350.org is an international campaign that’s building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand.

350 parts per million (ppm) is, according to leading climate scientists, the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Accelerating arctic warming and other early climate impacts have led scientists to conclude that we are already above the safe zone at our current 392ppm. The 350 campaign is focused on making the connections between our actions and climate change easier to understand so we can turn this around.

This year, 10/10/10 is the 350 Global Climate Work Party. Thousands of groups across New Zealand, and in over 180 countries, will join together and get to work on climate change. From holding a tree planting day to installing solar hot water heating on local buildings, we’ll be sending a call to leaders that they have our support in getting us back to 350ppm.

With more than 1300 global events registered already, there is plenty to get involved in. More information on actions taking place in Aotearoa can be found at 350.org.nz, or why not organise your own event – for details and suggestions go here, or register your event here.

Watch this video from last year’s 350 day to be inspired:

In the lust for oil, drones sail the deserts and robots sink to the deeps. Thus far the reach of the military corporate maw. And the doxology their choristers chant: Drill, baby, kill!

Make no mistake: The powers, and behind them death, are at work. In their own deregulated design, they slip the grip of accountability to human life. They pretend to sovereignty in heights and depths. They set limits to their own culpability. They make themselves, in the imagination of their hearts, too big for political containments. They place their survival, nay their eternal increase, above the common life of all creation. It is time to name their blasphemies and prosecute their crimes. The Mother of us all will not be mocked.

You and me? With our southern Gulf shore? Our freeways and our ignition keys? Our transcontinental vegetables? We are complicit in our own captivity. We are guilty bystanders to planetary domination. We are the users in a culture of addiction. Such is the bondage of sin and death.

Which is also to say: The healing of the planet and the healing of ourselves, inside and out, are one. Apocalyptic events reveal the truth, pull back a veil, break the seal, set us free. Such is grace. We best get with the transformation, dear friends. Be accountable to the Spirit and community of creation. Another world, one oil-free and domination-free, is actually possible. With earth itself, let us fight for it. Heal into it. Let it be.

Bill Wylie-Kellermann, a Sojourners contributing editor, is pastor of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit.

via The Passion of the Gulf, Sojourners Magazine/August 2010 where you will find more reflections and contributions.

The 1981 Springbok Tour and the protests against it were seminal events in New Zealand’s history. 30 years on, some of the players from the 81 Springboks are planning a reunion in New Zealand next year.

Several Green MPs were deeply involved with the protest movement against the Tour in 1981, especially Kevin Hague, Catherine Delahunty, and Keith Locke. In this podcast they speak about their experiences of the tour and their thoughts about the planned Springbok reunion.

We also hear from Kennedy Graham, who was opposed to the tour but constrained from protesting in 1981 by his role as a diplomat – and Gareth Hughes, who was born in 1981 and has grown up in an Aotearoa shaped by those life-changing events.

Listen to the podcast here

via Concern over human cost overshadows iPad launch - Asia, World – The Independent.

I’m a fan of Apple products generally, but the conditions workers experience needs to be a real concern to us all. Physical distance should not and must not create moral distance.

The Fair Trade Association have organised ‘The Big Swap’:

You are invited to swap at least one essential item in your shopping cart for a fairtrade equivalent. But the more we swap the bigger the impact we make on the lives of small-scale producers in developing countries.

More information on how you can get involved in the Big Swap can be found here.

Christian World Service is inviting parishes to organise A Fair Cuppa after church on Sunday. You can sign up for A Fair Cuppa resource kit by emailing CWS.

Trade Aid is highlighting the positive impact fair trade has on women working in developing countries with the theme for the fortnight being “’Just Women – justice for women by women”.

During Fair Trade Fortnight Trade Aid Wellington will be hosting the following events:

1st May Coffee tasting outside store
5th May Meet our partner Meera Bhatterai from Nepal, in the Wellington Store 6.30pm
8th May Celebrate World Fair Trade Day with food and entertainment in our Wellington store 10.30am – 4.00pm
9th May Mother’s Baking Day – bring your mother into our store for a morning / afternoon tea

Demonstrations of traditional crafts by local women in-store during the fortnight
Tea, coffee, chocolate tastings in store during the fortnight.
Static display and information on Trade Aid in Wellington City Library, mezzanine floor, 3 – 17th May

More information on what Trade Aid shops around the country will be doing for the fortnight can be found here.

More information on Meera Bhatterai’s visit can be found here.

More events over the fortnight:

Big Swap Fairtrade Street promotion
12:00pm – 3:00pm
May 01
Venue: Cuba Street, Wellington

Come along and ‘go bananas’ about fair trade. Try the taste of Fairtrade bananas, listen to some music and grab your Fair Trade Fortnight special coupon to get the best deals over the Fortnight on Fairtrade prdocuts in the city from the Wellington Fair Trade City Group (WFTCG). Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, City Councillor Celia Wade-Brown and other well-known Wellingtonians will be handing out Fairtrade goodies and talking about what it means to be a Fair Trade Capital City.

