All Categories - Benalla Sustainable Future Group

Letter to the Editor - 'Where are our leaders?' Peter Holmes

17/4/2022

The following Letter to the Editor was published in the Benalla Ensign on Wed March 16, page 15.

Damon Gameau

Sent: Sunday, 13 March 2022 10:15 AM
To: 'editor@benallaensign.com.au'
Subject: Letter to the Editor

Where are our Leaders?

Last Saturday afternoon, the Australian film producer Damon Gameau (“2040”, “That Sugar Film“) was at BPACC to introduce his latest film “Regenerating Australia”, and host a talk-back discussion centred on ideas to tackle one of the big issues of our present and future – climate change, and how it will impact our way of life if we don’t make the innovative changes required to avert the dangers it poses.

Our local Councillors and Managers were invited to attend, but not one was present.

This poses the question – “where is the leadership to come from in our community to tackle these issues?”

This is not just a local problem – we have witnessed lack of leadership at the federal level of government with regards to climate change. There is no EV policy in place in Australia, the government is still handing out huge amounts of money to fossil fuel companies to mine coal and gas, and there are no transition policies in place to help workers in these industries adjust to the alternative technologies.

The past few weeks should have shaken our leaders out of their comfort zones. Surely the record rainfall totals and floods of Queensland and NSW, with the consequent displacement of thousands of people, billions of dollars needed to restore communities (or preferably relocate them), and the emotional damage sustained by the victims, all must be a wake-up call to our leaders that climate change is real, and here now!

The other crisis (Russia invading Ukraine) has affected the World supply chain of oil, so in the space of just over a week, petrol prices have increased by 50%, and still rising. This leaves Australia in a very vulnerable position because of the greater distances people and goods need to travel – we need to rapidly transition away from this reliance on petrol to EVs and public transport, and this is an area of policy that all levels of government must be involved with.

In Benalla, climate action must start now.

Peter Holmes, Lima East

email: chrispeth@bigpond.com

BSFG Review - consider an informal "kitchen table conversation"

21/3/2022

The Benalla Sustainable Future Group is undertaking a review with objectives including:

To reflect on the progress and development of the Benalla Sustainable Future Group, including key achievements, and key strengths
To identify the critical issues, and key opportunities for BSFG that need to be considered in the strategic plan for the next 5 years.

The executive is seeking input from members and other community stakeholders about key strengths and achievements of BSFG, will be personally contacting some people for input to this review, collecting submissions to questionnaires online or in writing, and holding workshops.

While the questions for Members and Non-Members can be answered and submitted online using the forms linked below,  they can also be used as the basis for an informal (or more formal if you prefer) kitchen table conversation! You could hold the conversation with friends at a cafe or around a kitchen table and compile items using a whiteboard or notes, then send them to us at bsfginc@gmail.com; or distribute the form to be completed individually and collected at the end of the conversation for sending on to the BSFG Committee.

Here are the questions -

For Members

When did you join, and why?
What do you think have been some of the key achievements or strengths of BSFG?
Can you describe a time or a current example of when BSFG as a group was operating at its best and having a real impact on our Benalla community?
What do you think was working well at that time, or what did you observe that really enabled BSFG to operate at its best?
What do you think are the key areas of opportunities for BSFG?
Do you belong to any other group which may have a similar environmental/sustainability focus?

(These Member questions can be answered and submitted to us using this Member online form)

For Non-Members

Have you heard of Benalla Sustainable Future Group (BSFG)?
Do you belong to any other group which may have a similar environmental/sustainability focus?
If yes to question 1, do you know of any of the key achievements of BSFG?
What do you think are the key areas of opportunities for BSFG?

(These Non-Member questions can be answered and submitted to us using this Non-Member online form)

It would be wonderful if you could assist BSFG with this important review of our Group in this way!

Find out more: BSFG Review 2022

Towards 'Net Zero Emissions' - what might we expect of Council?

7/3/2022

Peter Maddock's article 'Net Zero Benalla' in BSFG's November newsletter references protocols and tools which can assist councils to carry out a community wide emissions inventory and highlights work being done both locally and globally by other cities and local governments.

These include Cities Power Partnership (Benalla Council is a Member), ICLEI Internatioal Council of Local Governments for Sustainability, Global Covenant Of Mayors for Climate and Energy, C40 Cities, and the GHG Protocol Standard for Cities, the GPC which provides guidance on a Council Operations emissions inventory.

