Final days at the Greens & further opportunities

I finished up at the Australian Greens party at Senator Scott Ludlam's office on February 15th. I presented a summary of my media research report on 'peak oil' that I conducted for them, as well as a report. This was a great opportunity as I presented in front of all the staff at the office including the senator himself. It was great to see that all the work I did was appreciated immensely in the end. We had a further discussion about future strategies and campaigns following on from my presentation. Furthermore it was fulfilling to know that the work I put in to this media report was actually going to be used in the Senator's government proposals in the Senate, as it is an aspect of the Senator's portfolio.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Greens. I was given endless amounts of work and was never struck for something to do. I offered to volunteer for future events and campaigns that they are holding or organisations they are affiliated with. I was asked to help out with an organisation called 'Beyond Zero Emissions' from Melbourne. They held an event at the Perth Town hall on renewable energy and their 'Zero Carbon Stationary Energy Plan for WA'. I was involved in the promotional work for this event, such as organising speakers and sending out invites and attended the UWA and Curtin o-days to send out flyer's. The attendance we received was overwhelming, there were over 400 people including members of the public, members or parliament and councillors. It was great to see all our hard work for this event go extremely well.

Finally I would just like to say thank you to all the staff at the Greens office for making my learning experience so enjoyable and job-ready for my future career.

Peak Oil

I was assigned a media research project on peak oil, titled "oil vulnerability and mitigation strategies". I began researching in the second week of January during my time here at the WA Greens office of Senator Scott Ludlam.

For those of you who have no clue as to what peak oil is, here’s a brief summary:
‘Peak oil’ is the term used to describe the point in time at which the worldwide production of crude oil extraction will be maximised. But while it is inevitable that production will peak at some point, it is uncertain when that point will be reached. Similarly to climate change, the possibility of peak oil poses an uncomfortable challenge to citizens and governments for now and the future. Hence, there is a great need to act now and create awareness to the general public.

My objectives assigned to this project were as follows:

To be informed about national and international research, campaigning and media on all aspects of the peak oil debate.

I was to focus on reviewing national and international media on oil peak and oil prices and their impact. In addition, report on and provided examples of how the debate is being messaged or sold to the public; review campaigns, scenarios and material.

When I began this project I new absolutely nothing about the debate on peak oil…and now, after researching for a month on the issue, I feel like an expert on this. I was working with another fellow intern who was also assigned to the issue; however his objectives were to look into the policy side of it with a deeper analysis into the vulnerable sectors to peak oil, initiatives and a potential national mitigation strategy. This was really helpful for both of us corresponding on this issue together as we notified each other on our research and good articles or journals to look at.

From my research I found that there needs to be more awareness and mitigation in Australia. Internationally, there are a few campaigns performed by Greenpeace and ASPO international in different countries, in particular the US, UK and Scotland. There are extensive amounts of news articles on Peak oil and high oil prices, however not a lot has been done politically about it.

Here are links to the ASPO international website and the ASPO Australia website for further information on peak oil.
www.peakoil.net
www.aspo-australia.org.au

I will be presenting my project next week on Tuesday the 15th of February, to the staff at the office and presenting a written report of the research and findings that I undertook.

Moreover, this research project was a good experience to improve my skills in researching the international and national media in both print and non-print media organisations.

A Great start to the Greens

Hi all, its a bit late but i am making my first contribution to this blog finally!


I started my placement with the WA Greens Party at Senator Scott Ludlam's office in Fremantle. I began in the first week of December 2010. I have been working 2 days a week and had a break over chistmas/new year and staying on till about February. (Photo by John Vidovich)

The first day was an induction to the procedures and administration of the office and from day one I was thrown right in the deep end, which was sooo good!! I assisted in organising two events. The first event, "Turning up the heat in 2011: Climate Change Forum", on the 8th of December, was a public event led by Senator Ludlam and other climate change experts. The second event was held on the 16th of December called "Peak oil shock", featuring Professor Kjell Aleklett, the President of the Association of the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO). For both events I learnt how event planning works in the 'real world'! I was responsible for sending out invites and recording the RSVPs, assisted in calling up journalist's to confirm media releases about the event, putting up flyers and posters around Fremantle and assisted in creating the running schedule for the day of the events.

The challenge was to fill the venue of the first event, "climate change forum", with 200 people at the Alexander State Library. A week before the event we only had 30 RSVPs, however we successfully recieved a great response of about 100 people. The evening was a success as there was alot of public debate about climate change and what action the Australian government should take to reduce carbon pollution.

The challenege was similar for the second event, but we had more time. We were amazed at the response on the night of the Peak Oil event as more people arrived than we expected. We even ran out of seats! That was pleasing, as it showed us that the public is interested in this vital issue of Peak Oil. For those of you who don't have a clue what Peak Oil is, it is when demand exceeds the supply of oil. Hence the ongoing rise in petrol prices...so we need to do something about it before world oil production peaks in the next 10 years.

My next blogs will be about a project that I started in January on Peak Oil and the impact of the Media.

I am really enjoying my time here, all the staff are easily approachable, helpful and great to work with.