The press is reporting that global climate talks are in a shambles and the UN summit on Tuesday is the only hope to revive them. This Monday, 21 September 2009, citizens globally are flooding media and government office phone lines worldwide with a wake up call for leaders to act -- with phone calls being made from over 2000 rallies, marches, meetings and "flashmobs" in public places across the planet, and by hundreds of thousands of us from home.

Read global news cover at

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/science/earth/20nations.html?_r=1&hp

Should you wish to take part in this global day of citizen action you can  find all the information you need about the great Global Wake-Up Call events and phone-calls on the hub page at this link http://www.avaaz.org/en/sept21_hub/ , including photos, video and a liveblog for us to share our experiences of the day -- make a phone-call from home or work and tell us how it went at this link, or find an event near you to attend.

The Logan and Albert Conservation Association acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands where we work with others to restore.

We pay respect to the Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians.

Our work involves the lands of a number of peoples including Yugarabul, Yuggera, Jagera, Turrbal , Yugambeh, Kombumerri and Quandamooka peoples.

The Logan and Albert Conservation Association embraces the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, identity and knowledge.

A significant event is the annual Drumley walk to honour Billy Drumley who was a local hero who worked to make his community a better place. The walk follows the footsteps of Billy Drumley in the early 1900s as he regularly set off on a 60km journey to check on his sister and her family. His trail takes us from the country centre of Beaudesert, up through the forests of the Gold Coast hinterland, and down along the Nerang River to the coastal centre of Southport. Drumley, at the age of 86 completed the walk in a day.

Keep in touch with this celebration at http://www.thedrumleywalk.com/

The Yugambeh Corroboree - Indigenous Language,Food and Art Festival

will be held at the end of the 2010 walk Thursday 12 to Sunday15 August 2010

KELVIN THOMSON JOINS POPULATION ROLL OF HONOUR

Kelvin Thomson's brilliant speech on population in Federal Parliament Monday 17 August 2009 allows him to be placed on an Australian honour roll of politicians who understand the detrimental impacts of population growth, according to Sustainable Population Australia Inc (SPA).
SPA's national president, Sandra Kanck, says this honour roll also includes former Queensland Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara as well as two South Australian politicians: independent Member for Fisher, Bob Such, and the Liberal Member for Mackillop, Mitch Williams.

Kelvin Thomson is the Labor Member for the seat of Wills. His speech can be found at http://www.kelvinthomson.com.au/speechesdocs/090817%20PopulationHansard.pdf

It is a remarkable speech by Kelvin Thomson .

YOU CAN HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE OF OUR HOME -

but only if you tell all levels of government what you want

HOW DO WE MEASURE PROGESS?

IS EXTINCTION OF THE LOCAL KOALA to be the cost of building houses shops powerlines and roads

URBAN EXPANSION = KOALA EXTINCTION

SEQRP = PLAN FOR EXTINCTION OF LOCAL KOALAS

 The Logan City council planning scheme is being reviewed to combine 3 plans into one. The first round of community comment is in relation to the Statement of Proposals. This is a 20 page document with comments  due by 23 October 2009.  This link gives you that document.

In March 2008, as a result of local government reform, Logan City's boundaries were expanded to include part of Gold Coast City and part of the former Beaudesert Shire. Logan City Council sees itself as an accommodating partner in the Bligh government's SEQRP - a plan supposedly to manage the growth that is coming. As it stands now. the South East Regional Plan - and local town plans that endorse and even extend the urban footprint - as Logan requested - are plans that are annihilating koala habitat and therefore the local koala. Submissions may include why you support or oppose what Council is proposing, other issues you think need to be considered.

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition and World Vision, through this Youth Decide vote, www.youthdecide.com.au  have created an opportunity for young Australians to lay their cards on the table and express what kind of future they want to choose.

This campaign is original and creative enough to cut through. The young organizers can help to present a unified youth voice calling for a very different kind of future to the path we're currently on.

Voting opens Monday 14th and closes Monday 21st September and if you're aged 12 - 29 and live in Australia you're eligible to vote. Choose wisely - it's your future.

Currently, 25 Queensland frog species are listed as vulnerable to extinction or endangered, but this list is growing - 6 of these species may already be extinct.

Locally at Jerry's Downfall we have habitat and home for the vulnerable Wallum frogs.

The threats
1. Habitat loss
Frogs need native vegetation but they are losing their habitat through Land clearing and urbanisation, industry and associated infrastructure, especially in coastal south-east Queensland.and Intensive agriculture.
2. Habitat degradation
Frogs and tadpoles need clean water to breed and grow. Water bodies are becoming less suitable for frogs because:

Pollution, including nutrients, runs off from lawns, gardens and agriculture.

Pesticides, especially in urban areas, are toxic to frogs.

Weeds from agriculture are taking over frog-friendly wet forests and altering water chemistry.

Changes in stream and wetland hydrology make wetlands [ the habitat of the wallum sedgefrog] unsuitable for frog breeding.

Development is disturbing acid sulphate soils, which upsets the water's pH balance.

3. Global warming
Reduced rainfall and increased temperatures will affect frog species.

Rising sea levels might affect frogs in coastal areas, for example, the wallum sedgefrog

4. Disease
An introduced fungal disease is killing upland rainforest frogs as well as affecting more common species like the green tree frog. Even apparently common species like the green treefrog (Litoria caerulia) are threatened by exotic diseases.
5. Exotic fish
Mosquito fish (Gambusia holbrooki), introduced to control mosquito larvae, eat frogspawn and tadpoles.