The Snapshot Climate Tool, developed by Beyond Zero Emissions with local government specialists Ironbark Sustainability, provides participating councils in Australia with an online emissions profile which is sufficiently accurate to provide them with an insight into community emissions.

Peter also references Ironbark Sustainability’s website article on Science Derived Targets for Australian Councils and the 2021 Australian Local Government Climate Review which provides a comprehensive analysis of climate change actions, barriers and opportunities facing councils and communities.

Bev Lee
Media Team

Health & Wellbeing - Coping with 'climate angst'

8/2/2022

Is the fear of Climate Change Keeping You Up at Night? How to Cope With Eco-Anxiety - Good Housekeeping, February 4 2022.

"In some respects, climate angst is like other anxieties, which involve feeling tense and fearful when we ponder something that might happen in the future. ... But in other ways, climate anxiety is unique. Unlike a lot of what we typically focus on when we’re anxious (which may be overblown) there’s good evidence that what we are worried about may well come to pass. “Climate anxiety is not a mental illness, because it’s rational to be concerned” ...

In its healthiest form, climate anxiety can be a good thing: calling your attention to a problem you need to prepare for, psychologists say. ...But the anxiety so many of us feel about the planet we love can be paralyzing, says Renée Lertzman, Ph.D., a consultant on the environment, psychology and culture whose 2019 TED Talk on the topic has millions of views...".

The writer of the article, Meryl Davids Landour, suggests taking these steps to help to cope with climate anxiety...

"List what you love about your life. It may not seem directly related, but you need to calm your brain before ideas about how to make a difference can come to you, Manning says. This involves developing what psychologists call “meaning-focused coping,” which can include everything from thinking about what you appreciate in your career or family or the natural world around you, to enjoying weekly sunset walks with a friend.
Recognize we can all affect change. Think about how women got the vote, gay marriage became legal and South African apartheid ended, suggests Hayhoe. “Those didn’t happen because some influential person or a president decided it was time, but because ordinary people decided the world had to be different and they used their voices to start the change,” she says. For example, a hospital technician started a petition to divest their institution’s retirement funds out of fossil fuels, Hayhoe says. “We often picture climate action as a giant boulder at the bottom of a hill with a few hands on it, but when we look at what so many people and groups are already doing, we realize the giant boulder is at the top and already rolling down, and it has millions of hands on it that we can join,” she says.
Find your people. “If you have deep concerns about the climate, it’s really important that you have people who take those concerns seriously and don’t gaslight you,” Manning says. Plus, joining forces amplifies solutions. There are national environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and niche groups like the nonpartisan Protect our Winters for those who enjoy snow sports. Finding groups in your own community is especially valuable, because the practical solutions that can arise — more green spaces to help with cooling, say, or bike lanes to reduce driving — will help your locality. Besides, being part of a group is in and of itself a stress reducer.
Push the powerful. The biggest impacts will be made by those whose decisions affect us all, so voice your concerns to companies you do business with and campaign and vote for politicians who understand the urgency.
Know small actions matter. Every step you take (using a colder wash cycle, or driving an electric car) has merit, so don’t worry about being perfect. Lertzman and Hayhoe have both cut down, but not cut out, airplane travel (a huge contributor of heat-trapping carbon) by bundling multiple speaking engagements at each location. Last fall, Katy Romita, a 45-year-old meditation instructor in Mamaroneck, NY, started a website, One Small Stone, offering online meditations to others seeking to calm their climate anxiety.
Ease your kids’ angst. Involve your children in climate solutions in a fun way, such as by volunteering to plant trees during your city’s annual drive or joining the NASA-sponsored Globe Program, where parents and kids monitor temperatures of sunny and shady spots to contribute to climate data, suggests Sandi Schwartz, author of Finding EcoHappiness. Actions like these are beneficial for making children feel better, but “it’s important not to make the child feel like it’s his problem to fix,” Clayton says.
Spread the word. When you make any climate-friendly shift in your life, tell friends and relatives so they might follow. Almost everyone can be influenced if you help them connect the dots by using language reflecting their values. “It’s not about telling them they should care for the same reasons you care. It’s about listening for what they’re passionate about,” Hayhoe says. When climate-skeptical Republicans in two congressional districts were shown ads featuring people and terms they related to — an Air Force general describing national security implications and an evangelical Christian (Dr. Hayhoe) emphasizing her faith’s teachings about caring for the planet — they became more open to the climate’s harms, a recent study published in Nature Climate Change found. Other researchers have documented how a dismissive audience becomes more keen to act when local impacts of the crisis are emphasized.
Don’t argue with deniers. Fortunately, 7 % of the population feels strongly that global warming isn't happening. “If that’s your family member, say ‘I love you but you’re wrong,’ and move on. Don’t try to have a productive conversation,” Hayhoe advises.
Get help if you need. Reach out to a therapist if climate anxiety starts overwhelming you. You can also talk to others in online climate cafes or at the 10-step climate support group Good Grief Network. And remind yourself that even if your own community is directly impacted, you will bounce back. “Resilience is the ability to function and thrive in the face of negative events,” and humans have this resource in spades, Clayton says. As we tackle climate change, that’s something to feel good about."

