| Less than 10 days to go until our second Climate Change Relay takes place (Sat 26 September). The timing of the event has taken on new significance with the recent change of Prime Minister. We have a great opportunity to send a strong message via local members Mal Brough, Warren Truss and Clive Palmer that Australians everywhere want decisive action based on Climate Change. If you haven't already done so please invite your friends and family to our facebook event so we can reach as many people as possible.
We are organising a free screening of Merchants of Doubt in Cotton Tree park on the evening of the relay. The screening will take place after the realy is finished and will be introduced by Dr. John Cook (University of Queensland) editor of the Skeptical Science website and one of the worlds leading experts on the psychology of denial.
To help us raise funds for our climate action campaign we are raffling off a family pass to the Caloundra Music Festival (which will take place the weekend after the relay). You can buy tickets from our volunteers during the relay or you can grab them online now.
There has been a lot of action around the Steve Irwin Way forest campaign. There was a great turn out for the 'Save Your Steve Irwin Way Forest Rally' on 5 September and our Liaison & Advocacy Officer, Narelle McCarthy, recently met with Minster Bailey to brief him on our concerns with the proposed design (see campaign updates or our website for details).
Following on from our recent working bee at Eumundi Beef we've had discussions with Sunshine Coast Council on ways we can support other land holders and nrm projects in the region. We will be trialing a project to recruit volunteers to other revegetation projects around the region in the coming weeks. If this is something that you are particularly interested in we'd love to here from you as we'd like to form a team of 2 or 3 volunteers to coordinate this project. Send us an email if you want to get involved: [email protected]
An enormous thanks to everyone who has responded to our call to update your details, it may sound like a trivial thing but having this data really makes our work that much more effective. We understand that several people had trouble loggin int with their email accounts. We've set up a new landing page to resolve this issue which you can access here. If you receive the message 'email already exist' use the password recovery page (via sign in) to get access to your account.
We look forward to another months of environmental events and a continuation of the seemingly perpetual stream of good news on the climate and divestment front.
The SCEC team
We're still looking for one or two more people to help us run the office. If you've can spare a few hours (or a day) a week than join our office admin team.
As mentioned we are also looking for people interested in helping us coordinate the recruitment of volunteers to work on existing revegetation projects happening around the region.
Contact us for more details: [email protected]
Individual membership in SCEC is counted as a donation for tax-purposes. By subscribing to one of our monthly membershipoptions you will be providing ongoing support our work protecting the natural environment while giving yourself something to smile about at tax time.
There has been a string of encouraging news on the climate action front with NAB stating they won't finance the Carmichael mine and even Barnaby Joyce admitting that it doesn't make economic sense to be opening massive new coal mines. The battle is by no means over but it does appear that public opinion on big fossil fuel projects is changing and more and more people are openly calling for Australia to stop lagging behind on Climate Change.
In the lead up to and during the Relay we want to generate a great burst of climate action activity on social media. You can help us out by posting a selfie to facebook, twitter or other social media sites with your climate action message using the hashtags #scclimateaction and #pathwaytoparis
And don't forget to check out our climate action t-shirtsavailable for $25 (including postage). A great way to look the part and spread the word.
Steve Irwin Way
On Saturday 5 September hundreds of people gathered at the 'Save Your Steve Irwin Way Forest Rally' to call on Sate and Federal decision makers to find a better design for the new interchange that will avoid the forest and leave critically endangered lowland subtropical rainforest community intact.
Behind the scenes SCEC has been working hard to ensure State and Federal Ministers are aware of the significance of the forest area and have the best available data to help inform their decission. We've had a small win with the project requiring Federal Environmental approval and a formal assessment under the EPBC Act. SCEC has made a submission to this assessment process that will be available via our website next week.
In a face to face meeting with Minister Bailey (Transport and Main Roads) SCEC has highlighted impacts such as the incursion into sensitive wetland areas of the forest and isolation of the historically important Mooloolah Cemetery. The Minister acknowledged these points and stated the meeting had further enhanced his understanding of the issue and of community concerns about the project.
Water for Life- consultation process
SEQWater is running a series of community consultation sessions on its 30 year water security strategy. The Sunshine Coast session will be held on Tuesday the 22nd of September at the Caloundra Events Centre (click here for details).
Surfrider Foundation's Beach Clean Up!
Hey surfers! Get involved with fellow coastal community members at the Surfrider Foundation's beach clean up at Double Island Point to help keep our beaches clean!
SCEC member featured in 'My Weekly Preview'
SCEC member, Jill Chamberlain, was recently featured in the My Weekly Preview magazine highlighting her environmental advocacy. Check out the article here.
SCEC Book of the Month
In preparation for the showing of the movie, "Merchants of Doubt" we would like to encourage you to read the book as well. The book is known to go in greater detail on many topics within the film. It would be a great compliment for reading either before or after the movie screening!
http://www.scec-action.org.au/
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