Friends of the Earth Adelaide

100% Renewable Energy for SA – in just 15 years! Wed August 19th

robyn August 18, 2015

100% Renewable Energy for SA – in just 15 years!

Wed August 19th 6:30pm

Kings Head Hotel, King William St Adelaide

SA is the standout state – today getting 40% of its electricity from renewable sources – at least 3 times more than any other mainland state in Australia. Great!

Did you know we could hit 100% renewable electricity? And in just 15 years?

This is one of the findings of the Conservation SA commissioned report by energy expert Dr Mark Diesendorf of the University of NSW.

It will not only clean up our environment to do our share to halt climate change, it will continue to bring down our state’s electricity costs.

Come and hear:

1. Julia Winefield of Conservation SA speak on the report together with

2. Margaret Hender of CORENA and

3. Nicki Ison of Community Power Agency

who will all indicate how we can fast track renewable energy projects in our own communities, plus what we each of us can do to ensure Dr Diesendorf’s report becomes a reality.

Order free tickets via Eventbrite

See you there!

Check out the 100% Renewables SA Facebook page

Clean Futures, Climate, Renewables, Sustainability

Adelaide, climate change, education, Sustainability

Ask Jamie Oliver to be a Bee/GMO-Free Advocate Lunch Sat Oct 31st

robyn August 18, 2015

March Against Monsanto Adelaide and Fair Food Adelaide presents

“Ask Jamie Oliver to be a Bee/GMO-Free Advocate Lunch”

12pm Saturday 31st October

Jamie’s Adelaide Restaurant

2 King William St Adelaide

Celebrating Fair Food Week – Lunch at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant to plan and sign a letter asking him to be an Advocate for Bees and a GMO-free world. We will tick off a list how much of our food depends upon bees to send to him. We will ask staff questions about GMOS and their menu, we have been told by Jamie’s HQ they don’t use GMOs but do they really know?

Menu here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/australia/restaurants/adelaide/menu/

Facebook event page to RSVP – limited spaces

Contact robyn.wood@foe.org.au for more information

FoE, Food, Old_Notes

*events*, Adelaide, community, community_food, fair food adelaide, Food, food sovereignty, friends of the earth, Sustainability

FOE Australia tracks the Nuclear Royal Commission

robyn August 18, 2015

In addition to our local Anti-Nuclear/Pro-Renewables campaign, you can keep an eye on Friends of the Earth Australia’s website for updates – thanks to our national Nuclear Campaigner Dr Jim Green.

http://www.foe.org.au/royal-commission

If you’d like to be on our local campaigner Nectaria Calan’spersonal nuclear email list please contact adelaide.office@foe.org.au

Climate, FoE, Mining, Nuclear, Old_Notes, Renewables, Sustainability, Weapons proliferation

anti-nuclear, climate change, friends of the earth, Mining, Sustainability

Nuclear Outlook Bleak

roman August 15, 2015

An interesting review of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 (WNISR 2015) in the current Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Nuclear heavyweights. In both France and Japan, two of the three countries with the largest installed nuclear capacity (the United States is number one), the nuclear industry is in deep trouble. Although Japan still has 40 reactors that are counted as installed capacity, none of them operated in 2014. It was the first time in 50 years that Japan was without nuclear electricity for an entire calendar year. And no lights went out. As of today, it appears likely that two reactors, at most, will restart in Japan this year.

In France, long the world’s role model for how to successfully develop nuclear energy, the National Assembly passed an energy bill that defines a target to reduce nuclear’s share of the electricity mix from three-quarters to half by 2025. The French state-controlled energy group Areva—the self-proclaimed global leader in nuclear energy—went technically bankrupt after reporting massive losses for four years in a row. Credit-rating agencies have downgraded Areva’s long-term debt to “junk,” and the company’s share price plunged to a record low earlier this month, a level 90 percent below its record high in 2007.

Old_Notes

FoE Adelaide Annual Report 2014/15

robyn August 13, 2015

Friends of the Earth Adelaide has two main collectives. The Fair Food Adelaide collective works on food sovereignty issues including March Against Monsanto, and the Clean Futures Collective focuses on Mining and Energy; and is pro-renewables, anti-nuclear and anti-fracking.