This article appeared under the category health/wellness in Good Housekeeping on February 4, 2022--Is the Fear of Climate Change Keeping You Up at Night? How to Cope With Eco-Anxiety. Meryl Davids Landau is an author and magazine writer whose work has won numerous awards, including a nomination for a prestigious National Magazine Award and a first-place outstanding-article award from the American Society of Journalists & Authors

Revisiting Tim Bowtell's 'Cornography' (Wall to Wall 2018)

12/12/2021

How to mark the UN's 'International Year of the Creative Economy for Sustainable Development'?

Tim Bowtell's thought provoking mural 'Cornography', painted on the side wall of the Seniors' Centre during the Benalla Wall to Wall Street Arts Festival 2018, clearly causes viewers to pause to reflect upon Sustainable Development.

It is also a stand alone work by Tim, a leader in Benalla's creative economy, creating a powerful call for a sustainable future, a call he returned to during the Window to Window Festival with portraits of Greta Thunberg (2019) and David Attenborough (2020).

It's now December 2021. The Council decided not to go ahead with a mural painted by Tim at this year's Window to Window. The side window of the Council Offices is eerily empty, street discussions muted.

Perhaps it's time to revisit and reflect upon 'Cornography', a powerful mural by a leader in Benalla's creative economy, as we near the conclusion of the 'International Year of the Creative Economy for Sustainable Development'.

Tim Bowtell writes about 'Cornography', Wall to Wall Festival 2018

"The ‘Collins Street farmer’ represents the corporate organisations that have taken control of our food chain. He looks down at a hamburger that consumed around 2,500 litres of water to produce.

The city scape in the background describes the affluent Western world fed by these farming practices, people disconnected and too busy to think about where their food comes from and how it is produced.

Look carefully in the top left corner and you will see a bulldozer clearing the last remaining old growth forest. Acres of monoculture corn and soy sprawl across the horizon where these forests once stood. The primate on the stump sits helplessly wondering where its home has gone. The dead canary sends an alarming message to stop these unsustainable practices before all species on the planet are doomed.

The cows are locked in small yards. Part of the production line, they are force-fed corn on a conveyor belt. The markings on the cows form the world map indicating that this is a world problem, while on the other cow the face of an African child peers out, wondering why that corn isn’t grown to feed his starving country.

The whole scene plays out in knee-deep rising water caused by global warming and rising sea levels.

My mural was inspired after watching a documentary called ‘Cowspiracy - the sustainability secret’. For me it was a game changer. I became a vegetarian the very next day.

“Filmmaker Kip Andersen uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today – and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organisations are too afraid to talk about it.

Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption and pollution, is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry, and is a primary driver of rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean “dead zones,” and virtually every other environmental ill. Yet it goes on, almost entirely unchallenged.”

Tim Bowtell
Email: tbowtell@activ8.net.au

Tim's post originally appeared on North East Artisans website on June 6 2018.

International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development

'A message to a friend in the UK re COP 26' - Ian Herbert

10/11/2021

My friend Ray lives in the UK and he was asking me whether our great leader would come to COP 26 or whether coal might have an unpleasant whiff about it (his words). Here is my reply:

All the states have more ambitious plans than the Federal Government. Indeed, the Federal Government has NO PLAN. Only now, on the eve of COP 26, are they trying to scratch something together. That's after eight years in power.

