Tag: Environment

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Social Impact

Review: Never again

Never Again: Reflections on environmental responsibility after Roe 8, edited by Andrea Gaynor, Peter Newman and Philip Jennings. UWA Publishing, 2018

The Roe 8 Highway extension and the related Perth Freight Link was a hugely contentious public issue in the lead-up to the 2017 WA State election. Never Again outlines, purely from the perspective of the project’s detractors, the reasons why they believe it should never have happened and, as the title suggests, why it should never happen  again.

Whilst it is narrowly focussed on the Roe 8 project, the implications of the discussion broaden its scope. Significant questions (and solutions) are raised about the state of our democratic  processes, transport planning, environmental protection and respect for Aboriginal culture and heritage. Some of the chapters, contributed by an impressive array of leading academics, give serious pause for thought across all of these issues. There is also an account of activist strategies, legal proceedings and citizen wildlife monitoring revealing how politicised the project became.

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Social Impact

South West Forests need protection

View from the Bicentennial Tree in the Warren National Park, a 15 minute drive from Pemberton in south-west Western Australia on a misty and smoky morning.

The 42nd Annual Synod of the Uniting Church Western Australia, held over the weekend, called on the State Government to place high conservation value forests in secure national parks for the survival of threatened species.

The Uniting Church has a long held concern for the environment alongside its strong social justice stances arising out of its Christian belief that God, as the Creator of the universe, calls us into a special relationship with the creation – a relationship of mutuality and interdependence which seeks the reconciliation of all creation with God.

The Synod decided that given the uniqueness of the South-West forest ecosystems, the vulnerability of numerous threatened species endemic to the region, the relatively small areas of uncleared forests remaining and the need to mitigate against further damage to the climate system, the remaining South-West forests need to be protected from logging activities.

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Social Impact

Phasing out single-use plastics in WA

Tarutao national park, Thailand

The 42nd Annual Synod of the Uniting Church Western Australia, held over the weekend, called on the State Government to take action on the purchase and disposal of single-use plastics.

The Uniting Church has a long standing commitment to social, environmental and intergenerational justice. Recognising the impact of plastics on the environment, particularly in marine ecosystems, the Synod affirmed the 2018 decision of the WA State Government to ban the provision of single-use plastic bags, and called for further action.

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News & Announcements

Big buzz at UCIC leads to awards

Uniting Church in the City, Wesley Perth has been presented with two Five Leaf Eco-Awards for their role in leading environmental change in the city of Perth.

Among other actions, in the last 12 months the church has installed the largest solar panel installation in the Perth CBD, started a program cooking rescued food to supply a centre for the homeless, installed three 2 000 litre water tanks to flush toilets in their buildings and have built a rooftop garden, including beehives.

They have been recognised for their achievements with the Five Leaf Eco-Awards Basic Certificate and Eco-Worship Awards.

The awards were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Uniting Church WA, held in September, by Jessica Morthorpe, Director of Five Leaf Eco-Awards.

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News & Announcements

Sustainable September in the City

For the past eight years, Uniting Church in the City, Ross Memorial West Perth has been running a series of sessions focusing on our environment, to coincide with Sustainable September.

This year, all sessions will commence on Tuesday evenings at 6.00pm, with refreshments available from 5.30pm. Each session will last one hour, with time set aside for questions.

On Tuesday 5 September, David Galloway, from the Curtin University Sustainability Program, will reflect on how thinking around sustainable development has evolved over the past 30 years, and how his understanding of faith has developed and been informed by his work.

On Tuesday 12 September, Felicity McGeorge will talk on the importance of the wetlands.

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News & Announcements

Uniting Church WA says uranium is best left in the ground

Rev Steve Francis, Moderator of the Uniting Church WA, says that he is very disappointed that the Western Australian Labor government will allow the four inherited uranium proposals to proceed. While Rev Francis welcomed the reintroduction of a ban on all future uranium mines, allowing the existing proposals to proceed was still a matter of great concern.

“For a Labor government to allow uranium mining to proceed while it maintains a moral and ethical opposition to the approval of new uranium proposals is, in our view, a hollow moral position.”

The Uniting Church in Australia is committed to the development of environmentally benign, renewable energy sources and the cessation of uranium mining. Recognising the complexity of the issues the Uniting Church has called on individuals, churches, industry and governments to work together to end involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle.

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News & Announcements

Calls for leadership on climate agreement

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) have called on Prime Minister Turnbull to show leadership in commitment to the global climate agreement, which is our best chance for the stewardship of the world around us.

NCCA President, Bishop Philip Huggins said “this momentous climate deal is bigger than just one country, one person or a handful of climate sceptics. It is about the urgent survival of humanity, the ability for all children to be able to born into and live in a world with clean air and clean water.

Sr Elizabeth Delaney, General Secretary of the NCCA, said “Prime Minister Turnbull, a man of faith, will understand that Australians are looking to him for leadership on one of the biggest threats facing us and future generations.

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Stories & Feature Articles

RenewWA: standing with the Pacific

For Fijian Methodist minister Rev James Bhagwan, climate change is not a theoretical concept. For many people in the Pacific, the impacts of rising sea levels and severe tropical cyclones are an all too real experience of a changing climate.

James, the Methodist Church in Fiji’s secretary for Communication and Overseas Mission, is a keen advocate for strong action on climate change, having seen its direct impacts in his community.

“Our small nation, Fiji, was the first to ratify the Paris Agreement and almost immediately, as if to underline the importance of the convention on climate change, we were faced with Severe Tropical Cyclone (STC) Winston, a category 5 cyclone and the most powerful in the southern hemisphere — a symbol of the earth’s groaning and crying to the rising temperatures and sea levels,” he said.

“Before STC Winston and since we continue to suffer from other extreme weather patterns – droughts and floods – as a result of climate change.

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News & Announcements

Fracking: opportunity or calamity?

Last night, in the lead-up to the Western Australian State Election, a forum was held at St George’s Cathedral, Perth, exploring The Science and Ethics of Fracking in WA.

Hosted by the Frack Free Future Alliance and Doctors for the Environment, a panel of expert scientists, religious leaders and political representatives discussed if unconventional gas mining and fracking is an economic opportunity, or a health and environment calamity.

Speaking on the panel was Dr Ryan Vogwill, hydrologist, Prof Melissa Haswell, health academic, and The Right Rev Bishop Tom Wilmot, retired Anglican Bishop of Perth. Ex-Premier, Prof Carmen Lawrence chaired the evening.

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Social Impact

Church leaders oppose Roe 8

This morning, a group of religious leaders from the Uniting Church WA, Catholic ministers, the Anglican Social Responsibilities Commission and Churches of Christ in WA joined Indigenous leaders to oppose the construction of the controversial Roe 8 highway through the Beeliar Wetlands.

Rev Ivan Clark, Uniting Church WA minister, and Rev Sealin Garlett, minister with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress were interviewed by media, including with Channel 7 and a live cross to the national Today Show on Channel 9.

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