Media Release:  Article Published in the Benalla Ensign, Wednesday 30 September, 2020

Sent: Friday, 25 September 2020 8:53 PM
To: 'editor@benallaensign.com.au'
Subject: School Strike for Climate

Students lead Australian action on climate
 
On Friday 25th September, over 630 separate actions were organised around Australia in support of Students Strike for climate change. In Benalla, a planned gathering with adherence to strict Covid protocols, was denied permission at the eleventh hour, but small groups of supporters still gathered to take photos of the messages they wanted to send to politicians, displaying their rejection of the so-called gas led economic recovery proposed by the Federal Government.
 
These plans, which include the development of five large unconventional gas fields (fracking) have been opposed by environmental groups, scientists,  and health professionals, as detrimental to the future health and safety of the Earth. It is well documented that fracking destroys the groundwater systems in the country around the gas drilling sites, both through the large volumes of water required to operate the drills, and the pollution of the water from the chemicals used. There is also documented evidence of serious health issues occurring in communities close to the gas fields.
 
From an economic point of view, claims from the government that gas will keep power prices down, are blatantly untrue. Wind farms and large solar farms are now producing electricity at a wholesale cost of $40 per MWh, compared to base load gas power generation costing $90 per MWh. Even renewables plus storage (large batteries) costs approximately $60 per MWh. These figures were determined by a recent CSIRO study into the electricity generation industry.
 
The students are also opposing the government’s plans to use public money to fund the gas industry, on the grounds that it is an option which will only exacerbate the climate crisis by contributing even more greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide and methane), and reduce the possibility of preventing global warming from exceeding 2 degrees. This will make the future living conditions they face incredibly difficult, climatically, food production wise, and from a health perspective.
 
Is this the future we really want for our children and grandchildren?
 
 
Peter Holmes, President – Benalla Sustainable Future Group

​Tuesday 7th January, 2020
 
To - Mayor and Councillors, Benalla Rural City                                                                     URGENT
 
Dear Danny and fellow councillors,
 
I am writing on behalf of Benalla Sustainable Future Group, and many of the other people in our community who share our views, to earnestly request that Tim Bowtell’s painting of Greta Thunberg is retained on the Council Customer Service Centre window.
 
We view this painting as a powerful statement that here is a community that cares, not only about the present wellbeing of its citizens, but the future as well. Greta is a beacon of hope for millions of people, both young and old, around the world, and a hero for them as she challenges the world’s leaders to take immediate and urgent action to mitigate climate change.
 
Climate change action is not a political issue, as some would have us believe. It is an environmental, social, economic and ethical issue, and we are right now experiencing one of the most devastating effects predicted long ago by climate scientists, as a result of the warming and drying of our part of the Earth.
 
We need to take a stand on the issue of climate change, and what better way can there be for Council to demonstrate their support for action, than to leave Greta’s image on the window.
 
We understand that the “Window to Window” festival invites artists to paint images related to Christmas, and that those images remain on windows for a period of time at the discretion of the various establishments. We are asking Council to exercise their discretion on this occasion to allow this image to remain. The messages of Christmas are love, joy, peace and hope. What Greta symbolizes is a message of hope for the future and a great love for the wellbeing of the Earth and her fellow humankind.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Peter Holmes
President - BSFG

"As we approach the end of another calendar year, the evidence grows ever so much stronger that the Earth faces a climate crisis due to human induced activity, and yet, our political leaders still refuse to acknowledge that strong action must be taken to arrest the escalation of the problem.

This year, we have seen fires in the Arctic, the continued melting of the ice caps and glaciers, including the Earth's thickest glacier, sea levels continue to rise, record temperatures around the globe, catastrophic fires in California, and over the past few weeks at home in NSW and Queensland, with the real fire season yet to commence! For the first time, NSW was faced with a catastrophic weather forecast day on the 12th November - a combination of high temperatures, no humidity and high winds, with around 40 fires already burning out of control. Coincidentally, in the same week, the whole of Australia recorded its first ever rain free day!

I am not going to be restrained in what I write about the pathetic and disgraceful lack of leadership we have in this country.

For starters, Deputy Prime Minister McCormack, and his National Party cohort, Barnaby Joyce, should both be expelled from Parliament for their senseless and outrageous comments in the midst of the bushfire crisis in NSW. Prime Minister Morrison refused to be engaged on whether the early onset of the fires and their intensity could in some way be attributed to climate change. "Now is not the time to talk about climate change", he opined!

