Bathurst Community Climate Action Network

Issue 24th September 2009

Well, that got everyone talking! By "that", I mean the idea that we 
should share our water with Orange. Our mayor, Paul Toole, has 
expressed outrage, while local environmentalist Wayne Feebrey has 
urged us to see that water, like the air and sunshine, doesn't belong 
to anyone.

To add my own two cents' worth, I'd say that philosophically I agree 
with Wayne Feebrey but in this particular case, we need to proceed 
with extreme caution. This is because we're not just talking about 
sharing our water with the people of Orange but quite possibly – 
directly or indirectly – with the giant Cadia gold mine. The mine 
needs water, lots of it, to operate.

With rainfall falling and gold prices rising, this issue is likely to 
keep coming back. Meanwhile, the state government has been quietly 
widening its own powers and shrinking those of local councils. The 
state government is able to declare particular projects to be of 
"state significance", thereby overriding local sentiment. We could 
find that the decision is taken out of our hands anyway – unless we 
remain informed and vigilant.

One way to remain informed is by coming along to the Bathurst 
Community Climate Action Network Annual General Meeting tonight 
(Thursday, September 24) at 5.30pm at the Bathurst RSL Club. There, 
you will be able to hear an overview of local activities to engage 
with the challenge of climate change. It will be an opportunity to 
"think globally, act locally", with a presentation by Cr Tracey 
Carpenter and author Ashley Bland on the Friends of Laclubar carbon 
offset project planned for East Timor. All are welcome to the AGM.

On Friday evening there will be a film by New Zealand filmmakers 
called One Man, One Cow, One Planet. It's about the work of Peter 
Proctor, whose life work is to get people to realise that organic 
matter must be worked into the top 30 centimetres of the earth's 
soils. The film, presented by "Biodynamics 2024" will be shown at the 
RSL at 7.30pm and it's free! This will be followed by a weekend 
seminar on biodynamic farming at Harry Whalan's Marawin property on 
the Bridle Track. You need to register by the end of today, so if 
you're interested, call 6655 9853.

Issue 17th September 2009

I've just been reading about the effectiveness of the persistent 
whine. If you're a small child in a supermarket, it apparently does 
wonders. If you keep it up long enough, Mum will eventually give you 
what you want just to shut you up.

In This Little Kiddy Went to Market, Sharon Beder explains how this 
generation of children is being groomed to be hyper consumers almost 
from the moment they first open their eyes. Marketing is targeting 
ever younger children so that in the US (and things that happen in 
the US have a habit of turning up here) there is now a cable TV 
channel devoted entirely to programming for babies. Just imagine: 24 
hour Teletubbies! Armies of psychologists and social anthropologists 
are on hand to help marketers get past the gatekeepers (that's Mum 
and Dad) to enter little hearts and minds. And, going from this book, 
it appears they're winning. One UK survey showed that mothers were 
"at a loss" as to how to make healthy food attractive to little 
people in the face of the advertising barrage. I noticed a story in 
the Sydney Morning Herald the other day that explained how to trick 
children into eating vegetables by hiding them inside other more 
yummy-looking food.

Meanwhile, the pile of stuff grows higher and higher. I remember on a 
trip to the US a few years ago I stayed with (a very lovely) middle 
class family in New Jersey. I gave the kids a soft toy each (a 
kangaroo and a koala), which they loved because they were a bit 
different to their other "guys". I was then shown their collection of 
"guys". It was, quite literally, a whole large room devoted to toys. 
It was like a small toy shop. There just wouldn't be time to give 
each of those toys a decent play before the end of childhood.

The moral to this story is that there seems to be no end-point. The 
market will just keep finding new things for us to "need" unless we 
draw the line somewhere. Which people are doing in lots of ways, like 
the Education for Sustainability conference coming up at Charles 
Sturt University on October 30-31. Email jpage@csu.edu.au for 
details. And don't forget the BCCAN AGM at the Bathurst RSL on 
Thursday, September 24, at 5.30pm.

