Friends of the Earth Australia - Good News Stories

Renewable energy jobs boom on the horizon as Andrews govt announces Vic Renewable Energy Targets

Phil.Evans — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 23:19:15 +0000

VICTORIA, 15 JUNE 2016: A renewable energy boom is on the horizon for Victoria as the Andrews government today announces state Renewable Energy Targets (VRET). The long-awaited announcement comes after a two-and-a-half year community campaign to grow renewables.

"The Andrews government's announcement of Victorian Renewable Energy Targets is a big win for communities who want a pathway to 100 percent," said Leigh Ewbank, Friends of the Earth spokesperson.

"These targets will make Victoria the national leader when it comes to renewable energy, which is good newsfor manufacturing, regional communities, and our climate."

"The Andrews government's targets represent the biggest renewable program in Victoria's history."

The Victorian Renewable Energy Targets of 25 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2025 will reshape the state's energy system. The program will:

Double Victoria's wind power generation capacity by 2020.
Triple Victoria's installed renewable energy generation capacity - making the state a national leader.
Produce the equivalent 1.3 Hazelwoods worth of energy by 2025, thanks to 5,400 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity.
Reduce the electricity sector greenhouse gases by 12 percent by 2034.
By 2025 Victoria will produce enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 6.5 ACTs(Australian Capital Territory).
Attract an estimated $2.5 billion worth of investment to Victoria.
Create an estimated 10,000 jobs between the commencement of the program and 2025.

Friends of the Earth say the Victorian Renewable Energy Targets are a big win for manufacturing and jobs.

"The Andrews government’s VRET provides a lifeline for manufacturing in Portland, Glen Waverly, Geelong and the western suburbs of Melbourne," said Leigh Ewbank.

"With an estimated 10,000 jobs created in renewable energy, this is what the transition looks like."

Friends of the Earth's renewable energy spokesperson Leigh Ewbank says Premier Daniel Andrews can build on his leadership by adopting a permanent ban on onshore gas and fast track the transition away from coal.

"Premier Andrews can supercharge his climate change initiatives by adopting a permanent ban on risky onshore gas and phasing out coal," said Leigh Ewbank.

"Now that the government has set ambitious Renewable Energy Targets, a plan to phase out coal power and transition coal communities is the priority for state energy policy."

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Victorian opposition to support the Renewable Energy Targets. The organisation says renewable energy is among the issues where all parties can find agreement -such as investing in education and healthcare.

"All available polling shows strong community support for renewable energy. Creating jobs, cutting pollution and acting on climate change is something all parties can support," said Leigh Ewbank.

"The community would welcome opposition leader Matthew Guy's support for Victorian Renewable Energy Targets and the transition to clean energy."

Take action to secure Victoria's Renewable Energy Target NOW!

Under Matthew Guy’s leadership, the Victorian opposition has expressed bipartisan support for at least eight issues:

Government support for dairy farmers.
The Royal Commission into Family Violence.
The Victorian Parliament’s apology to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Support marriage equality (source)
Changes to adoption laws in Victoria to allow for LGBT and step-parent adoptions.
Bushfire response on Surf Coast.
Aboriginal Affairs Policy.
Syrian Refugee Resettlement.

Friends of the Earth believe the Victorian Renewable Energy Target can be the ninth issue on that list.

AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT:

Leigh Ewbank, Friends of the Earth's Yes 2 Renewables coordinator – 0406 316 176

Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth campaigns coordinator – 0419 338 047

Climate Justice

FoE Melbourne

Good News Stories

Calls for international moratorium on underground coal gasification following immediate ban in Queensland, Australia

Phil.Evans — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 07:55:18 +0000

APRIL 18, 2016: Responding to the breaking news that the State Government of Queensland in Australia has just implemented an immediate ban on all underground coal gasification in that State, Chloe Aldenhoven, Coal and Gas Spokesperson for Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia said:

"These kind of radical and dangerous mining techniques show the desperation of a fossil fuel industry going into decline.

“We need an international moratorium on this madman technology before it inflicts any more damage on people and the environment."

“As they anticipate the inevitable transition to renewable energy, mining companies are inflicting increasingly reckless and environmentally damaging mining techniques on communities.