But Prime Minister, you never want to talk about climate change, unlike your counterpart across the Tasman! You don't want to upset your mates in the fossil fuel industries. You are more concerned with pretending to keep electricity prices down by a few dollars by propping up coal power, than by supporting renewable energy, which will make the planet safer and ultimately, the cost of living cheaper, because renewable energy will be cheaper, and our insurance premiums won't skyrocket, as they will under your disaster laden policies (that's something politicians haven't been talking about).

Why also, is the Labor Party even talking about emulating the Liberal Party's policies, on exporting coal (Albanese's reasoning that, "if we don't do it then another country will, and Australia will miss out", beggars belief), and on renewable energy and emissions reduction, when climate scientists universally are saying this is not within a bull's roar of being enough?

​The time for political argy-bargy is over. All parties must come to their senses and show some statesmanship on this crisis. Isn't that what they called it during the World Wars when the world was in the grips of a different crisis?

​In the coming weeks, BSFG will be seeking agreement from Benalla City councillors to pass a motion declaring that we have a Climate Emergency, as over 75 local government areas around Australia have already done. This will mean that all management and planning decisions made by Council need to consider the impact on greenhouse emissions, with the aim of reducing and even eliminating them. I ask all members and supporters to be encouraging of this action. Please take whatever opportunity you may have to talk to Councillors and communicate the urgency of the situation.

Finally, I acknowledge that all of us have been contributing our own personal efforts over many years to reduce the levels of greenhouse emissions, and to live a more sustainable lifestyle, but we have now reached the point where micro efforts are no longer enough. Only the macro changes that can be enforced by government legislation and political common sense will now turn the tide.

Peter Holmes

Tim Bowtell's compelling portrait of Greta Thunberg, painted on the side window of the Benalla Rural City offices in Mair Street for the Window to Window festival, draws from and is representative of Tim's current work.   Tim describes being surprised that around 90% of people who spoke to him while he was painting weren't aware of Greta Thunberg, and is pleased that his work has acted as such a catalyst for conversations about climate change.  The discussions continued this week in three pages of Letters to the Editor in the Ensign, most of which were about the portrait of Greta, and most of which were postive!

The announcement by Time Magazine of Greta as their Person of the Year a few days into the controversy on social media proved a wonderful endorsement of Tim's choice of a portrait of Greta for his window. 

This news item from 9 News Border North East on December 12 includes responses by Benalla Sustainable Future Group's President Peter Holmes and Renewable Energy Benalla's John Lloyd.

"​Greetings to all from Broome, and probably by the time you read this newsletter, the AWC property, Mornington, off the Gibb River road, NE of Derby.

After having travelled nearly 4,000 km to get here, I am now starting to feel a bit guilty about burning all that diesel to power our trip! (Just as well we planted lots of trees before we left!) After being (blissfully) out of mobile reception for several days,

I was brought back to earth with a jolt by the plethora of emails from all the various conservation and activist organisations we subscribe to - headlines screaming at me that the ‘Arctic is Burning’, our Pacific neighbours are drowning as seawaters rise, large-scale solar investment is about to ‘fall off the cliff’ because of government policies, etc.

In the past few days, I have learned of two stories, which left me shocked and somewhat angered, by the ignorance and greed displayed in each case. Firstly, at Geikie Gorge, near Fitzroy Crossing, we were told by the Park Ranger that cattle from the neighbouring station had been allowed to invade the National Park to drink from the river, and in the process destroyed the habitat of the critically endangered Purple-crowned Fairy-wren, virtually wiping out the entire local population.

Secondly, we heard that Gina Reinhardt, and other wealthy landholders, were proposing a scheme to use water from the Fitzroy River basin for a large-scale irrigation project - this, in spite of the fact that water levels in this basin are at their lowest in living memory, having endured two very dry ‘wet’ seasons in a row (last year, Fitzroy Crossing had 60mm of rain over the ‘wet’ months instead of the average 600mm). Vast areas of this region are suffering through reduced water table levels, so schemes such as this proposal will further weaken the resilience of the local flora and fauna.

On a positive note, I read, with awe and admiration, the email relating the story of the people of the Negros Occidental province of the Philippines, and their struggles to keep their province coal-mine and coalpower free. I was also encouraged by the plan that Holley and Fin have to encourage people to plant as many trees as possible to absorb atmospheric CO2.

There are many organisations within Australia which are devoting considerable energy to overcome political brick walls (or, more bluntly, plain stupidity and greed) in the fight to counter climate change, and if we support them, vocally and/or financially, they will succeed, because politicians will respond to public pressure.

