Climate change is the most serious threat to the global environment and human societies that we face. Yet Australian governments are taking little or no action to make the 60-80% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that are needed if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. Click here to download a “Climate Action Pack” prepared for students by a coalition of US environment groups (link is still available: https://web.archive.org/web/20050616075826/http://www.unistudent.com.au/student/files/climateaction%20pack.doc)
Climate change is the biggest social and environmental issue of our generation. It is a key focus of many of ASEN’s campaigns.
This year ASEN is focusing on our climate justice campaign which aims to build a diverse movement that can confront the root causes of climate change in a just way. We are building links and supporting community groups such as Rivers SoS and helping organise climate camps around the country – get involved! The Climate Camps happening around the country will be a couple of days of information sharing on sustainable living, skill-sharing with a focus on nonviolent direct action and culminating in a mass action on coal infrastructure. They are participatory, fun and inspiring. See you there? 🙂
• Switch Off Hazelwood (Vic) – 11th – 13th of September
•Climate Camp NSW – in Helensburg on the 9th – 11th of October
• Climate Camp SA – in Port Augusta on the 24th – 27th of October
RESOURCES: Readings about Climate change – brief summaries of books and online resources about climate change
Rising Tide: kayaking against coal in brisbane
23 September 2009 Campaigns, Climate, General, News, QEAN: Members of QEAN in Brisbane are preparing for a peaceful action at a Qld coal port to protest continued coal exports in the face of climate change. Full article »
climate camp 09 art auction & exhibition: 2 September 2009 Climate, Events, News, SEAN: Works by diverse artists from across NSW & the ACT will be auctioned off with all proceeds going towards the running of Climate Camp 09. Come to find out more about Climate Camp next month. Full article »
switch off hazelwood, switch off coal. 18 August 2009 CCEN, Climate, News. “Switch off Hazelwood. Switch off Coal. Switch on Renewables” is a day of fun, creative and inspiring direct community action at Hazelwood coal power station. This march and protest at the front gates of the Hazelwood Power Station, is organised by community members who care about climate change – and are willing to take peaceful community action. Full article »
southern cross university trade unionists win landmark environmental sustainability agreement. 9 August 2009 Climate, News: The Australian Student Environment Network congratulates general staff at Southern Cross University (Lismore, NSW) and the Public Service Association / Community and Public Sector Union for winning a climate Environmental Sustainability agreement this week. The PSA/CPSU represents non-academic/teaching staff on campuses (and in schools and TAFEs), such as building maintenance staff. The union also organised their members to make a Sustainability Pledge and a climate change forum on campus for rank-and-file members. This is new ground for the PSA / CPSU (and for all trade unions) to be looking at climate change, and organising with their members for climate justice. Certainly, there is a long way to go in looking at climate change as a class issue – with and well beyond trade unions – and organising with workers and communities for land, labour and climate justice.
climate activists lock on to bluewaters powerplant in collie, w.a. 27 June 2009 Campaigns, Climate, Events, News, WASEN: On Friday the 26th of June, two activists locked onto a conveyor belt at Bluewaters coal-fired power station near Collie, 3 hours south of Perth, W.A.. The action is to protest Griffin Energy’s decision to burn wood from WA native forests for energy production. The two activists were arrested and later removed from the conveyor belt by police, after more than four hours of preventing coal from being fed into the power station. A third activist has also been arrested at the site. “Griffin Energy is one of WA’s worst contributors to climate change. The company has recently opened yet another coal-fired power station and is constructing another three,” said Ms Jael Johnson, spokesperson for the action. “To add insult to injury, it now proposes to burn wood from our precious native forests as fuel and count this as renewable energy.” “The WA public has a right to renewable energy. Here we have an abundance of wind, solar and wave energy. CETO, a wave energy company, has chosen to be a part of this renewable revolution. Griffin also has the opportunity to join Western Australian businesses committed to sustainable solutions. There is no place for coal-fired power station or native forest logging in a sustainable WA,” said Ms Johnson.
