Blog (our event stories)

Geelong Sustainability Group was pleased to be part of Geelong Better Block on Saturday 15 June 2013. Little Malop St between Gheringhap and Moorabool St came alive with music, stalls with great ideas for living sustainably, children's activities and workshops on finding your ecological footprint. There was a buzz as residents strolled along the streets packed with activities and found ways to interact and get involved. The day finished with a packed cycling forum, where the meeting unanimously chose to keep pushing for safer cycling options around Geelong. There have been many words written about how to revitalise Geelong's city centre. But today consisted of simple actions - claiming the inner city as a space where community had priority, putting on on a variety of activities and embracing all those who choose to arrive and then linger.

To GSG members

Since resigning as Vice President recently it's been in my awareness how grateful I am to all of you who've joined the group I co-created in 2007.
As well many of you have become friends and colleagues and not only participated in many events that GSG has run or promoted but gone a big leap further. By this I mean done further training, run courses, retrofitted your homes, opened your homes/gardens to the public, started groups e.g. community gardens, transition towns, moved into voluntary and paid positions of more responsibility related to sustainability some now able to support GSG on a whole new level etc. GSG can't claim credit for all of this as some of you have been active years before you joined us and were going to continue no matter what. It has been a gift to have been able to meet and work with you all no matter whether this describes you or whether GSG was your first introduction into taking action. The important thing is the caring and the willingness to do something about what matters to us all.

The committee members have also been fantastic bringing whatever skills and experience they had and had time to devote. Often they have been parents with young children. Working with Dave especially has been a delight as he has a great combination of character traits that are again helping to integrate the new committee members and enable the new committee to flourish. Difference is a given in any group and can make it rich and dynamic if handled well. Thanks also to Ingrid Hindell (with her anything's possible attitude and hard work ethic) and Gavin Gamble (patient, thoughtful and well read) who have been on board for a number of years as well as past committee members Bridget Ure, Geoffrey Moss (now rejoined), Phil Baulch, Kathryn McCallum, Karina Donkers, Julia Brangwyn, Tory Sorenson and Scott Adamson who are all still active in their own ways.

The new committee which now includes Gavin Brown, Vicki Perrett and Vivienne Burke are doing a brilliant job. After getting help from 68 fantastic volunteers for Sustainable House Day last year, I recommend putting your hand up to help Vicki Perrett and her team including Liz Hines, Andrea Buckley and Heidi Fog with Sustainable House Day Geelong this year as it's going to be terrific. Some people have made solid friendships volunteering at this event with others apart from all they've learned.

I will still be involved in GSG and events and look forward to connecting with you ... that is if we recognise each other. Geelong Sustainability Drinks was so successful last night that I didn't know half the people there! We have a diverse, wonderful and expanding community.

Warm Regards
Monica

The Sustainability Directory has exceeded expectations in discovering community groups, people, services, producers, publications, courses, websites and events that support sustainability in Geelong.  We are currently contacting all of the 234 listings to check that we have the correct contact details. That is a big job in itself!

Our first ever Geelong Sustainability Drinks was held in Beav's Bar from 5.30-7.30pm on Wednesday 21 May. We sent out invites to people involved in community groups, people who work in sustainability or a related sector, activists, people interested in networking and anyone wanting to talk sustainability over a few drinks.

Transforming our Future

Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation and Research Forum

Sunday 12 May 2-5pm

National Wool Museum

Event promoted by Future Proofing Geelong

These notes were written by Dave Campbell. They are my personal notes and I do not guarantee their accuracy. If you wish to find our more information please contact one of the speakers.


Director for VCCAR - Professor Rod Keenan

• VCCAR was established nearly four years ago - partnership between four universities. Funded by Victorian Government to provide knowledge base
  
• Work with 8 different government departments - urban resilience, governance, natural resource management.
  
• Annual forum is happening in Geelong tomorrow
  
• Work also with local government including COGG
  
• About scientists and community working together. About knowledge integration.
  
