support other people's intitiatives
It is great to start new groups and campaigns to tackle climate change. It is also really important to support other people's initiatives. I'm going to try and spend at least half my 'activism hours' going to other people's events, submitting bright ideas on other people's websites (ha!) and just letting others know in whatever way I can that I support them having a go at making this world a better place.
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support
yeah!
sometimes it feels like you are the only one that cares, and getting some support, or giving some, helps the good feeling to grow so that we feel like we are actually making some progress.
Re list of initiatives
Sounds like a good idea ... maybe we need to generate a list of such initiatives here?
Save Happy Valley
Campaign to stop Solid Energy digging for coal in Happy Valley
http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz/
Stop Holcim
Here's a campaign to stop the proposed Holcim cement plant in North Otago
http://www.stopholcim.co.nz/
Supporting initiatives
We can help by supporting initiatives and publicising good ones. However I hope that people's support will extend to getting involved in things in their local area at least as much as writing letters and signing petitions for things further afield. We do need to be aware of how things are inter-related and we do need to support the small people who are often engaged in lonely battles far from the public eye. I just hope it can be done without neglecting to be involved on the ground where we live too.
support priorities
I absolutely agree with Scott that we should look very carefully at what is happening in our local community - I've just been to a local clothes store that is selling carefully selected second hand clothes, and the presentation of the local primary school's vision for a sustainable future. Carbon-conscious activism is far more than 'campaigns' (although these are good too!). If we overlook the great ideas happening around us in the drive to make a BIG difference, many of the intitiatives that can lead us forward will fade away and all the energy and effort that has gone into them will be lost.
Get involved in your local environment centre
Here's some good starting places in local communities: environment centres and "sustainable community" groups. As well as being good organisations to join in themselves, they should also be able to put you on to other local groups working on climate change, peak oil and related issues. Here's a list - please add to it if you know more:
Dunedin Environment Centre Trust/Sustainable Dunedin Network: www.dect.org.nz
Sustainable Otautahi: www.sustainablechristchurch.org.nz
Christchurch Environment Centre: www.environment.org.nz
Nelson Environment Centre: environmentcentre.nelson.org.nz
Sustainable Wellington Net: www.sustainable.wellington.net.nz
Sustainability Trust (Wellington): www.sustaintrust.org.nz
42 Collective (Wellington) www.42collective.org.nz
Taranaki Environment Centre: www.environaki.co.nz
Hamilton Environment Centre: www.envirocentre.org.nz
Tauranga Environment Centre: www.tgaenvcentre.org.nz
Whaingaroa Environment Centre (Raglan): www.environment.org.nz
Kaipatiki Project and Environment Centre (Auckland): www.kaipatiki.org.nz
Far North Environment Centre (Northland): www.greenpages.org.nz/groupdetails.asp?CategoryID=25&GroupID=308
If you do have addresses for additional groups, please advise them to the Climate Defence Network, from whom this list is taken - see www.climatedefence.org.nz/links.html
I know there are further groups, such as Sustainable Wairarapa, for which I don't have a web address. Sustainable Wanaka is linked to from the Dunedin Environment Centre site, and there's also a separate website for Sustainable Dunedin City at http://www.sustainabledunedincity.org.nz/
If there isn't such a group or centre in your area, how about starting one? Many local councils are working with the Communities for Climate Protection programme - contact your council, ask what's happening in your area, and give them a hurry-up if they say they don't know!
Regards
Tim Jones
Transition Towns - another initiative to support
There's also Transition Towns - see http://www.bethechange.org.nz/blogs/timjones/your-town-transition-town%3F for more on these.
Regards
Tim Jones