Aquarium fish and other exotics are a threat to frogs if released into to the wild.

What you can do
Conserve frog habitats along streams, gullies and rivers.
Conserve wetlands, especially seasonally flooded areas and ephemeral wetlands - such as melaleuca swamps.
Never let soaps, detergents or pesticides flow into stormwater drains or waterways.
Create frog-friendly gardens by encouraging naturally occurring trees, shrubs and ground covers.
Lobby local and State governments to value and protect native vegetation, particularly creekside and low-lying areas.
Lobby local and State governments to control development including managing stormwater runoff and retaining native vegetation.
Reduce your own greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
Reduce the spread of disease among amphibian populations by not moving frogs and tadpoles from one place to another.
Prevent the spread of exotic and aquarium fish into waterways.

A restaurant where sustainability is not measured in terms of financial profits.

A restaurant where environmental and ecological factors are equally important. An owner who walks the walk and envisions further methods of reducing the ecological footprint of the cafe.

Sydney restaurant Billy Kwong owner, Kylie Kwong,has been recognised with winning the inaugural Sustainability Award, a salute to restaurants that do their bit for the environment, as well as diners.

Five years ago, Kwong decided to lessen her restaurant's impact on the planet. She began by converting her conventional Chinese pantry to organics and biodynamics, painstakingly replacing ready-made oyster and hoisin sauces with additive- and preservative-free alternatives. "It's been great," she says. "And we've had to become really creative. Every week we'd look around and work out how to improve things. It was a complete revelation."

This is a woman who wears her convictions as a badge of pride - and lists her causes on her website, from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Foundation to Fair Trade, Oxfam and the BFA (Biological Farmers of Australia, an organics certifying body).

Diners at Billy Kwong can donate to the restaurant's renewable energy credits program, purchased from a wind farm in the Chinese province of Hebei. And there's no bottled water; it's Sydney tap water run through a filter.

"Every time I think of a new provedore or using an ingredient, I ask whether it's sustainable," Kwong says. "I think about its carbon footprint, whether it's ethically produced and about serving food that has been harvested with love and integrity. Knowing the growers means you treat produce with respect. It's also a way of re-humanising the food chain."

Each of the top ten restaurants demonstrate how environmental sustainability can contribute to a profitable business and give back to the community.

Luke Nguyen's Vietnamese restaurant composts and recycles and uses a waterless wok burner. It uses line-caught fish; free-range pork and beef; and organic fruit, vegetables, coffee and poultry.

Courtney's Brasserie at Parramatta uses a blackboard map that traces a 200-kilometre radius around chef Paul Kuipers, in which he searches for local produce with an emphasis on seasonality and organics.

Eurolounge at Castle Hill is an example of thinking globally and acting locally, with the kitchen scraps and coffee grinds going to local gardeners, shredded paper recycled by a pet store and a menu seeking local produce and organic wines.

Becasse Chef Justin North buys straight from the farm gate, forming strong bonds with farmers who share his approach to sustainability. In return, he showcases their work in regular producer lunches.

From Sean's Panaroma we learn that every week for more than a decade, Sean Moran has taken scraps to his Blue Mountains hideaway to nurture the land, returning with the rewards, from fruit and herbs to eggs, chicken and even beef. Order herbal tea and they'll pick it fresh.

Courier Mail reported 12 September 2009

Queensland Co-Ordinator General Colin Jensen has signed off on the Traveston Dam project - with a host of new environmental conditions, including more protection for endangered fish, frogs and turtles in the Mary River.

Work will start at the site near Gympie by early next year if federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett gives his approval. Bruce Highway upgrades will also begin with the work.

But anti-dam campaigners will be angered by the latest developments and are likely to step up their legal action. They have vowed to fight the case to the High Court if it is necessary.

Queensland has the highest greenhouse emissions per person in Australia. We are also one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impacts of climate change. We have an absolute vested interest in reducing those impacts.

This will only happen if the Queensland Government takes the lead to give us a safe climate for the future.

The notion that coal-fired power stations of any type are part of our energy future is nonsense. All coal-fired energy generates huge greenhouse gas emissions.

Storing that CO2 underground, if appropriate geological formations can even be found, is not a solution it is an expensive, temporary band-aid.

Despite years of promotion and funding by the Queensland Government ‘clean coal' technologies are still decades away from viability.

What is needed is immediate action to reduce our current greenhouse gas emissions; not those we might be emitting a decade or two from now.

Logan and Albert Conservation Association LACA is a member group of Queensland Conservation which has identified five critical steps to effective greenhouse gas reductions.

These initiatives, coupled with a revised carbon policy by the Commonwealth could halve emissions by 2020.

Outdoor schooling has many benefits

By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola

As our children and grandchildren head back to school it is important to consider not just what we are teaching them but how we are teaching them. After all, the world is facing some incredible challenges, and today's young people will be left to deal with many of them.

So, do we fill their heads with facts and figures so that we can evaluate their progress through standardized testing? Or do we give them tools so they can think for themselves?

Back in 1956, when I was in college, Rachel Carson, a biologist, writer, and ecologist who had a tremendous influence on me, wrote an essay for Woman's Home Companion magazine, titled 'Help Your Child to Wonder', which she later expanded into her book The Sense of Wonder. In the article, she wrote, 'It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.'