West Auckland put on "An Inconvenient Truth" at Laingholm Community Hall on 7th June.  It was a cold and wet night, and there was a massive parent meeting across the road at the local Primary, so there were not as many people in the audience as we would have wished.  Only about 23.  However the giant screen we had up, the good quality sound and picture, plus the intimate number made for a great night. We signed up 2 new members.   

Ben Bell, who works for the Sustainable Living Centre in New Lynn, gave a short introductory talk, and fielded questions afterwards.  He proved to be a mine of information, including that Al Gore's power point presentation is probably the best there is on the subject, but there's the anomaly of his having a 20 bedroom mansion with a massive power bill each month.

It was a great discussion afterwards, Ben telling us that there is no way we are going to be able to consume our way out of Climate Change, that an essential part of the equation will be living more simply, recycling, and doing things smarter; not just seeking high tech answers.  I offered the analogy of how when the Americans first ventured into space they found they couldn't use pens in zero gravity.  So they spent 10 million dollars inventing a pen that would work up there.  The Russians simply used pencils!