Thursday, September 25, 2008

Alice Solar City

ALEC is a proud member of the Alice Solar City Consortium
Alice Solar City is very much aligned to our objective of creating healthy futures for arid lands and people. The $37 million, six year program is part of the Australian Government's Solar Cities initiative and aims to explore how technology, behaviour change and new approaches to electricity pricing can combine to provide a sustainable energy future for Australia. Elements include residential, commercial and large scale solar trials.

Alice Solar City provides the residents and business operators of Alice Springs with free energy surveys, financial incentives to save energy, and advice on solar energy and energy efficiency. So far over 260 residents have signed up to the program. After the launch of the commercial services program on 30 May, 25 business operators have also expressed interest in participating, with the first business energy survey conducted at the YHA last week.

Congratulations Alice Springs!

To find out more or to sign up just drop into the Smart Living Centre at 82 Todd Street (next to Bojangles) and have a chat with their friendly staff or visit the Alice solar city website or call 8950 4350.

Sustenance

Tune into Sustenance to hear the latest on the sustainability and environmental frontline. Hosted by Kat Taylor and friends, listen to inspiring interviews, groovy music and stimulating conversation from 7-9pm every Wednesday night on 8CCC 102.1FM

SPEAKERS and PARTICIPANTS NEEDED:

Volunteer speakers, requests or cancellation of email notification: contact Bill Low, Coordinator, P.O.Box 3130, Alice Springs; Phone/Fax 89 555 222, Fax 89 555 722; Email: LowEcol@LowEcol.com.au Organisational and distributional assistance from CSIRO, NRETA, DPIFM, CAT, CLC. Seminar notices are available on the web

Ngapartji Ngapartji Central Desert Tour 2008;

Kala pukulariku nyura pitjanyangka show nyakunytjikitja. Show nyanga paluru panya nintini munu wangkanyi iriti Maralingala bomb waninytja. Nyangatja nganampa, Anangu tjutaku Tjukurpa mulapa. Nganana nyakula kulintjaku panya iriti alatjirinytja. - Ninti Mulapa

We are excitedly anticipating that many of you will come and see the show. This theatre production explores history and talks about the fallout from the Maralinga bomb testing. This is our true story, that of Pitjantjatjara people. This show helps us to understand the way things happened in the past. - Ngapartji Ngapartji Language and Culture Reference Group

Big hART's Ngapartji Ngapartji is a long-term intergenerational language and arts project based in the Central Desert. The project comprises an ongoing community development process which feeds into film projects, touring theatre works and an online language and culture learning website - http://ninti.ngapartji.org - and a campaign to encourage the establishment of a national indigenous languages policy.

The Ngapartji Ngapartji theatre show is an epic story of displacement as the desert nations are swept up in the Cold War. Written and directed by Scott Rankin and performed by Spinifex man and master storyteller Trevor Jamieson, with an ensemble cast of elders and young people from his community. This incredible story is shared in Pitjantjatjara and English, inviting audiences into an intimate and rare experience of culture through dance, story and song.

The Ngapartji Ngapartji theatre show has toured nationally to sold-out audiences at Melbourne International Arts Festival, Sydney Festival and Perth International Arts Festival.

October 2nd, 3rd, 4th Alice Springs
- Araluen Arts Centre as part of Regional Arts Australia's the Art at the Heart conference; This season will sell out so get your tickets quick - Bookings via Araluen box office: 08 8951 1122

We hope to see you there!
http://ngapartji.org

YouthLEAD Alice Springs October 10-12 2008

Inspiration Action Tools to Make a Difference !!!

An innovative environmental/social action and leadership training program designed to give young people the skills, motivation and opportunities to lead the way to a sustainable future in their own communities & beyond.

What is Youth LEAD?

Youth LEAD is an OzGREEN initiative, building a national network of young leaders who are working in their local community and beyond to build a life-sustaining society. Youth LEAD is achieving this through leadership training and mentoring for eco-social projects that forge pathways to sustainable futures. Youth LEAD begins where other leadership programs finish – with people learning to be leaders by designing and undertaking their own projects.

Why get involved?