What we will see in a matter of days is a statement about net zero by 2050 with little real action. It will not say anything about retiring coal powered electricity. It will not say anything about moving away from gas or limiting exploration. It will talk about green hydrogen because one of our rich iron ore magnates believes in CC and is investing billions to set up green hydrogen plants, despite the Feds. Solar will continue to grow, despite the Feds. Wind will continue to grow including now offshore, despite the Feds. The only positive investment the Feds are behind is a large pumped hydro plant being added to the Snowy Hydro scheme. That was instigated by the previous PM Malcolm Turnbull before he was voted out by his LNP party. They should be putting funds into transmission lines but they sit on their hands.

The other thing you will hear about is sequestration - carbon capture and storage. This is a complete furphy.

First off it could only capture a percentage of emissions from coal-fired power stations and the target is zero. Secondly it adds cost. Thirdly if you look at potential storage sites the amount available and the geographic places adds up to very little. The only place it has been used successfully is to force more oil out of oil wells - adding to CC. But your average punter doesn't know this and they are taken in by the PM's spin. Of course all the fossil fuel people, urging him on and asking for hand-outs, know it but they won't say.

Some States are doing better than others. South Australia is well ahead. Other States including Vic are going well but like a bet each way. They haven't yet turned down gas exploration requests. Fugitive emissions from gas are not properly accounted for and the methane graph is scary.

So, in summary, anything done so far is DESPITE this government's policies. They have in fact HINDERED progress. We have a Federal Minister for emissions reduction who actively campaigns on behalf of coal and gas. The PM's own department head is straight from the fossil fuel industry and they have stacked all the advisory bodies. But now they are being exposed for what they are and even the general voters are now more aware. 70% plus of Australians say we should do more to act on CC.

Going back to your email, you asked about batteries. They are now being added to the larger solar farms here to time shift the output. I don't think the price will fall too quickly because of the parallel demand for EVs. There is the possibility for different types of batteries for large scale installations e.g. flow batteries. A breakthrough is sorely needed. Some States here are pushing ahead with their own pumped hydro schemes and I think that's the solution.

Let's see if my predictions re the Feds plan are correct. I then went on to explain the local term ‘furphy’, though, in retrospect, I could have used some stronger language.

So how did it all pan out?

My prediction was correct but I claim no great predictive skills. Were there any surprises? Absolutely not. It’s all business as usual, including the spin.

As Scott Morrison was about to fly off to Europe Barnaby Joyce took great pleasure in announcing that he was instrumental in ensuring methane reduction was not part of the plan. Scott Morrison immediately fronted the media to insist that he never had any intention of agreeing to any reduction.

What a sad state of affairs. Here, on the eve of COP 26, we have Australia’s PM and Deputy PM publicly arguing over who has done the best job at rejecting one important element of climate action.

I wrote about methane and fugitive emissions in the last BSFG newsletter. The recent rise in levels is totally scary. This will only be exacerbated if ‘clean hydrogen’, as mentioned in this latest plan, includes hydrogen derived from fossil fuels - and it does in Angus Taylor’s rhetoric. Victorian Federal MP Darren Chester also mentioned it as being available from brown coal in the Latrobe Valley - and he is one of the Nationals who is supposedly a supporter of strong climate action! Ahh, pity help us.

All we really need is a Federal government which simply asks the States, “How can we help?” and States who truly are committed.

Ian Herbert

Ian Herbert

This post was originally published in the BSFG Newsletter #31, 10 November 2021.

Peter Maddock - 'Less is More' by Jason Hickel

5/10/2021

BSFG member and Web Team leader Peter Maddock has a particular interest in the limits to growth and steady state economies.

Peter is currently reading Jason Hickel's book 'Less Is More' and says he is finding it excellent

Peter also recommends reading Jason's blog, particularly the post Degrowth and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT): A Thought Experiment (10 September 2020).

Jason's website includes a page of links to Podcasts and Videos he has featured in - go to https://www.jasonhickel.org/media

It's time to kick gas! Make the switch!

16/9/2021

My grandmother used an early Kooka gas cooker. I loved sitting at the kitchen table chatting to her as she cooked meals for us on this little green stove. Cooking with gas at my grandmother's always produced better results than on our electric cooker - you could finely adjust the heat for superior cooking results.

