“Do the Math” meeting streamed to Adelaide

June 2, 2013

FoE Adelaide simulcast the Canberra “Do the Math”
meeting with Bill McKibben from 7pm on June 5th
at the BH209 Lecture Theatre,
The Barbara Hanrahan building,
City West Campus,
University of SA,

Thanks to 350.org.au for making the feed available
and the School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences,
Division of IT, Engineering and the Environment at UniSA for providing the venue.

We had an audience of 39 for the talk, followed by a short panel with activists from various groups working on Climate Change.

BZE had their scale model of the Solar Thermal plant for Pt Augusta on display, and we handed out leaflets from FoE, 350.org et alia.

Climate, Divestment

Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign

May 5, 2013

There’s a meeting for those interested in a fossil fuels divestment campaign next Wednesday, May 8th, at 6pm in the community room at Christie Walk (entry via 101 Sturt St).

If you’re interested, please come. If you can’t come, you can leave an  expression of interest by leaving a comment below

Chart from The Australia Institute reportBackground

As Bill McKibben noted in his Rolling Stone Article last year — “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math”, the fossil fuel companies currently have six times as many conventional reserves as they could safely burn  if we are to stay below 2 degrees global warming.

For the past year he has been touring the US, urging institutions to divest themselves of shares in these companies.

Now this movement has come to Australia.

FoE affiliate Market Forces is looking at three key areas:

(a) divestment of fossil fuel shares;

(b) disentanglement of super from fossil fuel companies;

(c) removal of government subsidies for fossil fuels.

In the US, the GoFossilFree campaign is encouraging unis, towns and citizens to divest themselves. [3]

The Renew Economy website has reported on divestment and the recent

report on potentially stranded assets from The Australia Institute:

“The report, Unburnable Carbon: Australia’s carbon bubble, warns that much of  the nation’s coal reserves will become worthless as the world hits carbon  emission limits, and that there is little fossil fuel companies can do

little to avoid this.”  Download the report

Climate, Sustainability

LEGAL CHALLENGE OF FEDERAL APPROVAL OF THE OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION CONTINUES

June 9, 2012

21ST JUNE 2012 FEDERAL COURT ADELAIDE

On the 20th April 2012 Justice Besanko dismissed Uncle Kevin Buzzacotts’ case challenging the Federal Environment Ministers approval of the Olympic Dam expansion. Uncle Kevin is appealing the decision on the following grounds:

1. The judge was mistaken in ruling that the Minister did not need to consider existing conditions imposed by the state of South Australia on water extraction from the Great Artesian Basin. These conditions refer to the Indenture Act, which contains provisions allowing BHP to search for water and seek further water licences beyond the current licence limit of 42 million litres per day.

2. The judge was mistaken in holding that the approval was sufficiently certain with regard to the EPBC Act (the Act under which the approval was made). The judge focused on the certainty of the conditions, finding that the Minister had a wide power to impose a broad range of conditions, and that the conditions made it reasonably clear to BHP what it was required to do; however the argument was that the whole of the approval is uncertain because so much of the design of the project is left to be defined by studies and plans set out in the conditions which are yet to be done.

Please come to court and show your support on the 21st June at 9am outside the courthouse. The hearing is listed for 9.30 am, court 1, level 5, Federal Court, Angus St. Adelaide.

Uncategorized

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Mining Giant seeks costs From Arabunna Elder after ruling on challenge to Federal Approval Of The Olympic Dam expansion

April 20, 2012

MEDIA RELEASE FRIDAY 20TH APRIL 20212

In a packed courtroom today Justice Besanko dismissed Uncle Kevin Buzzacott’s challenge of the Federal approval of the Olympic Dam expansion. The judge did not discuss his reasons in the court.

Both BHP and the Federal government are seeking costs from Kevin Buzzacott.

The hearing was held in the Federal Court on the 3rd and 4th April, after which the Judge reserved his judgement. Both BHP Billiton and the South Australian government had successfully sought to become parties to the proceedings.

“The speed with which this decision was made suggests pressure to resolve the matter as quickly as possible so as not to impact the project,” said Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.

“The judgement is really a product of the constrained nature of such administrative challenges. It really rests on interpretation of two pieces of legislation which govern the Ministers approval. The merits of the project were never on the table for discussion.”

“If such an approval with so many future plans yet to be approved constitutes a proper approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act, how can such an open-ended  project be judicially reviewed?” said Ms Calan.

“The question we are left with is whether the EPBC Act protects the environment,” Ms Calan continued.

“This is a very sad day,” said applicant Kevin Buzzacott. “We offered the judge the issue on a platter, and he wasted an opportunity to make changes that will reverberate in this nation for thousands of years.”

“But we’re not going away. This isn’t over yet,” Mr Buzzacott concluded.

Both Kevin Buzzacott and Nectaria Calan will be available for comment on the details of the ruling early next week once the lengthy judgement has been considered.

Contact: Kevin Buzzacott  0431 157 747

Nectaria Calan  0432 388 665

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