Have you ever wanted to do something but aren’t sure how you can make a difference or where to start? Are you already doing lots but want to reflect, refocus or recharge? No matter what your concerns and where you’re at, we can help you strengthen skills and create a plan for action to really do something that you are interested in, even if you don’t know what that is!

We provide the space, support, nurturing and training to give you the confidence, motivation and skills to develop plans and put them into action, and to refocus on and invigorate your current plans. We work from the principle that the answers to problems lie within people and within communities, even though most of us don’t know what they are. Youth LEAD is a transformative processes that enables people to tap into these answers, to be themselves, do what makes their heart sing, AND make a real difference in the world!

The Program
Each program involves a 3 day residential environmental leadership training and action planning residential workshop for participants. It costs $250 which covers everything (food, accommodation & course costs) & there are subsidised places available if price is a barrier. Youth LEAD is for 15-25 year olds (we do have Leading with the Heart for older adults).

The workshop features skills training in:

ecological footprint assessment and lifestyle analysis
strategic questioning,
deep listening and critical thinking
rational and emotional intelligence
creative thinking
values and visioning
goal setting
and actionplanning for lifestyle changes and eco-social action

After the workshop there will be follow-up meetings and regular phone and email contact with all participants for mentoring and support. And opportunities to join our trainee facilitator, mentor and OzGREEN volunteer programs nationally & in East Timor, India, Pakistan & Papua New Guinea.

Youth LEAD is currently being documented as a case study in best practice education for sustainability by the Australian Association for Environmental Education (2006). Youth LEAD is also a previous winner of the Social Ventures Australia BIG BOOST! Award and winner of the coveted Eureka! Award for Education for Sustainability (2007).

Through our programs people:

Clarify what is important to them
Find inspiration and focus to make informed life choices
Develop confidence to live from their own values and integrity
Reflect on and re-energise the difference they already make in their lives
Develop and strengthen skills to understand, analyse, vision and plan
Be leaders of positive change
Understand local and global environmental challenges
Learn to live sustainably and reduce ecological footprint (average 29%)
Harness their passion, creativity and intelligence to build a better world
Join a supportive inspiring community of people
Become more themselves

About the Facilitators
OzGREEN co-founders Sue and Colin Lennox lead by example and are recognised as leading social entrepreneurs in Australia. They each bring over 30 years of experience and professional qualifications in environmental education, social enterprise and youth empowerment gained on the ground in city and rural settings in Australia and internationally. They are supported by a team of passionate young professionals, trainee facilitators and youth-to-youth mentors, each of whom has a track record of successfully implementing their own life changes and projects.

What YouthLEADers Say

”Youth LEAD has made me more confident and determined to speak out and act on the issues that concern me.”
”Youth LEAD has given me a chance to be more of a leader, make new friends and have heaps of fun.”
”I have gained and unleashed skills I never knew I had.”
“Before Youth LEAD I was overwhelmed by the issues of our time... Now I am inspired, happy and empowered with a clear plan of action!”
“It is so hard to articulate what a profound effect this program has had. On a personal level, for me, it gave my life new direction and was impetus in defining who I was and what I stood for and then doing something about those things!”
”Thank you so much for the inspiration. You have helped me become myself.”

OzGREEN

OzGREEN is an independent, not for profit organisation that was established in 1992. OzGREEN facilitates life changing learning and leadership programs for sustainability. OzGREEN enables people to harness their inner wisdom, creativity and intelligence to build pathways to an ecologically sustainable future. OzGREEN runs a range of programs, working nationally in Australia and internationally in India, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Pakistan.

Youth LEAD is proudly supported by the Vodafone Australia Foundation & Coca
Cola Foundation.

