Hi All
In this blog:
• Great news – the launch of ClimatePositive – a very Victorian way to combat climate change
• A round up of the phenomenon of people power
ClimatePositive launch
You may remember at the movie night that Brendan from ClimatePositive drew the raffle. It’s great to announce that ClimatePositive (www.climatepositive.com.au) is now up and live. Congratulations!!
The $200 donations received from the Inconvenient Truth movie night have been contributed to ClimatePositive – a big thank you! This offsets 10.4 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – well and truly offsetting the cinema’s power use and all our transport in getting to the movie – a truly ClimatePositive event!
ClimatePositive is a not-for-profit project to reduce carbon emissions, build the renewable energy industry and replant some of the world's most majestic forests right here in the Strzelecki Ranges in Victoria. I recently went out to the Turra-Bulga National Park, one of the few remnants of this forest – a beautiful, tiny and vulnerable place.
Remember it’s always more effective to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions first and foremost (buy green power, reduce your car and air travel). And for all the rest there are carbon offsets (but be careful which ones you buy).
Here are a few features of CarbonPositive:
• Offset 100% of your CO2 footprint with government-certified renewable energy. (This also gives a boost to the renewable energy industry)
• Plant indigenous trees to absorb 0.3 tonne of CO2 for each tonne you offset. ClimatePositive’s biodiverse forests are grown in the Strzelecki Ranges where some of world's most carbon-rich forests once stood.
So for every 1 tonne of greenhouse gas emissions you buy, you get 1.3 tonnes of offset. And it’s here in Victoria, working to re-establish rich and biodiverse forest – something that feels particularly critical right now as we sit here in the smog from the 410,000 hectare bushfire.
There’s loads more information and answers to your questions on the website – Check it out at www.climatepositive.com.au
In praise of optimism…
Phenomenal to believe that it’s just 2 months since our Inconvenient Truth movie night – look at how much has happened – what influence we’ve had!
Here are a few of the catalogue of events and developments…
• An astonishing increase in awareness of the Australian public about the realities of climate change
• The world’s largest solar power station getting significant funding right here in Victoria
• Both the Howard government and Rudd’s opposition putting climate change and new energy policy at the centre of their rhetoric (whatever you might think of the merits or otherwise of nuclear power, the ability of renewable energy to meet our base load needs etc…)
• The Stern review on the economic impact of climate change creating global waves
• The creation of a new Alliance for Climate Protection in the US, using the proceeds from “An Inconvenient Truth” (http://www.allianceforclimateprotection.org). It is a campaign, focused on the US as the lynchpin of global change, to:
- Motivate a critical mass of the public and influential constituencies to demand strong and just action to cut U.S. emissions and to make solving global warming a national political imperative.
- Implement solutions to global warming that cap and cut U.S. global warming pollution emissions in the near term, setting a framework and trajectory to reduce emissions by more than half by mid-century.
- Develop a political consensus for further international agreements that includes full participation by developing economies in achieving emission reduction targets.
The new CEO is Cathy Zoi, formerly Assistant Director General of the NSW EPA. She was the founding CEO of the NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) and Chief of Staff of Environmental Policy in the Clinton White House. So a very strong Ozzie flavour.
Cheers
Hilary
