ACF Suggested actions for change

FYI and ACF Action Suggestions

I thought I would include a little something from usual flood of email which could be relevant and useful to many people with a sustainability and environmental bent(and interest in climate change and needed lifestyle changes that will be required now and in the future to improve and make more sustainable our lifestyles on this fragile planet).Enough of the lectures though.Some good initiatives and information to be had.

Australian Conservation Foundation - 40 years of action

Hi !

Take action in March!





1. Demand action on climate change!

Federal Finance Minister Senator Nick Minchin continues to be the Government's number one climate change sceptic. Email Senator Minchin. Ask him to get his facts straight on climate change, and start financing the solutions - renewable energy and energy efficiency.


2. Order your free climate change action kit


Get all the information and tools you need to make a real difference and help reduce global warming...more


3. Become part of our Lights Off Australia challenge

Register to join thousands of Australian households that are participating in this monthly event...more


4. Start saving water today

Discover the easy things we can all do to reduce our household's water consumption...more

What's new on the ACF website:


1. Want to go 'carbon neutral'?

Been wondering how you can reduce your contribution to climate change? There are many ways to make your lifestyle more carbon neutral...more


2. Green Electricity Watch

Here's how each of us can help change climate change today by making the switch to accredited GreenPower electricity....more


3. Go green on a budget

You don't need to spend a fortune to help the environment at home - there's plenty you can do for under $20...more


4. Opposition to nuclear power and more uranium mining grows

New polling shows strong public opposition to nuclear power and nuclear waste and also uranium mining, in particular by women...more


5. Certification system for forestry industry

The Forest Stewardship Council has launched a certification system to better enable consumers to make ethical timber and paper choices...more


Last month's most read articles:

1. An Inconvenient Truth wins an Oscar!

2. Six critical tests for the Murray-Darling agreement

3. Clock ticking on Howard's nuclear agenda

4. The science is in: time for action on climate change

5. GreenHome offers sustainable alternatives to air-conditioners



Join our no new mines e-card campaign


Send an e-card to the ALP urging them to keep their no new mines policy

Events:


Palm Sunday Peace March and Festival (Melbourne)


Australian International green build & renewable energy exhibition and conference (Sydney)


The Trouble With The Traveston Dam (QLD)

Source: acfonline.org.au

Programs on TV with some real value in regard to Australian Rural concerns and outlooks.

[q url="http://www.abc.net.au/landline/"]Search the ABC



ABC TV Sundays at noon, Monday 11am
Harvested timber
The future of Managed Investment Schemes

Reporter: Prue Adams

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in timber and agricultural ventures over the past decade thanks to the advent of Managed Investment Schemes (MIS). The Federal Government has just announced some major changes which, some say are too little too late. Others claim the changes will lead to massive job losses and further heartache for regional Australia.

Read Transcript
Also this week...
Peter Dutton Peter Dutton on Managed Investment Schemes
Assistant federal Treasurer Peter Dutton discusses Managed Investment Schemes (MIS) and Federal Government tax incentives.

More Stories

· Road To Nowhere
· How Green Is My Valley?
· The Flying Padre
· After the Fire

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Highs and Lows
Yesterday's Temperature & Rainfall
Minimum: Liawenee, TAS 5.0°C
Maximum: Paraburdoo, WA 40.4°C
Rainfall: Cape Sorell, TAS 0.0mm
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Rural News

Updated: 03/03/2007

River Murray records lowest flows ever

Fishing industry surprised at land rights ruling

Rain prompts mozzie virus warning

Farmers to take legal action over water cuts compo

Report seeks comment on Philippine banana import application

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Fingerprinting Children in UK?Have we lost our marbles or not?

This sounds quite scary and sci fi like.Could this be happening or planned to happen anywhere else in the world?What about Australia?

"Children of 11 to be finger printed

David Leppard

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1466943.ece

CHILDREN aged 11 to 16 are to have their fingerprints taken and stored on a

secret database, internal Whitehall documents reveal.

The leaked Home Office plans show that the mass fingerprinting will start in

2010, with a batch of 295,000 youngsters who apply for passports.

The Home Office expects 545,000 children aged 11 and over to have their

prints taken in 2011, with the figure settling at an annual 495,000 from

2014. Their fingerprints will be held on a database also used by the

Immigration and Nationality Directorate to store the fingerprints of

hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers.

The plans are outlined in a series of “restricted” documents circulating

among officials in the Identity and Passport Service. They form part of the

programme for the introduction of new biometric passports and ID cards.

Opposition politicians and privacy campaigners warn that the plans show

ministers are turning Britain into a “surveillance society”.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “This borders on the sinister

and it shows the government is trying to end the presumption of innocence.

