Environmentality 29 January 2014, Ursula Alquier, Lock The Gate Alliance

Hi Environmentalitists,

We had a punchy show today with a fabulously passionate Ursula Alquier, Victorian Coordinator for Lock the Gate Alliance talking with us on the landline.

Along with Ursula's passion we had our guest presenter, John, raising his voice and asking Tony (Tony Abbott that is), to quit coal and move to renewables.

A great win for  the town of
Poowong and the
 Lock the Gate Alliance

It would be a great thing if our humble radio spot and this blog were able to move the Prime Minister even milimetres in the right direction.  So it is fortunate for our beautiful country that we have organisations like Lock the Gate Alliance joining forces with other environmental organisations and community groups to stop the pillaging and destruction of our water resources in search of more coal and gas reserves.

Over the years, Australia has had some great success with environmental campaigns, stopping the damning of the Franklin River is quite a famous victory, but also the anti litter campaigns; Keep Australia Beautiful and Tidy Towns competitions.  A more recent win in the far north of WA is the backdown by Woodside to develop the James Price Point gas hub.  Lets not forget the residents of Tecoma that have been all the way to the USA to fight the building of McDonalds in their area. All of these campaigns were successful because communities stayed strong and supported each other to fight for what they believe in.

Make sure you listen to the show

I forgot to mention in last weeks' blog that we spoke with Greg Foyster, who has written a book called Changing Gears, a Pedal Powered Detour from the Rat Race.  Greg and his partner headed off from Tassie to Far North Queensland and interviewed lots of people living sustainable lives, which he has turned into a great read.  Thanks Greg!

Next Week we are sticking with things closer to home and talking with Caroline Overbeek from Hume City about the Environmental Champions

Music played today

Bernard Fanning, Kites from the album Kites
Don Walker, Hully Gully from the album Rock
Pete Seeger, Little Boxes
Adalita, Trust is Rust from the album All Day Venus