Greens Target City's Centre For Environmental Message
Sun Herald
Sunday January 19, 2003
SYDNEY'S central business district, home of the nation's biggest banks, stockbrokers, insurance and finance houses, has become the target of a hard-sell campaign on behalf of the endangered environment.
Workers in the city, visitors and shoppers are being confronted by green messages on street furniture at 170 locations from Central to Circular Quay in the run-up to the state election on March 22.
The campaign, organised by the Wilderness Society, also involves outdoor advertising on buses, direct mail and postcards to Premier Bob Carr to raise awareness about the ravages of land clearing.
Felicity Wade, the society's NSW campaigner, said unmonitored and unmanaged land clearing resulted in the destruction of 60,000 hectares of land each year, or about 68 suburban blocks every hour.
``With drought scorching the state, we are witnessing first-hand the effects of such practices," she said.
JC Decaux, the world's largest street furniture advertiser, has donated space to promote the society's message while Avant Card is supplying postcards and 80,000 pamphlets destined for voters in Labor and Liberal marginal seats.
Ms Wade said the campaign would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if measured in commercial terms.
``We have relied upon the generosity of artists, printers and advertisers to get our message across," she said.
Green MP Lee Rhiannon said: ``Australia is one of the worst land clearers in the developed world.
``We clear more than any other developed nation, putting us number five on the global list of environmental villains behind nations such as Brazil and Indonesia.
``Land clearing results in dryland salinity as well as loss of soil and water quality in country NSW."
© 2003 Sun Herald
