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'breakthrough: from recession to sustainability' Feb 14th sustainability convergence

Submitted by Viola Wilkins on Sun, 08/02/2009 - 07:31

For all you Valentines (feb 14th) who love Mother Earth

Sustainable Living Foundation, Friends of the Earth, and Greenleap Strategic Institute present the third sustainability convergence 'breakthrough: from recession to sustainability'

http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=node/404

As we face a looming financial crisis, what are the threats and opportunities to social and environmental movements? How do we break the 'business as usual' model? How do we 'bail out' the planet? This convergence seeks to bring together people from across Melbourne to start to develop a pathway through the recession to a sustainable economy.

What would this look like and how we would we get there? What about livelihood and good work, what about community resilience? What about our place in the world? How do we respond effectively to the looming crisis of climate change? And what does this mean for the social and environmental movements in the short term?

This one day forum will look at the opportunities and threats connected to the economic downturn – political, financial, cultural. We will look at hope and fear (and how we can speak in frames not of opposition but of hope and determination), sketch out pathways to a better future, and how we could get to a safe climate economy in 10 years.

We will also consider how we could make Melbourne a sustainable city – one that is compact, people friendly, based on public transport, renewable energy, biodiversity and food production. Speakers include: Ken Davidson from The Age, David Spratt of Carbon Equity, Giselle Wilkinson of SLF, Dr Michael Buxton from RMIT, Louise Morris from FoE and social commentator Dave West.

There will be a session for workshops – you are welcome to send proposals in before the conference

When: saturday February 14, 9am – 5pm

where: Northcote High School, St Georges road, Northcote Take tram line 112 towards West Preston, stop 26

cost: Low income - $15 Waged - $25 (no one excluded through lack of funds) further information: Cam at FoE cam.walker@foe.org.au This is the third sustainability convergence, full details at:

http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=node/404