Eagerness for action and participation at Slap Energy forum

There appeared to be an “Eagerness for action and participation,” according to one audience member at Friday’s Slap Energy Forum at Mooroopna’s Westside auditorium.

Slap Tomorrow president, John Pettigrew.

The Melbourne audience member, one of more than 200 people at the forum said, “It’s wonderful and offers much hope”.

“I was so pleased that time was given to really explore things, especially through audience questions,” she said.

Friday night’s event was organized by the Shepparton-based group, Slap Tomorrow and was dedicated to reviewing and considering future energy options for this region.

The speakers were Dr Mark Deisendorf, of the University NSW, Dr Gordon Rodgers, Director of Applied Horticultural Research and David Coote a bioenergy lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

They told the audience that renewable energy was no longer a utopian dream, but a realistic option for the Goulburn Valley.

All said the necessary infrastructure was readily available “off the shelf” and had already been implemented successfully in many parts of the world.

Thinker, comedian and advisor to the Melbourne Sustainability Society Institute, Rod Quantock oversaw proceedings and opened with a whiteboard presentation that enabled him to illustrate his unpredictable comic style, but convey a powerful message about the damage our present life-style is causing to the earth.

The question and answer session allowed many to question the speakers, including GV community Energy’s CEO, Geoff Lodge, who joined the panel to introduce local knowledge and experience into the session.

Slap Tomorrow chairman, Mr John Pettigrew, said the key messages from the night were:

Why not create local jobs and maintain economic activity here in the Goulburn Valley, rather than support jobs in Gippsland and have profits flow not just out of our region, but in many cases overseas?

How we could replace base-load power with a mix of renewable options, including large and small scale solar, bio-energy, gasification and fermentation.

Renewable options are getting cheaper and in many cases have a capital return inside seven years.

The fact that the Goulburn Valley has the resources available to feed these renewable options, sunlight and a rich variety of waste lines.
Mr Pettigrew said it is plainly obvious that the Goulburn Valley has the personal and technical resources to readily adapt to a renewable energy industry.

Slap Tomorrow’s next event on Wednesday, December 17, will see the artist responsible for the “Four Horsemen of the 21^st Century Apocalypse”, Penny Byrne discuss reasons for the Shepparton Art Museum owned four-piece sculpture with the University of Melbourne’s, Prof Kate Auty.

 

Quantock is desperately serious and yet disarmingly quirky

Rod Quantock.

Rod Quantock is desperately serious about the complications and implications arising from climate change, but through his quirky behaviour softens the conversation through humour and humanizes this strangely inhuman-like thing.

Quantock, a thinker, advisor to the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and nationally-known comedian, was in Shepparton yesterday (September 10) for the launch the “Slap Energy” forum planned for Friday, September 26.

Watched by about 30 people and several news outlet representatives, Quantock and the Member for Shepparton, Jeanette Powell, discussed climate change, with the latter launching the September 26 event.

Quantock had earlier in the day been to Shepparton’s McGuire College to talk with some 30 students about the unfolding dilemmas humanity is facing.

Looked at analytically, the information given by Quantock was alarming, but when seasoned with the comedian’s idiosyncratic zest, it is simply entertaining

and yet, thought provoking.

Students at both sessions were taken on a Quantock-like history lesson right from the big-bang to now with the important eras being explained by Quantock and illustrated by volunteers who were “the big bang”, “time”, “now”, “earth” and a “dinosaur”.

In discussing the reality that the world has too many people, Quantock pointed out that when he was born, the world has just 2.5 billion people and now it was home to more than seven billion.

One student obviously unable to comprehend or understand how such a change could happen in one man’s lifetime, assumed the fellow standing before them and telling the story must have been much older than he looked and asked: “How old are you?”

Solutions and immediate action were not part of Quantock’s presentation, accept that he did encourage the students to engage with the AustralianYouth Climate Coalition (AYCC).