With the fingerprinting of all our children, this government is clearly

determined to enforce major changes in the relationship between the citizen

and the state in a way never seen before.”

Under the new passport and ID scheme, everyone over 16 who applies for a

passport will have their details — including fingerprints and eye or facial

scans — added to the National Identity Register from next year.

From October 2009, ID cards will be issued alongside new passports.

Initially these will not be mandatory, but Tony Blair has said that if

Labour is reelected it will make them compulsory, a process that the

documents predict will take just over a decade.

Children under 16 will not be part of the ID card scheme. But the documents

show that from 2010 they will still have to be fingerprinted for a new

passport.

The prints will initially be stored on the directorate’s database. Once

children reach 16 their fingerprints and other personal information will be

passed for storage on the register, along with those of nearly 50m adults.

Children applying for passports will have to travel up to 80 miles to

special Home Office screening centres to have their fingerprints taken.

The leaked plans envisage 90 new enrolment centres for the ID card scheme on

top of the existing network of passport offices. They estimate that it will

cost £528m over 10 years in travel costs for the 5.75m people expected to

apply for a new passport each year.

The documents also spell out how the cost of passports is set to rise again

this year. They say that unless the Home Office can get extra funding for

the scheme, the cost of an adult passport will rise by £10 to £76 this

October.

The cost will have risen by 81% since December 2005 when it increased from

£42 to £51. Last October the price rose again to £66. When Labour came to

power in 1997 a passport cost £18.

The plans show that the price of a child’s passport is to rise even more

sharply, to £58 from the present £45. The price will have more than doubled

in less than two years, rising in stages from £25 to £34 in December 2005

and to £45 last October.

Critics described the plans as a stealth tax on holidaymakers to pay for the

controversial ID cards scheme. Ministers have already conceded that the cost

of the new combined ID card and passport will be £93 from 2009, but the

documents show that price could rise to £109 at to-day’s prices.

A range of further “stealth charges” will also be imposed, according to the

documents. Women who change their names if they get married will have to pay

£36; a further £27 will be charged to replace a lost or stolen ID card; £26

to replace a damaged card; and £6 for a change of address or personal ID

number.

The documents show that ID cards will not be made compulsory for more than a

decade, under present plans. “Compulsion will be triggered once 80% take-up

is achieved in [the first quarter of] 2019,” they state. “It is assumed

that, following compulsion, a 100% registration will be achieved two years

later.”

The prime minister has hailed the ID cards scheme as the centrepiece of

efforts to combat terrorism and illegal immigration, as well as identity

theft and benefit fraud. But opponents dismiss it as a “Big Brother” scheme

that is too expensive, poorly planned and unlikely to function efficiently.

Last year leaked e-mails from civil servants warned the scheme could be a

“botched operation” that could delay the introduction of ID cards for a

generation. The government says the scheme will cost £6 billion to

implement. However, in 2005, the London School of Economics estimated it

would cost £19 billion.

The Tories have pledged to scrap the scheme if they win the next election."

_______________________________________________

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Sustainability Checklists and Planning Tools

Checklist South East

'An interesting site that is designed to promote a sustainability tool.I havent used it as yet but looks interesting.'
Go to original story

Safety and Sustainability

TCC GROUP /Dunedata Consultancy 'ONSITE SAFE'
Ecos are business consultants linking safety and sustainability.Paul Gilding ,founder of this organisation hass been a Greenpeace activist and involved in promoting liaison with corporates to promote solutions based approaches to Greening companies and sustainability.Some detail of the place of safety in such approaches is detailed in their website.

Our View on Safety
Traditionally workplace safety and health issues have had little or no profile in the discourse around sustainability. However, once the safety-sustainability "connect" is raised within this context few people would agree that companies that consistently kill or maim their employees can be regarded as being sustainable. August 2001.

Sustainability Consultants Stories

An interesting story and corporation developed from the experiences of a Green peace activivst turned Corporate Consultant on sustainability.Paul Gilding was a committed Greenpeace activist and promoted liaison with industry for solutions based strategies.this took Greenpeace in an entirely different direction.http://homepage.mac.com/herinst/sbeder/Greenpeace.html
In addition Paul is a CEO of Easy Being Green
http://shop.easybeinggreen.com.au/categories.asp?cID=30&c=52753
It is interesting looking at the backgrounds of other members on these boards as well.What has made them take a turn in their beliefs and directions in lifestyle?

Merino wool,sustainable businessesses and socks

This company purports to be a sustainable business and sources materials such as merino wool from family businesses in Tasmania as part of a sustainable ethic in its manaufacturing process...paying producers enough to keep maintain its sourced product in a fair trade type of arrangement.I first came aacross this business as a result of watching the last episode of Landline on the ABC. http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s1860209.htm