SDC's Resilience Summit in full swing
Dear Members,
Thanks to all of you who have passed on material and ideas for this fortnight’s issue. Around 3 years and 70 newsletters on, I am excited, and really quite relieved, that I can introduce to you Nicky Chapman, SDC’s new newsletter editor. I have enjoyed highlighting the impressive amount of sustainability-related events on in Dunedin, and passing on interesting articles that members send in. I hope that the newsletters have been of benefit to you, and that you continue to support Dunedin as a sustainably-proud city into the future.
Thanks Suze - Awesome job and we are really going to miss you!!
Nicky Chapman is by trade a wordsmith and we’re really appreciative to her for continuing on with this work as I head to Wellington.
From now on, please forward any newsletter content to Nicky via newsletter@sustainabledunedincity.org.nz, and any other correspondence to SDC secretary, Vivienne Bryner, on secretary@sustainabledunedincity.org.nz
SDC is currently working hard to put in submissions to both the Ocean Beach Management Plan and the Draft Spatial Plan recently released by the Dunedin City Council. If you are interested in contributing, please contact us on secretary@sustainabledunedincity.org.nz. In particular we will be using material collated from our recent Resilience Summit to feed into the Draft Spatial Plan submission.
We have a few copies of Susan Krumdieck’s report, “Peak Oil Vulnerability Assessment for Dunedin.” If you would like one posted to you, please write to jocelyn.harris@otago.ac.nz
Read on!
1. Upcoming SDC Events and Projects
i) THIS Thursday November 24, 5.30pm - GreenDrinks Dunedin, the Back Room of Filadelfios at the Gardens
2. Upcoming Sustainability Events and Courses
i) THIS Monday November 21, 4 – 5pm- Strategies to generate economically viable biofuels from cellulosic biomass
ii) THIS Thursday November 24, 9am – 12pm - Otago Energy Research Centre Symposium 2011: Futures and Prospects
iii) December 10 & 11 - Biochar Workshop
iii) January 2012 – Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival
3. Dunedin Sustainability in Action!
- Dunedin City Council – out for consultation - Proposed Management Options for Ocean Beach
Closes: THIS Friday, November 25
- Dunedin City Council – out for consultation – Draft Spatial Plan
Closes: January 13, 2012
- From the ODT and SDC’s Nicky Chapman - CO2 emissions are Southern asset sales’ dirty secret
4. Food for Thought
From the Guardian – World Energy Infrastructure
From 350.org – Keystone Pipeline Update
From Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon show – Green Architecture Movement
ODAC Newsletter - 11 November 2011
Jeanette Fitzsimons on Asset Sales
__
1. Upcoming SDC Events and Projects
SDC is driven by member ideas and volunteer man-power, so if you have an idea for an event or project you’d like SDC to run, or you’d like to run under the SDC umbrella, please let us know - secretary@sustainabledunedincity.org.nz. This section also signposts who to contact if you’re keen to help out with a particular event/project.
i) THIS Thursday November 24, 5.30pm - GreenDrinks Dunedin, the Back Room of Filadelfios at the Gardens
GREENDRINKS Dunedin provides an opportunity for everyone interested in sustainability and the environment to meet in a relaxed setting. It is organised in Dunedin by the Sustainable Dunedin City Society and is part of GreenDrinks International, a social networking movement.
We meet on the last Thursday of each month at 5.30pm. Each month a different community group hosts a theme. Everyone interested very welcome. Please bring a friend!
THEME THIS MONTH: Celebrate our End of Year Festivities with Metiria Turei Green MP
Please BRING unwanted wrapped pressie for GreenSanta’s Lucky Dip!
This month we conclude our Candidate focus. We have the pleasure of hearing from Metiria Turei, Green Party Co Leader and their Dunedin North Candidate. Metiria will outline some of the Green Party’s strong sustainability positions.
We will then have our annual Unwanted Pressie Lucky Dip! Please bring a wrapped pressie that you have been given in the past and that you do not want! Some lucky person is bound to love it!
This will be followed up with a passionate discussion of activities/speakers/groups for next year! Please bring your ideas!!!
