EARTHLING: National Environmental Activist Forum

Newcastle, NSW

 
Go to: http://www.hcec.org.au/ for a full program and updates
or http://earthling.thisisnotart.org 
 
This year's This Is Not Art Festival will include the inaugural "Earthling National Environmental Activist Forum" Earthling hopes to synthesise the artistic expression of the national festivals flourishing as part of the annual This Is Not Art Festival (TINA) held on the October long weekend in Newcastle NSW, with a nationally focused broad environmental debate. 
 

•  synthesise the artistic expression of the national festivals flourishing as part of the annual This Is Nor Art Festival (TINA) held on the October long weekend in Newcastle NSW, with a nationally focused broad environmental debate.
•  encourage the development of networks and discussions between a broad section of environmental activists from around the country and elsewhere. 
•  bring together, either through video conferencing, face to face panel discussions, or environmentalism in the pub, environmentalists involved in: politics, media, grassroots activism, non-government organisations, science and academia, culture jamming, direct action, conservation biology and alternative political, economic and social systems and movements.

Across a range of environmental challenges and issues, including native vegetation protection, marine conservation, climate change activism, freshwater and catchment protection, and of indigenous communities.
 
Panel discussions
Climate change
Format: Panel-led open floor discussion
Duration: 1 and a half hours with 15 minute intermission
Climate change is the most pressing and profound issue we face, and its implications are enormous. Industrialised economies are built on an assumption of cheap energy, and lots of it. How does this expectation fit with the challenge of climate change, which requires greenhouse pollution to be cut radically, and immediately? Can consumer-society and the growth economy exist in a zero-emissions world? And if dealing with climate change really does require radical fundamental structural change in societies, do we really have time to achieve that?       
21st Century Biodiversity Triage
Format: Panel-led open floor discussion
Duration: 1 and a half hours with 15 minute intermission
We've been working for 40 years as a movement to protect biodiversity, and despite celebrating some major successes, Australia still leads the world in extinction and endangered listings on both land and in the oceans. The lately released 2006 IUCN Red List shows that biodiversity is still in decline international in spite of the best efforts of conservation biologists, environmental advocates and even some policy-makers. We are still declaring National Parks, but climate change may destroy some of the most precious and hardwon protected areas in Australia. The nation has only just begun addressing the need for marine protected areas: What can the marine protection agenda learn from the mistakes of the forest, woodlands and wetlands? Why are we still floundering, and what does the future look like? What role is there for "triage" in biodiversity protection, and is it our failure, or failure of some "other"�
Panelists will include representatives from NGOs working on terrestrial and marine protection, conservation biology and the Aboriginal community and will discuss cross-landscape conservation, mitigating climate change, and the way forward.
 
 
 
Selling "Sus-tane-abyl-litty"
Format: Panel-led open floor discussion
Duration: 1 and a half hours with 15 minute intermission
This panel will ask the question: What gains has the "movement" made by becoming more sophisticated in terms of messaging and marketing? And what, if anything is lost by focus-grouping environmental awareness? Environmental groups, especially those with extensive resources, have becoming increasingly interested in notions of "framing", "messaging" and how to attract media attention. Panelists and audience members representing the Big Non-Government Organisations will be encouraged to reflect on the benefits and risks of this kind of community engagement. The panel will also include representatives of grassroots campaigning, and Aboriginal communities, and the session will explore whether this media-consciousness serves short-term "outcome-based" campaigns at the expense of longer-viewed consciousness shifts.
Green-Black Alliances
Format: Panel-led open floor discussion
Duration: 1 and a half hours with 15 minute intermission
Some alliances between environmentalists and Aboriginal activists have been hugely successful and beneficial to all participants, others have left bitter residue and raised questions about where Aboriginal and environmental interests diverge. We discuss positive and negative examples, and workshop ideas for fruitful collaborations in the future.
Aboriginal panellists with experience in dealing with non-Aboriginal environmental activists will reflect on their experience, and audience participants and other panellists will be encouraged to recount their own experiences, moving towards identifying what makes successful alliances work. 
 
You can help make Earthling relevant and exciting by being involved, or just coming along.
Contact the Hunter Community Environment Centre for more information:
2/81 King Street, Newcastle Ph: 4926 1641 email: georgiefrances@yahoo.com.au