“Already we have seen Underground Coal Gasification miner Linc Energy go into administration after contaminating over 150 square kilometres of farmland in Queensland in order to avoid paying reparations to landholders.

“We cannot let agricultural land and natural environments become the collateral damage of these high risk experiments, especially when we have safe, renewable energy options available.

“Its time to build on the momentum of the Underground Coal Gasification moratorium in Scotland and this Queensland ban with an international moratorium.

Media Contact: Chloe Aldenhoven, Coal and Gas Campaigner, Friends of Earth (Australia) E: chloe.aldenhoven@archive.foe.org.au P: +61 432 328 107

FoE Brisbane

Climate Justice

Good News Stories

2015 visual diary

Cam Walker — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 04:41:09 +0000

As another big year comes to a close, here are some highlights from our year.

Hope you have a great summer, get out amongst nature with friends and family, and recharge. See you in 2016!

JANUARY

ABOVE: FoE supported the call by Indigenous leaders, who presented an urgent demand for a more meaningful role in water management as the Darling River looked likely to cease flowing for the third time in 12 years.

ABOVE:

FoE revealed that large quantities of nanomaterials are being used in agricultural chemicals overseas, bringing into serious question claims made by the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), that nanomaterials are currently not being used in agricultural chemicals in Australia.

ABOVE: Friends of the Earth drew national media attention to the fact that koalas are still being impacted by plantation logging in South West Victoria.

Footage sent to Friends of the Earth shows a koala with baby being felled inside a plantation owned by the Cayman Islands based, Australian Bluegum Plantations Pty Ltd. This triggered a state-wide debate about how plantations are managed.

ABOVE: FoE highlighted the need for greater community input into forestry operations in the Strathbogie Ranges in north eastern Victoria, in order to improve the long term viability of the Strathbogie Koala Population.

ABOVE: we are proud to be part of a global movement. FoE's renewable energy campaigner Leigh Ewbank joins an anti-fracking rally in California.

ABOVE: In the last week of February, Wendy Flannery, the FoE Brisbane Climate Frontlines convenor, participated in a capacity building workshop on climate change in Savusavu, Fiji, titled: "Connecting the Dots: learnings from community based adaptation and migration to promote climate resilience, and how these can influence national and international policy". The workshop was co-hosted by the Pacific Conference of Churches and Bread for the World. The participants represented two programs in Papua New Guinea, two in Fiji, and individual representatives from Kiribati, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands.

Climate Frontlines is now partnering with the Pacific Islands Reference Group (PIRG) to organise a number of activities in the lead up to the Paris climate change negotiations. These include a theatrical production which will premiere at the Pacific Tides Festival in Redlands 7 - 9 August.

ABOVE:

Chinese imported frozen berries linked to a number of cases of hepatitis A in Victoria and NSW has led to a national call for stronger food safety regulation and country of origin labelling.

However under the new China Free Trade Agreement and pending Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), this could be unfeasible. Friends of the Earth’s Fair Trade spokesperson, Sam Castro said “like other similar trade agreements the TPP could make it impossible to set higher standards on imported foods or labelling, because labelling regulation can be deemed a ‘barrier to trade’.”

MARCH

FoE mobilised public support to ensure that current protections for Tasmanian World Heritage Areas were not weakened.

Throughout the year we have advocated for the need for a rapid transition away from our current reliance on polluting fossil fuels to clean renewable energy pathways.

Above: for the second year, FoE, joined with the Melbourne Campaigners Network and CounterAct to host the Change Course. This course takes place over one month and is designed to give a broad overview of the skills needed to be an effective campaigner.

APRIL

ABOVE:

FoE intensified its call for Australia to regulate the use of nano-sized silver in everyday products such as food packaging, following the United States peak environmental agency's decision to start doing so.

April 2015: The Seaspray community in Gippsland meets with Senator Ricky Muir.

“I support the call to exempt all communities that express concern against unconventional gas mining to be exempt from all existing licences. A community should have the right to veto,” he said.

ABOVE: FoE continues to work with local communities to declare themselves coal and gasfield free.

ABOVE: FoE continues to support the global efforts to stop the development of GM tree plantations.

