In 2010 many campuses in Australia will be embarking on 100% renewable energy campaigns to get out universities to make the switch to green power.

Read more about the Campus Sustainability Campaign.

Climate change is the biggest social and environmental issue of our generation. It is a key focus of many of ASEN’s campaigns.

This year ASEN is focusing on our climate justice campaign which aims to build a diverse movement that can confront the root causes of climate change in a just way. We are building links and supporting community groups such as Rivers SoS, mobilising students for Climate Camp 2010 and turning our attention to our university campuses to campaign for clean energy – get involved!

At ASEN camp in January 2010 a wicked bunch of ASEN folks put our heads together and came up with some achievable, ambitious, effective and exciting strategies to fulfill all our dreams! A snippet of our fancy document is below in the blog section…

Contacts

Renewables on campus organising, contact the most excellent…

• Sally from NSW: sstu0505 [at] usyd.edu.au
• Loki from VIC: lachlan.campbell.type [at] gmail.com

To talk all things dirty coal, contact these ones…

• Steve from QLD: steveskitmore [at] gmail.com
• Gem from NSW: gemromuld [at] gmail.com
• Phil from WA: philvlachou [at] hotmail.com

Resources

Readings about Climate change – brief summaries of books and online resources about climate change

Climate Broadsheet (O-week 08)

Links

• Step It Up
• Climate Movement
• Six Degrees
• Rising Tide
• Climate Action Monash

Non-violent direct action skillshares

The ‘Camp for Climate Action’ 2010 with Rising Tide Newcastle and Friends of the Earth (FoE) Sydney are hosting two upcoming Non-violent Direct Action (NVDA) skillshares:

When
SYDNEY – Saturday 22nd May 10.30 – 4.30
NEWCASTLE – Sunday 23rd May 10.30 – 4.30

Or, let us know your interest for future workshops. We hope to hold them regularly in the lead up to Climate Camp at Bayswater Power Station, Dec 1st – 5th.

RSVP to crystalgnomes@gmail.com or 0434641662

Where?
in Newcastle – at ‘The Loft’ 1, 7A Wolfe Street in the Newcastle Mall
in Sydney – at 19 Eve Street Erskineville

Who should come?
We need a diversity of people from all backgrounds to convince Government’s to take necessary action on climate change. We need you. If NVDA is something you wouldn’t usually consider appropriate for you, then you’re especially the type we need!

If you’re already involved it’s still a good thing to come to a workshop to deepen your understanding and preparedness and to share your experiences and thoughts.

What will happen at the workshop?
Through facilitated discussion, small group work and some games and activities we’ll together learn more about how and why to take non-violent direct action.

- philosophy and various perspectives of non-violence
- historical success of NVDA
- an overview of the up-coming ‘Camp for Climate Action’ and ‘affinity
group’ organising
- legal implications of engaging in NVDA
- quick decision making
- do’s and don’ts
- getting ready to take direct action – what do you need, identifying and
overcoming your fear
- next steps – how can we build the movement?

- lunch and snacks provided by donation*

Why get involved in climate NVDA?
The message from scientists about the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis could not be more clear and unequivocal. It’s terrifying. Yet State and Federal Government’s approve more coal mines, power stations and export facilities, as well as oil and gas extraction projects, freeways and forest destruction. Powerful vested interests continue to exert much more influence over Government decisions than community pressure or the urgency of the scientific reality.

Time to turn the climate crisis around is slipping through our fingers. It’s obvious that petitions, rallies and even the most logical arguments are not enough to change the Government’s position when it comes to short term profit versus medium and long term social, ecological and economic sustainability. The NSW Government recently approved plans to build two new coal or gas fired power stations which would increase the state’s emissions by up to 15%. Plans are afoot to triple coal exports from the state, while we already export more emissions through our coal than all our domestic emissions from every source combined.

All around the world recent years have seen a burgeoning and fast growing movement of non-violent direct action on climate change. These actions have been sharpening the debate and bringing the urgency of the situation to light. They demonstrate a response that is somehow commensurate to the crisis. ‘So perhaps this is really serious?’ punters may think when watching the 6 0′clock news. Business as usual is interrupted, commentators speculate that civil unrest is brewing, and politicians are forced to take notice.

