Category: Economics
Free Events: Smart Power – Solar and Batteries & ‘The Big U-Turn Ahead’
20 year logging extension a disaster for the public good
NEFA MEDIA RELEASE
The North East Forest Alliance has called the process used by the Commonwealth and State Governments to adopt new Regional Forest Agreements as a superficial sham simply intended to lock-up public native forests for private sawmillers at significant environment cost.
“There has been no attempt to assess or review environmental, industry or social data, instead they are relying on incomplete and out of date assessments undertaken 20 years ago”, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.
“The Governments chose to ignore the recommendation of their own reviewer for a contemporary review that included an assessment of the effects of climate change”
“By rejecting the recommendation of their own review and proceeding on incomplete and out of date assessments the National Party have once again proven that their intent is to lock up public resources for private companies irrespective of the environmental costs and community interests.
TOOT Rally 11am Sat 1 Dec M’bah
Towards Zero Deforestation Report
The top 20 tree deforestation hotspots in NSW have been revealed in a report by the NSW Nature Conservation Council, WWF-Australia, The Wilderness Society and National Parks Association of NSW.
The report found that 17 of the state’s 20 deforestation hotspots also contain koala habitat at risk of land clearing under new state environmental laws.
From Nature News – December 2018 at https://npansw.org/
Freedom of information documents reveal damning assessment of Berejiklian government’s proposed new logging laws
NEFA MEDIA RELEASE:
As the NSW and federal governments are poised to sign off on 20-year extensions to controversial Regional Forest Agreements, documents acquired by the North East Forest Alliance under freedom of information show deep concerns within the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) about the impact of new logging laws on protected old-growth, rainforest and koalas.
OEH’s concerns echo those of environment groups and illustrate clearly that the laws will destroy the natural values of our forests. Reminiscent of when Environment Minister Upton signed off on new land clearing laws despite departmental advice that 99% of koala habitat was at risk from clearing, the government is again ignoring OEH advice that koala deaths will increase and habitat quality decrease as a result of the new laws.
Rise for Climate Rally at Tweed Heads 8 September 2018
Power providers- how they stack up
The quickest and easiest way to support renewable energy is to switch to an ethical electricity provider.
Your actions do make a difference – Together we make a change.
‘Power providers_How they stack up’
Courtesy Repower Byron Shire.
Rise for Climate Saturday 8 September
Northern Rivers and Gold Coast “Rise for Climate” rally, 8th September, at Tweed Heads
“Rise for Climate” is a worldwide, annual day of action organised by 350.org. This year there will be thousands of rallies in towns and cities all around the globe, including most Australian capital cities.
Community groups in Tweed, Byron, Lismore and Gold Coast are collaborating to have one at Tweed Heads. Our purpose is to demand our local leaders commit to building a fossil free world that puts people and justice before profits.
The State is in the grip of one of its most severe droughts. Wild fires and heatwaves are happening in the Northern hemisphere. Climate change is happening.
It’s time for a fast and fair transition to 100% renewable energy for all! We are at a crossroads. By 2020 net greenhouse gas emissions must begin to fall globally, in order to mitigate the climate crisis.
EDO slides from Towards Zero Deforestation Roadshow
Thanks for joining us last week at the Tweed leg of the Towards Zero Deforestation Roadshow.
Deforestation is causing havoc for our wildlife, our climate, and the health of local communities and our land. I’m so glad you were part of the Roadshow — together we have the power to end the bulldozing of trees and wildlife habitat across the state.
I’ve already started to receive leaf petitions in the post, which is incredible. If you took some home with you, I hope you’ve had some great conversations with your neighbours about the issue. If you’d like me to send you more, please reply to this email.
At the event, NCC Campaigns Director Daisy Barham mentioned we are taking the government to court over its land-clearing laws, which are causing enormous harm across the state. If you would like to support our crowd-funded legal action, you’re most welcome to do so through our website here.
Power to the Tweed – free talk
You’re invited to join Tweed Shire Council’s Energy Projects Officer, Michael Qualmann, for a free information session at your local library to discuss Power in the Tweed on Wednesday 1 August.
Tweed Heads library: 9.30am
Kingscliff library: 12pm
Murwillumbah library: 3pm
Topics includes where Tweed’s power comes from, why more people are switching to solar and Council’s renewable energy plans for the shire. RSVPs to Council are welcome on (02) 6670 2400.