We supported Totally Renewable Yackandandah in north east Victoria in launching a 100% Renewables Target for their community.

ABOVE: during April, May, and June we helped organise over 15 successful community screenings of the 'Frackman' film across Victoria.

MAY

ABOVE: Alcoa Australia have announced closure of the Anglesea coal mine and power plant on Aug 31 in response to a strong community campaign by Surf Coast Air Action.

Friends of the Earth have been a proud supporter of the Anglesea community in their fight for closing the polluting power plant and protect public health.

ABOVE: The Australian Environmental Justice (AEJ) research team at RMIT University is creating a public online database of cases of environmental injustice — for affected communities, campaigners and educators.

The AEJ project has Friends of the Earth (Australia) (FoE) as a partner and is associated with the EU-funded international Environmental Justice, and was launched at FoE in May.

FoE continued to provide support to residents concerned about the impacts of aerial spraying of the herbicides Clopyralid, Glyphosate and Metsulfuron Methyl in the plantations around Bright and surrounding townships, in north eastern Victoria.

ABOVE: Three major French banks have announced they will not fund the mega coal mines proposed in the Galilee Basin, or associated infrastructure such as the new coal export terminals at Abbot Point.

BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, and Credit Agricole have issued statements that bring to eleven the number of international banks that have spoken out against the prospect of funding mega-coal mines in the Galilee Basin or new export terminals in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secret trade agreement that will adversely affect the environment, worker’s rights, cost of medicines, internet freedoms, food safety, intellectual property rights and indigenous rights.

With a range of partners, FoE held a side event during the national Congress of the ACTU featuring a Roundtable with a range of speakers.

The full plenary of the ACTU Congress reinforced the position of the Roundtable by unanimously passing a motion on behalf of their 2.4 million members, calling the Australian Government to release the TPP text or withdraw Australia from the secret negotiations.

ABOVE: FoE has provided support to the local group WHAM, which is seeking to stop the destruction of red gum trees up to 700 years old as part of the widening of the Western Highway in Victoria.

The Federal government announces its Inquiry into the tax status of green groups. This is widely seen as an attack on the environment movement.

We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from our partners in the community. Trev and Di from Seaspray, VIC.

You can

ABOVE: The Senate Inquiry into wind farms and health drags on ... We continue to highlight the fact that wind energy needs to be a key element in the transition that is required as we move away from polluting fossil fuels.

Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) are lands owned by Indigenous people and voluntarily managed for conservation. There are currently 60 declared IPAs, covering land three times the size of Victoria! IPAs are recognised as providing real social, cultural and environmental benefits through providing employment, protection of country and cultural connection to land.

But federal government funding for IPA's is under threat.

ABOVE: FoE campaigned during 2014 for all parties to adopt a commitment to establish a Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET). We welcomed the Andrew government's commitment to reinstating a VRET.

A new report by the IMF reveals “shocking” $5.3 Trillion global fossil fuel subsidy for 2015, which is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments.

JUNE

ABOVE: FoE Australia turns 40! (well, 41 but we were too busy last year to have a party).

And no, the sign is incorrect. We haven't sold out!

ABOVE: our Barmah Millewa campaign (BMC) re-launched as the River Country campaign, with a broad mandate to protect our inland river country in conjunction with traditional owner groups.

ABOVE: A new report from Market Forces shines a light for the first time on Australian banks’ financing of the fossil fuel industry and the disparity between lending to ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ energy.

Covering over 150 financial institutions, the report – Fueling the Fire – identifies ANZ as the leading lender to fossil fuels, having provided $12.6 billion to coal, oil and gas in Australia since 2008.

Healthy Futures is a network of health professionals, students and supporters organising to take action on climate change and related public health challenges. They joined FoE Australia as an affiliate in 2015.

ABOVE: the campaign lead by FoE and Quit Coal and many regional groups helped achieve a moratorium on drilling for unconventional gas in Victoria and a commitment to a state inquiry into this industry.

The inquiry is now underway, with hearings due to start in late June.

ABOVE. The radioactive exposure tours have been going most years since the mid 1980s, and have introduced many hundreds of people to the wonderful - and threatened - arid landscapes of northern South Australia.

