Educational? or a Ticking Clock of Doom?...

What do you all think about the world’s first real-time greenhouse gas emissions counter? It’s a giant billboard in New York, with the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted around the world displayed in glowing numbers for all to see. There’s talk of one being put up in Sydney too. If you want to see the numbers flicking away for yourself, check out the Know The Number website. The statistics are...

Fresh green links...

Some fascinating stuff out there this week: A fight for the Amazon that should inspire the world - indigenous tribes in the Amazon put their lives on the line to stop oil companies from destroying their homes and the planet’s lungs. The Peruvian president was going to allow  logging, drilling and ‘exploration’ of 70% of Peru’s section of the Amazon rainforest. The tribes blockaded the roads -...

Wave power: clean energy for the future...

Pelamis wave power station in Scotland There’s a lot of fuss over solar and wind power in Australia lately, but they’re not the only alternatives to coal-fired energy here. We’ve also got a nice, long coastline, and I reckon we should also be looking into the potential of wave power. The basic idea behind wave power is that wind blowing across the surface of the ocean transfers energy to the water, whipping...

Kev’s Patch...

A couple of weeks back I posted about the Kev’s Patch campaign started by Darren at Green Change, which I heard about through Gavin. I thought it was a great idea and wrote an email to the Prime Minister about it, asking him to organise an organic vegie patch at his Canberra residence, The Lodge. Well, Darren and Gavin and I decided that if we wanted this campaign to take off, we’d need an official website....

The saga of the Greenland Vikings...

Vikings! Rampaging about the north seas, taking and destroying then getting drunk and singing about it all. What could we possibly have to learn from them about environmental management? Last week I wrote about Easter Island, based on Jared Diamond’s Collapse. But I think the Viking case study in that book is fascinating too, and wanted to share it with you. Vikings made raids across many places in Europe, with...

Using Folia to track my garden...

When Dave and I started growing our own vegetables, we wanted to keep track of when we planted everything, when they should be sprouting or harvested or what worked well last year. Traditionally, gardeners who like a bit of record-keeping use a gardening journal, but I’m a bit too nerdy for that. So I started a free account at myFolia.com, which is pretty much like a normal gardening journal, but it’s online....

Fresh green links...

Just a few links today… Greens Senator Bob Brown facing huge legal bill - years ago he took legal action to prevent illegal logging, and won the case. But the state government changed the laws and Forestry Tasmania appealed, getting the decision overturned. They’ve now hit Brown with the bill, saying he’s got until the end of the month to pay up. Luckily, he’s getting donations and an offer from...

What happened on Easter Island?...

Credit: Aurbina, Wikimedia Commons One of the most interesting books I’ve read that talks about environmental issues is Jared Diamond’s Collapse. It’s about societies around the world, and the differences between the ones that thrive and the ones that fail. Diamond wants to know if there’s anything we can learn from societies that collapsed, because those who don’t know their history are...

I’m going paperless: no more tissues...

As part of my ongoing project to buy and use less paper, I’ve decided to switch to handkerchiefs instead of tissues. I was originally inspired to make the switch by the lovely ladies at Tiny Choices, but have finally gotten fed up with the attitude from logging companies. And according to G Magazine’s Tissues vs Handkerchiefs article, by doing this I’ll also be cutting back on water waste, energy waste,...

Could you be more food-wise?...

Did you know that the average Australian throws out 20% of the food they buy? That’s like buying five bags of groceries, then throwing one away. Our affluence (compared to a lot of other places in the world), and our busy lives, make it so that we end up wasting food without realising it. You’d think it’d just be a problem for our wallets, but it’s a problem for the environment too. Just think...