Issue 10th September 2009

Now, this might seem to some a rather unusual request. I am looking 
for a bevy of Little Mermaids to help spread the word about climate 
change. Why Little Mermaids? Well, the Little Mermaid, the 1913 
statue based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, is one of the 
great tourist attractions of Copenhagen. That's where the UN-
sponsored international climate change conference will take place in 
December.

On Saturday October 24, Bathurst Community Climate Action Network 
will be holding a public activity in which we will unfurl a banner 
and assemble for a colourful photo opportunity. The photo will be 
sent off to join thousands of others in a montage to show that people 
all over the world are urging their leaders to take a strong stand 
come December. The action will probably be at the Farmers Markets in 
the morning (we are still fine-tuning the details). Note that we will 
accept Little Mermaids of any size, age or shape. But of course 
you're also welcome to come along just as yourself! If you're 
interested in being involved, you can find out more on the BCCAN 
website.
,,,
The following Friday, October 30, the two-day "Education for 
Sustainability" will kick off at Charles Sturt University. A joint 
project between BCCAN and the School of Teacher Education, the theme 
of the conference is to discuss and promote kitchen gardens for 
schools, households and communities. On the Saturday, there will be a 
tour to an organic farm and a delicious lunch. For details email Jan 
Page at CSU on jpage@csu.edu.au.
,,,
The BCCAN Annual General Meeting is coming up on Thursday, September 
24 at 5.30pm at the Bathurst RSL. You can join up, renew your 
membership or just find out more.
,,,
A public forum, "Sustainable development in regional areas", is 
coming up in Orange on September 17 from 5pm to 6.30pm at the 
Function Centre in Orange. Presented by the NSW Architects 
Registration Board, the speakers will be Dylan Gower, who has made a 
comparative study of the Berg River catchment (South Africa) and the 
Lachlan River in NSW; NSW Government Architect Peter Mould and Cr 
Neil Jones, President of Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Orange 
City (ECCO). It's free, but bookings are essential. Details: (02) 02 
9241 4033.

Issue 3rd September 2009

Will we be getting another visit from Nathan Rees? It seems that 
Bathurst is a favoured refuge from the madding crowd as his 
dysfunctional government implodes. After a refreshing retreat in the 
land of the Light on the Hill, he returned to Sydney this week only 
to discover his health minister in the act of falling on his sword.

Well, he's more than welcome to come back for another rest cure if he 
can help with our rail service. Rees was trailed into town by ABC 
television reporter Geoff Sims, who filed a great report on the Rail 
Action Group's campaign for a daily return service for Monday night's 
news. It just makes no sense to have world class rail infrastructure 
sitting there while everyone piles on and off buses or sits in their 
cars for the trip to Sydney.
,,,

The population of Australia may be relatively small but each of us 
leaves a trail of gigantic carbon footprints. Yes, we're among the 
worst per-capita greenhouse gas offenders in the whole world. What a 
vast contrast with the new little country to our north, now 
celebrating 10 years of independence. As a result of war and grinding 
poverty, East Timor has a negligible carbon footprint. Cr Tracey 
Carpenter and local environmental engineer Ashley Bland recently 
visited the country and, at the suggestion of the President, Jose 
Ramos Horta, have focused on friendship projects with the town of 
Laclubar.

One project they're hoping to promote is a carbon offsetting 
development project. The idea is to reafforest the land and replant 
tea crops and be paid through carbon offset credits. Friends of 
Laclubar are working through both the United Nations Development 
Program's poverty reduction and environment unit and official 
channels in the East Timorese government.

"We are now looking to establish a viable model for funding and 
establishing these projects through development of a business model 
that devolves a long term income the Laclubar community," says Cr 
Carpenter.

If you'd like to hear more, Cr Carpenter and Ashley Bland will be 
giving a presentation about this proposal at the BCCAN Annual General 
Meeting at the RSL at 5.30pm on 24 September 2009. All welcome.

Issue 27th August 2009

First of all, a big thanks to the Assumption School, TAFE Welfare 
Students, all the participating children, the Mayor and everyone else 
who helped launch the Walk Ride to School survey project last week. 
We at BCCAN can't wait to see the results of the survey, which will 
help us to promote a return to walking and riding to school in 
Bathurst. If you're the parent of a primary school-aged child, keep 
an eye out for the survey over the next couple of weeks.
,,,
We are now preparing for our Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 
September 24 at 5.30pm in the Courtyard Room of Bathurst RSL. If 
you've been taking an interest in BCCAN, then the AGM would be a 
great time to come along and hear the big picture of what we're about 
as President John Kellett gives an overview of activities for the year.

