Hobart Earth Awareness Week
By Tony Iltis
HOBART — An October 13 public meeting and slide show on the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine launched activities here for Earth Awareness Week.
Students who had visited the proposed mine site after the July Students and Sustainability conference in Townsville, and participants on an anti-uranium pilgrimage, shared their experiences with about 40 people.
On October 16, around 50 people attended a meeting organised by the Denison Greens about a proposed $150 million development at Princes Wharf. The development threatens the unique character of Hobart's Salamanca Place, dwarfing the 150-year-old buildings for which it is renowned.
The week ended with a well-attended Politics in the Pub discussion on young people, and whether the current generation are, as the media stereotype suggests, apathetic and hopeless.
Speakers included Rene Dare from the Resource Cooperative (which runs Hobart's tip shop), forest activist Claire Konkes, Mat Hines from the University of Tasmania Greens and Sarah Stephen from Resistance.
Hines explained that lack of opportunity and media manipulation forced a lot of young people into apathy.
Stephen pointed to the retreats by many movements' leaders, focusing on the dead-end strategy of lobbying politicians and business. She said that young people could play a decisive role in creating new leaderships for the movements, and gave historical examples, such as the French May-June '68 uprising.
Other Earth Awareness Week activities included an organic barbecue at Tasmania University and a slide show of wilderness areas, presented by Senator Bob Brown.
The week was organised by the new Student Environment Activist Network (SEAN). For more information contact Mat Hines on (03) 6234 9366 or