Times have changed, electric stoves are increasingly sophisticated, while gas is of concern as a fossil fuel energy source. Early adopting retrofitters are 'making the switch' - moving away from from gas to renewable electricity as their household energy source

Sadly, the Federal Government is continuing to promote a Gas Led Recovery to stimulate the economy. Gas is seen as a transition fossil fuel as we transition to ultimately a fossil fuel free energy future. However gas due to fugitive emissions can have a greenhouse potential equivalent to coal. As placards at Benalla's School Strike for Climate rally said, 'Fund Our Future, Not Gas'.

The following webinar 'Going All Electric', streamed live on on September 25 was included in the Retrofitting Week program leading up to Sustainable House Day on October 17 2021.

Bev Lee

Recommended website: 'Make the Switch' - great site, ACT based, but applicable universally.
Recommended Background Reading: Bill McKibben 'It's time to kick gas' The New Yorker, May 12, 2021.

Kate Raworth's 'Doughnut Economics' could change our future

5/7/2021

In Doughnut economics by Kate Raworth, we see that markets are inefficient and growth is not the holy grail. It's time for a new economics model: the doughnut economics. Kate Raworth's plea for the 'doughnut economics' casts doubt on the credo of economic growth for sustainability: there are hard limits to what you can do to the planet. Kate Raworth's doughnut economics could change our future.

Peter Maddock

Charles Jones' - "Reading to begin a new narrative - some books of interest read in 2021"

3/7/2021

We recently asked Charles Jones, a founder of the predecessor of BSFG, if he could provide us with a list of reading he would recommend to others.

A great reader and thinker about issues related to a sustainable future, Charles shared a list of books of interest read in 2021, thanking us for the opportunity to share this with others.

"Because time is running out I would emphasize the first three.
We need to begin a new narrative to get the possibility of massive social change into the public arena. That means the planning should begin now, maybe with a timeframe of about 10 years.

Thanks for the opportunity,

Charles"

Some books of interest read in 2021: Charles Jones

Kate Raworth, 2017 Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

Jason Hickel, 2021 Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save The World

Tim Jackson, 2021 Post Growth: Life After Capitalism

Richard Beasly, 2021 Dead In The Water: A Very Angry Book About Our Greatest Environmental Catastrophe…The Death of The Murray-Darling Basin

Margaret Simonds, Quarterly Essay 77, 2020 Cry Me a River: The Tragedy of The Murray-Darling Basin

Marian Wilkinson, 2020 The Carbon Club: How a Network of Influential Climate Sceptics, Politicians and Business Leaders Fought to Control Australia’s Climate Policy

Judith Brett, Quarterly Essay 78, 2020 The Coal Curse: resources, Climate and Australia’s Future

Julian Cribb, 2021 Earth Detox: How and Why We Must Clean Up The Planet (a follow up to 2014 Poisoned Planet: How Chemical Exposure to Man-made Chemicals is Putting Your Life at Risk

Charles Massey, Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture – A New Earth (2018) Revised 2020

Charles Jones' Reading List 2021 - Download PDF

What happens to solar panels after their useful life is over?

19/6/2021

A topic which comes up in conversations about renewable energy and needs to be addressed in the complex public policy problem of responding to climate change was raised in a recent ABC news article "What happens to solar panels after their useful life is over"?

It is a problem of 'What to do about waste'? Options are explored within the context of how a circular economy might deal with this problem. It appears that this problem is addressed by governments and organisations advising, influencing or pressuring governments to adopt forward looking policies. Sustainability Victoria reports on current developments as part of a National approach to manage solar panel, inverter and battery lifecycles in response to the growing issue of PV system waste, ie. Photovoltaic (PV) systems, including solar panels, inverters and batteries.

The recycling of PV panels, while in its infancy in Australia, is positive in terms of retrieval of valued and reusable metals. Renew Economy reports positively on a solar recycling process launched by Lotus Energy in Thomastown, Victoria in the last month - refer - "Australia’s first solar panel recycling plant swings into action' (Sophie Vorath, 7 May 2021) The final components are: - High grade aluminium - High grade silica dust - The silica cells which will be reused by some manufacturers. - Copper - PVC - Silver. 100% of the materials separated from this process will be reused and given a second life. All inverters, rail components, cable can be processed in the Thomastown facility.