We will also be showing a short inspirational video, Sisters on the 
Planet, featuring women and their fight against climate change. 
Continuing the theme of "thinking globally, acting locally", we will 
then have Cr Tracey Carpenter and author Ashley Bland speak briefly 
about the Friends of Laclubar - Carbon Offset Project planned in East 
Timor.
,,,

This week, BCCAN members all received a personal letter from Member 
for Macquarie Bob Debus with a copy of a speech made by Greg Combet 
in federal parliament on the scientific imperative for action on 
climate change.

"The scientific case for action on climate change is clear," said 
Combet.
"The climate system is warming. Human-induced emissions of greenhouse 
gases are responsible for most of the warming. Warming will continue."

Combet's speech was by way of arguing the case for the government's 
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme which, as we know, was voted down 
by the Opposition. So what now? For all the hysteria from the 
Opposition, the CPRS was a pretty weak-kneed response to climate 
change. The grass-roots movement for a stronger response is not going 
away. If we keep up the pressure, we could end up with an even better 
outcome. BCCAN has a petition that you can download from our website 
so that our voices can be heard in Canberra as we head towards the 
international conference in Copenhagen in December.

Issue 20th August 2009

It's Yellow Flower Season here in Bathurst. My daffodils have finally 
shown their faces and the wattles are out. With spring just around 
the corner things are warming up in the battle against climate change 
and environmental destruction.

At TAFE, welfare students are about to embark on a two-week research 
project in partnership with Bathurst Community Climate Action Network 
to find out why kids no longer use their legs to get to school. Once 
we know exactly why, we'll be in a better position to promote a walk/
ride to school culture here in town. So, if you're a parent, watch 
out for the survey!
,,,
You may have heard about how the palm oil in common supermarket goods 
is threatening orangutans in Indonesia. That's because poor farmers 
are burning down the forests to plant palm-oil plantations. The 
destruction of such forests is also a major contributor to greenhouse 
gases. A documentary film, The Burning Season, explores one 
Australian man's campaign to turn things around. It'll be shown at 
Metro Cinemas on Wednesday September 2 at 7pm, in a special charity 
screening raising money for the Nyaru Menteng orangutan sanctuary.
,,,
You might like to celebrate spring by finding out more about 
permaculture in a two-day course to be held at Rahamim on St Joseph's 
Mount in Busby Street on the weekend of September 5-6. For details 
phone 6332 9950.
,,,
The Central West Renewable Energy Group (CWREG) is one step closer to 
the goal of a local community wind farm after its meeting last 
Sunday. It has identified three possible local sites and is getting 
ready to release a Request for Expressions of Interest to wind farm 
developers. You can find out more through links on the BCCAN website.
,,,
If you're interested in biochar and emissions trading – a hot topic 
during Tim Flannery's tour of Bathurst earlier this year – you may be 
interested in a seminar presented by the Central Tablelands Landcare 
on Wednesday September 2 at the Environmental Learning Facility at 
the Orange Showgrounds. The guest speaker will be Professor Annette 
Cowie, Director of the National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas 
Research. Details: 0429 979 780.

Issue 13th August 2009

With a name like Sorensen, it's logical that I have an affinity for 
wonderful Copenhagen. My Danish ancestors came to Australia a few 
generations ago and not a shred of Danish cultural heritage remains 
in my family. Still, when I visited the city, I got a special smile 
from the man who examined my passport and I noticed that in Denmark, 
Sorensen is about as common as Smith is here.

Anyway, that's just me. On a global level, we're all on a Countdown 
to Copenhagen. In early December, world leaders will gather in that 
city under the auspices of the United Nations to thrash out a global 
climate agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Will we be 
leaders at the conference, or foot-draggers? We've come a long way 
since the climate-sceptic Howard administration, but on the other 
hand we're coal exporters par excellence, and that is already 
colouring our response.

