New year wishes...

I always spend a bit of time around New Year’s Eve thinking over what the past year has brought, and what I’d like to happen in the next year. It’s a bit of planning, and day-dreaming, and hoping - best enjoyed with a glass of wine and like-minded friends So what are my hopes for 2009? I hope Australian citizens can convince Kevin Rudd to take stronger action on climate change. I hope the Great Barrier...

Resolutions 2008...

Well, let’s see how I did on my green New Year’s Resolutions that I made back in January. 1. Switch to reuseable bags I think I did really well on this one! We’ve been remembering our green bags for grocery shopping nearly all the time over the last half of the year. And I use the Envirosax bag that Chris gave me very regularly. I liked mine so much I gave some to my friends for Christmas this year! The...

What is it we’re trying to save again?...

In a few days, people around Australia (including me) will be starting their Christmas holidays. Everyone I know is looking forward to taking some time off from work and the daily grind. And it’s been a long year for some. Environmental activists have been working hard to lobby politicians, conservationists have been trying to get regulations passed, everyday greenies have been trying to change their lives to lower...

Rudd’s hypocrisy on climate change...

PM Rudd has just announced our target for the emissions cuts as part of the planned Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It’s a tiny little 5% cut. Yep, that’s it, just 5%. The galling thing is that he announced the number after talking about how important the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the Murray-Darling basin are to Australia. And went on to talk about how urgent it was to do something about climate change. So...

Fresh green links...

Last night PM Rudd was on the 7:30 Report, implying that since his government has been attacked by both “the far right” and “various radical green groups” (I didn’t know we had any radicals in Australia - seems out of character for us!), then their do-almost-nothing method is therefore a “balanced” approach. Perhaps he needs to look at this cartoon: The Sensible Centrist. Meanwhile,...

Living off the interest...

Recently I was talking with my in-laws about environmental issues. They’re not really what you’d call greenies, but have always lived according to principles I would consider environmentally friendly. Frank and Jan grow their own vegies and keep chickens. They don’t spend money on the latest gadgets for themselves, although they did splurge on a video-capable phone so they could see their kids and grandkids...

Best posts of 2008...

I’ve picked up a lot of new readers lately, and since it’s the end of the year and everyone else is doing it on their blogs, I’m making a ‘best-of Go Greener Australia’ post. They’re the posts that got the most people reading and involved this year. If you haven’t read them already, have a look - sometimes the best info is in the comments too, because we’ve got really clever...

Fresh green links...

I’m going with a bit of a Christmas-y theme today, for a bit of fun: Choice magazine has a great article on 10 tips for a sustainable Christmas. It’s got some useful links to resources that’d make it easier for you to make the greener choices this month. Wondering what to do with those damn plastic bags you were unable to avoid? I take my reusable bag everywhere and *still* end up with half a dozen every...

What’s going on in Poznan?...

This week representatives from countries around the world are gathered in Poznan, Poland for the next round of climate change talks. This lays the groundwork for next year’s Copenhagen meeting which will set up the successor to the Kyoto agreement. But it hasn’t been getting a lot of coverage in the news, so I’ve found this great post at Worldchanging that will give you the basics: Why Does Poznan matter? Australia...

No-dig garden bed update...

A while ago I posted about how to make a no-dig garden bed. Since then ours has been doing pretty well. Here’s a few photos of it’s progress: We’re pretty happy with it so far. The tomatoes, chillies and capsicums are fruiting well, and we’ve harvested lots of coriander and basil already. In fact, we had so much leafy stuff we didn’t know what to do with it, so I looked up how to preserve...