Friday 9th July 2021 , Welcome to our monthly Yellow Box newsletter! Earth Overshoot Day has been and gone - three weeks earlier than last year and equal to the earliest date on record in 2019. If everyone on the planet lived like Canberrans do, things would be looking even worse. Yet while it's clear that our impact on the planet is causing harm, there is great hope in the work that is done each and every day to protect our environment. Last night I attended the National Landcare Awards, and was so impressed by the community projects all around the country that are focussed on restoring natural ecosystems and building resilience into landscapes. It was very exciting that one of our member groups, Red Hill Regenerators, was awarded the 2021 Australian Community Media Landcare Community Group Award. Also from the ACT, Dhani Gilbert, a speaker at the First Nations Environmental Justice event next week, won the Young Landcare Leadership Award. Congratulations to them, and also all of the other ACT nominees! We now await with bated breath the release of the sixth IPCC Assessment Report, which will no doubt reinforce the fact that we are burning through our natural resources at an unsustainable rate and not doing enough to curb the harmful effects of climate change. The report strengthens our continued push for national and local governments to take action at a policy level to enact real change.
Now, more than ever, our power to change the global environment crisis is through taking local action. Find hope in this year's Science Week with its theme Food: Different by Design. It honours the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables and the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. Events include a symposium on Science and the Public Good, and a talk by a theoretical astrophysicist on Sustainability and Composting at Home and in the Workplace.
The big event this month, though, is a seminar and panel discussion- First Nations People and Environmental Justice, which we are pleased to present in partnership with the ACF Canberra Community group. Read on for more information! You can take action by attending an event, giving a donation, signing a petition, or volunteering on a campaign!
Warm regards, Helen Oakey Executive Director |