Bathurst Community Climate Action Network is now circulating a 
petition calling on the Federal Government to make a commitment to 
stronger emissions targets in the lead-up to Copenhagen. It urges the 
government to match the European Union's commitment to 30 per cent 
emissions cuts on 1990 levels by 2020 if other countries make a 
similar effort. You can download a copy of the petition from the 
BCCAN website.

Meanwhile, BCCAN has been busy supporting the concept of a local, 
community-run wind farm by making a submission to the New South Wales 
Government's inquiry into rural wind farms. The goal is to have a 
wind farm on a local landholder's property, feeding energy into the 
grid. There will be a public meeting hosted by the Central West 
Renewable Energy Group to discuss this idea on Sunday, 16 August, 2pm 
to 4pm at the Bathurst Information and Neighbourhood Centre. All 
interested in helping to support a local wind farm are welcome.

Mark the date in your diary: BCCAN's Annual General Meeting is coming 
up on September 24 at the RSL Club at 5.30pm. As well as electing 
office bearers, the meeting will enjoy a video produced by Oxfam 
called Sisters on the Planet, about how women around the world are 
responding to climate change.

Issue 6th August 2009

Bravo to Bathurst Regional Council for making the decision to 
consider installing new water bubblers in town. The plastic water 
bottle is up there with the giant plasma screen television as one of 
the symbols of how decadent we've become. While millions of people on 
this planet are still carrying precious containers of water long 
distances for drinking and cooking, we are refusing to drink the 
World Health Organisation-approved water that gushes from every tap 
in our houses. Our water is safe and clean. There is no need to buy 
it in plastic bottles.

When ABC Radio Science Show host Robin Williams was in Bathurst a 
couple of years ago, he pointed out just how irrational our addiction 
to bottled water is. Plastic is a by-product of oil, and oil is a 
finite resource. The bottles themselves end up in landfill or 
littering streets and waterways.

Research conducted for the Bottled Water Alliance (an anti-bottled 
water campaign group) found that Australians believe there are not 
enough water bubblers available; they are not easy to find and that 
people were worried about hygiene. Sixty six per cent of respondents 
said they would buy less bottled water if more bubblers were available.

Fashion and advertising are big culprits in our abandonment of 
perfectly good tap water. Since the 1980s, bottled water has had a 
hip veneer, while good old-fashioned unbranded tap water has 
languished in the doldrums of dagginess. Fortunately, campaign groups 
like the Bottled Water Alliance are using corporate marketing 
strategies to rehabilitate the image of tap water. It could soon 
become uncool to be seen with bottled water.

Having more water bubblers dotted about town is also a wonderful way 
to enrich public space. We've been losing public phones, train 
services, the courthouse clock (hasn't been functioning for a while). 
We're expected to have our own mobile phones, our own cars, our own 
watches. If we get more bubblers, it will be a welcome reversal to 
this trend. It will also  help to make our city more "foot friendly", 
with welcoming, healthy streetscapes that are a pleasure to walk 
around in. That, in turn, helps us get out of our greenhouse gas-
producing car habit.

Issue 30th July 2009

As a young child I remember helping to plant a gum tree near the 
front gate of my school for Arbour Day. There was a long path from 
the gate to the school building itself, flanked by two enormous 
stretches of lawn. Across these stretches of lawn we'd play British 
Bulldog – a savage, thrilling game that left casualties limping up to 
the nurse's station for a dab of Mercurochrome. When I visited the 
school – in a small town in north Western Australia – thirty years 
later, two things struck me. First of all, there was a magnificent 
avenue of gums on either side of the path, and secondly, the lawns 
seemed to have shrunk. I marvelled at how the lawns had only seemed 
so big because I was then so small, and that I had helped to plant 
one of those trees.

British Bulldog is no longer played in schools but we still celebrate 
Arbour Day, now known as National Tree Day. Australians have 
dedicated a special day to trees since 1889.

With this year's tree day coming up on Sunday, it's a good time to 
pay tribute to one of our local tree-planting groups, the Boundary 
Road Reserve Landcare Group.

