Nott speaks at World Environment Day dinner

News Weekly
Wednesday 13/6/2007 Page: 5

The Bega Valley Shire has the potential to become a centre of excellence for renewable energy technology industries, according to Matthew Nott.

Dr Nott, the founder of Clean Energy for Eternity, told the 30th annual Bega Valley World Environment Day dinner in the Bega Town Hall on Tuesday that the best way to achieve that was to begin calling the valley a centre of excellence. He was one of several speakers at the World Environment Day dinner, organised by the Friends of the Bournda Environmental Education Centre. "Renewable energy technology is a potential major new industry for the Bega Valley Shire," he said. "Its potential for us stems from recent approaches to me by a number of companies involved in the renewable energy generation field.

"They contacted me because our activities during the past 18 months clearly show that the Bega Valley Shire is a community with strong belief in renewable energy generation technology, which is set to become the fastest growing industry in history" Michelle Lindsay, the Department of Education's schools climate change initiative, co-ordinator, spoke about the role of children in promoting future climate change initiatives.

She showed a video in which primary school pupils were asked questions on climate change. A survey revealed that for younger children their concerns are possible loss of a close family member and then climate change. "However, as they get older the climate change issue moves to 13th place behind body image and getting a good job;" Ms Lindsay said.

A popular feature of the evening was an insightful, satirical presentation on political and community attitudes to climate change by Bega High School students Polly McDonald, Patrick Shields and Imogen Champagne. A light-hearted but revealing talk by Lumen Christi Year 11 student Linsey Cole on how best to influence the attitudes of today's young people was also well received.