A new report on climate change has found that most people want urgent action to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The Climate Institute has released its second annual report on Australians’ attitudes towards climate change.
It found that three-quarters of Australians believe that any new electricity generation should come from clean energy.
by Jim Houston
“Goodbye, Daddy†said the pretty little four year-old, as she and her mother got out of the car outside Parliament House that bright morning, Wednesday 13th February. Just two more people among the crowd scurrying around in the hope of finding a vantage point to hear the long-delayed S-word finally offered to the stolen generations. I couldn’t help wondering how many little Aboriginal children through those long years ever had the opportunity to say goodbye to Daddy or Mummy.
by Rev. Arnie Wierenga
When I was about 6 or 7 years old, I remember my older brother talking about logging and how we could not keep cutting down trees because there were not enough of them. As a child I was puzzled by what he was saying because my known world was of rolling hills completely covered by trees.
Sometimes our world can be too small to fully appreciate a problem. I think Australians are the highest users of water per person in the western world which is an odd thing because we live on the driest continent. We have been able to waste a lot of water while our population has been low, but with population pressure and the bite of drought, our world view has had to grow.
In Uganda, one man went to his neighbors and his friends and brought together three groups of people – Christian, Muslim and Jewish – to put aside old differences and create a coffee cooperative that now boasts some 700 members of all three faiths. The result: They named their coffee Mirembe Kawomera, which means, “Delicious Peace.†You don’t even have to like coffee to drink this in…
In the aftermath of the Feb. 14 campus shooting at Northern Illinois University, comfort was delivered to the shaken students by some unusually calm dogs whose mission was to find people who wanted to pet them. The weeklong presence of these four-legged therapists has been so missed that campus officials are working to bring them back…
At 8.00pm on Saturday March 29th, people, businesses, corporations, towns and cities all over the world will switch off all unnecessary lights for one hour, following the lead of Sydney in 2007.
Dubbed “Earth Hour” it acknowledges climate change as a crucial issue for our community and provides a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect on our personal responsibility for the planet and yet know that we are not alone.
Project Australia invites you to be a part of this initiative by engaging in a “Conversation by Candlelight”
We are asking you to gather together a few friends (and strangers too if you can manage it) preferably by candlelight and create a conversation about climate change and any other sustainability issue that is of interest to you.
And then we’d like feedback. Just a few lines telling us where you met, how many of you were there and what the issues were that occupied your attention. You can also tell us about anythng else that came out of the event that you think might be interesting. eg. Any actions you decided to take? Any new friendships or associations that might have developed. Just whatever you feel comfortable with sharing.
We will gather these stories together for a comprehensive report on our website, http://www.projectaustralia.org.au/
You can find out all about the initiative at http://www.earthhour.org/
For further information on the “how to” either call or email to Meetups coordinator Noel on Tel: 0403 347 067 or email: noel.winterburn@gmail.com
We can also offer a range of useful topic headlines to help get you started if you like.
Please tell us if you are considering such an event.
I hope we hear from you soon.
Project Australia
Be inspired by an indigenous perspective from Vicki Walker, the mystical art of Jenni Mitchell, poetic reflections from Christina Rowntree and the reflective genius of Shane Charles on didgeridoo.Â
Saying Sorry to the Earth – flyer
7.30pm till 9.45pm, Sunday 30th March,2008
Templestowe Uniting Church, 104 Atkinson Street, car park at 111 Wood Street
This is Grandstand’s second major event to draw our community together to reflect on the environment. Grandstand is an informal group of grandparents/seniors from Manningham and beyond, mainly folk from the local UCA churches.
Jesus used stories all the time, but he used them for far more than inspiration or entertainment. He introduced, through his parables, a new way to understand and relate to God and to the people around us. In fact, storytelling was arguably Jesus’ primary approach to persuasion. This article explores what makes that approach so powerful and offers several practical tips for improving our own storytelling.
Heroes are a force, from the original superhero Superman, to the Fantastic Four, to the current television hit titled, well, Heroes. Ordinary people discover they possess special powers: the ability to travel through time, to heal, to see into the future, and perhaps to save the world! And when they become our heroes, they change us, too.