We need to all start writing letters to newspapers, expressing our frustration with the unwillingness of governments to take the necessary urgent steps to counter climate change, or telephone your local member and record your displeasure with their party's policies. We cannot continue to expect that someone else will do this on our behalf.

I live in hope that common sense will prevail over greed and stupidity!

​Peter Holmes

​Source: ​ BSFG Newsletter #25 - September 2015

"Dear BSFG members and supporters

Last Thursday, BSFG conducted its 2019 AGM, at which our new committee was elected. I am both
honoured and challenged by members accepting my nomination as President for the
coming year, and extremely grateful to the other incoming members who have accepted positions
on the committee.

At the AGM, I read an extract from Richard Flanagan's speech to the large crowd at the Canberra
climate rally on Sunday 5th May. You can read his full speech by accessing the Guardian website*, and
if you do so, I hope it might inspire you to tackle the climate emergency head on!

Briefly, three comments Flanagan made stand out in my mind.

​"After May 18th it matters even more to press whoever wins to recognise this crisis is not an issue. It
is THE issue".

"I am here today to say that there is hope. That the Franklin River flows free and Adani will be
stopped. These things happen, because at a certain point enough people say there are things that
matter more than the politics of money."

"There is no power on this earth that can resist an idea whose time has come.  It is a time to act and it is for us to act. Because there is no-one else and there is no other time."

Every day in the news, I read about the arrogance of the politicians who think they have been given
a mandate to implement their climate-wrecking policies and open up new coal mines, put renewable energy projects on the back burner in favour of the fossil fuel corporations that bought them victory, and condemn our children to a world with a bleak future.

And then, I remember Flanagan's words, and it makes me more determined to do something. So I
write a letter to the paper, or I have a serious head-to-head discussion with a friend who is a
conservative voter. On my own, I might reach out to a few people, but with your collective help, we
can do so much more. Politicians will listen to a group with several hundred members, because that
is significant.

If you are one of our long time members, I thank you for your ongoing support, and encourage you
to come along to our bi-monthly meetings (4th Thursday of July, September, November, March and
May). If you are on our contact list, please consider becoming a member - $25 per year - and also
coming along to our meetings, where we try to arrange a varied array of guest speakers or films on
environmental/sustainability issues.

Please check out our website (www.bsfg.org.au) where you will find information about our action
groups, and other articles of environmental importance. There are details on the website about how
you can join BSFG, and I look forward to your support as we try to influence the political debate in
Australia around the climate emergency.

Sincerely


Peter Holmes (President)

Dear BSFG members and supporters,

Most of you will be aware that early last year, Vicforests carried out logging at the Parlours Creek coupe in the Lima East area of the Strathbogie State forest. The so-called single tree selection logging resulted in the destruction of around 80% of the coupe, resulting in the loss of habitat for large numbers of the critically endangered Greater Gliders, as well as numerous other forest dwelling animals and birds.
Now, Vicforests are at it again, but this time the situation is even more desperate!

The Barjarg Flat coupe on the corner of Barjarg and Tallangalook Rds is twice the size (around 60 hectares) of Parlours Creek coupe, but more importantly, independent surveys carried out late last year by the Arthur Rylah Institute, included the highest ever recorded density in Victoria of Greater Gliders, and in addition, a Powerful Owl has been detected in the same area.

These facts should trigger a red flag alarm for the Environment Minister to intervene and stop the logging, at least until an extensive assessment of the area has been completed. Powerful Owl Management Areas (POMA) were established over 20 years ago in Victoria, based on information then available, but now out of date. A POMA requires an automatic logging exclusion zone of 500 hectares, and for this to happen at Barjarg Flat, we need to get the minister to listen and act.

The problem is – she is just not listening!

We, and the Gliders and Owls need your help.

Please phone and/or email the minister’s office over the next few days to express your URGENT concerns – logging was supposed to have commenced 2 days ago, but thankfully, no equipment is on site yet.

The contact details are listed below, and also for Jaclyn Symes, the Labor member for Northern Victoria in the Legislative Council.

Lily D’Ambrosio (Environment Minister) Ph:  96379504 Email:  lily.d’ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au
Jaclyn Symes (MLC Northern Victoria) Ph:  57832000   Email:  Jaclyn.Symes@parliament.vic.gov.au

Thank you, in anticipation of your support.

Yours sincerely,
​
Peter Holmes   Ph:  0438625638   Email:  chrispeth@bigpond.com