talk
february 2007
Discuss how to Change Your Part of the World
From a meeting with mothers in the school playground, Anna formed a group, Families Facing Climate Change. Along with other parents concerned about the ramifications of climate change and the future for their children, Families Facing Climate Change organized a Climate Change Forum a few weeks before the state election. The forum involved the candidates for the State seat of Burwood presenting their policies to the electorate audience. The success of this forum lead to other forums being run in the lead up to the election, helping make climate change an election issue. Following this, Anna was one of the speakers at the Walk Against Warming Event held in Melbourne last November. Anna will talk about how she formed her group and organized the forum, what has happened since the forum, and what the group plans to do in the future to keep climate change as an important issue in the community. She hopes to inspire other ordinary citizens to do what they can to get the community and politicians to act on climate change.
In the year 2000, Terry and three others in central Victoria met to plan a community response to global warming. The Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance (CVGA) now involves 14 local councils and nine large organisations and covers over 20% of the state. Its members are working together to achieve their goal of reducing regional greenhouse gas emissions to 30% of 2000 levels by 2010 and reducing still further to zero net emissions by 2020. There are now four similar greenhouse Alliances active in Victoria. Terry will provide a short history of how the CVGA was created and how you might start a similar Alliance in your part of the state.
Anna is a full time mother of three children. She is doing a Masters course part time at RMIT in Environment and Planning.
Terry has a lifelong interest in the question '"what would a permanent culture look like"? During the 90's he founded and edited the International Permaculture Journal, coordinated Project Branchout, at that time Australia's largest community based revegetation project and initiated the Saltwatch, Frogwatch and Ribbons of Blue community environmental monitoring programs. During the 90's Terry managed Vicwatch, a Victorian State Government Community Environmental Monitoring support program, co-authored 'Listening to the Land' Australia's first Directory of Community Environmental Monitoring Groups, coordinated national research on Community Environmental Monitoring for the Commonwealth State of the Environment Unit, co-authored 'Environmental Indicators for Community and Local Uses' and was actively involved in promoting roof top gardens for the Cities of Port Phillip and Melbourne. Since 2000 Terry has developed a triple bottom line audit manual for small communities, coordinated native vegetation preservation and enhancement programs in North Central Victoria and established the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance which now represents the climate protection interests of 14 municipalities and nine large organizations.
Jim Castles, an engineer, has worked with CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Technology, the Sustainable Energy Authority, the Department of Industry Tourism and Resources Energy Efficiency Best Practice program and Moreland Energy Foundation. As a consultant in recent years Jim has worked for Ford Australia, Fosters Group, Orlando, Southcorp and Yalumba as well as galvanisers, bakers, RSL clubs and on community environmental programs with Environment Victoria, Cities of Port Philip, Yarra and Melbourne.