Fresh green links

A few quickies today, because I’m going to finalise the new blog style today (no, really, I mean it this time!):

Scientists list the key Australian tourist spots that will be devastated by climate change – reduction of snow in ski fields, more cyclones up north, more drought down south, airports getting flooded.

Communities band together for solar power – G Magazine reports on how some neighbours are chipping in as a group to get solar panels installed. I love this sort of community action!

Eco-fashion 101 – Treehugger.com highlights this cute and funny video about why we need eco-fashion, from a show called Hall of Style.

Simple tip: keep your green bags handy

I’m sure that as good greenies you’ve all got your re-useable bags stashed away. It’s hard to avoid picking up a bunch of the standard green bags when you do your grocery shopping these days, and they’re so handy for more than just your groceries.

But do you remember to bring them to the shops? Or do you sometimes end up at the shops on the spur of the moment, without your handy reuseable bag? Then you need to take 10 minutes to get a little organised.

Find all of your reusable bags and pile them up. Then work out what you’d ideally use them for, and when. Finally, work out a place to keep them where you’ll remember to use them. For me, this means I’ve got reusable bags stashed in 3 places:

• 1 green bag and 1 blue insulated bag by our front door, for planned shopping trips
• 3 or 4 more green bags in the boot of the car, for those days where we suddenly end up at the shops
• 1 roll-up bag in my handbag, in case I duck into the deli or a bookshop on the way home from work

Of course, your own situation will be different, but spending a little time on this now can save you a lot of plastic bags later. Or prevent you from buying even more reusable bags next time you’re shopping!

I’m going paperless

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the damage done by deforestation (climate change, habitat destruction, salinity, etc etc). It seems that quite a lot of logging in Australia and South-east Asia is done for paper production, and although I’ve signed petitions and emailed corporations and politicians, I’m at the point where I just don’t want any more of my money going to paper companies.

So I’ve done a little audit of the paper I see in my daily life, and it comes down to these things:

• toilet paper and tissues and paper towel
• magazines and newspapers and books
• gift wrap and cards
• office paper for printing
• incoming mail and junk mail

I don’t think I’ll be able to completely rid my life of paper, and in the case of toilet paper and books I don’t particularly want to go without them! But I’ve come up with a rough plan for removing much of the need for paper in my life, and I’ll be putting it into place over the next few months.

Things I’m already doing well with:

• I already buy recycled toilet paper and paper towels
• I don’t subscribe to any newspapers, and compost the local ones I can’t avoid
• I’ve also cancelled my Yellow Pages delivery, thanks to Gavin’s information
• I use the library quite often, and donate my own books to them if I’m not going to read them again
• I reuse gift wrap, if I’m not reusing a gift bag or box
• I only send gift cards on special one-off occasions (ie not birthdays or Christmas, which happen every year)
• My printing paper at home is a big stack of barely-printed-on sheets given to me by a friend (they came from his office)
• At work, I rarely print anything myself; if I’m given handouts at a meeting, I keep them and make them into notepads for me and my friends
• I’ve switched to paperless billing for my phone bills
• I’ve got a no-junk-mail sticker on my letterbox and put my name on the Do Not Contact list (not that it stops some people!)

What I need to sort out:

• using hankies instead of tissues
• cutting back on my magazine subscriptions and finding online alternatives
• sourcing some eco-friendly (recycled, or tree-free) gift-cards for the special occasions
• printing to PDF instead of to paper
• getting more of my bills switched to email/online notifications
• talking to the other companies who send me mail to see if we can switch to email

As I go along I’ll post about these little tasks. If you’ve got any bright ideas or recommendations, I’d love to hear from you. I want this paper out of my life!

Fresh green links

Just a few links today – I’m hoping to get the new blog style up and running tomorrow, have been working on it all week!

One Million Women Campaign – it’s a two year national campaign hoping to get 1 million Australian women to commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 1 tonne each. Women make over 70% of purchasing decisions in the average household, so we’ve got a lot of power to make changes in our environment. I’ve signed up – if you’re a woman, or you know a woman, you should check it out You get an activities list to choose from, and can update your progress on the site. There’s also inspirational stories and video for you to see.

CRT Recycling – a new CRT recycling centre has opened in South Australia. Previously it was difficult to get your TV or old computer monitor fully recycled, because the CRT glass in it needs special handling, but this place will be accepting them from approved recycling groups.

It’s not just greenies anymore – doctors, lawyers, bankers and other business people are sounding the alarm about climate change. If only we could get politicians on that list too!

90% decline in orangutans in Borneo over the last 5 years – because they’re still allowing logging by paper companies in orangutan sanctuaries. I’ve had enough of paper companies. Between Gunns here and others overseas, they’re tearing down the earth’s lungs and destroying habitats. I’m going to look into what I can do about it.

Quick note

Just a note to say that I’m taking the week off writing posts, in order to spend a little time updating the blog theme (I’m so sick of this default look!) and a few other admin things.

See you again next week!