Griffin Energy recently won a tender from the Forest Products Commission (FPC) to buy between 250,000 and 400,000 tonnes of native forest logs a year. Our native forests provide the WA community with clean air and water, biodiversity, and homes for unique WA plants and wildlife. Native Forests also store huge amounts of carbon. After logging and burning, the carbon is released into the atmosphere. Globally, deforestation and logging contribute about 27% of all climate change-causing greenhouse gases. “Research in the eastern states shows that if native forests are left undisturbed, they can play a vital role in storing carbon and contributing to a climate change solution. “Instead of protecting them for their vital role in reducing climate change, Forestry Minister Terry Redman proposes to allow Griffin to burn native forest logs, thereby releasing massive amounts of GHG and accelerating run-away climate change. This is an atrocious distortion of a system that should be leading us towards a zero-carbon economy, not further away from it. “The people of WA will have to pay for Griffin’s reckless corporate behaviour long after its shareholders are done lining their pockets. So we will continue to disrupt the operations of organisations like Griffin for as long as they continue to display such corporate recklessness and short-sightedness. “At the same time we support the calls from the Australian Manufacturers Workers Union and the Australian Council of Trade Unions for a just transition to a renewable society that leaves no worker or community behind,” said Ms Johnson.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Ms Jael Johnson: Mbl: 0438 856 981
Ms Emma McIntyre: Mbl: 0415 258 301
daring climate protest targets polluting aluminium smelter – rising tide. 9 June 2009 Climate, Germinate, News, SEAN. Media Release 9th June 2009. Climate change protestors have halted production in Australia’s largest aluminium smelter by attaching themselves to a weigh bridge that is a pinch-point of the operation. The protestors are angry that heavily polluting industries, like aluminium smelting, will receive 90% of their pollution permits free from the Federal Government under the controversial Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, allowing them to carry on largely unaffected by pollution constraints, and leaving the public to pick up the cost of reducing greenhouse emissions. Aluminium smelting is an extremely energy intensive industry, and the Tomago plant has a constant demand of around 900MW of power, which is supplied from greenhouse polluting coal-fired power stations.
The Hunter’s two aluminium smelters, at Tomago and Kurri Kurri, use 15% of NSW’s electricity, yet are charged just one sixth of the cost per mega watt paid by ordinary energy consumers. The annual electricity subsidy to the aluminium industry has been estimated to be at least $210 million. “The Tomago Aluminium smelter alone is excepted to receive over $250 million in free permits in the first year of the CPRS. It is half owned by mining and aluminium giant Rio Tinto, which last year posted a profit of $15.8 billion,” said Steve Phillips, spokesperson for protest organisers Rising Tide Newcastle. “The Government is pursuing a backwards climate policy that rewards big polluting companies like Rio Tinto at the expense of the rest of the community and the world. “Aluminium smelting in Australia is two-and-a-half times more greenhouse polluting than the world average, because our energy comes almost exclusively from coal burning. “At this crucial hour in world history, we should be forcing plants like this to use renewable energy – not paying them to use coal power. The Aluminium industry needs to clean up, or clean out. “The Federal Government needs to shift focus from compensation to restructuring. We call on the Federal Government to reverse the perverse subsidies given to coal-powered aluminium smelters and make assistance under any emissions trading scheme conditional on an urgent switch to renewable energy for all smelters.”
dramatic climate protest over budget at parliament house in canberra. 15 May 2009 Climate, News, SEAN. Eight people were arrested during a dramatic protest at Parliament House in Canberra this morning. Two women disrupted Treasurer Wayne Swan’s post-budget address in the Great Hall, protesting at the government’s shamefully inadequate response to climate change in both this budget and its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. At the same time, seven women locked themselves together in a circle in the main foyer of Parliament, chanting slogans calling for swift and meaningful greenhouse pollution cuts, not handouts to polluting industries. Meanwhile, outside, two protesters in climbing harnesses abseiled from the front facade of Parliament, hanging an eight metre long banner reading “Carbon Budget Blowout”.
The budget address comes just a week after the Federal Government back-flipped on its promise that their controversial Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme would take effect from next year. Georgina Woods, spokesperson for protest organisers Rising Tide Newcastle: “The Government has utterly failed to deliver on its promise to take effective action to reduce greenhouse emissions. They will take us to the next Federal election with greenhouse pollution still rising. “The Budget released last night is a black hole. They are throwing money everywhere but where it needs to be: urgently bringing down greenhouse emissions.” Legislation for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is expected to be introduced into parliament this week but protestors say the scheme is riddled with problems. “With just six months till the crucial Copenhagen climate talks, and a Government enslaved to big polluting industries, every parliamentarian must examine their conscience: one day, we will have to explain what we did to our children.” The eight people arrested were subsequently released without charge. Some images and media coverage here:
• http://media.theage.com.au/national/breaking-news/protesters-scale-parliament-516938.html
• http://conorashleigh.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=stories%2Fbudget-blow-out-parliament-house-act-australia
• http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5051169-5010140-2,00.html
• http://risingtide.org.au/budgetclimateprotest
• http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25474102-29277,00.html
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/13/2569313.htm
• http://media.smh.com.au/national/breaking-news/protesters-scale-parliament-516938.html
Full article »