A Guide to the UNSW Environment Collective. Who we are. What we do. What makes us tick. you want to find out?
Intro to the Collective Are you interested in the environment, student activism or stealing plants to give them to poor students? If so then you should get involved with the UNSW SRC Environment Collective. The name is long and kind of lame but I promise that holds no resemblance to us as a group of students. We want to change our campus for the better, and have a generally wicked time doing it. We're an active group, meeting up at least once a week to discuss plans and work on our campaigns; and we also organise regular social events so you can get to know everyone. We believe that our campus here at UNSW can show the world a thing or two about what it means to be environmentally responsible—that UNSW can be a leader in management and sustainability, not just in research— and have significant impact on society, policy and investment. We've got plenty of ideas on how we can get UNSW back on track, so we're running a number of initiatives at the moment, including fossil fuel investments and renewable energy. So this is your opportunity to get involved, have fun and change your uni for the better. Come along to our next gathering or head over to our website to learn more, check out our up-coming events and get involved on campaigns. You can also email us at enviro@arc.unsw.edu.au
One hundred per cent? Breana Macpherson-Rice Perhaps on your way to class you’ve seen a small, circular, green sticker that calls for 100% renewable energy on campus—that’s us. Perhaps you thought that seemed quite dramatic. There’s no margin there for ‘sometimes’ or ‘maybe’ or ‘working on it’ – just straight up renewables. It can seem like a pretty far-fetched idea until you break it down. First, think of the energy that could be saved by efficiency – making sure we’re not wasting energy, only using what we need. It’s akin to that kind of scrupulous cash saving you’re capable of when you’ve got a holiday on the horizon – it’s always surprising how much is possible, and some universities around the country are already seeing the benefits of this. Melbourne University for example will half it’s carbon footprint by 2015. Next, we make the most of the incredible technologies we have! There are so many opportunities to invest in renewables on campus, especially considering UNSW is a world leader in solar PV technology. Complacency with Tyree and bragging about 0.4% renewable energy supply just doesn’t cut it.
Finally, you can imagine that after reducing the amount of energy we use, and then producing a significant amount of it self-sufficiently, there won’t be much left that we need to buy from the grid – so we simply purchase the remainder from renewably generating sources. That’s it. 100%. A fully, renewable-powered campus. That’s pretty inspiring, right? And who better to step up to the challenge than a university with internationally leading research, a passionate body of students and researchers, and a compulsion to never stand still? If you like the sound of this then come along to the next collective meeting and check out our website and Facebook.
The Carbon Bubble in a Nutshell Owen Briggs The consensus is that 2 degrees of global warming would have catastrophic impacts on the climate. We can afford to pump 565 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere by 2050 before we’d suffer 2 degrees of global warming. There’s 2,795 gigatons of CO2 in the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves - that is, the fossil fuels we’re planning to burn. That’s almost 5 times as much as we can afford! This means ~80% of the world’s fossil fuel reserves are unburnable. Despite this, countries and corporations lend money in the form of IOUs from the expected profits of these fossil fuel reserves. The world economy is running on trillions of dollars it doesn’t have! So we have two choices: Destroy the planet or destroy the economy - and you can’t have an economy without a planet! The fossil fuel industry’s collapse is inevitable!
Divestment: an investment for the future Sophie Adams Divestment, which refers to the selling of financial assets such as stocks, helped to bring an end to the oppressive segregationist Apartheid regime in South Africa. Another divestment campaign is currently gaining momentum throughout the world, as the alarming reality of climate change becomes ever more apparent and people reject investment in the fossil fuel industry in their name. Students and faculty are campaigning for divestment at hundreds of universities, including UNSW. Banks and super funds are also increasingly coming under pressure - according to 350.org, between October 2013 and May 2014 alone, customers moved $200 million out of the four biggest Australian banks. The campaign is seeing its first victories: Stanford University recently agreed to divest all stocks in companies
engaged in coal mining. To date almost 30 city councils worldwide – including Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Boulder in the US; and Dunedin in New Zealand – have done the same. Faith-based and professional organisations are following, with the World Council of Churches and the British Medical Association recently joining the ranks of those institutions that refuse to support an industry determined to continue the practices that are most to blame for climate change. Diverse as these institutions are, they act from one common conviction – expressed in the words of Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org:
“If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, then surely it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage.” And this looks to be only the beginning of the fossil fuel divestment story. If you want to find out more about the UNSW divestment campaign and get involved hit up a collective meeting or visit http://fossilfreeunsw.srcenviro.org/.