Last Friday, the group received a Nature Conservation Award from the 
Central West Catchment Management Authority at the Mudgee Small Farm 
Field Days was also the runner-up prize in the Community Group Award.

The group, which has been going for over ten years, manages the 
Boundary Road Reserve in cooperation with Bathurst Regional Council. 
Thousands of volunteer hours have been put into tree planting, weed 
control, fire management, constructing and maintaining walking tracks 
and providing visitor information. It is now a lovely place to get 
away from the hustle and bustle of city life. If you'd like to join 
the group or find out more, call the Bathurst Information and 
Neighbourhood Centre on 6332 4866.
,,,
Do you have a few spare hours a week? Bathurst Community Climate 
Action Network is looking for a volunteer Secretary to take over when 
Ross McIndoe steps down at the AGM in September. If you're 
interested, contact John Kellett on 63318917 or Keith Hungerford on 
63374843.

Issue 23rd July 2009

I don't get it. Why is the New South Wales government so deaf when it 
comes to hearing anything other than the needs of the coal industry? 
On ABC TV's Four Corners program on Monday night we saw how the 
fertile farming country of the Liverpool Plains will be dug up for 
coal. It was quite extraordinary seeing conservative, National Party-
voting farmers brandishing their green triangle No Mines signs. The 
signs were reminiscent of the No Dams placards against Tasmania's 
Franklin Dam in 1983, the campaign that brought the Greens' Senator 
Bob Brown to prominence. Just imagine if someone had told those 
farmers back then that one day they'd be on the same side of the 
barricades as Bob Brown!

Bathurst Community Climate Action Network member Geoff McClintock has 
devoted many hours to researching this issue and lobbying government 
about it. When the NSW cabinet was here in early June, he and three 
other BCCAN members met with Environment Minister Carmel Tebbutt to 
express concerns about the $99 million exploration licence given to 
BHP over the Liverpool Plains.

"The Minister was completely dismissive of our concerns," Geoff 
McClintock told a recent BCCAN meeting. "After asking where I got my 
information she said, 'You can't believe what you read in the Sydney 
Morning Herald'."

On the other hand, our local state member of parliament, Gerard 
Martin, was anything but dismissive. "No, he was completely in favour 
of mining," reported Geoff McClintock.

Geoff McClintock ended his report by urging BCCAN members to continue 
their efforts to protect prime agricultural land from the threat of 
coal mining.

But maybe I do get it. The coal industry is still where the money is; 
agriculture is seen as the poor cousin. The code-word for supporting 
the coal industry is jobs. Geoff McClintock quoted Minister for Mines 
Ian McDonald who said: "There's a lot more jobs in mining than 
agriculture."

There are many new jobs to be had in clean, alternative energy, if 
only the government would move out of half-hearted measures to 
vigorous support. BCCAN has a dedicated Electricity and Renewable 
Energy subcommittee that meets at 5pm on the first Tuesday of every 
month at the Agricultural Research Station to work on these issues. 
All are welcome to these meetings.

Issue 16th July 2009

I love the poplars lining the road as you come into Bathurst from 
Sydney. It is wonderful to watch them change with the seasons. 
Driving back into town after an absence, they say “nearly home”. So 
it is a painful thing to read that they will soon get the chop.

If they are rotting and dangerous, then they must submit to this 
final bit of surgery. But what happens next? Do we have a road into 
town without poplars? Apparently we are waiting to see what happens 
with the RTA’s road-widening project. My great fear, which I hope 
will soon be put to rest, is that poplars will quietly disappear from 
the plans.

I would like to see “poplar-lined approach to the city from the east” 
become part of our bottom-line planning. They may not be indigenous, 
but like most of the population of Bathurst, they have made their 
home here. If we lose these particular trees, then they should be 
replaced.

Street trees can be messy, inconvenient and even dangerous. But 
having them says a lot about our approach to the environment. It 
means that we appreciate aesthetic and ecological values, not just 
convenience and functionality. The poplars on the Great Western 
Highway give Bathurst charm and grandeur, as well as providing 
habitat for countless organisms large and small. They signal that 
this is a special place.

