The next General Meeting of Benalla Sustainable Future Group will be held at the Benalla Uniting Church on Thursday the 25th of October from 7.30pm until 9.30pm.
For this meeting we are screening the short film Takayna 2018 from Patagonia Films.
Takayna/Tarkine in north-western Tasmania is home to one of the last tracts of old-growth rainforest in the world, yet it’s currently at the mercy of destructive extraction industries, including logging and mining. This documentary unpacks the complexities of modern conservation and challenges us to consider the importance of our last wild places.
The film shows Nicole Anderson a rural doctor in Smithton who runs deep into the Tarkine reporting on the hidden logging activities in the region. Bob Brown appears in the film and activities around the Franklin River are shown. A short interview with a former timber worker highlights how small communities relying on extractive industries for employment may feel threatened by efforts to protect the Tarkine, particularly when they feel they are sustainably harvesting old growth forests.
We are hoping the film will lead us to a discussion of how we can save our environment from further degradation when our economy is geared to infinite growth. Some doubt that economic growth is capable of supporting environmental outcomes. For instance the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy has recently challenged the top ten environmental NGOs to a debate on the topic, “Is there a conflict between economic growth and environmental protection?” While in The Guardian on September 26, 2018 George Monbiot has an article titled “While economic growth continues we’ll never kick our fossil fuel habit.”
Quoting George Monbiot “Let’s be embarrassing. Let’s break the silence, however uncomfortable it makes us and others feel. Let’s talk about the great unmentionables: not just climate breakdown, but also growth and consumerism. Let’s create the political space in which well-intentioned parties can act. Let us talk a better world into being.”
Note that Takayna has some coarse language. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available after the film.
Peter Maddock
Secretary
0418 135 330
For this meeting we are screening the short film Takayna 2018 from Patagonia Films.
Takayna/Tarkine in north-western Tasmania is home to one of the last tracts of old-growth rainforest in the world, yet it’s currently at the mercy of destructive extraction industries, including logging and mining. This documentary unpacks the complexities of modern conservation and challenges us to consider the importance of our last wild places.
The film shows Nicole Anderson a rural doctor in Smithton who runs deep into the Tarkine reporting on the hidden logging activities in the region. Bob Brown appears in the film and activities around the Franklin River are shown. A short interview with a former timber worker highlights how small communities relying on extractive industries for employment may feel threatened by efforts to protect the Tarkine, particularly when they feel they are sustainably harvesting old growth forests.
We are hoping the film will lead us to a discussion of how we can save our environment from further degradation when our economy is geared to infinite growth. Some doubt that economic growth is capable of supporting environmental outcomes. For instance the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy has recently challenged the top ten environmental NGOs to a debate on the topic, “Is there a conflict between economic growth and environmental protection?” While in The Guardian on September 26, 2018 George Monbiot has an article titled “While economic growth continues we’ll never kick our fossil fuel habit.”
Quoting George Monbiot “Let’s be embarrassing. Let’s break the silence, however uncomfortable it makes us and others feel. Let’s talk about the great unmentionables: not just climate breakdown, but also growth and consumerism. Let’s create the political space in which well-intentioned parties can act. Let us talk a better world into being.”
Note that Takayna has some coarse language. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available after the film.
Peter Maddock
Secretary
0418 135 330