For more information about Metiria go to www.greens.org.nz/people/metiriaturei
To get on the GreenDrinks Dunedin elist - or to host a GreenDrinks - please contact Maureen on mhoward@slingshot.co.nz.
__
2. Upcoming Sustainability Events and Courses
We’d love to advertise your sustainability-related event or course - please send contributions in to dk.sk@xtra.co.nz.
i) THIS Monday November 21, 4 – 5pm- Strategies to generate economically viable biofuels from cellulosic biomass; Approaches from the BioEnergy Science Centre, Microbiology & Immunology Bldg, 720 Cumberland Street, 4th floor Seminar Room 408
Dr Brown, from The BioEnergy Science Centre and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The talk will discuss the challenge of producing and converting sustainable cellulosic biomass into fuels and the presenting the opportunity for science and technology to make an appreciable national and indeed global impact in the next 20 years.
Contact - Jennifer van Eunen, 479 7734, jennifer.vaneunen@otago.ac.nz
ii) THIS Thursday November 24, 9am – 12pm - Otago Energy Research Centre Symposium 2011: Futures and Prospects, St Margaret’s College, University of Otago
An interdisciplinary event, showcasing current research in the areas of energy use, efficiency and production
Open to all - please register early to secure your spot
Guest Speaker: Associate Professor Rosalind Archer
Contact Jenny Leyden, 479 7534 oercadmin@otago.ac.nz , http://www.otago.ac.nz/oerc
Registration is free, dinner tickets are $15.00
iii) December 10 & 11 - Biochar Workshop
“Biochar may represent the single most important initiative for humanity’s environmental and agricultural future.” Dr Tim Flannery.
This is a hands-on workshop, where participants will learn:
· What biochar is and it’s multiple benefits
· How to build devices to make biochar
· How soil fertility can be enhanced through the application of biochar
· The financial benefits of biochar.
For home gardeners, commercial and small-scale land users, this event is the best opportunity in New Zealand to interact with an international biochar specialist, Dr.Paul Taylor, author of “The Biochar Revolution”.
Led by Dennis Enright (NZ Biochar Ltd; Organic Farmer) and Dr.Paul Taylor, the workshop will be held at “The Organic Patch”: 100 Hagart Alexander Drive, Mosgiel, Dunedin. Beginning at 9am on Saturday the 10th December, the workshop will run through till 4pm on Sunday the 11th December.
Cost: 2 days $150. Includes meals and camping on site if required
1 day $80. Includes meals and camping on site if required
Family or partners: 20% discount for 2nd or more persons.
For all enquiries or to register, please contact:
DENNIS ENRIGHT, NZ TEL 64 3 4894020 dennis.enright@xtra.co.nz
PAUL TAYLOR, AUSTRALIA TEL 61 2 8005 0514 potaylor@bigpond.com
Web: http://www.biochar-books.com
iv) January 2012 – Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival
Kia ora koutou,
Members of Sustainable Dunedin City are warmly invited to attend the Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival, which is taking place near Mataura, Southland in January 2012.
Regards
Tim Jones
for Coal Action Network Aotearoa
Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival Now Open For Registration
The Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival will be held in Mataura, Southland, from 20-23rd January 2012, on the farm of lignite opponent Mike Dumbar, half a kilometre from the pilot briquetting plant now being built by Solid Energy.
For more information and to register online go to: http://nocoalsummerfest.org.nz/information
Coal Action Network Aotearoa is excited to be organising a four day festival to stand alongside the people of Southland and build a movement around climate justice. There will be family camping, live music, fun for the kids, big cook-ups, visits to the proposed lignite mine, workshops on strategy, information from various groups actively campaigning against coal, training in non-violent direct action, videos, and an Open Day in Mataura with speakers and discussion groups on the issues relating to lignite.
Of course, the earlier people register the easier it is for us to plan ahead, so we are offering a generous discount to anyone who signs up before 20 December.
__
3. Dunedin Sustainability in Action!
This section is about some of the inspirational things happening in our community, as well as ’sustainability’ volunteer opportunities in and around Dunedin. If you’ve got a project you need more hands for (or even a project that needs hands to get started!), or a group you think our members may like to join, send me a paragraph…and don’t forget your contact details. And if you’re doing something inspirational, or know of someone that is, let me know (dk.sk@xtra.co.nz).