The New Energy Era: A Cause for Optimism Edited extract from an article Nicholas Gurieff The commentary on climate change is often depressing and makes it easy to be pessimistic about our prospects as a species on Earth. I believe, however, that a large part of the change we need is not only possible but inevitable. I think the outlook we’re often fed ignores changes that society has been through in the past, and present trends which are playing out now. The way I see it the world is already beginning the revolution we need, an energy shift of the kind we’ve pulled off before in 50 years. I see major energy companies having to change business models because of the potential of solar and a subsidiary of legendary US investor Warren Buffett buying $1 billion of wind turbines because it’s the cheapest form of generation. There’s Apple’s CEO angrily defending their substantial environmental initiatives, the world’s most powerful military powering its bases using renewable energy.
I see investors viewing coal as the new tobacco and top investment funds adding fossil fuels to the list of unethical investments as part of the fastest growing divestment campaign in history. I don’t argue for complacency, we still have a great deal of work ahead of us, but I do argue for a healthy dose of optimism. While we may not be able to prevent significant, detrimental environmental changes around the world, we can likely prevent catastrophe and come away from the clean energy transformation better off in many ways. We’ve transformed our societies in the past around energy revolutions, and we can do it again. We have, in fact, already begun.
The Best Crossword You’ve Ever Done
Across:
Down:
3. How many times can paper be recycled? 5. How many hearts does an octopus have? 6. Joe Hockey thinks I’m ugly 8. What’s the fastest growing divestment campaign in history? 10. Where can you buy organic food on campus ? 13. Explosive mineral council PR slogan 14. Enviro collective meets 1012 on what day? 15. What was the first major uni to divest from coal?
1. Most widely used substance after water. 2. How many years will a plastic bag outlive you? 4. The university uses 0.4% of what? 7. First country to go backwards on climate policy 9. What is okay to steal from peoples backyards? 11. Name of last Galapagos turtle 12. Which layer of the atmosphere has a hole larger that your student debt? 16. Australian minister for science
Answers: 1.concrete, 2.fivehundred, 3.seven, 4.renewableenergy, 5.three, 6.windturbines, 7.australia, 8.fossilfree, 9.succulents, 10. though ulfoods, 11.george, 12.ozone, 13.australiansforcoal, 14.wednesday, 15.stanford
Jarrah: I’m a new member, I joined because I was looking for a group with whom I could share time and energy and where ideas
Charlotte: The health of our enviro-
t Becky: Many seem to forget that the environ n-
nment affects everyone who is or
ment is our home, that wee rely
ever will be on this planet. So aside the fact that it’s heaps of fun, I’m
on it heavily and have a resp onse-
and thoughts can flow
involved in the environment col-
bility to look after it. The enviiron-
freely with the
lective to do what I can to ensure
ment collective helps me spread aw wareness
shared intent
that in 50 years we will still
while also creating positive step s towards
of benefitting
have a planet on which
a sustainable, brighter
our enviro-
to build our
future. Breana:
nment.
Maja:
careers.
Getting involved
Knowing that we’re
in the enviro collective
dependent on non-
in first year introduced me
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to some incredible people and
finite world has never made
some inspiring ideas, in a time when
much sense to me, especially with
sustainability needs to gain more attention
the human capacity for innovation.
from decision makers its pretty incredible
I want a campus, and a world,
to be part of a group of students
that’s designed to function
Nicholas:
holistically and keep kicking Kalina:
As an engin-
for all the human
I guess
eer I’d like to see
beings that haven’t been
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imagined yet.
Uni is a central part of my world and so I want it to be in line with my beliefs and values about the society I want to live in.
who are doing just that.
Georgia: I am in the Environment Collective because our Uni needs to get its freakin' act together!
our society really embrace the opportunity we have to transform the way we live using new, smarter technology. There’s no reason not too, so I’m doing what I can to challenge the conservative mindset that’s holding back the clean energy revolution.