Starfish Fairtrade Coffee Break
10:00am – 4:30pm
May 14
Venue: Starfish, 128 Willis Street, Wellington

Starfish is participating in the Oxfam Coffee Break on Friday 14 May and are being sponsored by People’s Coffee. The will be serving cups of plunger coffee throughout the day for a donation to Oxfam and hope to raise $300 to help struggling coffee growers work their way out of poverty.

Contact Starfish on 04 385 3722 for more information or visit www.starfish.co.nz.

Starfish photo exhibition and promotions
10:00am – 4:30pm
MAY 16
Venue: Starfish, 128 Willis Street, Wellington

Starfish is hosting an exhibition of photography from Kowtow’s recent trip to India to raise money for the Wichi Children’s Art School in India. Kowtow is a Wellington based clothing label that works exclusively in Fairtrade and Organic Certified cotton and at the end of 2009 spent six weeks visiting and working on the farms and factories that produce their garments in India.

Starfish are also offering a discount of 10% on their Fairtrade and organic new season stock from Kowtwo and Descendant Demin and 20% off selected Veja shoes.

When: 12pm Saturday 24th April
Where:Cuba Mall (meet outside Farmers)

This year, as we mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day (April 22nd), the Greens focus on mining in our precious Schedule 4 lands.

In Wellington, we will have a stall for petition-collecting and handing out submission guides, and we’ll be creating some street theatre with ‘holes in the ground’ and miners. Volunteers needed! We need volunteers on the stall, some roving in the crowd collecting signatures, as well as people dressed up in mining suits and hard hats.

We will have some MPs along to give us a hand! Please email Rachel or ph 0274039742 if you can volunteer, even for a short time.

The white poppy is an international symbol of remembrance for all the casualties of war, civilians and armed forces personnel, and of peace. Some people wear it as an alternative to the red poppy, others see it as complementary; some choose to wear both poppies, some one or the other, and some no poppy at all. More information about the white poppy is available at http://www.whitepoppies.org.nz.

White poppies are available for a donation to the White Poppy Peace Scholarships.

* The White Poppies for Peace Annual Appeal

The White Poppies for Peace Appeal is held annually from 17 to 24 April. The Appeal is the main fundraiser for the White Poppy Peace Scholarships.

* How you can support the Appeal

There are three ways you can support the Appeal – ordering white poppies for yourself or your group, having a collection box so you can collect donations, or helping with a street collection.

1) Ordering white poppies

If you would like to order some white poppies for yourself or your group (rather than have a collection box), please use the form available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/poppiesform.pdf

2) White poppies collection boxes

You could:

a) have a white poppies collection box: at your work, school, church or other community place during the appeal week (this will be delivered to you next week if you are within the Wellington area, or posted to you if you are elsewhere); or

b) organise a special or one-off collection: ask your church or other place of worship if they would consider having a white poppy appeal collection during the Appeal week, or arrange a collection at any scheduled community group meeting around the time of the appeal;

If you would like to be sent a white poppies collection box, please email whitepoppies as soon as possible and let us know: how many collection boxes you require; the approximate number of white poppies you would like; and your name and postal address. Each collection box contains white poppies and white poppy information cards, as well as guidelines for collectors, a parcel post SAE to return the box, and a standard SAE to return the money collected (account details are included if you would prefer to do a bank transfer).

3) Helping with a street collection

We are currently looking for individuals or groups to organise street collections in areas outside Wellington. Collections can be done in an informal way (for example, by arrangement with a local church, supermarket, or other public venue) or by a formal arrangement with the local council. An information sheet with suggestions for organising a white poppy street collection is available on request.

Wellington: The street collection in Wellington is on Thursday, 22 April and there will be three collection times: from 7am to 8.30am (railway station), from 12.30pm to 2pm (central city), and from 4.30pm to 6pm (central city / railway station). If you can help with this street collection, please email whitepoppies as soon as possible and let us know what time/s you are available.

* About the White Poppy Peace Scholarships

The White Poppy Peace Scholarships comprise at least two grants that are awarded each year to assist with research into: the impacts of militarism, militarisation and warfare; alternatives to militarism, militarisation and warfare; or collective non-violent responses to state violence. The Peace Scholarships are for students studying at any tertiary education institution in Aotearoa New Zealand. Each grant is a minimum of $1,000 – one is for a Maori or Moriori student, with the other/s open to any student with New Zealand citizenship or permanent residency.

The White Poppy Peace Scholarships were launched in October 2009, and the first two Scholarships were awarded in April 2010 (see details below).

Applications for the Peace Scholarship to assist a Maori or Moriori student with research during 2010 remain open – guidelines for applicants and the application form are available at http://www.peacescholar.org.nz.

* Award of the first White Poppy Peace Scholarships

Congratulations to Marianne Bevan and Ryan Bodman who are the inaugural recipients of White Poppy Peace Scholarships.

