Climate change advocates need to listen to Hugh Mackay

Hugh Mackay’s knowledge and understanding about what communities do and how they operate is legendary.

And so it is important for those who care about and understand the implications of climate change to listen closely to what this Australian social researcher has to say.

Hugh’s latest book is about religion (“Beyond Belief”), while his previous book, “The Art of Belonging” explored more about how communities work.

The Shepparton-based Slap Tomorrow, working with the GV Community Fund will host a visit by Hugh to Shepparton on Friday, August 12, when he will speak at the Harder Auditorium at 7:00pm.

Admission of $10, including a light supper, will raise funds for The Community Fund.

Tickets can be secured from Cheryl Hammer atThe Community Fund on 58328 221; Helen and Joe Sofra at Collins Booksellers in Maude St, Shepparton, 5822 2679; and Slap Tomorrow members Rober McLean at 0400 502 199 or John Pettigrew at 5826 9567.

Shepparton book launch will aid GV Community Fund

D

r Kerryn Higgs will talk in Shepparton soon about her new book, “Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet".

The author and educator is being brought to Shepparton by Slap Tomorrow and the GV Community Fund.  

She will speak at the GoTAFE Harder Auditorium at 7:00pm on Wednesday, April 29.

The evening, for which there is a $10 cover charge, will include a light suppers and tickets are available from Collins Booksellers inMaude St, Shepparton, or Andrea at the GV Community Fund 0409 323 842.

Books will be available on the night for both sale and signing and all ticket sales for the event will go to the fund.

 

Endless Growth to be discussed in Shepparton

A

ustralian writer Dr Kerryn Higgs will speak in Shepparton later this month.

She will talk about her new book, “Collision Course - Endless Growth On A Finite Planet”.

Dr Kerryn Higgs, she will
speak in Shepparton
 on April 29 about her
book "Collision Course".

Her visit has been co-ordinated by the Shepparton-based Slap Tomorrow and the GV Community Fund.

She will speak at the city’s Harder Auditorium (TAFE College) on Wednesday, April 29 with the $10 entry fee including a light supper.

Shepparton’s Collins Booksellers will also be at the auditorium and have books available for purchase and signing.

Dr Higgs examines how society's commitment to growth has marginalized scientific findings on the limit of growth, calling them bogus predictions of imminent doom.

She was recently interviewed on Radio National’s Ockham’s Razor in the program: “Limits to growth”.

Kerry brings the 'collision course' message to Shepparton

I

t was 20 years ago that the world was warned it was on a “collision course”.

Author, environmentalist, Kerry Higgs.

And now that warning has been echoed by writer, teacher, editor and environmentalist, Kerryn Higgs.

In August last year she wrote the book, “Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet” and late in April she will be in Shepparton to talk about what motivated her to write the book.

Kerryn graduated from the University of Melbourne with first class honours and the Kathleen Fitzpatrick prize for combined History and English Honours.

She also has a Graduate Diploma of Environmental Studies and a PhD from the University of Tasmania.

She said the notion of ever-expanding economic growth has been promoted so relentlessly that the public is now convinced that “growth” is the natural solution to virtually all social problems—poverty, debt, unemployment, and even the environmental degradation caused by growth in the first place.

“Warnings from scientists that we live on a finite planet have been ignored or even scorned as bogus predictions of doom and systematically resisted by economists and the corporate sector,” she said.

Kerryn has taught at the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales. She is currently a University Associate with the University of Tasmania and was recently appointed a Fellow of the International Centre of the Club of Rome.

Her visit to Shepparton is being co-ordinated by Slap Tomorrow working with the GV Community Fund and she will speak on Wednesday, April 29, at the Harder Auditorium at 6:30 for 7:00 pm.

Admission to support the GV Community Fund will be $10, including a light supper. Shepparton’s Collins Booksellers will also have copies of Collision Course available for purchase and signing.

Twenty years ago by the Union of Concerned Scientists produced a report entitled “World Scientist’s Warning to Humanity” and that statement from 1,700 senior scientists, including 104 Nobel Prize winners, suggests we are living through something like a slow motion train wreck.

The opening words say:

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.

Those with any questions about the April 29 session can direct them to Robert McLean at 0400 502 199 or Cheryl Hammer at the GV Community Fund at 1300 651 224.