10 years ago this month John Avery gave notice of a new class ‘Future Energy’ which then class member and our current convenor John Lloyd two years or so later convened as ‘Towards a Sustainable Future’. Our archivist Corrie found this in the February 2007 Newsletter … “Future Energy: … a meeting of prospective participants is called for Thursday March 19th to commence planning the content of this challenging subject. Contact John Avery on 5762 1818 to discuss your ideas.”
Although we try to leave party political discussion to the Politics class, our February participants couldn’t help discussing the current national and international hurly burly of environmental politics, particularly the debate about (supposedly) ‘clean coal’. We reflected, from the perspective of parents, grandparents and great grandparents, whether the world being left to our descendants is a better world than we were left with by our parents, and clearly had concerns. We speculated as to whether the policies of the Federal Coalition government may become increasingly irrelevant as practical initiatives by consumers, non-fossil fuel based businesses, communities, states, regional authorities and local governments come into play. News of such initiatives is escalating, including John’s good news story this month about a new wind turbine with oscillating blades which mimic the figure-8 motion of the wings of a hovering hummingbird. We continue to look out for and monitor such good news stories and will be taking a particular interest in initiatives recommended as part of the new ‘Renewable Energy for Benalla’ project.
On a final note - thanks to Judith Borthwick for submitting John’s article and photo of our group to the Ensign recently!
Although we try to leave party political discussion to the Politics class, our February participants couldn’t help discussing the current national and international hurly burly of environmental politics, particularly the debate about (supposedly) ‘clean coal’. We reflected, from the perspective of parents, grandparents and great grandparents, whether the world being left to our descendants is a better world than we were left with by our parents, and clearly had concerns. We speculated as to whether the policies of the Federal Coalition government may become increasingly irrelevant as practical initiatives by consumers, non-fossil fuel based businesses, communities, states, regional authorities and local governments come into play. News of such initiatives is escalating, including John’s good news story this month about a new wind turbine with oscillating blades which mimic the figure-8 motion of the wings of a hovering hummingbird. We continue to look out for and monitor such good news stories and will be taking a particular interest in initiatives recommended as part of the new ‘Renewable Energy for Benalla’ project.
On a final note - thanks to Judith Borthwick for submitting John’s article and photo of our group to the Ensign recently!