• Set up an arrangement where that can occur
  

Cr Andy Richards :

• Council sponsor of forum
  
• COGG reducing emissions since 2007. $1.3M of investment
  
• Geelong is transitioning. Former union official with AMWU. Membership has shrunk considerably. Union trying to transition workers.
  
• Developing risk management systems to consider expected future climate risks.
  
• Climate Change Adaption strategy 2011. Model for other councils to follow.
  
• RMIT / Netbalance / COGG - Climate Change adaption toolkit - guide councils through. Online version and will be training staff in the use of it.
  
• Barwon Heads - represents through Buckley ward. Council follows in footsteps of State and Federal Government. Council who implements the strategies and plans
  
• VCAA - hosting event in Geelong
  

Roger Jones - Victoria University -lead convening author of IPCC

• was going to wander around
  
• going to talk today - not so much adaptation
  
• Grew up in Northern Victoria.
  
• Earth sciences at Uni
  
• Salinity exhibition in 1988. In Geelong.
  
• pHD - work of Professor Jim Boller - working with past climates
  
• Lakes - Camperdown / Terang. Mud off bottom - took cores out of the mud. Constructed lake level sequence 10,000 years. Water balance model reconstructing the climates. Lakes act like rain gauges. Pick up the really big shifts in climate.
  
• Last ice age - very dry, cold.
  
• 7,500 years ago - lakes overflowing. From about 5.500 La Nina / El Nino switched - lakes began to dry out over thousands of years.
  
• 2000 years ago - began to refill. Captured in trees - lakes salty, killed trees, fell in.
  
• 1830s 1840s - Europeans arrived, started recording - one thing they recorded - Robert at Camperdown - twin crater lakes - Bullen Merri - 25 m below overflow point.
  
• Why had these lakes started to decline
  
• When Europeans arrived - rainfall and evaporation were about the same. Rainfall just a bit more. Since 1850s - evaporation 20% more than rainfall. The balance of the lakes changed. Natural climate change. History last 11,000 years - big switches.
  
• 2-3000 years ago - climate unstable.
  
• This was intriguing.
  
• Looked at rainfall records in western Victoria - found some dry to wet switching in the late 1940s. What we now see is very abrupt changes in rainfall variability
  
• What does this have to do with climate change? How will it change ? Will it be quick, will it be gradual.
  
• We have all seen graphs of rising temperature. Some models show abrupt changes over decadal time scales - false sense of security - looking at average changes. Do a little each year and be OK. But the system - full of non linear behaviour - interacting with climate change.
  
• This year is 50 years since Lorenz discovered chaos theory in weather
  
• We shouldn’t expect climate to be gradual
  
• Some of his work - look at that kind of behaviour.
  
• Simulations of temperature for Australia - like a step-ladder. Since 1997-98. One high quality records near Melbourne / Geelong - Laverton. Up until 1997 - 8 days above 35, Since 12 days per year.
  
• Fire danger has gone up 30% since 1997.
  
• Look in climate models
  
• Think it will be drier - can’t expect to be gradual or regular
  
• Dangerous if we want to change incrementally. Need to think about transformation, how we prepare ourselves for that in a flexible and robust way.
  
• Message - future is difficult to predict. Rather than trying to put numbers on what it might be like in 2050 etc
  

Zac Power - Australian Youth Climate Change

• Thinking forward to my future
  
• Change the track that we are on
  
• Living in a global society. Actions today define quality of life for next 100 years.
  
• Now is the critical decade to avoid the worst
  
• Grew up in Geelong. Began to connect with issue at young age.
  
• When he was young - constantly passing Shell Refinery. Witnessing the pollution. Never able to make the connection - what does this mean?
  
• When he was 11 - Christmas present - Inconvenient Truth - the kids’ guide.
  
• Imagined two worlds - one where we hadn’t taken action / one where we had. Decided which one he wanted to work for
  
• When he first joined AYCC.
  