The following 'Just Have a Think' video presentation is thoughtprovoking and well worth watching if you'd like to deepen your understanding of the question... 'Will renewables end up as more landfill?'... it seems the answer is 'not necessarily'....

If you have any thoughts, good references for others to read on this topic, please add them as comments to this post!

'Bright Green Lies' and 'Dead in the Water'

18/4/2021

Web team convenor Peter Maddock recently described 'having an existential crisis' in response to the book and film 'Bright Green Lies' which question the renewables industrial complex.

Peter came across the film on Kindle just as he had finished reading Dead In The Water by Richard Beasley which he describes as 'A very angry book about our greatest environmental catastrophe. . . the death of the Murray-Darling Basin'.

'Hot Topics' are invariably highly complex 'wicked' if not 'super wicked' problems. An excellent resource on wicked and super wicked problems, Chris Riedy's 'Climate Change is a Super Wicked Problem', highlights the difficulty we have in making headway on dealing with climate change, and many environmental issues and the need for bipartisan approaches. .

Another important article on complexity uses the analogy of a complex chess game to discuss the 'super wicked' policy problem of climate change. In 'We Need to “See the Whole Board” to Stop Climate Change', Project Drawdown's Executive Director Dr Jonathon Foley suggests that addressing climate change is like playing chess. "We need to use all the pieces, employ multiple strategies, and see the whole board. But, unlike chess, we have to play this game collaboratively to win."

Bev Lee
Web Team

Peter Maddock asks 'do large scale renewables continue and perhaps exacerbate human domination of the planet and its resources'?

1/8/2020

I have been struggling recently with continuing my involvement with BSFG and I have advised our President Peter Holmes I wish to relinquish my position as Secretary.

In part this has come to a head during discussions between some members of our group about the film ‘Planet of the Humans’ which has been freely available online since the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22. The film was strongly criticised by environmental groups and groups representing renewable energy.

The film did use outdated information to criticise the performance of solar and renewable energy in general which was a disservice to the films other message about our overpopulation and overconsumption of resources, often without much, if any consideration for the ecological space occupied and required by nonhuman species on the planet.

I have now come to the position of seeing large scale renewables as a continuation and potentially an exacerbation of the human domination of the planet and its resources. While we have been mining the solar energy in coal and oil for some centuries, the proposal that Australia now becomes a Renewable Energy Superpower will result in using our landscape to mine solar energy directly. At the large scale proposed I can only see such infrastructure as an encroachment on the ecological space required by the non-human species of our planet.

Although I am concerned about the impact of largescale renewables, I do think there may be an opportunity for local community energy which would most likely be rooftop solar. More generally I support the ‘Localisation Movement’ which hopes to reduce our emissions dramatically, for instance by reducing transport emissions, particularly food emissions.

Over the last few years I have been developing an Ecocentric world view which was probably reinforced by a number of books I have read and also from my reading of the freely available online publication ‘The Ecological Citizen’, confronting human supremacy in defence of the Earth: https://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/.

Some authors equate the Anthropocene, the human created epoch to Human Supremacy.

Looking for some information on the Ecocene I came across this Huffington Post article From Anthropocene To Ecocene by 2050? which became the title for my article.

The author Richard Steiner writes, ‘It is inevitable that the current Anthropocene era will evolve into an ecologically sustainable era - which can be called the ‘Ecocene’. The current trajectory of environmental and social decline cannot continue much longer. Indeed, the Anthropocene will be gone in the blink of geologic time. The real question is: What will be left of the biosphere at the dawn of the Ecocene, e.g. what species, including H. sapiens, will survive the Anthropocene evolutionary bottleneck?’.

Richard Steiner has a website from where you can freely download his book: OASIS EARTH: Planet in Peril: Our last best chance to save our world: https://www.oasis-earth.com/oasis-earth-planet-inperi l .

The book begins with the Dedication, ‘In honour of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day (April 2020) and the United Nations World Environment Day (June), Oasis Earth is dedicated to our extraordinary Home Planet-for nurturing and sustaining the evolution of life over billions of years; for being patient with H. sapiens while we learn to control our destructive impulses; and for the remarkable resilience that will restore Earth in the coming Ecocene, with or without us’.

Peter Maddock
August 2020

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Benalla Sustainable Future Group acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we live, work and meet, the Taungerang and Bpangerang people
of North East Victoria, and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.