Environmentality 14 January 2015, Daniel Sullivan, ASEN member and Student Environment Officer at University of Melbourne

Hello for another week of Environmentality! This week we spoke to a member of Australian Student Environmental Network (ASEN), Daniel Sullivan, about the group and how to get involved. Daniel is also the Student Environment Officer at The University of Melbourne so was also able to enlighten us on the various campaigns and groups running out of the university.  I suggest you listen to the show here if you missed it!

ASEN members on the Mining the Truth Roadtrip

Now for those who don’t know about ASEN, in summary it is the network of student environment groups from around Australia committed to building grassroots movements for change. The network links together a fluctuating group of around 38 university environment collectives and five state-based networks around Australia (thanks Wikipedia! The ever reliable and accurate internet resource). In other words, they organise a range of cool and inspiring projects and campaigns in the area of environment and social justice and provide an easy way for everyone to be involved! Some of the projects include an annual Students of Sustainability Conference, National Training Camp, bi-annual publication ‘Germinate’, various No Coal No Gas campaigns, Food Coops as well as working with Australia’s indigenous people for sovereignty and justice. On top of these, ASEN runs other training courses, training camps and conferences so search for and like them on Facebook to keep up to date on the current and upcoming events and visit their website to see how you can be involved and how to become a member.

fossilfreeuniversities.org.au

A major campaign that is currently running is the Fossil Free Universities campaign. If you want to find out what all the fuss is about and what part your university is playing then check out the website for all the facts and figures.

Some useful links related to this weeks show:



ANU chief Ian Young’s ethical sell call paying dividends – Published in The Australian (surprising) but unfortunately I cannot provide a link to the article as this one requires a membership (I’m thinking… CONSPIRACY). This article is referencing Australian National University’s decision to divest from fossil fuel including all its shares in Santos a few months back and just last week a report release by Credit Suisse stated that Santos shares may be worthless at current oil prices.

UNSW rejects divestment push – Blah blah…. UNSW don’t want to participate in “token political actions”, Christopher Pyne called the campaign “a Greens-led, anti-mining and energy divestment campaign that is damaging to some of our biggest companies and employers”. Greens-led? ummm... pretty sure it has been and continues to be led by members of communities, universities, banks, churches and any other organisations that have investment capabilities because these members are sick of the lack of action by Government and feel a moral and ethical obligation to do so, not to mention the financial benefits (See RIAA's Responsible Investment Benchmarking Survey 2014 Report!). At least Mr Pyne recognises the damage the campaign is doing to the dirty, unethical, environmentally damaging companies!

Coal curse: the black side of the subsidised resources boom – On older article (July 2012) but worth a read. Addresses the true cost of energy from coal by weighing up the real costs and benefits. Some surprising figures in this one (well, surprising if you’ve been subjected to mainstream media coal lobbyist claims).

Feel free to add more articles or make comments on these ones below!

ASEN members campaigning against AGL plans to frack the valley in Gloucester during the Mining the Truth Roadtrip

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A PRIZE!!(movie tickets…shhh) More details will be provided during next week’s show!

Speaking of next week, we have Jody Jackson, our resident gardening expert coming in to have our monthly friendly, informative and funny discussion.

Music from this week:

The Wire by Haim

Everyone’s Waiting by Missy Higgins

Gonna Take A Little Rain by Andrew Duhon

Chain and Padlock by The Lurkers

Power And The Passion by Midnight Oil

I See Fire by Ed Sheeran