If you are interested please contact Kathryn to reserve your place


Kathryn Mc Cabe
Program Coordinator & Facilitator
OzGREEN
Po Box 1378
Dee Why
NSW 2099
Australia

P 02 9984 8917
F 02 9981 4956
E kmccabe@ozgreen.org.au
http://www.ozgreen.org.au
http://www.myriver.org.au
Sign up to our monthly E-news http://www.ozgreen.org.au/elist_form.php

COOLMob September wrap up:

Sustainable House Day, Sustainability Fair and Solar Oven Bakeoff

Sustainable House Day was extremely well attended with 100-200 people visiting each house to see the range of features including solar PV, permaculture garden, solar air heaters and aquaponics. The first year of the Desert Garden and Sustainability and went very well. Some highlights included the worm farm display, no dig garden demonstration, Mandala making and smoothies from the pedal powered blender. As usual the native plant sale was a huge hit. Can’t wait for next year!

Congratulations to all the entrants in the Solar Oven Bakeoff. All the entries were delicious and we were lucky it didn’t rain! Some interesting things were Hans’ Fresnel lens griller made from an old TV screen and the feral dove stew.

The winners were:
Meredith: Sweet category, Bean Tree café voucher
Steve Sawyer: Savoury category, Afghan Trader’s voucher Hans Pfau: Best homemade oven, Home Timber and Hardware voucher
Delia Naughton and Emma Chessel: Bush Foods category, plants from Olive Pink
Delia Naughton and Emma Chessel: OVERALL WINNERS, subscriptions to ReNew magazine and the Green Spoon Trophy

HUGE THANK YOUS TO:
The Crosses and the Sawyers for opening their houses.
All the bakeoff entrants, judges Stephanie Alexander, Rohan Barwick, Beck Gooderham and Lyndon Hodges, pre-bakeoff workshop organizer Steve Sawyer, all the organizations who donated prizes, and ABC radio for their livecoverage.
Ruth Apelt, Ada Markby and Jan Taylor for helping out at the Bakeoff info stall.

Cheers
Kat Taylor

New Greenhouse Friendly Action Booklet

Grab your copy of the revised Greenhouse Friendly Action Booklet. Available from the Arid Lands Environment Centre or for download here. This edition includes information for Tennant Creek as well as Alice Springs.

Tennant Creek Water Audits

Shout out to Tennant Creek- please pass on to anyone you know there Energy/ water auditors will be in Tennant Creek on Thursday 2nd October. To book an audit, ring Kat 8952 0299 or email dka.coolmob@coolmob.org.

If you're interested in cutting your bills, you could also come to the free information session in the Pyramid Building (Civic Centre) at 5:30pm,Thursday October 2nd. Learn about available rebates, grab a copy of the Greenhouse Friendly Action Booklet, and tell Kat how DKA COOLmob could best help you.

We're also looking for people to train up as casual home auditors, please come and say 'hi' on the night if you're interested!

Beyond Nuclear News

There have been some interesting developments in the anti-dump campaign this week:

1. ANSTO’s application last week to build a new radioactive waste storage building on site at Lucas Heights highlights to the federal government that there are more options for radioactive waste management than a remote dump in the NT (see media release below). There is the opportunity for public comment on this application until September 30.

The referral document can be downloaded from
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=referral_detail&p
roposal_id=4459


Comments can be emailed to epbc.referrals@environment.gov.au

2. WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam tabled a bill in the Senate today to repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, which has allowed a federal dump to be forced on the NT. Repealing this undemocratic Act was a clear election commitment from the ALP, but since forming government there has been no previous indication this will go ahead. It is a welcome move from the Greens that they have decided to introduce this Bill to push things along.

Yesterday Senator Kim Carr stated in Senate question time that Minister Martin Ferguson has indicated (for the first time) the government will repeal the Act.

While this is great news for communities living near the targeted areas, it has not happened yet, and our local ALP federal members would no doubt appreciate a flood of calls and emails urging them to help this Bill go through!

Contact:

Senator Trish Crossin
Senator.crossin@aph.gov.au
Phone: (02) 6277 3777
Fax: (02) 6277 3661

Minister Warren Snowdon
Warren.snowdon.mp@aph.gov.au
Tel: (02) 6277 7620
Fax: (02) 6273 7112

Climate Torch Relay Friday October 3 from 4 til 5 pm

Local communities and groups around Australia have been hosting climate torch relays over the past six weeks to achieve this, and in one week the torch will be in Alice Springs. The week after that it will finish in Canberra. This is an exciting opportunity to link your local action into a national campaign and call to reduce emissions by 50% by 2020.

