It has been a busy few months at Friends of the Earth. Most exciting was the addition of a new national project - Tipping Point.
Tipping Point - a new force in the Australian climate movement - is born!
Tipping Point - a new national project of Friends of the Earth - has kicked off with a series of launch events in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Tipping Point is grounded in a belief that decision-makers won’t deliver the scale of change to address the climate crisis without unrelenting pressure from the people all around them. And that we are most powerful as a movement when we are connected, share resources and co-ordinate our actions.
That’s why our mission is to work behind the scenes to build a powerful network of people taking sustained, bold, and creative action that disrupts business as usual for the polluters and politicians holding us back from a fair and clean energy future.
In our first year, Tipping Point will work with the amazing network of #StopAdani groups across the country to stop the mine once and for all. By building a resilient network of local groups, we are growing our movement’s power to achieve even bigger wins on coal and gas.
So far over 100 Tipping Point founders have generously signed up to support our work. To find out more and chip in head to: www.tippingpoint.org.au. To get active on the #StopAdani campaign visit: www.stopadani.com
Josh, Charlie, Isaac and Moira -- for the Tipping Point team
Ask QBE to ditch fossil fuels
The insurance industry is a major supporter of the coal, gas and oil industries and here in Australia QBE is the biggest culprit. QBE is not only invested in fossil fuel companies, it also provides insurance to coal mines and power stations, oil rigs and gas pipelines.
Meanwhile, QBE has had to deal with huge losses due to climate change-related extreme weather events over the last few years. So while QBE is itself a victim of global warming, it continues to worsen the problem.
Click here to tell QBE it needs to ditch its investment in and underwriting of fossil fuels.
In Europe and Japan, insurance companies are finally coming to their senses and have started to divest from coal and restrict their underwriting of this dirty fuel. Help us add QBE to that list.
Why am I stuck in traffic on the Eastern Freeway?
Have you heard the Eastern Freeway has some of the worst travel times in Melbourne? A big reason is there are currently zero rail or tram services in this part of town. Instead, everyone has to jumps in their cars and onto the freeway.
Building new roads does little if nothing to solve traffic congestion. The North East Link is going to add 95,000 cars a day to the already choked freeway. My name is Marc, I live up here in Doncaster and this mega road plan scares me.
That's why I've been jumping into the #GetOnBoardVic plan to build a better vision for my city. Find out more > www.getonboard.org.au. We need rail up here, and improved rapid bus connections. These connections aren't just to the city, but to local shops, schools, uni's, to go visit my mates, Big trucks are a growing problem, so let's find a way to reduce them on local streets with more freight on rail.
These last few weeks we've been growing local awareness with banner drops, radio shows, and flyering at local train and bus stations. Everyone I've talked to wants to Get on Board with better public transport and less traffic. You can sign up here > www.getonboard.org.au and read more about my story here.
Stories From The Frontline To The Heartland with Melbourne Playback Theatre
An intimate event interweaving activist stories with theatre performance. We invite you to share and hear stories from Friends of the Earth’s 45 years of history building transformative social movements for environmental justice.
Saturday 1st September 5pm @ Fairfield Uniting Church - 85 Gillies St, Fairfied VIC
Tickets: $20, $15 Members and concession, $30 Solidarity.
In a Melbourne Playback performance the audience’s stories and experiences are the content of the performance. Through dialogue with a skilled playback facilitator, individuals share perspectives, ideas, moments and events from their lives. A team of professional actors will bring these stories to life and into focus in a way that is entertaining, surprising, illuminating and transformative.
Friends of the Earth Melbourne is a member-based organisation made up of ordinary people who share a vision. For 45 years, our work on the frontline of environmental activism continues to draw new generations of activists and leaders into the movement.
Not a member? Sign up here: melbourne.foe.org.au/member
New Waste and Consumption Collective in Melbourne
We are pleased to announce the start of Friends of the Earth Melbourne’s Waste and Consumption collective. We are working in partnership with Friends of the Earth’s Co-op cafe, which has approximately 40 years experience of working to educate the community on food waste and plastic issues. In addition to these issues, we will be looking at waste to energy projects. Other areas that may be incorporated are the recycling crisis, ocean plastics, plastic bags and container schemes. We are interested in a systemic view on these issues, rather than individual changes of habit.
We have the following aims:
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Fill the vacuum, change the conversation in regards to consumption and appropriate disposal of waste
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Put pressure on MPs to release the Sustainability Fund to create self-sufficiency and green jobs in Victoria
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Support impacted communities
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Connect local governments
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Network interested groups across a wide range of consumption and waste issues to create a public awareness campaign and encourage their involvement in a strategic campaign to change waste policy in the state
If you are interested in being involved, have ideas that you feel aren’t reflected here, or have amazing contacts that we need to know about, the best action is to like our closed Facebook page, where you can get updates about meeting times, actions and an official launch. Search for “FoE Waste and Consumption campaign Team” on Facebook. You can also contact Anine at [email protected].
Calling all artists!
Friends of the Earth's ACE Nuclear Free collective is holding our annual art auction in October and we'd love your creative contributions. 'Maralinga Pieces - Forever on Country' will commemorate the 66 year anniversary of nuclear bomb tests at Maralinga and celebrate decades of nuclear resistance, while raising vital funds for our national nuclear-free campaign work.
We welcome artworks from all disciplines and work is not restricted to the title theme, however artists are welcome to submit a piece inspired by the theme if they wish. We are seeking donations from July until the 30th September.
For forty years we've been an important part of a passionate national and international alliance that's working at all stages of the nuclear chain to protect country and community from this toxic industry.
Contact: Jim 0417 318 368 or Jemila 0426 962 506 or email [email protected]
Postcard Petition to Minister Canavan - Don't Dump on SA
The government is aiming to make a decision on whether to proceed with a nuclear waste facility is SA later this year.
Communities of the Flinders Ranges and Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula are working hard to make sure the decision makers hear a clear no - and we want them to hear from you too!
Conservation SA have started a postcard petition that will be delivered to Minister Canavan later this year.
Please go online to sign the online postcar.
Uranium: WA under threat
The WA anti nukes crew have collaborated to make an animation video about the four proposed uranium mines in WA. It will launched at SOS and then there will be an online launch August 4th. To prepare for the online launch we’ve set up a thunderclap – so on the 4th of August there will be an automatic post to your social media page if you support.
All you need to do is follow this link and click “support with facebook” or “support with twitter”
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/70766-uranium-wa-under-threat
This video shows the threat to vulnerable species and unique ecosystems at each of the four proposed uranium mines in West Australia. We want to get this video out to as many people as possible as a way of growing the campaign to keep WA nuclear free. We also want people to become familiar with the species that are at risk at each of the sites – some on the brink of extinction.
There are no operating uranium mines in WA – but there are four proposals – we have the power to stop these areas from becoming toxic mines. There are many ways to get involved in the campaign and sharing this video is the first important step to bringing these places into your heart. Find out more ways to get involved in the WA campaign at wanfa.org.au/action or to learn more about FOE's anti-nuclear work check out nuclear.foe.org.au