Here’s a link to the facebook post – please like and share on your FB sites too if possible.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2210482852558495/?event_time_id=2210482859225161
For more power-saving tips visit www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/Energy
Independent Review of RFA’s released
An economic case for protecting the planet
We all share one planet — we breathe the same air, drink the same water and depend on the same oceans, forests and biodiversity. Economist Naoko Ishii is on a mission to protect these shared resources, known as the global commons, that are vital for our survival. In an eye-opening talk about the wellness of the planet, Ishii outlines four economic systems we need to change to safeguard the global commons, making the case for a new kind of social contract with the earth.
Published on Feb 14, 2018 – TED: Ideas worth spreading
Watch the talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbvUCrS5_5I&feature=youtu.be
Address to Tweed Shire Councillors 19 April 2018 from Barry Firth, on behalf of Stop Adani Tweed
We are part of an Australia-wide network of groups like us. The issues that are to do with the proposed massive expansion of coal mining and export in Queensland are of national and global importance. They affect us all.
The latest news from climate science is that the great ocean current known as the Gulf Stream is slowing down. It has already slowed by 15%. This foreshadows changes in the global climate beyond what we have seen so far.
The scientists have been saying for a long time now that we need to “keep it in the ground”. Unfortunately, we collectively have become a bit too good at not listening to them.
Australia did sign the Paris Climate Agreement, though you would hardly know. Of the 52 countries that signed, our level of commitment to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions was ranked second-last. Even this modest level of commitment is not going to be met, for want of truly purposeful leadership.
Stop Adani Tweed community survey
Stop Adani Tweed wishes to survey the views of Tweed Shire residents, regarding the proposed massive expansion of coal mining in Queensland, including the so-called “Adani” mine in the Galilee Basin.
Yes, the projects that are the subject of our survey are located in Queensland, but many of the issues at stake have national and global implications, so you are entitled to an opinion!
We intend to compile the results of this survey into a statistical view of opinions among Tweed Shire residents, so that Government at all levels can be influenced accordingly.
Please take part in our survey, and respond in a timely manner, not later than 31st March, 2018. To complete the survey on-line, go to Stop Adani Tweed community survey
Stop Adani Film Night 22 Feb Brunswick Heads
Rally to Save the Train 3pm Thurs 15th Feb Murbah Railway Station
Message from Northern Rivers Railway Action Group
Dear Team,
As we all live at the far flung districts of the Region and have no train service to enable easy meeting, I am copying you my March Plan, Route Plan and Safety Management Plan.
It is attached as an easy to Print PDF, or copied below.
Please print, Share, Forward, tell your friends, and let’s pull a big crowd and make a very good impression.
Remember the absolute rule, this is to be Peaceful, so, no badgering people, No disturbance to Businesses, No Shouting or Fist waving.
Be very tolerant, there may be some who will attempt to disrupt or cause a fight. Just ignore any heckling.
Keep off the road and follow directions of the Road Crossing controllers who will be wearing high visibility vests (The Polite Force!).
Final Draft Rural Land Strategy presentation
There will be a drop-in session at Murwillumbah Civic Centre’s Canvas and Kettle Room, Thursday February 1 from 7pm to 8:30pm. The session will cover the more than 140 proposed actions in the Draft Strategy which will shape the future of rural land use in Tweed Shire. Draft Rural Land Strategy on exhibition until 28th February.
Journey to Stop Adani frontline
A journey to the front line is being arranged by the Northern Rivers Stop Adani Group leaving on January 13 and returning on January 21. Living costs for the week on the front line are $250 and include everything. For more information look up the Stop Adani Byron Shire Facebook page. You can also post questions and ask someone to contact you on the Facebook page.
A social night on January 9 at Mullumbimby Commons, 91 Main Arm Road from 6 to 9pm will help inform the community about what is taking place as well as provide information on the upcoming journey and encourage people to get involved. Alternatively every Monday at 6.30pm a strategy meeting is held upstairs at the Middle Pub in Mullumbimby to discuss how to effectively move the campaign forward.
Frontline Action on Coal
Ways to help from home http://www.frontlineaction.org/get-involved
To join the frontline action http://www.frontlineaction.org/pledge/
VICTORY. Downer drops Adani!
This is HUGE!!
Downer quietly dropped to the stock exchange this morning that they will no longer build or operate Adani’s Carmichael mine.
Adani are pretending that it’s ‘mutual’, that they can build the mine themselves. But Adani have never built a mine in Australia and never built a mine this big. They simply can’t do it without huge delays, massive costs and extra risk to investors.
