There seems to be a lot of unrest lately; frustration that not enough is being done on the environmental protection and climate change fronts by Australia. Locally SLA is making positive moves to put sustainability at the front of the public mind. This is all well and good… except that it hasn’t changed the single biggest problem of climate change being carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants. There is currently an expansion of coal and coal seam gas extraction on farms and forests coupled with a planned 5% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020 means that Australia is on track for a worse case scenario of well over 5 degree increase in global temperatures.
What to do?
Community members are invited to an Open Forum to have conversations about finding a continuum with local engagement emphasising positive changes people can make and engagement on wider issues in which there is space to exercise one’s rights as a citizen that may even include actions the state deems illegal.
This forum will be facilitated, and we have invited local people with different perspectives on seeing positive transition and others with more confrontational change as the necessary solution for SLA to remain relevant.
The Forum will be held on Thursday February 6th at 7pm Kent House, 141 Faulkner Street, opposite Central Park. All welcome, refreshments to follow – gold coin donation appreciated.
I am wary of pre-empting anything said at the forum so I will keep this comment individual.
I have no qualms with slowing myself down in relation to what I do. What I do to pursue sustainability within my own life and what I do to promote sustainability in the world in which we all live.
I do have qualms about lapsing into inaction, apathy, ignoring matters, placing myself in a state of fear.
This forum sounds like a good one. I hope one or more positive element/s come out of it.
Best regards,
Tom.
tom.369@hotmail.com
Having attended the forum.
Well.. it was intense. If nothing else, this is evidenced by one participant announcing their departure and then leaving the building (so far as I know, unprecedented at any forum held by the group). I, for one, think this is far far more a reflection of the times than it is on ‘Sustainable living, Armidale’.
On the night of Thursday 6 February 2014, the world was not sustainable. In addition, we have governments in Australia that seem to be hellbent on accelerating the current i.e. unsustainable trajectory. I think the forum yesterday evening displayed courage and emotional fortitude. I think this is needed and acutely important. I, for one, remain a happy paid-up member of ‘Sustainable living, Armidale (SLA)’. Thank-you.
It would be great to translate some of that intensity into action 🙂