devastating cyanide here.  No mention of adverse environmental impacts.  No mention of community concerns.

Governments need to recognise that miners are not always good neighbours for human beings, other species, and other living things, and - needless to say - our precious water.  

Miss Eagle's suggestion of a CaD Code is designed to bring governments and corporates to dialogue (or should that be trialogue) with communities.  There is too little dialogical input into governance in Australia.  It's about time communities jacked up and did something about this and began work on the human right of consultation and dialogue with governments and corporations.  If governments and corporations refuse - then, they are CADs.

One of us

Isn't this picture cute?

And a rose on Mother's Day - well, that's even cuter, don't you think?

Well, no I don't. Here's the story. And it is told in such a way that things become ever cuter...until you give the story some thought. This orang-utan collected timber to aid in what was a well thought out escape plan. Just like something you and I might do were we imprisoned in a strange land as she is.

I am reminded of a story told by an old family friend who grew up in Borneo, now part of Malaysia, but then a British colony. As a teenager he joined the British army. The leader of the platoon was a white man, a British army officer. And one day he shot dead an orang-utan. Clearly the British army officer thought it made him a big man. From that day forward, the platoon of native Borneo men ignored the officer.

You see, the locals recognised one thing that escaped the ignorant educated army officer: the orang-utan was one of them. The orang-utan may not have looked like a human being or communicated like a human being but they knew - without checking the DNA connections - that the orang-utan was as near as darn it to themselves. The British army officer had killed one of their/his own species. He had murdered.

So yes I am amused by the Adelaide orang-utan's escapade - but perhaps not for the same reason as it made media headlines. I am cheering for the orang-utan. She may have been imprisoned for quite a while but she still knows who she is and where she needs to be - and it is not in a zoo. And, if zoos think they are in the business of educating the public, how has this story educated the public about orang-utan and their endangerment? If you really want to find out more, go here.