Dunedin City Council – out for consultation - Proposed Management Options for Ocean Beach
Closes: THIS Friday, November 25
In 2008, the Council appointed a Project Team to gather data and consider management options for Ocean Beach. This followed significant erosion on the beach in June/July 2007, the DCC’s replenishment of sand on the beach and other remedial works as part of a now established ‘holding pattern’, and a comprehensive consultation process. Since then the Project Team has gathered and analysed that data and completed a risk assessment process. It has now identified proposed management options for Ocean Beach, taking into account the existing processes and risks.
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/currently-consulting-on/current-consultations/proposed-management-options-for-ocean-beach
Dunedin City Council – out for consultation – Draft Spatial Plan
Closes: January 13, 2012
The Draft Spatial Plan describes what kind of city we want by means of a set of strategic directions for Dunedin’s growth and development for the next 30+ years. These strategic directions include ensuring Dunedin remains resilient, liveable, economically successful and connected.
It will be used to improve the long-term planning and co-ordination of the DCC’s activities by linking land-use planning to how future infrastructure and services may be provided or limited. It will also provide direction for the second generation District Plan, alongside other DCC plans and strategies.
Contact details
Contact Dave Cull, Mayor of Dunedin on 477 4000.
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/your-council/latest-news/october-2011/dunedins-future-its-in-your-hands
From the ODT and SDC’s Nicky Chapman - CO2 emissions are Southern asset sales’ dirty secret
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/187067/co2-emissions-are-southern-asset-sales-dirty-secret
__
4. Food for Thought
Do you know of an amazing podcast everyone should listen to? An article or a blog or a site that would be of interest to all SDC members? Send me a short explanation and the link (dk.sk@xtra.co.nz), and we’ll add it in here. Links preferable to attachments, because they tend to fill up everyone’s inboxes.
From the Guardian
The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be “lost forever”, according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/09/fossil-fuel-infrastructure-climate-change?INTCMP=SRCH
From 350.org
After relentless campaigning, the Keystone XL pipeline has been killed! The Obama Administration will be requesting a 12-18 month review for the Keystone XL pipeline, effectively eliminating the potential the project would go through, according to most analysts.
http://act.350.org/sign/global-pledge/?akid=1401.323676.hM–_z&rd=1&t=2
From Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon show – Green Architecture Movement
Architect and green buildings guru Jason McLennan is known as an international thought leader in the green architecture movement. He is the author of three books: The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, The Dumb Architect’s Guide to Glazing Selection, and The Ecological Engineer. The Philosophy of Sustainable Design is currently used as a textbook in over 40 universities and colleges and is distributed widely throughout Europe and North America.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20111117
ODAC Newsletter - 11 November 2011
Welcome to the ODAC Newsletter, a weekly roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, the UK registered charity dedicated to raising awareness of peak oil.
The latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency came with a double warning. On the one hand, oil prices could soon spike to $150 once more, on the other, the world is barely five years away from sealing its fate on climate change.
Oil prices will average $120 per barrel to 2035, says the IEA, and volatility is here to stay. But the price could soon top the record $147 of 2008 if producers in Middle East and North African (MENA) fail to invest enough in new capacity. The oil supply is increasingly dependent on MENA countries, which need to spend $100 billion per year to keep up with global demand. If they miss that target by a third over the next few years, prices will spike again. The IEA didn’t say it, but this outlook seems to condemn the industrial countries to serial recessions until they radically reduce their oil dependency; the OECD has reached economic peak oil.
http://www.odac-info.org/newsletter/2011/11/11
Jeanette Fitzsimons on Asset Sales
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXEZgh-l1uk&mid=529
__
Tēnā koutou katoa,
Suze Keith (SDC’s newsletter compiler)
dk.sk@xtra.co.nz
Vivienne Bryner (SDC’s secretary)
secretary@sustainabledunedincity.org.nz
Sustainable Dunedin City Inc.
If you have any plants (esp herbs!) to donate, bring ‘em along…
Facebook