BNCWAG

All the good names are taken. This is a problem for anybody who wants to start a blog, a business or even a community group. So it is that I find myself a proud participant in the Brisbane North Climate and Water Action Group, or BNCWAG for short.

Yes I'm having a bit of a joke about the name, but I'm quite sincere about the proudly participating bit. I mentioned this group in a previous post and in the weeks since have had a chance to get together with them a few more times. It's still small and highly informal, which is good for the time being. There are a couple of strong personalities providing most of the direction and a fair chunk of the courage but there's still a need and opportunity for everybody to contribute to a level which suits them.

Prior to my involvement this mob had been meeting for only a few months yet had already had meetings with a number of high-profile politicians including Peter Garret. Although formally apolitical there's naturally a strong sympathy for many of the policies and activities of the Greens. One of our group members donned a bear suit for the "Walk Against Warming" and added a lot of colour to the event - even running up and hugging Bob Brown, so I'm told.

On Sunday week ago a number of us went for a brief tour of the local Kingfisher Recycling Centre which was established by one of our group in the 1980's and is today a world leader in community-based materials recycling and work provision programs for people with a reduced work capacity. It's inspirational stuff.

Then on Thursday night we held our first public forum with guest speakers: one man who's at the forefront of hot rock geothermal power generation in Australia (if not the world) and another who's a recognised authority in energy-efficiency and renewable energy technologies in general. There wasn't a huge turnout but there were enough to make us all feel that the night was worthwhile with plenty of opportunity to improve in the future.

For my part I've agreed to help promote our activities by providing information to various online events diaries. Mr S and I have also volunteered to host a little information stand at an upcoming event where we'll demonstrate a lot of the things we're doing towards sustainability in our own homes. He's even gone so far as to get us playing with video cameras to try and produce some short demo clips which we can upload to YouTube.

If anybody local is reading this and wants to get involved, I'd love to hear from you. The group meets approximately every second Wednesday in Chermside and we're looking to host some kind of event approximately on the first Sunday afternoon of each month.

Watch this space, more info coming soon.