ABOVE: The Climate Frontlines campaign of FoE Brisbane, and the sub-group, Friends of Tulele Peisa, are focused on those at the frontlines of climate change in the Pacific.

In particular, the Climate Frontlines Collective raises awareness and funds for people in the low-lying Pacific nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu who are being forced to leave their communities due to climate change. These island communities are already being displaced by rising sea levels.

The Hub Foundation Castlemaine, based in Central Victoria, works on local projects which have tackling climate change as their focus and joined FoE as an affiliate member in 2015.

Work so far involves:

•running community bulk-buys of solar panels using local installers.

•installing free solar systems on community buildings and on housing projects for the homeless

•promoting local food production with our street wicking food boxes and support of the Hub Plot

•organising Ride to Work

•supporting re-vegetation projects

•and hosting events to raise awareness of climate change and what people can do.

ABOVE: In June we supported the launch of the Reef Defenders campaign.

JULY

We co-hosted an event on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement at the ALP national conference in Melbourne.

Above: the radioactive exposure tour passes through Dubbo in western NSW, to raise awarenss of threats posed by local mine proposals.

The Rad Tour finished in Adelaide.

SEPTEMBER

The federal government's inquiry into the tax status of environmental organisations came to Melbourne in September. Working with a range of groups FoE helped organise a large community presence reminding the government that people appreciate the work of the green movement.

'Free Karen'. In a bizarre move, the federal government included environmental activism in it's 'radicalisation awareness kit'. Thousands of people signed our petition calling on the government to withdraw the suggestion that there was a link between environmental activism and extremism and political violence.

In September, FoE and Lock the Gate organised a huge community rally in Melbourne which saw people from around the state converge on Melbourne to demand a permanent ban on unconventional gas drilling in the state.

ClimActs joins FoE

ClimActs is an Australian protest theatre troupe using striking spectacle as well as satire to educate and communicate the urgency of acting on climate change. For over two years we’ve been appearing at rallies, backdropping or intercepting politicians, and protesting at fossil fuel headquarters to demand climate justice.

FoE commissioned testing revealed that the use of risky nanomaterials in foods in Australia is widespread, contradicting the repeated claims made by our food regulator Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) that nanomaterials aren’t in use here.

OCTOBER

We are working with communities in Gippsland to oppose new coal exploration proposals that have been approved by the Victorian government.

NOVEMBER

FoE responded quickly to the government announcement that it is re-starting the search for a national nuclear waste repository. We have successfully campaigned against this proposal twice in the last 15 years.

With a range of partners, FoE hosted a conference which examined the influence of corporate funding on public research in universities.

NAB and CBA support 2°

Both NAB and Commonwealth Bank adopt the goal of keeping global warming to below two degrees, acknowledging their responsibility in helping the world meet that goal.

Research by FoE demonstrated that the personal fortunes of the 782 wealthiest people on the planet, many CEOs of major corporations, could power Africa, Latin America and most of Asia with 100% renewable energy by 2030.

Launched just a week before the UN climate summit in Paris, the report illustrates that the finance for an energy revolution certainly exists, while the political will to drive the transformation is so far shockingly absent.

FoE was active inside and outside the climate negotiations in Paris. On the last weekend of the talks, FoE France organised an event where 3,000 people spelt out the words 'Climate Justice. Peace' on the streets of Paris.

For full details on the Paris negotiations,

FoE Brisbane Climate Frontlines collaborated with FoEI to facilitate the participation of Torres Strait elder Aunty Rose Elu in COP21 activities in Paris.

DECEMBER

FoE released a report which shows that global palm oil companies Wilmar International and Bumitama Agri, backed by major U.S. and European investors, have created conditions that have allowed Indonesia’s recent devastating forest fires to burn out of control.

In December, FoE revealed that our regulators are planning to allow foods derived from a range of new genetic modification (GM) techniques untested and unlabelled onto our supermarket shelves and that they have misled the Senate on the issue.

IF YOU LIKE WHAT WE DO, PLEASE You can check out our

Good News Stories

Chain Reaction magazine issue #124 now available

Cam Walker — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 02:11:13 +0000

Our national magazine, Chain Reaction, is just back from the printers. It will be mailed to members shortly, but in the meantime you can read it here as individual articles or a pdf.