It is values like these that are attracting the “tree changers”, 
those high-income, high-qualified city-escapees that are the target 
of the $1.2 million Evocities project announced by Maxine McKew the 
other day. These people are looking for charm and a rural setting, 
not the endless car yards and furniture warehouses that they can see 
everywhere and that they are heartily sick of.

As Bathurst rapidly expands, it will also rapidly change. But change 
doesn’t have to rain down on us willy nilly. We can define the sort 
of town we want to live in, and accept that some of our decisions - 
such as preserving streetscapes - may bring some risks, costs and 
inconveniences. But the benefits in the long run will be worth it.

Issue 9th July 2009

What is the Awkward News for Greenies? It’s the title of a book by 
local environmental engineer Ashley Bland and Blue Mountains 
ecologist Dr J. Mark Dangerfield. It’s now on sale at Books Plus. But 
what’s the awkward news in Awkward News? The awkward news is that 
there isn’t a problem with the environment.

The environment, say Ashley and Mark, is just fine. It is doing a 
great job at being the environment. Long after each one of us is 
gone, the environment will continue to do its environmental things.

Speaking just before the opening of an exhibition at the Warpstanza 
Gallery in 2005, local artist Marinka Kordis said something along the 
same lines.

Standing before a long strip of a painting of the Australian 
landscape, so different to her native Croatia, she said it was like 
the view from a prison van. “We are the prisoners”, she said. “The 
landscape is there. It’s going to stay there. We are the ones that 
are vanishing.”

Her words are particularly poignant now that she has finally lost her 
battle with cancer. The environment – and her paintings – are still 
here, but Marinka herself has vanished.

This is the awkward news for “greenies”.  The environment will 
continue, regardless. It is simply a series of natural processes. It 
will adapt and change to suit new circumstances. It dispensed with 
dinosaurs and developed mammals and birds. At the moment it is 
warming up and trimming biodiversity as one particular species, homo 
sapiens, blithely continues to do what it is programmed to do: feed 
itself, make shelter, reproduce itself. The environment might look 
rather different in fifty or a thousand years time, but it will still 
be here.

So we need to look after ourselves, not the environment. To look 
after ourselves, we need to fully appreciate how we change the 
environment and whether those changes are doing us any good. At the 
end of the book, the authors propose two scenarios for fifty years’ 
time: one isn’t pretty, the other is more hopeful. The difference 
lies in whether we, as a species, just continue to act without deep 
environmental awareness, or whether we exercise the power of 
conscious choice and start doing things differently. Check the 
authors’ website at www.thinktruth.com.au.

Issue 2nd July 2009

The other night I watched a wildlife program narrated by David  Attenborough about a pride of lions making their way through  parched African countryside, getting thinner and weaker by the day.  When a young lion cub could no longer keep up and lay down in the dirt to die, it was too much for me; I got up and left the room. It's one thing to know that life and death is constantly playing out across the globe and quite another to watch it in close-up in the living room.

Normally, though, I watch David Attenborough programs from start to finish, mostly in a state of transfixed awe. The recent program about salmon swimming against the current to return to their birthplaces to spawn and die was extraordinary, especially the time-lapse sequence at the end showing a single fish decomposing into the earth to feed the giant tree beside it.

I've watched programs like these since childhood, in recent years noting how the photography gets more amazing with every new series. It's only recently that I realised that these recent programs, produced by the BBC and narrated by David Attenborough, could be the last records we will ever have of many of these animals behaving naturally in the wild. Because the fact is that the "wild" is shrinking and their conditions of life are rapidly changing. Not in "the future", but now. It's already happening. Maybe, like David Attenborough himself, they'll pass off the stage, leaving just their images and voices in DVD libraries.

But I don't feel as gloomy as this would suggest. As the Paul Gilding, the former CEO of Greenpeace said on ABC Radio National the other day, as a species we're good at responding to crises. We're not very good at seeing them coming or heading them off (he mentioned the appeasement of Hitler) but once they're on, we come good. Once the Second World War got going, just about everyone did their bit. Whole economies shifted into war production. People accepted rationing and saved their brown paper and rubber bands. Paul Gilding's website, The Cockatoo Chronicles, is at http://paulgilding.com.