10/10/10 = NUC Wheels of Change

350.org has done it again!

"Dear friends,

It's happening--and it’s even bigger than we thought it would be.

From what we can tell from reports streaming in from East Asia and Australia and New Zealand, 10/10/10 is going to be the biggest day of climate action ever--from one end of the planet to the other, people are already hard at work."
(Bill McKibben 350.org)

10/10/10 marked another 350 day of Climate Action! Yesterday in Darwin there were 3 events planned.




NUC Wheels of Change - A bunch from Nightcliff Uniting Church decided it would be a great idea to ride to Church

Lakeside Drive Community Garden 10/10/10 Working Bee - The Lakeside Drive Community Gardeners chose this date as the time to turn the first sod of soil in the creation of their ambitious new community garden on a spit of land between the road and the Rapid Creek.

Peddalling for the Planet - A bunch of cyclists planned to get together dress their bikes up and ride a 3.5 km circuit to promote climate action.


I was fortunate enough to attend two of these events and the atmosphere was great.

A pretty large bunch of people turned up at Nightcliff Uniting Church on their bikes... I shouldn't have been surprised really! There's a lot of active enthusiastic participants in life who attend that Church. I should have known they wouldn't need much prompting to jump on their bikes and have some fun riding to Church! Unfortunately my family weren't feeling too good on Sunday morning (it seems they'd finally caught the cold I brought home from work a week ago!) so it was a party of one who left our house at 8:30 am. I didn't have to ride far before I met with Penny, then Lucy and her two boys. The 5 of us had quite a pleasant ride along the McMillans Rd cycle path and then past the farm on Rapid Creek. By 9:15 we'd arrived at the Church early enough to watch all the others come peddling in! It was so cool to see everyone rolling up. There were about 5 families who rode together and a bunch of others who peddled solo from various locations around Darwin. I'm pretty sure now the youngest riders were a pair of 3 year olds while the oldest would have been somewhere over 60 years old... The atmosphere was so great that Jana (the Minister and worship leader of the day) had to come out and ring a bicycle bell to get the crowd to come in and join the service!
This spontaneous effort spurred people to think about future rides we might like to do together as a group.

Later in the day at about 4:00pm when my girl was feeling more like riding we hopped on our bikes and rode down to Lakeside Drive where we met with a bunch of others who had peddled down there to start work on the new Community Garden! Once again the atmosphere was buzzing with enthusiasm and a sense of fun! Once again there were a great mix of children and adults all participating in an activity of affirmative action toward a carbon neutral future!



It was great to take part in these events! Being part of a community of people from all age groups working together for a sustainable future is a great buzz. We don't know exactly what the future will bring. Maybe we will never achieve the goal of 350 parts per million of Carbon in the atmosphere but working together as we have may help us to build the skills necessary to participate in a rapidly changing and increasingly hostile environment.

Parliament of World religions media release

A friend who recently attended the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne advised me to check out what went down there.

Here's an interesting statement they made:

Walk Against Warming - Darwin!

It's on again! We've been doing this for a few years now but this year is critical!
Wherever you are on Saturday 12th December: Walk Against Warming!

If we are concerned for the welfare of future generations, and in fact our own, if we do not stand now and raise our voices loud enough to be heard above the noise made by big polluters with their cashed up Lobbyists and army of naive climate Skeptics then we will lose the opportunity to prevent a catastrophe far worse than the 'global recession'.











If you live in Darwin then here's where it's at:

Nightcliff
5pm Sat 12 Dec
Sat 12 Dec
Nightcliff Jetty and along the foreshore

Rising tide 350 action

(Informing the crowd)

There has been a rising tide of discontent throughout the world! Citizens of nearly every country on the planet have declared their wish to see commitment from the Governments of the world to take real steps towards reversing climate change and reducing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. People are tired of Government Greenwashing and large numbers are asking "What will it take to get our government to do what it takes to reduce emissions?"


(Radical Activists from a local Church stand on a footbridge)

Here in Darwin we formed a human Tide Line to show where the sea level will be if our government refuses to commit to real reductions.



(Business man... Possibly real estate agent)

Apparently today has been (Continues to be) the largest international day of action ever! But the battle has not yet been fought. This is only the call to awaken us all. There will be more action and many more opportunities to demand that our governments commit to reducing CO2 emissions. It is also a call for us all to take the matter of climate change seriously and personally, although it nothing is likely to change without the support of government policy and systemic changes in the infrastructure of the country there is also a place for individuals to prepare for a post fossil fuel future! Sacrifices will need to be made, however this doesn't need to mean lives that are impoverished. It may actually help us improve our lives. Just as Colin Beavan discovered during his year of the No Impact Project, you can read about it in his book No Impact Man.

Misled by maps

Firstly the Ride to Work Breakfast at Roma Bar was a great success again this year... Sorry I left my camera at home but you can imagine the scene. It's 6:59 am the banners are out the pastries have arrived I'm enjoying my first coffee for the day (a delicious brew thanks) and I look down the street to see about 20 cyclists all clad in reflective Government Issue orange vests. What a wonderful sight. I don't know how many turned up but it was a very pleasant way to spend the early morning.

Anyway back to my Rant about misleading information on a particular Map site. I'd discovered an application called Flood Maps that can overlay sea level rise by the meter superimposed over the well known G--gle Maps.

I'm looking at how Milingimbi Airstrip looks like the only dry land on the Island after relatively little rise in sea level and wondering if they've been prepared for the potential impending disaster when my eyes wander to the bottom of the page and I discover a link that simply says global warming.

So thinking it will lead me to information about the causes and predicted consequences of sea level rise, since that's the purpose of the map after all, I click on the link and am delivered to this!
http://www.newgencoal.com.au/

Somebody please tell me. Is this ethical? Now I started getting all parranoid thinking it must be part of some kind of conspiracy that our Government is involved in to lead people away from meaningful action to combat climate change. I started to feel all woosey and sick at the thought of the power and the money that can be used to prevent our attempts to reduce global warming. But I come away reminded of the lyrics "Power and priveledge can not move a people, who know where they stand..." and my resolve is strengthened to know that win or loose It's what you stand for that matters most!

See you on October 24th

Great video. 350! How we gonna do it?