• Need to recognise Australia’s capacity to innovate and seize a safe climate future
  
• Need powerful impetus to get movie.
  
• Story of AYCC - is one of driving this impetus.
  
• The old way of doing things doesn’t have to be the only way of doing things.
  

La Trobe Uni - John Martin

• Bendigo. on VCCAR committee
  
• Background - trained in ecological sciencts in 1970s - people thought it was a social disease. Then trained as a social scientist
  
• Project in Bendigo - looked at what regional businesses were doing about climate change adaptation. Difficult job
  
• Small businesses employ 60% of Australia.
  
• Bendigo was a manufacturing city.
  
• Those who turned up - mitigation - cost of business was big for them. Small business - timeline is the next BAS. The idea that they might be investing in things differently to deal with climate extremes - not on their agenda.
  
• Dairy manufacturing plant - built a levee bank around to protect things inside
  
• Difficult for businesses to distinguish between mitigation and adaptation.
  
• Very dry in central Victoria
  
• Got until 14 May - before it gets too cold for plants to grow
  
• Role of local government - ensure that the assets of small business are available.
  
• Have a conversation going on with small businesses - they learn from each other. People turn up to find out about saving electricity.
  
• Lesson - it is the way in which we co-operate that will make a difference.
  

Ann McCulloch - future visions

• going to take into symbolic realm
  
• been listening to facts, evidence of art
  
• professor of literary studies - why would she be interested in Climate Change
  
• Allan Woodruff and her making documentary on rural Australia - relationship between climate change and arts. Can provide with a symbolic way of looking at the world, be involved with problem solving
  
• All disciplines - always dealing with past, present, future. History of ideas. What was given to be knowledge 20 years ago has not become knowledge today. Concept of nature. Painters represented it as a scene / background. Literature - scene in which action took place etc. That has changed - nature is no longer just a source of cultural productio. It is an agent in itself.
  
• All disciplines concerned with representing and reflecting the world we know, generating a future vision. Take us through some paintings.
  
• How does a symbolic work of art do anything for us?
  
• • painting about evolution
  • painting of a fire - alerting people to the idea that nature is a force in itself
  • Ben Howe - sculptures, one facing the other way. Time of action
  • Simon Hennessey - shades - image of city
  • Deborah Walker - Qld floods.
  • terror, mourning acceptance. Time for fear, mourning before actio

Antony Mangelsdorf - Barwon Heads Sustainability Group

• Community Plan for Sustainable BH Draft
  
• Working document been working over last year or so
  
• Looking to which groups can we partner with
  
• Resource efficiency :
  
• • Barwon Heads Soalr Challange
  • Community Recycling Point
• Waste Education
  
• Environments - plastic bag free bH
  
• • Clean up Os day
• Community resilience and strength
  
• • Pot luck dinner
  • pedal power challenge
  • SLF film screening
  • BH market stall
• Transport
  
• • pedal power challenge
  • bike friendly BH
  • Public transport connections
• Biodiversity
  

Geelong Sustainability Group held a permablitz to honour Monica Winston, who was Vice-President of Geelong Sustainability Group and an integral part of GSG for five years.

Geelong Sustainability Group was acting on behalf of Environment Victoria's Reclaim Victoria's Environment Campaign. We approached market shoppers with information about the State Government's (lack of) performance with regard to the Environment, and asked them to sign a petition (see Victorian campaigns for more) We collected 79 signatures over a couple of hours. The volume of people coming past was not as high as at the Belmont Market, but overall the shoppers were highly supportive. Around 80% of the people we approached signed the petition, and most expressed verbal support for the campaign.

Well .. the Sustainability Directory is exceeding all expectations - we now have 132 listings and still going.  Thanks to all of the Geelong Organic Gardeners who responded to my call for information ... what a well connected bunch you are!

This joint project, funded by Future Proofing Geelong and conducted by Geelong Sustainability Group and Transition South Barwon is underway.