I'm coordinating the Alice Springs leg of the relay, with fantastic support from ALEC and others. The plan so far is for it to start at 4.30pm and finish at 5.00pm on the Town Council lawns opposite Solar Cities. The relay runners will represent local groups who are 'holding the torch' on climate change issues in Alice, and will walk/run/cycle/skip a short distance, maybe 50m before passing onto the next runner. We plan to take the torch from the base of Anzac hill down to the council lawns, where it will be received by a local politician.

I would love to hear from any ALEC or CAG members and others who are interested in getting involved. Most especially, it would be great to have a couple of legs run by people associated with the Climate Action Group. One leg could be any willing volunteer (got any quirky costumes you want to give another public outing to?), and the other, Ruth and I have discussed having a younger person, or group of children, run the final leg, with the torch perhaps held by a child who will turn 21 in 2020 - thus highlighting the need for change now (but age is no biggie).

Quirky and interesting should help get local media coverage - local media are the voice of our pollie's electorates and

So - would you like to help out coordinating runners on the day?
- would you like to run a leg?
- do you know of a child/children who would like to run the final leg and is capable on the footpath?

I would love to hear from you, as soon as possible - I need to finalise the final leg tomorrow in time to put out press releases etc - please call me directly.

Cheers
Hannah
ph. 0431 267 213
home. 8953 8928

More info at www.climatetorch.com

Tax deductible donations

We now have the option for those who can afford to give regular tax deductible donations to ALEC. There are direct debit and recurring credit card options that allow you to give as much as you want to ALEC, all of which you can claim at tax time. The website is: www.egive.org.au ALEC can be found in the Environment Group section. All you have to do is register and organise with your bank to take out $10, $20, $50, $100 or whatever you want each month. These funds will help ALEC to maintain a strong voice in the community and allow us the opportunity to become less dependent on government funding.
If you’re interested in giving tax deductible donations to ALEC contact me
on 8952 2497 or email info@alec.org.au

More funding for ALEC from NTG

NT Government confirms election commitment increasing ALEC funding to $70,000 per year from 2009/10 as part of its recognition of the importance of engaging the community on climate change issues.

From the Coordinator

Well...it’s been busy times in Alice Springs for the last couple of weeks. The Desert Festival wound up on Sunday and since Monday, many of us have been cleaning up after the freakish storm that hit early that afternoon. It’s been inspiring to see people pull together as a town to put on entertaining musical and theatrical acts but more importantly how we just get on with it following powerful natural events such as the storm.

The key to living in this environment is working together as a community. Sharing
skills, resources, tools and time is key to ensuring we have a future herein the arid zone.

The looming economic crisis that has engulfed the US and spread across the globe is a strong signal that we cannot continue living beyond our means and must look closer to home for how we may weather the crisis here in Central Australia. The development of solar thermal technologies will provide the energy necessary to maintain commercial and residential electricity supply.

We need to rethink our methods of building to live comfortably in a carbon-constrained world. Could we make strawbale houses from all the buffel grass rendered with papercrete or other locally produced material? It’s just an idea but a possibility in cheaply providing energy efficient housing for those who need it.

We’re currently in the process of developing strategies around how ALEC can play a role in building community resilience in Alice Springs and beyond. In particular, how the town and its residents can be empowered to improve water management, produce food locally, reduce energy use, increase sustainable and affordable housing, adapt to climate change, reducing vehicle (fuel) use, increasing public and low-impact transport in town, rethinking waste management (reduce, reuse, recycle), green trades upskilling and whatever else comes to mind. ALEC will be advocating for and working towards practical local solutions that will improve our community’s resilience.

We’re meeting at ALEC on Monday September 29 at 1.30pm to start discussing
strategies as to how we can get this process happening.

If you want more information or to get involved in making the transition,
email me: info@alec.org.au Ph. 8952 2497

Some links:
www.transitiontowns.org

www.transitionculture.org

‘If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost, that is where it should be. Now put foundations under them.’
Henry David Thoreau

Jimmy