This issue has a focus on the current attacks by the federal government on environmental organisations. It also has some great articles on our new River Country campaign, the government's vision to develop northern Australia, and all the latest updates on the state of the nuclear industry in Australia.

You
Good News Stories

Half Time Score - our campaigns in 2015

Cam Walker — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 06:27:24 +0000

2015 has been an incredible year. And we're only half way through! Here are some highlights from our work since January.

JANUARY

ABOVE: FoE supported the call by Indigenous leaders, who presented an urgent demand for a more meaningful role in water management as the Darling River looked likely to cease flowing for the third time in 12 years.

ABOVE:

FoE revealed that large quantities of nanomaterials are being used in agricultural chemicals overseas, bringing into serious question claims made by the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), that nanomaterials are currently not being used in agricultural chemicals in Australia.

ABOVE: Friends of the Earth drew national media attention to the fact that koalas are still being impacted by plantation logging in South West Victoria.

Footage sent to Friends of the Earth shows a koala with baby being felled inside a plantation owned by the Cayman Islands based, Australian Bluegum Plantations Pty Ltd. This triggered a state-wide debate about how plantations are managed.

ABOVE: FoE highlighted the need for greater community input into forestry operations in the Strathbogie Ranges in north eastern Victoria, in order to improve the long term viability of the Strathbogie Koala Population.

ABOVE: we are proud to be part of a global movement. FoE's renewable energy campaigner Leigh Ewbank joins an anti-fracking rally in California.

ABOVE: In the last week of February, Wendy Flannery, the FoE Brisbane Climate Frontlines convenor, participated in a capacity building workshop on climate change in Savusavu, Fiji, titled: "Connecting the Dots: learnings from community based adaptation and migration to promote climate resilience, and how these can influence national and international policy". The workshop was co-hosted by the Pacific Conference of Churches and Bread for the World. The participants represented two programs in Papua New Guinea, two in Fiji, and individual representatives from Kiribati, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands.

Climate Frontlines is now partnering with the Pacific Islands Reference Group (PIRG) to organise a number of activities in the lead up to the Paris climate change negotiations. These include a theatrical production which will premiere at the Pacific Tides Festival in Redlands 7 - 9 August.

ABOVE:

Chinese imported frozen berries linked to a number of cases of hepatitis A in Victoria and NSW has led to a national call for stronger food safety regulation and country of origin labelling.

However under the new China Free Trade Agreement and pending Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), this could be unfeasible. Friends of the Earth’s Fair Trade spokesperson, Sam Castro said “like other similar trade agreements the TPP could make it impossible to set higher standards on imported foods or labelling, because labelling regulation can be deemed a ‘barrier to trade’.”

MARCH

FoE mobilised public support to ensure that current protections for Tasmanian World Heritage Areas were not weakened.

Throughout the year we have advocated for the need for a rapid transition away from our current reliance on polluting fossil fuels to clean renewable energy pathways.

Above: for the second year, FoE, joined with the Melbourne Campaigners Network and CounterAct to host the Change Course. This course takes place over one month and is designed to give a broad overview of the skills needed to be an effective campaigner.

APRIL

ABOVE:

FoE intensified its call for Australia to regulate the use of nano-sized silver in everyday products such as food packaging, following the United States peak environmental agency's decision to start doing so.

April 2015: The Seaspray community in Gippsland meets with Senator Ricky Muir.

“I support the call to exempt all communities that express concern against unconventional gas mining to be exempt from all existing licences. A community should have the right to veto,” he said.

ABOVE: FoE continues to work with local communities to declare themselves coal and gasfield free.

ABOVE: FoE continues to support the global efforts to stop the development of GM tree plantations.

We supported Totally Renewable Yackandandah in north east Victoria in launching a 100% Renewables Target for their community.

ABOVE: during April, May, and June we helped organise over 15 successful community screenings of the 'Frackman' film across Victoria.

MAY

ABOVE: Alcoa Australia have announced closure of the Anglesea coal mine and power plant on Aug 31 in response to a strong community campaign by Surf Coast Air Action.

Friends of the Earth have been a proud supporter of the Anglesea community in their fight for closing the polluting power plant and protect public health.

