Peter King photographed the view from the sky.

Spreading the word on clean energy

By Liz Anderson

A campaign to spread the message about clean energy has begun, with students and teachers of Moruya High School combining to create a human sign spelling the words, "Our future".

The exercise was an initiative of both the Moruya High School Environment Group and the Student Representative Council, inspired by the local Clean Energy for Eternity group that has a wonderful website giving instruction and advice on how to make a human sign.

The Clean Energy for Eternity group was so taken with our message that they have been actively encouraging other schools to make a sign of their own or to write the message "Our future" in another language so that all the photos could be combined to create a poster or internet message that would have currency all over the world.

We chose the words "Our future" because we felt this not only related to the question of clean energy but also worked on other levels. It is a prominent part of the public education campaigns. We were consciously also trying to give the students a sense of their democratic right to speak out.

The photos have been put onto shared sites on school computers so students can spread the word.

We originally planned a whole day of Green Day activities including entertainment, banner painting and guest speakers but the rain forced a postponement and we had a reduced program.

The local council brought its badge-making machine to the school and students made witty and creative badges in the spirit of the day.

Geoff Sharpe and his year 9 science class planted trees to off-set the carbon generated by the plane flight.

The school is currently working to reduce its use of energy. With energy audits the environment group has been investigating how best to take advantage of the Federal Government's rebates and subsidies that are currently offered to install clean energy systems. The group would like to see solar panels on the roof with a link to the grid as this would save money for the school while helping reduce greenhouse gases.

Liz Anderson teaches at Moruya HS.

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July 2007 contents