News
Samford Green Street Cafe overflows
A Samford first event, the Samford Green Street Cafe, overflowed with a hundred patrons and plenty of ideas at the function held at the Java Cafe on 23rd October.
Organised by the Pine Rivers Climate Action Network as part of Samford Green Street, the Cafe was a very pleasant social evening where people also responded to some 'conversation starters' around what Samford is already doing to be sustainable and what else it might do in the future to be more sustainable.
What Samford is already doing to be Livable and Sustainable:
- Trying to stop unethical and unsustainable development
- New tennis/netball facility being built on sustainability lines
- Easily walk Village Business District
- Bus to railway
- Promoting Green Street in the Valley
- Organic Garden Groups
- Solar panels on a lot of houses
- Recycling and trash & treasure market
- Having 21 businesses as part of the Samford Sustainable Business Cluster
- Having an active Climate Action Network
- Building a Samford Local Growers group
- Community Forums on peak oil, water, climate change and other issues
- Promoting growing of vegetables (City Fruit Growers)
- Organic farm near Showgrounds
- Encouraging citizens to be fit and healthy
- SEQ Regional Plan Submissions by community groups
- Schools doing work on the environment
- Bushcare groups
Residents may have more to add to the list so please send your ideas to info@greenstreet.net.au. Do the same if you have something to say about what else Samford might do to be more sustainable and we'll add that to the list.
For more information, call 0407190162 or contact info@greenstreet.net.au
Samford Green Streets
There's a very exciting project bre
wing in Samford.
The Samford Green Streets project is designed to get Samford householders involved in a neighbourly process of becoming more sustainable in the way we live.
The Green Street website (www.greenstreet.net.au) will help people to enter the whole process and get started. It is user friendly, even to those not all that familiar with computers.
The website shows people how sustainable they already are and lets them know what else could be done. Most people find they act more sustainably than they think they do!
There are incentive prizes for households and streets that do extra well in becoming more sustainable so there's a bit of competitive fun involved.
What's more, the whole thing is free!
Starting off a Samford Green Street
You can kick off right now by going to www.greenstreet.net.au and following the prompts.
If you want to you can get friends and neighbours involved so that you have a good chance of landing some of the prizes that are on offer to streets that do well on a month by month basis.
Quite a few Samford residents have already nominated themselves as 'Green Street Starters' - people who are keen to be amongst the first in and to also get their neighbours involved. If you'd like to be a Green Street Starter and really help Samford to become more sustainable just contact us as below.
Who's handling the Samford Green Street project?
Samford Green Streets is being co-ordinated locally by the Pine Rivers Climate Action Network (PRCAN) and has been endorsed and supported by the Samford Progress and Protection Association. Many other organizations, schools and businesses are expected to come on board for what is truly a community project for all who have aspirations for a sustainable world.
Green Street is a project initiated as a not-for-profit community activity on a wide scale by Howard Nielsen's NAC Consulting company and Caboodle Web, both local Samford businesses.
Wick Adams is acting in a shared co-ordinating role for the Samford Green Streets project so please contact her on 3289 2170 or wickrob@bigpond.com to find out more. Howard Nielsen, who is the national Green Streets facilitator, is also accessible on 0407 190162 or howard@greenstreet.net.au.
Samford Local Growers
Samford Local Growers is a community group established by people in the Samford/Dayboro area of Brisbane. The group aims to cultivate a food system incorporating local hobby growers using organic methods from the Samford/Dayboro region and consumers seeking locally grown food. 
The group formed in September 2008 with the assistance of the Pine Rivers Climate Action Network and Peter Kearney of Cityfood Growers. The group has now committed to extend its impact to the general public by operating a local food stall at the Samford Church Yard Markets which are held on the second Saturday of the month.