This movement needs to grow on an unprecedented scale. We need you to be one more helping that to happen.

What is ‘Camp for Climate Action’?
‘Climate Camp’ is a non-violent direct action camp to be held, December 1st – 5th, at Lake Liddell Recreation Area near Bayswater Power Station, Muswellbrook, the Hunter Valley.

Bayswater is the site of one of the planned new coal-fired power stations – ‘Bayswater B’ – and is the equal largest source of emissions in Australia. Over 120 countries in the world emit less CO2 than Bayswater. The planned expansion would double Bayswater’s current emissions.

As in previous years, the camp will be fun and family-friendly with a sustainable village atmosphere. There will be a program on climate change issues and solutions, non-violent direct action and organising, and music and entertainment. The finale will be a creative and bold peaceful mass action aimed at shutting down Bayswater Power Station for the day.

It’s a community event, and local groups will be organising ‘Neighbourhoods’ from their areas – so get in touch, or come to an NVDA workshop to get involved. The next big organising meeting is Saturday 5th June, 2-5.
* Fruit and energy snacks and a simple vegetarian lunch will be available.
$5 suggested donation for food.
* A couple of extra dollars if you can in Newcastle for the venue

ASEN climate strategy 2010!

If this makes you feel excited then now is the perfect time to contact us and get involved!

Campaign focus for 2010
The working group decided to focus on two campaign areas:
1. 100% renewable energy by 2020 with a specific focus on 100% of energy on ASEN campuses
being renewable by 2015; and
2. (Non violent – needs discussion*) direct action to support campaigns to phase out coal mining
and energy generation including to stop new mines and stations being built and existing ones
being expanded.

Some of the assumptions informing the decision to focus on these areas included:
- Building on previous work, lessons and wins, including a focus on coal and mobilising for
climate camps.
- Learning lessons to scale down goals such as the 2009 one of shutting down one piece of
infrastructure in each state which was not achieved and subsequently assessed as beyond our
capacity.
- Building on ASEN’s strengths, energy and passion for direct action.
- Working within ASEN’s sphere of influence and focusing on ASEN’s core constituencies of
students.
- Complementing and supporting work by other climate movement groups.

People’s Blockade of the World’s Biggest Coal Port

The fifth People’s Blockade of the World’s Biggest Coal Port is happening on March 28 at 10am at Horseshoe Beach in Newcastle (where it always is). This will be a fun colourful community-type day where hundreds of people will get in kayaks, rafts and other vessels to fill up Newcastle Harbour and block the world’s biggest coal port for the whole day. We’ve always held up the coal industry and nobody has ever been arrested. Want to know why? Here are some details:

Newcastle, already the world’s biggest coal port, is set to open a massive new coal terminal this year, bringing the export capacity of the Hunter Valley coal chain to an incredible 178 million tonnes of coal per annum. That’s the climate change equivalent of 30 Bayswater Power Stations. Within ten years, the coal corporations plan on exporting more than 300 million tonnes of coal per annum – a tripling of current export capacity. Tripling coal exports means tripling coal mining. As Newcastle coal exports boom, more precious bushland will be razed, more waterways polluted, more communities ripped apart as the transnational coal companies carve their way westwards into the Liverpool Plains. The profits will be exported, but the devastation will stay here in the Hunter. The catastrophic effects of climate change will hurt all around the world.

For more information, visit the Riding Tide website. Now the important bit: there will be a raft-building competition with a prize for the coolest raft! We hope that every enviro collective in NSW (and maybe even Vic/Queensland) will participate. You just have to meet our definition of “coolest”, which might be most pretty/fast/effective/extravagant – try to get into our heads and see what you need to score the prize. There’s already a SEAN raft under construction. Want to get involved? Email us and we’ll share our detailed schematics with you (or at least give you some ideas).

Seriously, don’t you wish you were building rafts with us?

Find this event on Facebook