We’ve led the campaign to get Downer out of bed with Adani. Hundreds of citizens have blockaded Downer industrial sites day and night, bought shares, protested, donated and even got arrested. Please honour their efforts and celebrate this victory by:
- Sharing this news story
- Sharing our Facebook post, excited video and Tweet
- Donating to our fighting fund so we can target Aurizon, Gina, Macmines or whoever is next
Thank you for your ongoing support. Together we will win!
Stand with the Wangan & Jagalingou people
At any moment, the Queensland Government could extinguish Wangan and Jagalingou native title rights in the Galilee Basin – the land Adani wants to build their Carmichael mega mine on. [1]
The Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) Family Council have already said NO to Adani four times and are in the midst of a court battle to protect their country. [2]
It’s urgent: in the last few days, the newly elected Queensland Government was asked by W&J to give assurance that they would not extinguish native title until the Federal court case, but the Queensland Government has refused to make this commitment. [3]
This means they could trample Indigenous rights at any moment.
Can you stand with the Wangan and Jagalingou people and make a phone call to tell the Queensland Government not to extinguish native title under any circumstances? Read more on the W&J website.
2017 Green Globe Awards
Draft Crown Land Management Regulation 2017
Future protection, management, use, transfer or sale of our publicly owned Crown Lands will be defined by the draft Regulation now on exhibition. The Regulations underpin the Crown Land Management Act 2016 (NSW).
Comment can be made until midnight on Sunday 15 October 2017.
Documents that explain the Draft Regulation and inform submissions are:
Draft Crown Land Management Regulation 2017 – See Highlights
Key points for submissions – Crown Lands Alliance
Tweed Shire Council submission
Submissions can be made:
Online
or Email to legislation@crownland.nsw.gov.au
or Post to
Draft Crown Land Management Regulation comments
Department of Industry Lands and Forestry
PO Box 2185
Dangar NSW 2309
Northern Rivers Railway Action Group – Film Screening Night 13 March
What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know about Capitalism
A Citizen’s Guide to Capitalism and the Environment
by Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster
There is a growing consensus that the planet is heading toward environmental catastrophe: climate change, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, global freshwater use, loss of biodiversity, and chemical pollution all threaten our future unless we act. What is less clear is how humanity should respond. The contemporary environmental movement is the site of many competing plans and prescriptions, and composed of a diverse set of actors, from militant activists to corporate chief executives.
This short, readable book is a sharply argued manifesto for those environmentalists who reject schemes of “green capitalism” or piecemeal reform. Environmental and economic scholars Magdoff and Foster contend that the struggle to reverse ecological degradation requires a firm grasp of economic reality. Going further, they argue that efforts to reform capitalism along environmental lines or rely solely on new technology to avert catastrophe misses the point. The main cause of the looming environmental disaster is the driving logic of the system itself, and those in power—no matter how “green”—are incapable of making the changes that are necessary.
Time to get the economics of environment right
Ross Gittins
You get the feeling Tony Abbott doesn’t lie awake at night worrying about what our economic activity is doing to our natural environment.
In which case, those of us who do care about ecological sustainability – including many Coalition voters and, in all probability, Abbott’s successor, whether Liberal or Labor – will have a lot of catching up to do.
The market isn’t capable of ensuring we don’t stuff the environment and thereby stuff the economy.
This looks like being true of our excessive contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. But it also applies to the more mundane problems of protecting and restoring our degraded land, water systems and native flora and fauna.
Building Resilience and Limits To Growth: Nicole Foss
We are approaching many limits to growth over the next decades: Economic contraction, peak energy and geopolitical stress. Nicole Foss explains how the deflationary dynamics that always follow finance and property bubbles will rapidly impact individuals and communities, while the longer acting forces of peak oil and climate change will limit the nature of any economic recovery. So how can we adapt?
Seeds and Soil vs. the Tyranny of Corporate Power: A 2015 Message of Hope
By John Queally
Global Research, January 04, 2015
Common Dreams 1 January 2015
It has been declared ‘the International Year of the Soil,’ but the year ahead, according to Dr. Vandana Shiva, will also see key developments in the global fight to overthrow corporate power with true democracy.
Last year, the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization officially declared that 2015 would be celebrated as the International Year of the Soil citing the threat to one of the key ingredients to the planet’s food and farming systems posed by “expanding cities, deforestation, unsustainable land use, pollution, overgrazing and climate change.”
“In the seed and the soil we find the answers to every one of the crises we face. The crisis of violence and war; the crisis of hunger and disease; the crisis of the destruction of democracy.” —Dr. Vandana Shiva