Marianne is completing a Master of Development Studies at Victoria University, Wellington. Her research is titled ‘A Gendered Approach to Police Reform: Addressing Masculinities in Policing Projects in Timor-Leste’. Marianne is investigating how conceptions of gender and masculinities are shaping police training in Timor-Leste; and whether the related discourse is reproducing a view of masculinity (and men) that will increase the chance of the Timorese police force becoming more militarised, or if it instead allows for police reform programmes which will effectively promote non-violent enactments of masculinity and gender equality within the police force.

Ryan is completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts in the Department of History at the University of Auckland. His dissertation is on the Passive Resisters Union (PRU). “Under the 1909 Defence Act, all young men between 12 and 21 (later amended to 14 – 25) were lawfully required to train in the military. The PRU was established in early 1912 to peacefully resist this policy. Only young men directly affected by the policy were able to join the union, which had as its goal “to resist coercion, conscription and military training in all its circumstances and defy all penalties that may be imposed”.

Strongest in Christchurch and west coast mining towns, the PRU was never a large group but they became, as Elsie Locke explained, the “heftiest muscle” in the anti-Compulsory Military Training (CMT) movement. Their playful activism, the strength of their peace and anti-militarist convictions, the successes they achieved via the spread of anti-militarist ideas and the threat they posed to a draconian law, are all worth remembering.”

* How you can support the White Poppy Peace Scholarships

You can support the peace scholarships by making a donation during the Appeal or at any time during the year – your generosity will help to promote peace by directly supporting research into alternatives to militarism and war, and collective non-violent responses to state violence.

To make a donation by cheque, please use the form available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/poppiesform.pdf; if you would prefer to make a donation by direct credit or internet banking, please email whitepoppies and we will provide the details for you – a receipt is sent for all donations.

There is opportunity within the Maritime Crimes Act 1999 to release Mr Bethune. But while the New Zealand legal system is capable of dealing with this issue, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has conceded jurisdiction to Japan, effectively doing nothing for the plight of Peter Bethune.

This comes at an interesting time, the Government having just recently announced its support for a return to commercial whaling.

The Green Party has pushed for the return of Bethune, Green Party MP Gareth Hughes stating: “Our Government’s silence is disturbing. That it was silent on the ramming of the Ady Gil, and that it is silent on the plight of Pete Bethune illustrates a pervasive soft touch towards Japan’s whaling industry.”

A full background on the Maritime Crimes Act 1999 as it relates to this issue can be found here.

Registrations for this conference have now closed, but you can still access the conference live in two ways (details below).

Why this conference?
A seismic shift of national thinking is urgently needed on violent crime in New Zealand. To date the issue has been dominated by punitive policies that largely do not work. Years of popularist “solutions” have given us longer sentences, overflowing prisons but no reduction in violence. We have been looking in the wrong place, while New Zealand becomes increasingly unsafe.

Who is involved?
This historic meeting is hosted by the University of Otago, Wellington School of Medicine. It brings together two main streams of people; those who are concerned about law and order, and those who are concerned about public health. The bridge is the damage being caused by the excessive commercialisation
of alcohol. The lack of sufficient regulations controlling the supply and sale of alcohol maximizes heavy drinking.

The conference will be available online if you have broadband. Just go to http://www.r2.co.nz/20100323/ and follow the instructions. This webcast will run from 8:30am on Tuesday the 23^rd of March 2010, and an edited version will be available up on the website a week after the conference.

Those outside Wellington can also view the conference live at one of 12 public meetings where the speakers and discussion will be screened live on a big screen, along with refreshments. This is available in the following places:

Northland
North Shore
Central Auckland
Otara
Tauranga
Motueka
Nelson
Blenheim
Christchurch
West Coast (delayed coverage – week after)
Timaru
Dunedin

with other venues TBC.

Contact Fergus Wheeler for venue details and contacts – coordinator@alcoholaction.co.nz

A blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 is a standard definition of intoxication. So allowing people to drive their cars with a BAC of 0.08 is essentially legally endorsing intoxicated driving. There is overwhelming evidence now that a reduction will save lives and many serious injuries. By reducing the BAC level from 0.08 to 0.05 New Zealand will join many other countries which already have a BAC limit of 0.05 (incl. Australia, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland).

New Zealanders have a very important opportunity right now to make progress on reducing drunken driving. You can help make this happen.

Write an email to the Prime Minister, with a copy to Steven Joyce and your local National MP, telling them you strongly support reducing the BAC limit from 0.08 to 0.05.

John.Key@parliament.govt.nz
Steven.Joyce@parliament.govt.nz
Your.Member@parliament.govt.nz

You don’t have to say anything more, but if you want to, all the better. The New Zealand Drug Foundation’s website will be putting up further background information – http://www.nzdf.org.nz/

This is a rare opportunity to achieve concrete changes to our alcohol laws so let’s take it.

Some Letters to the Editor on this topic over the next week or so would also be very useful.