Celebrating World Earth Day 2019

Please come and celebrate World Earth Day 2019 with us on
Saturday 27th April at St Andrews Anglican Church, 43 Queen St, Pukekohe or on
Sunday 28th April at Footbridge Estate in Bombay, 59 Chamberlain Road, Bombay.

With the impacts of climate change being increasingly felt here in New Zealand and around the world, not only do we need to reduce carbon emissions from our human activities, we need to also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Earth Day is on 22nd April each year.  For each of the past two years, we have had small scale events – at St Andrews, Pukekohe. in 2017, and at St Paul’s, Buckland, last year.

Our objectives for this event are:

1. to acknowledge and celebrate World Earth Day 2019 (22 April)
2. for children to learn through fun and activities, about climate actions (Saturday)
3. to offer seminars (Sunday) as a means for people to learn about:
   1. Biological treatments of agricultural pests and diseases
   2. New Zealand’s transition to a low emissions economy
   3. The need to sequester atmospheric carbon and biochar’s role in achieving that
   4. Ecotheology: Climate Action from a Church perspective
4. To make the event carbon-negative***

***  Carbon-negative: burying more carbon, in the form of biochar, than is burned in getting to/from and used in planning and running the event.  Plus we will plant 50 fruit trees (==500 stems/Ha) over the biochar, sequestering CO2 at a rate of 14.1T/year for 10 years.

Our programme is

Day 1: Saturday 27th April, 8 am to 12 noon.
@ St Andrews Anglican Church, 43 Queen St, Pukekohe

The Charcoal Fire
Lighting at 8 am using a top-down burn method to reduce smoke and carbon emissions
Quenching at 11:40 am
Attendees can take a lump of char home with them

Static Display of Biochar production tech
8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Climate Q&A Forum
The need to take climate actions to hold global warming to well below 2°C… 9:00 am – 11:30 am

Children’s games and activities
9am – 11:30 am

Sausage sizzle and drinks available
9am – 12 pm

Day 2: Sunday 28th April
@ Footbridge Estate for Innovation & Sustainability,
59 Chamberlain Rd, Bombay

The Charcoal Fire
Lighting at 1 pm using a top-down burn method to reduce smoke and carbon emissions
Quenching at 4:30 pm
Attendees can take a lump of char home with them

Innovations & Sustainability Seminars

1. 1. Biological treatments of agricultural pests and diseases
      Dr Stephen Ford
   2. New Zealand’s transition to a low emissions economy
      Rod Oram
   3. The need to sequester atmospheric carbon and biochar’s role in achieving that
      John Allen
   4. Ecotheology: Climate Action from a Church perspective
      Dr. Nicola Hoggard Creegan

Static Display of Biochar production tech
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Vintage High Tea
Food for sale at 1pm and 2:30pm.
$35 pp. Bookings essential – email Ngaire@footbridge.co.nz

To make the event carbon-negative, after the event we will:

Establish the Terra Preta Orchard:

• Burning 1.5T dry wood will yield around 400 Kg biochar
• Burying that 400Kg biochar ½m below the soil surface will sequester around 1.5T CO2
• Inoculating the biochar with compost/vermicast tea will activate it with soil micro-organisms
• Covering the biochar with excavated soil ensures the char is retained
• Planting 50 fruit trees will sequester a further 1.4 T CO2 each year for 20 years
• Event emissions are estimated at 1.5 T CO2e