Fair Food Adelaide

This financial year Fair Food Adelaide focussed on events for Fair Food Week held each October where we held two events – a bicycle community garden tour, and a forum on food poverty co-hosted with Foodbank SA. After a local food Long Table lunch and an end of year picnic, we’ve had a quieter 2015 as two of our main organisers have had to step down due to new jobs. Our monthly Urban Orchard food swap is continuing, and instead of rallying on the anniversary of the first March Against Monsanto we wrote letters to SA’s Agriculture Minister to congratulate him on standing strong to continue SA’s GM moratorium and championing soil improvement rather than GMO crops. We also lobbied the federal Agriculture Minister and Health Minister asking them to ban the weedkiller Roundup (glyphosate) in light of the recent announcement by the World Health Organisation that it probably causes cancer. We have received replies from Barnaby Joyce saying the approval status of glyphosate is under review. We are also collecting signatures for a petition to Bunnings asking them to stop stocking the neonicotinoid pesticides that harm bees. We also work with the GM-Free Australia Alliance as one of its member groups. Member Kim Hill hosted workshop on The End of Agriculture at the Students of Sustainability conference in July.

We’ll continue to keep members up to date with information on our Facebook page, Facebook group, googlegroup and website.

See www.facebook.com/fairfoodadelaide and www.facebook.com/groups/MarchAgainstMonsantoAdelaide

Clean Futures Collective

The Clean Futures Collective regrouped and decided to become more active in the area of renewables as an alternative to nuclear energy early in the year – just in time for the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel “Cycle” to come along. Our Premier Jay Weatherill thinks this is a way forward for the state with jobs and a solution to climate change that will help the economy – we strongly disagree with him and want to see a renewable future. The Royal Commission has taken up most of the group’s time since February. We have hired a part-time Campaigner for 6 months to November and are meeting weekly to progress plans. We have a major fundraising appeal to extend the campaign to the end of the Royal Commission. We made two submissions into the Commission’s Terms of Reference, attended each of the three Adelaide based community ‘consultations’ and are currently writing submissions for each of the four issues papers on uranium mining, enrichment, electricity and nuclear waste. Unfortunately the Adelaide Advertiser seems to be part of the formidable pro-nuclear campaign running articles with extremely biased and factually incorrect information such as nuclear power can provide free energy and abolish state taxes! It has been very difficult to counter such propaganda with actual cold hard technical and economic facts.

We are working closely with the Conservation Council of SA and Nuclear Operations Watch Port Adelaide (NOWPA) and are an active part of the newly formed statewide anti-nuclear coalition. We also work closely with FOE Australia’s nuclear free campaigner Dr Jim Green. Once the Royal Commission submissions are complete by early August we will move towards more community campaigning against the nuclear fuel chain. So far we’ve worked with the SA anti-nuclear coalition contributing to a fundraising poetry-slam picnic, a remembrance media conference on Fukushima Day March 11th, were part of a nuclear-free contingent at the March in March rally, held stalls at nuclear forums, supported Aboriginal people at a nuclear free forum in Port Augusta, and member Dr Philip White held a nuclear power workshop at Students of Sustainability conference along with Dr Jim Green. We participated in the ANFA led banner drop at SOS, and an action in Rundle Mall to support Aboriginal people around community closures/protecting the Murray River/protecting country from the nuclear industry.

We also made submissions to the Senate Inquiries into Wind Farms and the SA Inquiry into gas fracking. We co-hosted a film evening with the Conservation Council, screening “Farmlands not Gaslands” about the success of the Victorian community campaign to keep their farmland free of gas fracking.

Members and friends can keep up to date with progress via our googlegroup, fortnightly e-newsletter, general Facebook page and website.

See www.facebook.com/friendsoftheearthadelaide and www.adelaide.foe.org.au

Sign up for our fortnightly e-newsletter at the bottom left side of our home page.

Contact Secretary Robyn Wood robyn.wood@foe.org.au for more information about either collective.

PDF version FOE Adelaide Report 2014-15

Clean Futures, Climate, FoE, Mining, Nuclear, Old_Notes, Publications, Renewables, Reports, Sustainability, Weapons proliferation

anti-nuclear, BHP Billiton; Olympic Dam, clean futures collective, climate change, community, fair food adelaide, Food, food sovereignty, friends of the earth, Mining, Sustainability