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Toumani Diabaté, the West African kora player, is one of the world-class musicians performing at Womad Earth Station.

Sustainable Planet Festival For Adelaide

Womad EARTH STATION is a new festival being held in South Australia at Long Gully, in the Belair National Park, from 21 to 23 October this year. It is an opportunity to exchange ideas, issues and solutions towards a more sustainable planet. This innovative event mixes the intellectual and cultural energies of leading scientific minds with a performance program featuring some of the world's most accomplished and diverse musicians. The festival audience will be inspired by a refreshing and rare combination of discussion and music during a weekend of forums, displays and performances.

The festival will embrace three key components: an artistic program, featuring performances from more than a dozen musicians and ensembles; a sustainability program developed in collaboration with the Environment Institute and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists; and the market: environmental displays, educational stalls and a host of ethical traders who are leaders in the retail field.

The festival site will include a camping area for those who wish to take up residence - a tranquil, resting place within South Australia's oldest national park that provides an idyllic locale to get in tune with our planet. For more details visit www.earthstationfestival.com.au.

Glorious Gloucester Garden Ramble

Residents of the idyllic township of Gloucester in the superb Barrington Tops region of New South Wales are fighting to preserve the Gloucester Valley and District from open cut coal mining and coal seam gas wells. In celebration of the beauty of Gloucester their local group GRIP (Gloucester Residents in Partnership) is organising the Glorious Gloucester Garden Ramble - a chance to visit ten wonderful gardens in the area on 8 and 9 October from 10am to 5pm. There will bemorning teas available, lunches,a hand-crafted art exhibition and plant sales. A weekend pass costs just $15 per adult, or $12 concession and accompanied children are free of charge. A one day bus tour is also available. For more information contactTerry on 0419 018 419, email terryhardwick@gmail.com, or Andrea on (02) 6558 9960, or visit their website at www.visitgloucester.com.au.

Broken But Out Of Warranty? You Still Have Rights

Under a new national law, customers may still have a right to return defective goods even if the manufacturer's warranty period has expired. On January 1 this year the new Australian Consumer Law (ACL) came into effect. It is largely based on the old Trade Practices Act but, for the first time, unifies most consumer law across the States and territories, and clarifies many of the old provisions it replaces. One of the key provisions is s54 of the ACL, which is a statutory guarantee of acceptable quality enforceable against the suppliers of goods (retailers, dealerships, and so on), as well as manufacturers. This section of the law requires that goods be fit for the purposes they are commonly used for, acceptable in appearance and finish, free from defects, safe and durable, all according to the standards of a "reasonable consumer".

The recently-retired Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's chairman, Graeme Samuel, said this means that many goods come with a statutory guarantee against the supplier that lasts longer than the manufacturer's warranty.
"Sometimes you'll see manufacturer's warranties that may only be for three, six or 12 months in total, whereas the retailer's guarantee under the consumer guarantees can sometimes extend beyond that, having regard to the nature of the product and its intended use," Mr Samuel told ABC News Online. In determining what is an appropriate period for a guarantee to apply, the law forces courts to consider the nature of the goods, the price of the goods, and statements made about the goods either on the packaging or by the supplier or manufacturer.

In layman's terms, that means a consumer can expect a longer legal guarantee to apply for goods that generally last a long time, that are relatively expensive, and where any claims are made about the quality and/or durability of the product by either the salesperson or manufacturer. For example, if consumers generally buy a television with a reasonable expectation for it to last five years, then they may have a statutory guarantee against the retailer that lasts substantially longer than the one year manufacturer's warranty. If the TV is a more expensive brand, especially one that makes claims about its quality and durability, it will be held to a higher standard of quality and durability under the ACL than a home brand that is half the price and does not make similar claims. Obviously, the law does not protect consumers if their attention was drawn to the fault before the sale (either by spoken words or by a written notice), or they inspected the goods and the fault should have been obvious in that inspection, or the consumer causes the fault through misuse.

Mr Samuel says the ACL guarantees mean consumers should not hesitate in taking a product back to the place they bought it if the good has a defect or failure that is unusual given its age, even if the warranty period has expired. He says the ACCC or State departments of fair trading will help consumers if retailers refuse to honour their legal requirements.

"If we find that a retailer is not honouring the obligations imposed on the retailer under the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law then the ACCC will take action to deal with those issues," Mr Samuel said.
Commercial law academics say the Australian Consumer Law largely makes extended warranties redundant, as consumers will often have legal protection against defects in the goods beyond the manufacturer's normal warranty anyway. Many consumers are currently unaware of the law but from next year retailers will be required by regulations to display a notice that informs customers they have rights beyond any contractual rights included in a warranty.
Mr Samuel warns businesses that informing customers of their legal rights is in an area the ACCC will be strongly enforcing. The ACL also prohibits unfair contract terms in standard form contracts, such as those commonly issued with gym memberships or phone plans. The law also entitles consumers to a receipt upon request, to pay the lowest price if more than one is displayed with an item, and to see the total price of any good or service (including fees, charges and taxes). You can find more information on the ACL on its website: www.consumerlaw.gov.au.

- ABC

Euro wind power tipped to treble by 2020

Energy producers expect European wind power generation to triple by 2020, with tens of thousands of new, ever-bigger wind turbines springing up, an industry body says. The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), which groups energy giants with wind interests and also many involved in nuclear or gas-fired electricity generation, in August released its figures in a new report aiming to influence EU energy policy after 2020.

By the end of last year, the Pure Power report said, wind power produced about 5.3 per cent of demand across the EU's 27 states, some 182 Terawatt hours (TWh). Its share is tipped to reach 15.7 per cent by 2020, or 581 TWh.
By the end of 2010, there were more than 70,000 turbines in operation, and the EWEA says 60,000 more of the same size would be needed to meet 2020 targets, although installing bigger machines could reduce the number to half or less depending on technology developments. Investment is tipped to more than double with 40 per cent of that investment going into offshore wind farms. Justin Wilkes of the EWEA said his group wants binding European Union targets for renewable energy production, part of wider climate-action commitment, to be extended from the present 19 per cent to 34 per cent for the decade after 2020.

Germany and Spain alone account for well over half of all EU wind power, but Britain, France, Italy and Portugal are also emerging alongside small, but market-leading Denmark, despite strong Paris adherence to its giant nuclear industry, which delivers 80 per cent of France's electricity needs. Scotland, whose independence-seeking government in Edinburgh is already committed to producing 100 per cent of its energy needs from renewables, exporting its traditional oil and gas output, alone claims one quarter of the EU's coastline. Germany has turned its back on nuclear after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the EWEA says Berlin could fill the 20 per cent gap in its generating capacity with wind within a decade.

- AFP

Other stories from the Bush Telegraph in EG 157, out now:

Open Door To 300 Sustainable Homes

Climate Beliefs Change With The Weather

BBQ Fat To Fuel Council Trucks

Wind Becomes Spain's Biggest Energy Source