HOPE is looking for extra volunteers who can help in the following areas:

Admin assistance; literature review and follow-up internet research; promotion and marketing; planning and preparing for events and activities; preparing media releases; and developing publications such as information sheets, guides and booklets.

Note:  If we can enlist a team of 3 or 4 media officers, then their individual contribution may be as little as one item every 3-4 months.

Australia's Grey Nomads are leading the charge in social volunteering by ditching their ?grey? tag and going GREEN instead.  An initiative of Queensland Water and Land Carers (QWaLC), a not-for-profit peak body representing community NRM volunteers in Queensland, Green Nomads is an innovative program linking travellers with environmental volunteering opportunities throughout Queensland.

Being a Green Nomad is about having fun, meeting new friends, learning new skills and sharing your skills with the communities that you travel through? said Richard Murphy, CEO of QWaLC.

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition The AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) is running a petition to Repower Australia with 100% renewable electricity. You can sign the petition online here.

There are an estimated 19 million old, unused mobile phones in Australian homes. More than half of Australian mobile phone users keep their previous mobile phone even if it isn't working, and almost a third of users have 2 or more old mobile phones at home. These phones are wonderful candidates for recycling for the following reasons:

• to prevent pollution and protect our environment
• to minimize solid and hazardous waste going to landfill
• to recover resources to manufacture new products
• to reduce the need to use raw materials and save our natural resources

Did you know that 90% of a mobile phone is recyclable? These materials can be used to make gold rings, aluminium cans, plastic fence posts and stainless steel items. Recycling 250,000 old phones, batteries and accessories equals 48,000 aluminium cans, 2,400 plastic fence posts and also avoids the need to mine more than 728 tonnes of gold ore, 808 tonnes of silver ore and 178 tonnes of copper sulphide.

ABC's new CSG site

Updated November 24, 2011 11:21:49

Photo: The ABC has mapped every coal seam gas well in the country. (AAP: Supplied)

The ABC has mapped every coal seam gas well in the country and compiled a bank of information on a new website available from today.

Go to the site here.

The site explores the cumulative impacts of coal seam gas activities in Australia, including the amount of water used to produce CSG and the consequences for salinity and greenhouse gas emissions.

ABC journalist and site creator Wendy Carlisle says people can look up a well by place name or postcode.

"This industry has, you know, arisen out of almost nowhere in the last decade" she said.

"There is no site you can go to which presents to you in a readily understandable way the extent of the industry as it currently stands.

"(There's) information about how much water may be extracted, how much salt could be extracted and what the greenhouse gas footprint of those activities are likely to be."

The red and black image you see above was a sticker we used in the 1960s in our campaign to save the Great Barrier Reef from mining. The campaign was successful and led to the creation of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

We never thought we’d have to defend this natural wonder of the world from mining development again, but we were wrong.

Right now, the biggest dredging operation ever attempted inshore from this globally-renowned paradise is underway in Gladstone Harbour. It’s one of at least six major industrial developments underway or planned along the Great Barrier Reef coast to accommodate the rapidly expanding coal seam gas and coal export industries.

Recent concern from UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee about impacts of LNG processing plants and massive dredging operations on the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef, and its effects on the long-term health of the Reef, is cause for national embarrassment.

The Queensland Tropical Cyclone Consultative Committee is holding workshops across Queensland to prepare for the summer season and ensure the community is prepared, in particular people living in the Lockyer Valley, Darling Downs and Ipswich areas. Advice from the Bureau of Meteorology is that Queenslanders can expect to see above-average rainfall and storm activity this season as well as a slight increase in the number of Tropical Cyclones.

Starting in November, the ATA in conjunction with bankmecu presents a series of free online presentations to share practical knowledge about energy efficiency, sustainable building and water conservation at home.
Webinars will be broadcast live for view over your web browser, and will be available for playback on demand afterwards. The first webinar is at 11am on Tuesday 8 November on the topic of rainwater harvesting and greywater, with a presentation from ATA experts followed by a Q&A session between audience and the ATA.

Register here for the ATA's Rainwater Harvesting and Greywater webinar

Right now, the Federal Environment Minister is considering how much of Australia's tropical North and Northwestern waters he will safeguard in new marine reserves. 

The Minister is planning to keep just 3% of the North and 12% of the Northwest safe from drilling, mining and over-fishing. This proposal is totally inadequate and will not protect our turtles, dugong, whales, fish and dolphins from destructive fishing and industrial development.

Can you act now and help save out tropical sealife? Please send Minister Burke a message that we need a network of large marine sanctuaries across northern Australia.

The uniqueQCC link to the cyber action is
http://www.saveourtropicalsealife.org.au/act-now/?org=6

The HOPE organisation today stated its position on the Coal Seam Gas (CSG) industry in Queensland .In line with a number of other regional, community, farming and conservation groups, HOPE is calling upon the State Government to impose a moratorium on any new proposals to expand CSG operations until a set of realistic controls are imposed on the industry which results in the proper protection of precious agricultural, ecological and water resources within the State for the long term future.

HOPE President Mr Frank Ondrus said that HOPE was not totally opposed to CSG extraction, or coal mining more generally, but that there had to be more of a focus on a fair go for all Queenslanders in terms of the balance of costs and benefits coming out of these fossil fuel extraction industries in the State.

Think of tropical seas and you probably think of healthy turquoise waters abundant with sea life, not an industrial wasteland choked with oil rigs and gas pipelines. But industrialisation will be the future for Australia’s northern seas unless we take a stand.
The tropical waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Top End, Kimberley, Pilbara and Ningaloo are a haven for endangered sea turtles, vulnerable dugong, rare snubfin dolphins and migratory humpback whales. Yet absurdly, less than 1% of these vast waters are currently protected.

A global study found that this is one of the last remaining healthy tropical marine environments left on the planet1. But increasing pressure from the rapidly expanding oil and gas industry, seabed mining and overfishing is putting it all at risk.