If you are a hobby grower of food in our region and are looking for an outlet for your excess produce please contact, Peter Kearney on (07) 3289 3602 or
peter@cityfoodgrowers.com.au or visit the Samford Local Growers Google Group page: http://groups.google.com/group/samford-local-food-group?lnk=
While you're online, also check out how we can all grow more of our own food to reduce "food miles" and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Visit
www.cityfoodgrowers.com.au to connect with others to reduce your eco footprint through gardening. The business also provides gardening workshops and food gardening services to help you establish and maintain your food gardens.
Rally declares climate emergency
On Saturday June 13, 2009 thousands of people around Australia rallied for action on Climate Change, calling for 100% renewable energy by 2020 and demanding that Australia must make the shift from fossil fuels to wind, solar and other available renewable technologies. Rallies were held in capital cities around Australia, with people sitting down outside Kevin Rudd's city office in Sydney and a sit down protest in front of the Melbourne Town Hall where the Victorian State ALP conference was occurring.
The rallies attracted about 6000 people nationwide, and included environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Wilderness Society which want an emissions scheme ditched in favour of an alternative (dubbed "Plan B") which includes the phasing out of coal-fired power stations.
A leaked United Nation analysis, dated June 6, says that on conservative estimates, rich countries need to embrace 25 to 40 per cent cuts in emissions by 2020, below 1990 levels, to give the world a chance of avoiding a two-degree temperate rise. Labor has committed to carbon cuts of just 5% by 2020, or 25% if a global climate change agreement is reached at the UN climate change talks at Copenhagen in December.
A spirited crowd of 600 gathered in Brisbane's Queens Park as part of the Queensland leg of the National Climate Emergency Rally. The group began marching through Elizabeth and Charlotte streets, demanding a transition to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2010 and hoping to stop the Government's emissions trading scheme. The rally was addressed by members of the Pine Rivers Climate Action Network, the Greens, the St Johns Wood Sustainability Group and the Queensland secretary of the Electrical Trade Union, Peter Simpson.
Mr Simpson acknowledged the potential for job losses due to the long-term unsustainability of the power industry and the need for the Government to move towards renewable energies. David White of Climate Action Brisbane said the crowd were urged to wear red to symbolise the urgent emergency action needed to combat climate change. After the march, informal workshops were held in Queens Park on transferring to a greener economy and transport, as well as on how to form a local environmental group.
Rally co-chair Ewan Saunders said: "We demand that governments make the changes this planet needs immediately or we will take you out of your position because you have not acted responsibly." To cheers, he also called for tens of thousands of green collar jobs.
Sources: Sydney Morning Herald and Green Left Weekly
To read more about the National Climate Emergency Rally in cities throughout Australia, go to
http://www.greenlivingpedia.org/Naional_Climate_Emergency_Rally_Melbourne_June_2009
Samford Solar Neighbourhood
On Monday 12th January the first solar panel installation took place.
The Hopkins residence was the first for the Samford Solar Neighbourhood.
The panels look great and are already reducing their standard electricity consumption.
Check out the articles in the Village Pump and the Westerner.
Dirty Coal to get Billions of Dollars!
What would you do with $1.2 billion dollars? Give it to a big, greedy polluter or invest it in renewable energy?
The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is planning to compensate coal power companies for the introduction of emissions trading - and we have only six four weeks to stop him!
Check out this video by Greenpeace which features a song "It's like paying someone to be a pr*ck" which was written by The Chaser's Andrew Hansen and recorded by a new group, the "Coaly Moleys".
www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and-events/news/Climate-change/yourcalloncoal-241008
Low Carbon Diet
An initiative of the Queensland Government:
The Low Carbon Diet is a 30-day program that shows households how to reduce their annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by at least 2000 kg a year. Recognising that all households are different, the Low Carbon Diet program offers a choice of simple actions. It's all contained in a fun, easy-to-use workbook that will show you, step-by-step, how to dramatically reduce your CO2 emissions in just one month.
Check out the program. Interested? Pine Rivers CAN is looking for a volunteer (or volunteers) to help co-ordinate the program.