Humanity has always lived on the edge of trouble, but this time the future is looking pretty unpleasant. It is not just the combination of overpopulation and climate change, peak oil, global inequity, terrorism and the threat of nuclear war. It is also the progressive world-wide collapse of the ecosystems on which we all depend for our sustenance.

The planet is dying and we are pretending it is not happening because we haven’t yet got our collective act together to deal with these realities.   The polls tell us that action on climate change is falling down the political priority list and that climate change deniers are doing quite well in the struggle for the hearts and minds of people across the developed world. Eat drink and be merry………

Three weeks ago Australia 21 held a conference in Canberra to consider the application of resilience thinking to all this stuff. For this purpose, we brought some of the leading resilience scientists in the world together with a group of Australia’s policy makers.

G'day SEE-Changers! Having lived in Canberra, on and off, for the past 30 years, I've seen a lot of change. Some of it has seen Canberra reaching its potential as the national capital and a planned city-state, a bit aloof from other metropolitan areas. Part of it has been watching a slow decline in the natural environment, as growth and drought outpaced sensible decision making.

SEE-Change is running another solar bulk buy! This time it is based around Faith organisations in the ACT and after an extensive expressions of interest process, we have selected Bega-based company, Pyramid Power (www.pyramidpower.com.au) to co-ordinate the bulk buy. Their experience organising Clean Energy for Eternity's 900-strong solar bulk buy in Bega was a contributing factor to our decision.

Curious to see what an average month looks like in SEE-Change land? Visit our November newsletter.

Hi members! Here is is the submission that the Inner South group made on Sustainable Public Transport Network for your reading pleasure. Click here

Our Business Plan is now available in full and in a one page summary for members to view.  Simply click on the attachments. Happy Reading!

• One page Business Plan
• Full Business Plan

Follow this link to view the NEW IMPROVED WELCOME VIDEO created by our chair, Bob Douglas. 

On 4 August 2009 at Manning Clark House in Forrest, Southside SEE-Changers listened to two of Canberra’s finest minds present a cutting-edge approach to achieving climate change and sustainability goals.

Prof Will Steffen, Executive Director of ANU’s Climate Change Institute, gave a talk entitled ‘Meeting the Climate Change Challenge: A Vision for Canberra and the Region’.

Our very own Prof Bob Douglas AO spoke about ‘What will a carbon-neutral Canberra look like and what will it take to bring it about?’ 

A small working group of interested SEE-Change members met this morning to consider ways in which SEE-Change could work effectively with religious communities in Canberra which have an interest in environmental issues. We have the capacity to enrol corporate members and a number of church groups are known to be considering such membership.

Simone Annis was one of the presenters at the May 2009 Talk Trash! evening organised by the Inner North SEE-Change group. Simone has kindly made this booklet available to SEE-Change. See: Talk Trash Booklet