[ZeroES.announce] First Meeting today 4pm

[Robert Wiblin]

Sorry for the late email today everyone but our first meeting for
Semester 2 will be on today 4pm in the ANUSA Conference Room as usual.


***The Positive Switch Competition***

There's got to be more to reducing our greenhouse emissions than
switching off the lights or switching off the monitor (as important
and significant as they are)…

So… I want to hear what positive switches you're making to reduce your
environmental impact on campus, or what inspires you to make those
switches.

Send in your comments, environmental messages poems, works of art,
facts of inspiration etc. and go in the draw to win one of two $100
Co-op Book vouchers. The first 100 entrants will also receive a coffee
voucher for use at the God's Café.

Entries due by 5pm Friday 17th August 2007.

Please see the attached flier for further details or visit
www.anu.edu.au/anugreen and check out the SEE Sustainability site.

***Farmers urged to replace sheep with kangaroos***

A prominent ecologist has called on farmers to consider giving away
sheep farming and instead harvest kangaroos.

The proposal has been floated by Chris Dickman from the University of Sydney.

He says 15 per cent of Australia which receives moderate to low
rainfall is currently used for farming sheep and wheat.

But he says graziers would get a better return if they were harvesting
kangaroos.

"I think its a great alternative to start looking at in areas where
overgrazing by sheep just hasn't worked and where incomes are coming
down where it is not sustainable," he said.

He says overgrazing by sheep causes problems for the topsoil and
native vegetation, while kangaroos, in contrast, are light on the
environment.

He also says the kangaroo meat market is picking up.

Farmers, however, are not convinced that it is the most viable alternative.

The New South Wales Farmers Association does not believe there is
enough demand for kangaroo meat for producers to abandon sheep
farming.

The Association's vice-president Graham Morphett says the kangaroo
industry is struggling because of a lack of demand, so sheep meat and
wool are still far more profitable.

"We'd need to have shooters, we'd need to have a regulated industry
and it may be there but at this stage I haven't seen it," he said.

"It's a market, I can assure you if farmers are always looking for new
ways and new markets they would do it if it was a possible.

"But I haven't heard of any people changing over."


***Other events***

 OTHER
HotRot Composting Unit Tour
Friday, 27 July 2007 at 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Gardener's Soil Yard
ANU has implemented the first large-scale food waste composting trial
in the ACT. ANUgreen and the Sustainability Learning Community are
offering this one-hour lunchtime tour of the facility.

 PUBLIC LECTURE
The Forest Wars
Tuesday, 31 July 2007 at 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
HC Coombs Lecture Theatre, Fellows Road, ANU
Australia's forest plantation resources now support 80 per cent of
wood products manufacturing in this country. In addition, plantations
maturing over the next three years can double the volume of native
forest chips currently exported each year. Dr Judith Ajani asks why
then is our forest conflict still raging?
more»

Cheers,

-- 
Robert Wiblin					Robert Wiblin
Science PhB					President
Australian National University		ANU Zero Emissions Society
e: robertwiblin at gmail.com		e: society at anuzeroemissions.org
p: 02 62628991					w: www.anuzeroemissions.org
m: 0401242877