ABOVE: The Australian Environmental Justice (AEJ) research team at RMIT University is creating a public online database of cases of environmental injustice — for affected communities, campaigners and educators.

The AEJ project has Friends of the Earth (Australia) (FoE) as a partner and is associated with the EU-funded international Environmental Justice, and was launched at FoE in May.

FoE continued to provide support to residents concerned about the impacts of aerial spraying of the herbicides Clopyralid, Glyphosate and Metsulfuron Methyl in the plantations around Bright and surrounding townships, in north eastern Victoria.

ABOVE: Three major French banks have announced they will not fund the mega coal mines proposed in the Galilee Basin, or associated infrastructure such as the new coal export terminals at Abbot Point.

BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, and Credit Agricole have issued statements that bring to eleven the number of international banks that have spoken out against the prospect of funding mega-coal mines in the Galilee Basin or new export terminals in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secret trade agreement that will adversely affect the environment, worker’s rights, cost of medicines, internet freedoms, food safety, intellectual property rights and indigenous rights.

With a range of partners, FoE held a side event during the national Congress of the ACTU featuring a Roundtable with a range of speakers.

The full plenary of the ACTU Congress reinforced the position of the Roundtable by unanimously passing a motion on behalf of their 2.4 million members, calling the Australian Government to release the TPP text or withdraw Australia from the secret negotiations.

ABOVE: FoE has provided support to the local group WHAM, which is seeking to stop the destruction of red gum trees up to 700 years old as part of the widening of the Western Highway in Victoria.

The Federal government announces its Inquiry into the tax status of green groups. This is widely seen as an attack on the environment movement.

We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from our partners in the community. Trev and Di from Seaspray, VIC.

You can

ABOVE: The Senate Inquiry into wind farms and health drags on ... We continue to highlight the fact that wind energy needs to be a key element in the transition that is required as we move away from polluting fossil fuels.

Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) are lands owned by Indigenous people and voluntarily managed for conservation. There are currently 60 declared IPAs, covering land three times the size of Victoria! IPAs are recognised as providing real social, cultural and environmental benefits through providing employment, protection of country and cultural connection to land.

But federal government funding for IPA's is under threat.

ABOVE: FoE campaigned during 2014 for all parties to adopt a commitment to establish a Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET). We welcomed the Andrew government's commitment to reinstating a VRET.

A new report by the IMF reveals “shocking” $5.3 Trillion global fossil fuel subsidy for 2015, which is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments.

JUNE

ABOVE: FoE Australia turns 40! (well, 41 but we were too busy last year to have a party).

And no, the sign is incorrect. We haven't sold out!

ABOVE: our Barmah Millewa campaign (BMC) re-launched as the River Country campaign, with a broad mandate to protect our inland river country in conjunction with traditional owner groups.

ABOVE: A new report from Market Forces shines a light for the first time on Australian banks’ financing of the fossil fuel industry and the disparity between lending to ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ energy.

Covering over 150 financial institutions, the report – Fueling the Fire – identifies ANZ as the leading lender to fossil fuels, having provided $12.6 billion to coal, oil and gas in Australia since 2008.

Healthy Futures is a network of health professionals, students and supporters organising to take action on climate change and related public health challenges. They joined FoE Australia as an affiliate in 2015.

ABOVE: the campaign lead by FoE and Quit Coal and many regional groups helped achieve a moratorium on drilling for unconventional gas in Victoria and a commitment to a state inquiry into this industry.

The inquiry is now underway, with hearings due to start in late June.

ABOVE. The radioactive exposure tours have been going most years since the mid 1980s, and have introduced many hundreds of people to the wonderful - and threatened - arid landscapes of northern South Australia.

ABOVE: The Climate Frontlines campaign of FoE Brisbane, and the sub-group, Friends of Tulele Peisa, are focused on those at the frontlines of climate change in the Pacific.

In particular, the Climate Frontlines Collective raises awareness and funds for people in the low-lying Pacific nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu who are being forced to leave their communities due to climate change. These island communities are already being displaced by rising sea levels.

ABOVE: In June we supported the launch of the Reef Defenders campaign.

ABOVE: and now we are gearing up for the international climate change negotiations which will start in Paris in late November.

