Logan and Albert Conservation Association
Outdoor schooling has many benefitsBy David Suzuki with Faisal Moola
As our children and grandchildren head back to school it is important to consider not just what we are teaching them but how we are teaching them. After all, the world is facing some incredible challenges, and today's young people will be left to deal with many of them.
So, do we fill their heads with facts and figures so that we can evaluate their progress through standardized testing? Or do we give them tools so they can think for themselves?
Back in 1956, when I was in college, Rachel Carson, a biologist, writer, and ecologist who had a tremendous influence on me, wrote an essay for Woman's Home Companion magazine, titled 'Help Your Child to Wonder', which she later expanded into her book The Sense of Wonder. In the article, she wrote, 'It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.'
Everyday we hear and read about the environment and how our human behavioursare impacting on our home. The environment is everyone's home and is shared - though not evenly - with all humans and all other life forms or species.
This week 11- 17 October 2009 is the first ENVIROWEEK. It has been set up to highlight and reward or acknowledge those people, groups, schools and community groups who are each making contributions towards protecting our environment.
Coolaustralia.org is the group responsible for beginning this promotion and various cities and individuals have connected with the process.
Can you imagine our country without koalas? Well incredibly for the first time in our history, the future is dire for one of our national icons - film from Today Tonight can be accessed from this page. Scroll down to view the story. Business as usual urban development where trees are cleared causes stress and stress induced disease chlamydia follows with dire consequences.
Too late to protect koalas: lobbyist
Headlines from DARREN CARTWRIGHT's coverage in The Age newspaper reports on the current koala situation in SOUTH EAST QEENSLAND for September 1, 2009
The Queensland government's new measures to prevent koalas dying out southeast of Brisbane are too little, too late, says Australian Koala Foundation boss Deb Tabart.
Ms Tabart said it has been predicted that by next year no koalas will inhabit the Koala Coast region, which is 375 square kilometres of land starting 20km southeast of Brisbane.
The state government has already acknowledged the dire situation of koalas in the region in a 2008 report, Decline of the Koala Coast Koala Population.
Ms Tabart on Tuesday said Premier Anna Bligh wrote to her this week outlining a new conservation policy for 2009 to prevent any further decline in koala numbers, which have plummeted from more than 6,000 between 1996-99 to just over 2,000 in 2008.
"It won't do anything. It's just delusion on their part," Ms Tabart told AAP, referring to the new policy.
"The only thing that will stop koalas dying is to stop cutting trees. It's as simple as that.
September is Save the Koala Month!
Can we take action to SAVE THE KOALA IN SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND?
WHAT WILL YOU DO TO HELP PROTECT ESSENTIAL KOALA HABITAT?
Talk to your politicians at all levels and tell them you value the koala more than built infrastructure designed only for an ever growing and demanding human population
KOALAS OR COAL IN SEQ?
KOALAS OR HUMAN SETTLEMENT?
Have you heard about the Southern Freight Rail Corridor - cutting through pristine bushland with a population of healthy koalas? This area was NOT MAPPED for the koala SPP - state planning policy.
Is coal for future energy at the cost of koalas what we want?
AKF RALLY 11 AM FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2009 IN BRISBANE
Brisbane Square, Brisbane City
Save the Koala Day
Bring along as many people as possible to help us secure the future of the Koala
Watch this video - a collection of Koalas - Koalas in the Wild - Koalas in Zoos Will Zoos be the only place we can see them soon?
and Koala images from different locations across Australia from various sources.
The "Save Our Koalas Rally" will be held in Brisbane on 25th September, please email: wildlife2save-at-live.com.au for more information or please give up just one day to come and show your support for the most iconic of Australians. The Koala. Thankyou to everyone who captured these brilliant images of Koalas. Together, united, we can make a difference!
Oxfam Australia requests support for Sisters on the Planet in their efforts to tackle climate change
Host your own DVD screening to raise awareness of the human impacts of climate change
Register before 15 September to receive the SOTP events pack. If you've ever asked yourself "What can I do to prevent dangerous climate change?", this is your answer.
Register here and also check out some great resources and films.
We're all feeling the effects of climate change. But women in developing countries feel the impacts the most.
A weekend "Transition Living Camp" was held from 3 - 5 July 2009 at Wild Mountains. The purpose was to consolidate understandings and plan for greater community engagement on environmental issues confronting us, centred on peak oil, climate change and their ramifications, and with the overarching context of our transition to resilience.
There were 17 attendees, with 5 from the Scenic Rim Region and others from Northern NSW, greater Brisbane and our creative facilitator, Robin Clayfield, of Earthcare Education at Crystal Waters. The program for the weekend was co-designed with Robin's guidance. This process was very successful and allowed for everyone's needs to be met.
The weekend provided much-appreciated rest and relaxation for committed community workers, with guided bushwalks and vigorous unstructured discussions, as well as preparing and sharing meals. As well, the group divided for 2 in-depth discussions, on "Burn out" and on "Ideas to empower and connect people with the transition town/climate change - peak oil movement". See the Outcomes document from the second workshop. A plenary session on "Engaging with local government" was also conducted with welcome contributions from two attendees, a Lismore City employee and a Ballina Shire councillor.
Comments on the weekend in the Wild Mountains Visitors Book included "A worthwhile and rewarding weekend in a special place." and " Thank you all at Wild Mountains for your efforts and compassion for preserving our earth. All the best in education forever."
Further workshops using a newly-completed frame for Wild Mountains courses will continue to harness growing interest and concern for action in Scenic Rim Region and beyond.
Scenic Rim Region Council support of Wild Mountains' for this weekend is visionary and foundational, not only for our region but also more broadly in our bioregion, as shown by the wide geographical spread of attendees at the workshop.
