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Ballarat Beyond Carbon
BREAZE's vision and strategic plan, Ballarat Beyond Carbon, for a carbon positive future has been developed and endorsed by the BREAZE committee. At our Reflect Review Renew workshop in late February, 25 BREAZErs refined the plan and discussed what we need to do to achieve our ambitious goal of zero emissions by 2020. A few new sub committees have been established to help the committee achieve our targets, and the BREAZE Action and Working groups have kicked into gear to deliver our goals. If you want to get more involved in helping deliver this vision, and to find out more about volunteering with BREAZE, see the volunteer page on our website.
EcoLiving Ballarat Learning Network
It is great news that our region has been funded by the State Government to establish an EcoLiving Centre! This will be a fantastic resource for our region, with easy access to information about sustainable living.
BREAZE is the auspice agency on behalf of 15 organisations across the region who meet under the name of Regional Sustainability Alliance Ballarat. It has taken a couple of years of conversations with our partner organisations to determine what the EcoLiving network will look like, followed by the preparation of a grant application and a long wait for the funding decision from the State Government! It will still take a while to get up and running, as we need to develop the educational programs and retrofit the Mining Exchange shopfront and develop information displays for network outlets at Royal Park Buninyong, Delacombe Neighbourhood Renewal and Wendouree Community Park. If you would like any more information give me a call on 5329 1730.
Committee news
Welcome to two new committee members, Patrice Braun and Jen Hildebrand. It is great to have a couple of new faces at the table during this crucial phase of our journey to support our community in reducing emissions.
Also, a giant thank you to founding member Hedley Thomson and Andrew Aitken for their invaluable contributions to the committee over the past few years.
Climate Change and Ethics
For those interested in pondering some of the ethical issues associated with climate change, and the principles that underpin just solutions, grab a cuppa and have a listen to Peter Singer's presentation at the Sustainable Living Fair in Melbourne earlier this year - Climate Change as an Ethical Issue.
Why women in a changing world?
I was lucky enough to be invited to present to at the Zonta Club of Ballarat's International Women's Day event this year. Whilst I knew that women across the globe were doing it hard, I did discover some shocking statistics about how women are adversely affected by climate change and other stresses in the world. I have put together a page on Women and Climate Change for our website - you might like to have a look.
State of the Climate & Climate reality - spread the word
The CSIRO and BOM have just released a brief but decisive report on the State of the Climate in Australia - what has changed and what it means. It concludes that "climate change is real" and "it is very likely that humans have caused most of the global warming that has occurred since 1950". "If global greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow at rates consistent with past trends, warming is projected to be in the range of 2.2 to 5.0 ºC by 2070." Sobering statistics.
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition is about to launch its Climate Reality Week in the first week of May - with some great prizes for young people who get the word out to as may people as possible.
Click here for the competition details - it would be great if we could spread the word far and wide throughout the Ballarat region! It is definitely time to focus on community action.
Lisa |