PLEASE You can check out our
Good News Stories

FoE Australia turns 40

Cam Walker — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 01:07:31 +0000

This year Friends of the Earth Australia is turning 40! (Well, actually we're 41 but were too busy last year to organise a party).

Please join us to celebrate four decades of creative resistance and activism working towards environmental and social justice.

There will be music, performance, and a chance to hear from some of your fave FoE friends and campaigners.

Music by Glitter Rats, Sugar Fed Leopards, Black Orchids
Shadow performance by Lynne Kent and Hula Hoops by Sam Starr.

Doors open from 7.30pm for 8pm start.

Tickets: $15/ $10 concession, $40 solidarity.

For full details, and to buy tickets,
Good News Stories

The 1990s

Cam Walker — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 06:27:09 +0000

ABOVE: Working with the Mirra traditional owners and other environmental groups, FoE played a key role in the successful community campaign to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine in the mid 1990s. There were regular pickets outside the offices of companies involved in the mine proposal. This one was in Melbourne.

Good News Stories

FoEA turns 40

Cam Walker — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 05:39:14 +0000

FoE turns 40

Celebration - friday May 8, 2015

This year we're celebrating Friends of the Earth Australia's 40th birthday!

Please join us to toast four decades of activism for social justice and ecological sustainability.

There will be music, performance, and speeches from some of your fave FoE friends.

Music by Glitter Rats, Sugar Fed Leopards, Black Orchids
Shadow performance by Lynne Kent and Hula Hoops by Sam Starr.

From 7.30pm (toasts and speeches start 8pm, merriment till 12pm).

Tickets: $15/ $10 concession, $40 solidarity.

cam.walker@archive.foe.org.au

or post to FoE 40 years, Box 222, Fitzroy, 3065.

For background on FoE's history,
Good News Stories

our campaigns 2014

Cam Walker — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 01:23:40 +0000

As 2014 comes to an end, we thought we'd reflect on our work this year. The following images, in a rough chronological order, show some of what we got up to over the past 12 months.

Thanks for your support during the year. If you wanted to help our campaigns with a donation, Way too little which highlights the failure of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to ensure that nanomaterials used in the Australian food chain are safe.

In it's second year, FoE affiliate project Market Forces has had enormous impact on the lending policies of large institutions such as the Big 4 Banks.

JULY: Our Nanotechnology Project became the Emerging Technology Project as we broadened our scope to look at other important emerging technologies. These include synthetic biology and geoengineering, which both pose grave potential threats to human health and the environment.

JULY 2014. FoE publishes report looking at
Good News Stories

FoE turns 40

Cam Walker — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:56:51 +0000

Friends of the Earth Australia turns 40!

According to legend passed down through generations of activists, the FoE Australia network was created at a gathering of local FoE groups on French Island, in Western Port Bay in Victoria, in early 1974.

At that point, French Island had been selected as a possible location for Victoria’s first nuclear reactor, a campaign that was successfully won by FoE and other groups.

It seems too early to have a mid life crisis. So instead, we’re going to have a party. This will be in May 2015. It will feature music, talk, memorabilia, and good yarns.

Image: French Island, Feb 1974.

FoE turns 40

Celebration - friday May 8, 2015

This year we're celebrating Friends of the Earth Australia's 40th birthday!

Please join us to toast four decades of activism for social justice and ecological sustainability.

There will be music, performance, and speeches from some of your fave FoE friends.

Music by Glitter Rats, Sugar Fed Leopards, Black Orchids
Shadow performance by Lynne Kent and Hula Hoops by Sam Starr.

From 7.30pm (toasts and speeches start 8pm, merriment till 12pm).

Tickets: $15/ $10 concession, $40 solidarity.

cam.walker@archive.foe.org.au

or post to FoE 40 years, Box 222, Fitzroy, 3065.

For background on FoE's history, Resources

.

ABOVE: some global warming inspired poetry from Chain Reaction magazine, 19802

ABOVE: since the mid 1980s, FoE has run the annual radioactive exposure tour, taking many hundreds of people to see first hand the impacts of the nuclear industry on Indigenous communities and the landscpes of inland Australia. The 2009 RET tour.

Good News Stories