Wild Mountains looks forward to further collaboration with agencies in the Scenic Rim Region as well as Scenic Rim Region Council, including Ethos Foundation and Scenic Rim Escapes.
Ideas to empower and connect people with the transition town/climate change - peak oil movement.
Film nights -
Organise regular film nights at the local movie theatre. Negotiate a reasonable price with the movie theatre on one of a traditionally quiet night ie. Monday nights, advertise through community notices and email networks and host film nights. You can charge $5 - $10, and have a table of info that people can take. Also guest speakers could do a presentation or facilitate a question and answer session. To assist with free press and editorial coverage you could invite the Mayor/Local members to give a talk or at least attend.
Invite neighbours and friends around to your house for a film night. A great way to meet your neighbours. You could call it a 'House Party' and invite people to bring food to share also to increase the energy. House Party sounds more exciting somehow.
Link the community groups, make sure events (film nights) are sent out to all the different mailing lists in your community. It would be great if each community group could have at least one active member who is interested in assisting with Transition Towns.
Bush tucker audit of the Shire, bush tucker trail
Community gardens -
Perma-blitz (operates in Brisbane ) - have a group that goes around and creates herb/veggie gardens in peoples front/back yard. The idea is that a group of people each help each other to create veggie gardens and set up composting. To promote the idea of ‘grow your own' hold a competition with the winner/s getting a veggie patch built in their yards. (Front yard veggie gardens provide a visible display to help promote.)
Music/Art festivals.
Get some bands together with speakers and community groups with info to promote Transition Towns and bring a new audience into the movement.
Parking Day (google parking day 18th September) invite various people from within the community to be involved - this started in San Francisco .
A Database of all the community groups, schools, churches etc with a contact name and email, send info to all groups and encourage two way correspondence.
Resilience days - involve older folks, CWA (Country Womens Association) etc to pass on skills (knitting, sewing, preserving fruits and vegies, repairing bicycles, motors, etc)
Promote and join cyclist groups, and lobby for safer bikeways connecting towns, residences, sports fields and shopping areas.
Social networking - facebook group. Have links to other groups on emails, and have your email link on other groups emails (ie newsletter emails) Blogs and Getup style connections for quick lobby action.
Go and speak at community groups, business groups, schools - some have Environment Clubs
Munch and crunch - Bangalow Primary School has a worm farm and herb/veggie garden with produce used in canteen and classrooms. P & C are active and parents take turns ensuring they are cared for. Also kids cooking classes for older students - could do school cookbook as a school project
To encourage veggie gardens in schools, link with an interested school teacher. This book is a great resource. Outdoor Classrooms - A Handbook for School Gardens By Carolyn Nuttall and Janet Millington
Organise an event that gets all the professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc) to an event and get them involved with the campaign.
Look for those people who have solar hotwater or solar panels, and veggie gardens and put info in those letterboxes.
Articles in the local newspapers that let people know what Transition Towns are about, local radio stations.
Get to local food growers from the farmers market involved and promoting the Transition Towns philosophy - they will benefit greatly if more people buy food that is grown locally.
Potential DVD's
Power of Community (53 Minutes),
Story of Stuff (about the supply chain and consumption patterns goes for 20 minutes - is down loadable off the internet), and on this website
An Inconvenient Truth
Think Global, Eat Local by Morag Gamble - a 15 minute film that is right on topic.
There is also a Maleny Co-ops film by Paul Alistair called 'Building Prosperous Community' or something close to that.
Food Connect is a unique, innovative fresh food distributor, with the dual goals of making clean, local food an affordable reality for as many families as possible, while working towards creating a sustainable food system for South East Queensland.
By eating food that is grown within a five hour radius of Brisbane - Logan City - Scenic Rim Region, Food Connect members cut down on their greenhouse gas emissions and reduce their carbon footprint. Several farmers in Scenic Rim are part of this local food system.
Farmers are paid fair prices and are offered incentives for farming in chemical free, ecologically sustainable ways.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are packed into boxes each morning, and the boxes are distributed to central pickup points for subscribers to pick up in the afternoons.
Most subscribers pick up their boxes on their way home from work, or from picking up their children from school, which further cuts down on fuel use and carbon emissions
Food Connect is 2009 Banksia People's Choice Award Winner
Food Connect is leading the way towards responsible food production and distribution in Australia. Unlike most national food distributors, major supermarket chains and produce box schemes, Food Connect sources its sustainable produce from local and regional family farms. They provide our family farmers a fair price for their produce, which encourages them to continue growing our food. This, in turn, helps our region to be more food secure. Furthermore, our local food distribution system ensures a significant reduction in the carbon emissions that are associated with transporting food long distances.
Your food choices matter!
As a Food Connect subscriber, your choice contributes in very tangible ways to building an ecologically and socially sustainable world.
Read more about them at their website www.foodconnect.com.au Read more about the awards on the website www.banksiafdn.com. This process in known as community supported agriculture CSA.
The Banksia Environmental Awards are based on
Achieving a Sustainable Australia
Recognising and rewarding environmental excellence
Promoting best practice principles
Contributing to action-learning and education
Our local Where I live section of the online newspaper Logan West Leader provides some coverage here.
whereilive.com.au readers from any area to read write and comment on local news as well as check on local events
THERE IS PROVISION FOR READERS TO COMMENT ONLINE IF THEY WISH. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The story is below for your convenience. MPs were asked these questions
Do you support a Logan City Council proposal to build a new substation in the area, negating the need for the Loganlea to Jimboomba powerline?
Do you think there is any point to the community consultation process when the decision on the powerline’s route appears to have been made?
MP’s position on Energex powerline (along and across the Logan River)
JOHN MICKEL, MEMBER FOR LOGAN